Faith Matters General

Turkey to retaliate against U.S. decision to impose sanctions over pastor
August 1, 2018 By Faith Matters

Turkey to retaliate against U.S. decision to impose sanctions over pastor

Turkey will retaliate against a U.S. decision to impose sanctions on two senior ministers over the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Washington sanctioned Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu over the pastor’s detention. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the two men played leading roles […]

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Chilean prosecutor forces Catholic Church to give up secrets
August 1, 2018 By Faith Matters

Chilean prosecutor forces Catholic Church to give up secrets

Two special envoys sent by Pope Francis to investigate a child sex abuse scandal in Chile were meeting priests and church workers at a university in the Chilean capital last month when aides rushed into the room with an alarming development: police and prosecutors were about to start raiding church offices. The envoys were 90 […]

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Israeli court jails Arab poet for online incitement to terrorism
August 1, 2018 By Faith Matters

Israeli court jails Arab poet for online incitement to terrorism

An Israeli court jailed an Israeli Arab poet for five months on Tuesday after convicting her of incitement to terrorism for a poem and remarks she posted on social media during a wave of Palestinian street attacks. Dareen Tatour, 36, posted on Facebook and YouTube a video of herself reading out her poem “Resist, My […]

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Muslim survivors of Indian massacre shaken by citizenship test
July 31, 2018 By Faith Matters

Muslim survivors of Indian massacre shaken by citizenship test

Thirty-six years after losing his parents, sister and a four-year-old daughter in one of India’s worst sectarian massacres, Abdul Suban says he is still trying to prove he’s a citizen of the Hindu-majority nation. Suban is one of hundreds of thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims categorised as “doubtful voters”, who will not find their names in […]

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Facebook deletes hundreds of posts under German hate-speech law
July 31, 2018 By Faith Matters

Facebook deletes hundreds of posts under German hate-speech law

Facebook said it had deleted hundreds of offensive posts since a law banning online hate speech came into force in Germany at the start of the year that foresees fines of up to 50 million euros (51.53 million pounds) for failure to comply. The social network received 1,704 complaints under the law, known in Germany […]

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Thai cave boys adopt saffron robes of Buddhist novices to honour dead rescuer
July 31, 2018 By Faith Matters

Thai cave boys adopt saffron robes of Buddhist novices to honour dead rescuer

Eleven boys from a football team rescued from a flooded Thai cave in a drama that gripped global audiences were ordained as Buddhist novices on Wednesday in memory of a volunteer diver who died during their rescue. Dressed in white robes, the boys and their 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, arrived at the Wat Phra That […]

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Michigan man seized overseas charged with providing material support to Islamic State
July 30, 2018 By Faith Matters

Michigan man seized overseas charged with providing material support to Islamic State

A Michigan man seized overseas by a U.S.-backed Syrian militia has been charged with providing material support to Islamic State militants, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, provided support to the group from 2015 until last month, the department said in a statement. Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. […]

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Polish embassy ‘funded far-right speakers’ at UK event
June 26, 2018 By Faith Matters

Polish embassy ‘funded far-right speakers’ at UK event

The Polish Embassy in London part-funded an event that gave a platform to right-wing extremists in the UK, a BBC Newsnight investigation has found. The embassy helped to finance a book fair in Slough in 2017, which included speakers from Poland well-known for promoting hate speech in their country. Experts have questioned whether such speakers […]

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European human rights court rejects appeal by Norwegian mass killer
June 21, 2018 By Faith Matters

European human rights court rejects appeal by Norwegian mass killer

The European Court of Human Rights rejected on Thursday an appeal by Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik who says his near-isolation in prison amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment. Breivik, who has legally changed his name to Fjotolf Hansen, killed 77 people in a car bombing in central Oslo and shooting spree on Utoeya […]

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Londoners mark anniversary of mosque attack with minute’s silence
June 19, 2018 By Faith Matters

Londoners mark anniversary of mosque attack with minute’s silence

Senior British political figures joined faith and community leaders on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of an attack by a far-right extremist who drove a van into Muslim worshippers leaving a London mosque. Darren Osborne, 48, ploughed his rental van into a crowd leaving Ramadan prayers in Finsbury Park, north London, in the early hours […]

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