Religion News Australia
July 16 – 23, 2023
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
ABUSE
Church insurer’s insolvency battle amid abuse claims (The Australian)
July 20 – The Catholic Church insurer wants to enter into a scheme of arrangement amid concerns about the long-term impact of abuse and other claims to avoid formal insolvency.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Islam
Iraq expels Swedish ambassador after man desecrates Koran in Stockholm (ABC News)
July 21 – Iraq has asked Sweden’s ambassador to leave amid fiery protests over the desecration of a Koran at the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
The 1975 cancels shows in Jakarta, Taiwan after same-sex kiss controversy (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 23 – Kuala Lumpur: British band The 1975 said they have cancelled shows in Taiwan and Muslim-majority Indonesia, a day after Malaysia banned them from performing there after their frontman kissed a bandmate on stage and criticised the country’s anti-LGBT laws.
Religious Violence
Swedish embassy in Baghdad stormed, set alight over Koran burning (Sydney Morning Herald)
July 20 – Baghdad/Stockholm: Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in fury against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
ISLAM
Raghe Mohammed Abdi, who was shot by police after killing , was ‘absolutely radicalised’ (ABC News)
July 20 – A terrorism expert has told an inquest a Muslim man who killed a Brisbane couple, before being shot dead by police, was “absolutely radicalised” but he could not definitively determine the murders were motivated by extremist views.
JUDAISM
At school I was picked on for being Jewish. It’s no better today. (Brisbane Times)
July 23 – (Opinion: Nicole Precel) School grounds can feel like unsafe places.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Indigenous voice no campaign targets religious voters who opposed marriage equality (The Guardian, Australia)
July 17 – The no campaign in the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament is targeting migrant communities and parts of Sydney that voted strongly against marriage equality in the 2017 postal vote, Warren Mundine has said.
Cricket and religion: more than just a coincidence (The Australian)
July 20 – (Opinion: Phillip Adams) The following may come as a shock. Three stumps? The Holy Trinity. The red ball? Satan. The twelfth man? Who else but Judas Iscariot.
Civil celebrants oversee the majority of weddings in Australia, but 50 years ago they were illegal (ABC News)
July 23 – Until 1973, Australians had only two options for where and how they could get married — either in a church or a registry office.
