Religion News Selection 13 (Apr 2

Religion News Selection 13 (Apr 2 - 9)

(09 April 17)
by Greg Spearritt

Religion News Selection

April 2 - 9, 2017

A selection of religion news stories from Australia.

(Research: Greg Spearritt)

Inclusion here does not endorse the veracity or quality of any particular item – it just means
I found it worth reading and reflecting on (even if badly conceived or poorly written).

If you\’re after the unexpurgated (and reasonably unbiased) version,
see Religion News Australia which appears weekly on our website.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Ali ’an enemy of intolerance’
Apr 4 - Anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali praised by panellists after her speaking tour cancelled amid security concerns.

Fred Nile hopes to replace Mark Latham on Sky News Outsiders program (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 6 - Conservative firebrand Fred Nile fancies himself as a TV star.

EDUCATION

Imam Shaikh Mohammad Tawhidi wants some Muslim schools ’shut down’ (news.com.au)
Apr 6 - A VOCAL critic of Islam who has called for the closure of Muslim schools in Australia has found an unlikely supporter.

Also: As a Jewish parent, I’m horrified by calls to ban Islamic schools (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 9 – (Opinion: Kerri Sackville) As a Jewish person, I am constantly reminded of my minority status, and the lack of understanding of my culture.

INTERNATIONAL STORIES

Islam

Muslims protesting against Governor misled by conservatives, key Islamic organisation says (ABC News)
Apr 4 - Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organisation says Muslims protesting against Jakarta’s Christian Governor are being misled by religious conservatives.

Judaism

Censored in Israel, praised by Merkel: the novelist who is a ’threat to Jewish identity’ (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 9 - A year ago, the Israeli novelist Dorit Rabinyan was at the centre of an unexpected storm.

Religious Violence

Why suspicion over St Petersburg metro attack is likely to fall on Islamist groups (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 4 - For many years in the 1990s and 2000s, terror attacks hit Russia with alarming frequency, as the Chechen independence movement, which morphed over time into an Islamist terror group, targeted trains, planes and subway stations.

Women in national security: how Feriha Peracha de-radicalised nearly 200 potential terrorists (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 5 - When clinical psychologist Feriha Peracha was asked by the Pakistan Army in 2009 to drive up to the Swat Valley and profile 12 young Islamist radicals, she was terrified.

Muslim man dies in India after attack by Hindu ’cow protectors’ (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 5 - A Muslim man has died in western India after he was attacked by hundreds of Hindu cow protection vigilantes, the latest attack in a spate of mob killings in the name of the revered animal.

Outrage after Malaysian MP condones rapists marrying their victims (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 6 - Bangkok: A member of Malaysia’s ruling coalition has sparked outrage in his majority Muslim nation by saying girls as young as nine are "physically and spiritually" ready for marriage.

Aung San Suu Kyi denies ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 6 - Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said ethnic cleansing was too strong a term to describe what was happening in the Muslim-majority Rakhine region, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

Other

Dalai Lama’s emotional reunion with guard who aided flight from Tibet (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 4 - The first time they met, Indian paramilitary guard Naren Chandra Das was ordered not to talk to the bespectacled young soldier he was escorting near the Chinese border in a top-secret mission.

Outrage in UK after Cadbury drops Easter reference for egg hunt (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 5 - London: Some US conservatives, including President Donald Trump, warn that secular elites, pursuing an agenda of political correctness, have played down religion as part of a so-called war on Christmas.

God, guns, and abortion: Neil Gorsuch to quickly make his mark on high court (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 9 - As the partisan argument rages over the confirmation to the supreme court on Friday of Donald Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, the stakes of that argument are only now becoming clear.

ISLAM

Hirsi Ali attacks Muslim critics (The Australian)
Apr 4 - The controversial anti-Islam campaigner has accused Australian Muslim women of “carrying water” for extremists.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: fighter for freedom or just a help for Hanson? (The Guardian, Australia)
Apr 4 – (Opinion: Gay Alcorn) Ayaan Hirsi Ali has visited Australia at least five times as far as she can remember.

I didn’t sign the petition against Ayaan Hirsi Ali – I’d prefer to debate her myself (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 4 – (Opinion: Ruby Hamad) When I heard Ayaan Hirsi Ali was again doing a speaking tour of Australia, with requisite appearance on Q&A, my reaction was more eye-roll than outrage.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Australia needs programs to ’assimilate’ Muslim migrants (Sydney Morning Herald)
Apr 5 - Controversial anti-Islam activist and former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali says authorities need to more effectively "assimilate" Muslim migrants in Australia and prevent Islamists and would-be extremists from arriving.

RELIGION & SOCIETY

Scientology-linked drug rehab centre sued over $150,000 sniffer dog bills (The Age, Melbourne)
Apr 5 - A private security company that provided round-the-clock sniffer dogs to a secretive drug rehabilitation facility linked to the Church of Scientology is suing over more than $150,000 in unpaid debts.

Terrorist or hipster — what does a beard mean? (ABC News)
Apr 6 – (Opinion: Cherine Fahd) The way someone looks — the size of their nose or the abundance of body or facial hair — is an amusing topic of dinner discussions in my Lebanese–Australian family.