Britain First Facebook Posts Awash With Bigotry Towards Aaqil Ahmed, BBC Head

The Head of Religion and Ethics in the BBC, Aaqil Ahmed, recently posted this blog on why he made the decision to hold ‘Songs of Praise’ from a small community built church in the ‘Jungle’, a piece of land where refugees desperately try and maintain a meagre pitiful existence in Calais. Aaqil Ahmed provides some

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TELL MAMA Welcomes Advice Checklist by CPS For Charging Lawyers

For the last 3 years, TELL MAMA has built up evidence on the language of anti-Muslim hatred. Key terms and words that are used and targeted towards Muslims have been collated through our work and we have worked with partner agencies to explain the meanings of the terms, their links to Muslim communities and the

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Al Qaeda’s Al-Zawahiri Pledges Allegiance to New Taliban Chief

Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri has pledged allegiance to the new head of the Afghan Taliban in an audio on-line message. The move is seen politically to enhance the status of the new leader, (Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour), after the death of the Group’s founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, some two years ago. Al-Zawahiri stated, “We pledge our allegiance … (to the) commander of the faithful, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour, may God protect him.” The move is seen as a way of shoring up the waning support for Al-Qaeda, a group which has largely lost traction and support to groups such as ISIS and local splinter extremist groups in countries across the Maghreb to the Middle East. The move is also meant to try and hold the group together as it started to splinter after the reported death of Mullah Omar.

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Scholar’s corner: what can René Girard teach us about religion and violence?

It is almost unthinkable to speak of violence without equating it with religion. This is true in many ways as Mark Juergensmeyer notes: “Violence has always been endemic to religion. Images of destruction and death are evoked by some of religion’s most popular symbols, and religious wars have left through history a trail of blood. The savage martyrdom of Husain in Shiite Islam, the crucifixion of Jesus in Christianity, the sacrifice of Guru Tegh Bahadur in Sikhism, the bloody conquests in the Hebrew Bible, the terrible battles in the Hindu epics, and the religious war attested to in the Sinhalese Buddhist chronicles indicate that in virtually every tradition images of violence occupy as central a place as portrayals of non-violence. This raises two haunting questions: why are these images so central, and what is the relationship between symbolic violence and the real acts of religious violence that occur throughout the world today”.[1] Juergensmeyer raises some interesting questions and René Girard believes “that [his] mimetic theory offers an exhaustive explanation of the phenomenon of religious-inspired violence”.[2] In contrast, Michael Kirwan confidentially claims that Girard anticipated ‘religiously-inspired’ violence and atrocities (including 9/11).[3] Therefore, one does not need to look further to understand this [...]

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Islamic State Releases 22 Assyrian Christian Captives

News reports have highlighted the fact that the so-called Islamic State has released 22 elderly Assyrian Christians that it had kidnapped from villages in the North-East of Syria. The captives were taken earlier in 2015 , though according to the UK ba...

Why World Humanitarian Day is so important

As we approach World Humanitarian Day (Aug 19), we should take time to reflect on the global human efforts to create the conditions for peace and prosperity amongst all mankind, and to stand in solidarity with people wanting to bring about progressive social change in their communities. As society comes together with the assistance of new forms of connectivity and transportation, we are transforming into an increasingly inclusive, interdependent and co-operative global community. It is in our nature to feel a sense of community with those we share resources, time and environment with. However, achieving such conditions is not without its challenges – discrimination, inequality, poverty, a worsening in national security conditions and the disregard of human life, all of which are still prevalent. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we do not turn our backs on progressive causes and that humanitarians take the lead on sharing the global dimension to all these common challenges. It these themes that World Humanitarian Day was made to celebrate. Designated on the anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff members, World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity when all peoples can [...]

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Racist jailed after taunting Jewish woman with Hitler Youth flag

Nicholas Goodwin, 23, sent a Jewish mother a photo of himself with a Hitler Youth flag, after she stopped him from contacting her son. The photo depicts Goodwin and Callum Cochrane smiling as they posed with the flag. Elissa Wilson, their target, received the vile image via Facebook on January 29 – two days after Holocaust Memorial Day. Goodwin, admitted the charge of racially aggravated harassment, and received a six-month prison sentence. Cochrane escaped sentencing because he did not send or create the image. Wilson praised the sentencing and told the Daily Record, “Six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust. For anyone to glorify that is just vile. I’m delighted with the sentence. It shows that things like this are taken seriously.” That sentence adds to an increasing list of crimes committed by Goodwin. Last month, he appeared in court after threatening to stab a 16-year-old, Goodwin and another person, hurled racist abuse at the victim. The judge noted that Goodwin was currently serving three concurrent prison terms at Low Moss Prison. But the problem of antisemitism in Scotland is not limited to online racists. A breakdown of religious hate charges (with caveat). Credit: The Scottish Government. In [...]

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Tackling anti-Muslim Hate in Educational Establishments & Schools is Key

This is an example of why work is needed with young people and we have raised this issue a number of times previously. The key is to ensure that young people understand that anti-Muslim hatred is just the same as other forms of prejudice, hate and intolerance and needs to be tackled. This is the

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Oxford University digitises depictions of Hindu deities

Oxford University digitised more than one hundred 19th Century Kalighat paintings depicting Hindu deities. The digitisation is part of a wider project at the university’s Bodleian library to make thousands of rare manuscripts and images accessible to the public. Religious statesman, Rajan Zed, took to Twitter to heap praise on the university: We commend #OxfordUniversity for digitizing 110 19th-century #KalighatPaintings of #Hindu deities & others & posting on new #OnlinePortal. — Rajan Zed (@rajanzed) August 1, 2015 Sir Monier Monier-Williams acquired the Kalighat paintings for the Indian Institute Library following his third fund-raising trip to India in 1883. You can trace the history of the Kalighat art to a Kali Temple on the bank of the Buri Ganga (a canal diverging from the Ganges River) in southern Kolkata (Calcutta). This form of Bengali folk art, created between 1800 and 1930, was a product sold to tourists and pilgrims as souvenirs. The sprawling metropolitan success of 18th-century Kolkata attracted a wealth of creative talents. Others moved to the city due to the economic grip of The East India Company in the region. Among them were the trained artists of Murshidabad and folk painters (patuas). A patua depicted mythologies, religious figures, popular [...]

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Car Tyres Slashed in Essex. Owner who is Visibly Muslim Believes Anti-Muslim in Nature

Essex based Muslim, (who is visibly Muslim), reported in what he believes is an anti-Muslim targeted hate crime. The individual had parked his vehicle at a seaside town and there were several cars that were also parked next to his. He came back to find that his vehicle had had its tyres slashed and there

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