Muhammadu Buhari, a Sunni Muslim and a former military dictator, has surprisingly won the 2015 Presidential elections in Nigeria after three consecutive defeats. Buhari has campaigned on a platform of ‘change’, promising economic stability, to curb corruption and to utilise political strength in tackling the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The Buhari government, however, has faced international criticism, due to the clash between the army and the minority Shia community in Zaria. Reports of events prior to the clash are unclear, the army asserts that the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Genenral Tukur Buratai, was blockaded near Zaria and the convoy was attacked by a petrol bomb. The Shia Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) deny any attack occurred and demand the release of their leader Ibraheem Zakzaky.

The government forces raided Zakzaky’s home and the whereabouts of his wife and sons are unknown. The IMN have stated that they have been killed in the raid, however, the Nigerian authorities have declared that his wife is in custody. Iran has condemned the attacks and called for the release of the Shiite leader. The movement has also been confronted by Boko Haram.

The problem remains complex: it would be too simplistic to apportion the blame to Shia and Sunni tensions as these continue to be manipulated by political ambitions. This is true for Zakzaky, who is deeply influenced by Iranian clerics, who believe themselves to be the saviours and provide leadership and guidance for Shia Muslims across the world.

Iran is the only Islamic regime to be run by a Shia-led administration. Thus, Iranian clerics continue to support any prominent actor that will aid in increasingly Shiite influence around the globe. Zakzaky’s IMN received financial contributions from Iran. The Islamic movement has had several clashes with government forces, leading to the capture and imprisonment of 120 Shiite followers. However, Zakzaky denies any financial backing from Iranian sources.

Zakzaky has asserted his support for an Islamic revolution much in the style of Iran, while his followers are believed to receive paramilitary training. Iran received a useful ally in Nigeria, albeit not as important as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Iranian vision of entrancing Shia Islam into global mainstream politics remains important. Analysts agree that IMN adds further tensions along ethnic lines. Previous administrations have also attacked the IMN. For instance, in July 2014, stressing they were defending themselves after soldiers were abducted in a ‘peaceful processions’ supporting Palestine. The police suggest that four people were killed but the IMN claims 25 were killed – including two of Zakzaky’s sons.

The clashes are not limited to a Sunni President in power. This questions the source of the Sunni-Shia tensions. In Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are battlefields for the proxy wars of Iran and Saudi Arabia, each attempting to entrench their political dominance within the Middle East. Thus, the tensions in Nigeria to a smaller extent could be a Shia resurgence within Africa, in the political vision of Iran.

The political ramifications of Zakzaky’s power should not be overstated as the main security threat remains Boko Haram. When examining Nigerian affairs, however, in terms of Sunni-Shia violence, more detail must be given to foreign power politics than religious difference alone.

Samiha Sharif holds a Masters of Science in International Politics from SOAS. She Currently volunteering at Tell MAMA. And writes in a personal capacity.

The post What’s behind the Sunni-Shia tensions in Nigeria? appeared first on Religious Reader.

A campaign to canonise a Catholic priest who stayed on the RMS Titanic instead of fleeing remains ongoing despite renewed interest in his story.

The story of Father Thomas Byles and his acts of selflessness, however, deserves re-telling.

Roussel Davids Byles was born in 1870 to a Protestant family in Leeds. His father, Reverend Dr. Alfred Holden Byles and mother Louisa Davids also had six other children.

He excelled at mathematics and  gained a scholarship to Balliol School, Oxford. When at Oxford, Byles gravitated towards the Church of England. His younger brother, William, however, converted to Catholicism first.

In 1894, he had a conditional baptism (sub conditione) at St. Aloysius Church in Oxford. Upon entering the Catholic faith, Roussel adopted the name of Thomas.

After spending two years in Rome, Byles became the ordained priest of St Helen’s Church, Chipping Ongar, Essex in 1904.

In 1912, he had boarded the ship to attend the wedding of his younger brother William, in New York. This last minute decision to board the Titanic instead of a different ship cost him £13 (roughly £1,100 today). His second class ticket was number 244310.

His duties included performing mass for second and third class passengers. Two other Catholic priests, Fr
Juozas Montvila from Lithuania and Fr Joseph Peruschitz from Germany also gave daily mass.

On the morning of the tragedy on April 14, his sermon, delivered in English and French, argued that prayer serves as a spiritual lifeboat in times of strife and temptation.

A stained-glass window at St Helen’s Church in Essex immortalises his selflessness. He had “earnestly devoted his last moments to the religious consolation of his fellow passengers”.

Fr Byles had walked the upper decks of the ship, reciting the Breviarium Romanum, as the ship struck the iceberg.

As the scale of the tragedy grew by the hour, Fr Byles had twice refused a space on a lifeboat. He spent his time shepherding women and children to safety. And offering them words of comfort and absolution.

Upon the departure of the final lifeboat, Fr Byles gathered a crowd of individuals at the rear of the ship. Here, he led the recital of the Rosary. Fr Juozas Montvila and Fr Joseph Peruschitz had also stuck to their religious duties until the end.

As the stern rose higher, in their final moments, Fr Byles gave absolution to Catholics, Protestants, and Jews trapped in the rising waters.

Fr Byles was among the 1,500 to perish aboard the Titanic on April 15 1912. The bodies of all three Catholic priests were never recovered.

As they departed, an eyewitness recalled:

“After I got in the boat, which was the last one to leave, and we were slowly going further away from the ship, I could hear distinctly the voice of the priest (Byles) and the responses to his prayers.  Then they became fainter and fainter, until I could only hear the strains of ‘Nearer My God, To Thee’and the screams of the people left behind”.

His family mourned his loss after learning that he had not boarded the rescue ship RMS Carpathia. In total, the rescue mission saved 702 lives.

Family members had later flown to Rome for an audience with Pope Pius X.

According to the Edmundian Association, Pius X declared that Fr Byles had been a martyr for the church.

The thrust of campaign to canonise Fr Byles is the current priest of St Helen’s, Fr Graham Smith. In June last year, he told the BBC that “We are hoping and praying that he will be recognised as one of the saints within our canon.”

Prayer forms a vital part of the beatification process. Sainthood requires a proven miracle to be attributed to prayers made to the person after death.

To mark the centenary of his death in 2012, a number of events honoured his life and sacrifice. This included the unveiling of a memorial plaque at Rossall Public School in Lancashire.

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Hundreds of Hungarians held a candle-lit vigil against a planned statue honouring a pro-Nazi minister. The protest in the city of Székesfehérvár this past Sunday included diplomats from the United States, Israel, Canada, and Washington’s special envoy on anti-Semitism Ira Forman.

Bálint Hóman remains of Hungary’s most toxic reminders of its complicity in the Holocaust. He supported discriminatory policies that disposed Jews of land and denied them university jobs in the 1930s. He advocated a close alliance with Nazi Germany. And supported policies that resulted in the deportation and murder of more than 500,000 Jews.

Székesfehérvár’s mayor, András Cser-Palkovic, a member of the ruling Fidesz party, will ask the Hóman Foundation to reconsider its planned installation. Fidesz has already donated Ft15m ($52,000) to the project. The Hóman Foundation hope to unveil the statue on December 29 – the 130th anniversary of Hóman’s birth.

Hungary’s close ties to Nazi Germany began before the onset of war. In 1938, the Nazis annexed Sudeten region of the now Czech Republic. Hungary gained territory from this action.

That same year, Hungary passed laws that cut Jewish employment by 80 per cent. A year later, and Hungarian laws racialised Jews. Against this backdrop, the Nazis rewarded had Hungary with northern Transylvania.

With the onset of war, Hungary passed a law that drafted Jewish man between the age of 28 and 40 in labour service units. They found themselves working in construction, mining, and building military fortifications. Antisemitism, however, remained rife. Thousands of Jewish labourers died from abuse, malnourishment, cold, and disease. Those caught retreating were burnt alive or murdered by Hungarian guards.

By 1941, the fascist Arrow Cross regime passed laws that officially defined Jewishness. In July of that year, Hungarian forces rounded up Jews with Soviet or Polish citizenship for deportation. Hungarian Jews who could not prove their citizenship also faced deportation. Thousands faced a death march to Kamenets-Podolski. Of the 23,600 murdered, roughly 14,000 to 16,000 were from Hungary.

In 1944, Bálint Hóman joined 29 other MPs in signing a document calling for the complete expulsion of Hungarian Jews.

The Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944 brought greater cooperation. Across Hungary, Jewish communities either had to live outside or in ghettos. Many ghettos only existed for a matter of weeks or days before liquidation.

It took Hungarian forces in coordination with German Security Police less than two months to deport nearly 440,000 Jews in more than 145 trains. Many of the deported ended up in Auschwitz. Some dug fortifications along the Austrian border. As 1944 drew to a close, the only Jewish community left in Hungary resided in Budapest.

Bálint Hóman received a life sentence from the post-war Communist regime after voting to support the war against the Soviet Union. He died in prison in 1951.

The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ) estimate that Hungary’s Jewish population today totals above 120,000.

In 2014, Hungary made its first official apology for its role in the Holocaust. Its ambassador to the UN, Csaba Korosi, said ‘We owe an apology to the victims because the Hungarian state was guilty for the Holocaust’.

On 9 March 2015 Hungary assumed the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

The furore reflects Hungary’s own struggle to reconcile its role in the Holocaust. Prime Minister Vicktor Orban has made public overtures to stamp out growing antisemitism. His biggest political rival is the far-right Jobbik. A party that continues to make political gains from historical and contemporary prejudices.

Orban’s anti-Muslim rhetoric followed a growing concern in other parts of Europe about the resettlement of migrants and refugees. His party militarised its borders and acknowledges that human rights are ‘secondary‘.

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Over the summer, Pope Francis apologised for the “Many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God.”

“I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America,” the pope said.

But his decision to canonise Father Junípero Serra, on his first visit to the United States next week, has angered many groups.

An online petition against the canonisation has gained over 10,000 signatures. Many of the counter voices are descendants of those colonised. For Ron Andrade, executive director of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, and of the Luiseño tribe, said Serra “decimated 90% of the Indian population”.

Serra (1713-1784), was an ordained Franciscan priest and professor of theology by the age of 24. By 1749, Serra accompanied other Franciscans dedicated to missionary work in Mexico. He also preached, heard confessions, and assisted at Mexico City’s College of San Fernando.

In 1767, Spain founded the first mission in California. Estimates put the Native American population at about 310,000; yet in under a century, that figure declined at a rapid rate, alongside cultural shifts.

Spain’s colonial policies fused political, social, economic and religious motives. One historian argued that “Missionization required a brutal lifestyle akin in several respects to the forced movement of black people from Africa to the American South”.

Others argued that the missions were not simple religious functions – but rather served to eradicate native cultures in a short amount of time.

To ensure survival, many tribes used partial integration with each other and Spanish culture. Others fled inland or lost their culture. Within a month of their arrival, the Spanish crushed a rebellion with guns, and it took a further two years for San Diego to witness its first baptism. Colonial authorities took a zero tolerance approach to resistance – either violent or non-violent. Upon entry to the boundaries of the mission, native Americans could not leave. Spain would send armed parties to capture runaways, and punish the recaptured.

In a legal sense, all baptised Native Americans were subject to the authority of the Franciscans. Disobedience brought public flogging, shackling or imprisonment. Religious conversion often took place at gunpoint.

Life expectancy in the Californian missions could last only for a decade. As one Friar noted, the Indians “live well free but as soon as we reduce them to a Christian and community life… they fatten, sicken, and die”.

During the Second World War, Physiologist Sherburne F. Cook studied the human cost of Spanish settlement: “From the available data we find from 1779 to 1833 there were 29,100 births and 62,600 deaths”. This indicated an ‘extremely rapid population decline‘.

Others found that: “After the missions were built, beginning in 1769, the Indians were forbidden to leave the mission boundaries. It is estimated that California’s Indian population was about 310,000 at the beginning of Spanish rule. At the close of the 19th century, their population shrunk to approximately 100,000, largely due to the inhumane conditions under which the Indians were forced to live while serving as slaves”.

The inhumane and cramped living arrangements helped turn flu and measels into epidemics. Spanish soldiers introduced syphilis to a population already weakened due to a change of diet. Though Cook avoided singling out Serra for criticism, as founder of the mission system, he bore responsibility.

Professor Deborah Miranda, at Washington and Lee University, and an Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Indian, does not consider Serra ‘evil’.  For Miranda, his complicity outweighs any positives, and for that, that is undeserving of reward.

Professor Steven Hackel of the University of California, Riverside, and the author of Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father took a more nuanced approach. Hackel argued that Serra used corporal punishment in the context of the period – noting that Serra remained paternalistic.

“Serra was not a monster,” said Robert M. Senkewicz, a professor of history at Santa Clara University.

Serra wore his contradictions like the scars of his mortifications – from whipping himself until he bled, and using a candle to scar his chest. He believed in total authority over the Native American tribes but also defended them in disputes with the Spanish military and government officials.

Others voice their opposition with monthly protests outside the Cathedral of Los Angeles.

The canonisation Mass, which will be in Spanish, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on September 23.

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A footnote to Europe’s ongoing crisis is the rising use of anti-Muslim rhetoric. Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, defended the erecting of a razor-wire fence on its southern border through the language of cultural and religious difference.

Orbán stated that “most of them are not Christians, but Muslims,” and that “Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity. Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian?”

Antal Rogan, the parliament caucus leader of Orbán’s Fidesz party, said on Tuesday that “the very existence of Christian Europe” was at stake.

Rogan also told the pro-government newspaper Magyar Idok “Would we like our grandchildren to grow up in a United European Caliphate? My answer to that is no”.

Ivan Metik, a spokesperson for Slovakia’s interior ministry spokesman said last month: “We want to help Europe with the migration issue. We could take 800 Muslims but we don’t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?”

In July, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, argued that Christians would cause less tension. He added that terrorists might attempt to mingle among Muslim refugees.

Slovakia’s Muslim population totals just 0.2 per cent in a country that is two-thirds Roman Catholic. Immigration remains a priority for many ordinary Slovaks. With that in mind, cultural anxieties are easier to manipulate. Hence why an ‘anti-Islamisation’ rally in Bratislava attracted thousands in July.

In the Czech Republic, a petition against Muslim migrants received 145,000 signatures. Milos Zeman, the Czech president, made a cultural argument against taking refugees fleeing Libya.

“Refugees from a completely different cultural background would not be in a good position in the Czech Repulic,” he was quoted as saying by a spokesperson.

Those considered ‘culturally closer’ Eastern European Slavs and Christians from Syria.

The decision by Czech police to write numbers of the hands of mainly Syrian refugees drew comparisons to Nazi Germany.

Poland agreed to accept 50 Christian families fleeing the Syrian civil war. But it outsourced that initiative to a private firm called Estera.

Miriam Shahed, who heads Estera, told the FT that ‘non-Christian’ refugees threaten Poland. She insisted that ISIS would not murder other Muslims because they ‘share’ identical beliefs. Shahed claimed that Islam represented a ‘totalitarian system’ and many Muslims are ‘criminals’.

This past April, Ukip leader Nigel Farage told BBC Breakfast “[If] we have to give some Christians refugee status given that with Iraq and Libya there’s almost nowhere for them to go then fine but Europe can’t send the message that everyone who comes will be accepted“. A position he took in 2013.

In light of Aylan Kurdi’s death, alongside members of his family, Farage sought to shift the debate by tweeting: “We must also establish who is a genuine refugee and to make sure they are not an extremist from Isis or other jihadi institutions”.

We must also establish who is a genuine refugee and to make sure they are not an extremist from Isis or other jihadi institutions.

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 3, 2015

To mythologise Europe’s Christian identity and Muslim refugees as terrorists helps the extreme right (and others) demonise religious minorities. Europe’s own legacies and traditions of antisemitism and anti-Muslim feelings continue to ebb and flow. Both incorporate ‘biological’ and ‘cultural’ forms of racism. This racist tradition constructed both religious minorities as ‘foreign intruders’ in societies. Anxieties around cultural and religious difference fed the paranoia of societal change through demographics. A paranoia compounded through the nefarious and paradoxical antisemitic trope of disproportionate Jewish influence.

The specific cultural and religious anxieties tied to Muslim identity fed the conspiracy of ‘Islamisation’. A key component of this belief is ‘Dhimmitude’ a term coined by ‘pseudo-scholar’ Bat Ye’or. Ye’or contends that non-Muslims treaty for protection in ‘Muslim conquered’ lands. A notion that feeds a false narrative that Muslims receive legal and political favours in secular contexts. On the fringes, the far-right hint at a civil war that will bring ‘Islamisation’ through violence.

Anti-Muslim prejudice is also understood in the specific cultural and linguistic spaces of some European nations. In French it translates as Islamophobie, in Spanish the term translates to Islamofobia, or Islamofobi in a Scandinavian context. But how these prejudice experienced by Muslims in these countries translates from specific cultural vernaculars are not just linguistic points of difference. But link the political and social cultures of the countries in question.

The religions of Islam and Christianity are not predisposed towards prolonged conflict. Yet hostility stems from moments in history. Interested parties (and individuals) distort these events to push anti-Muslim narratives.

Not even the Crusades triggered all-out conflict between the two faiths. But often this controversial moment in history becomes a propaganda tool for extremists on both sides. Take for example the far-right appropriation of Knights Templar imagery.

Racialisation allows individuals to see Muslims as foreign bodies and non-white (even white converts are labelled p*kis and race traitors). Dehumanisation allows individuals to disassemble Muslim identity and reassemble the Muslim body in subhuman terms. In far-right circles, the terms ‘Mudscum,’ ‘Musrat/Muzrat/Muzzrat/Muzzie,’ and ‘MuSlime’ pop up in their echo chambers. Though the term ‘Mussie’ holds positive connotations in Australia.

In a broader sense, dehumisation helped Nazi Germany label Jews as the literal embodiment of vermin and disease; Hutu génocidaires labelled Tutsis as cockroaches; dehumanisation aided black enslavement in colonial times.

Outside of Europe, the Irish refugees of the Potato Famines of 1845 to 1846, and 1846 to 1847 experienced dehumisation upon entry to Canada. The elites of Toronto deemed the Irish uncivilised due to their religion, language and physical traits. In reality, this physical appearance owed to a minority of West Country Irish peasants, it fuelled the corrosive stereotypes of Irish identity. In short, to not be Protestant in this era of Toronto’s history created suspicion.

In spite of the true realities that underpin this crisis, kernels of hope do appear; but the rhetoric does echo a darker period of Europe’s history; and will not change soon.

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The man who admitted killing three people at two suburban Kansas City Jewish sites told jurors he hoped to “die a martyr” for the shootings.

It took the jury little over two hours to find Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, guilty of capital murder, three counts of attempted murder and assault and weapons charges.

As jurors left court, Miller raised his right arm in a Nazi salute and told them: “You probably won’t sleep tonight.”

None of his victims were Jewish. Their names are William Corporon, 69, a physician; his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood; and Terri LaManno, 53. A fact Miller did not learn until six days after the shootings.

Frazier Glenn Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, wrote on a courtroom poster board “Diversity is a code word for white genocide”.

Miller’s virulent antisemitism and white supremacist ideology has never been in doubt. His website, with its rudimentary design, mixes the iconographies of the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederate flag. He recommends visitors check out ex-KKK grand wizard David Duke and get ‘jew-wise’.

Miller published his own book, titled ‘A White Man Speaks Out,’ written between 1987-1990 (when in prison), and completed in 1999. He joined the U.S. Army in 1959. Miller’s website claims he served two tours of Vietnam and was a Green Beret for over a decade. But within this rambling antisemitic text, he reveals how he discovered his ‘true calling’.

In 1978, his father gave him a copy of the racist, antisemitic newspaper, The Thunderbolt. According to Miller, within ‘two minutes’ he was ‘ecstatic’ to find his place within the ‘American White Movement’.

In short, the newspaper articulated his political and racial views. He confessed that before reading, he considered himself an antisemite and racist.

Miller blamed Jewish communities for defeat in the Vietnam war; for black emancipation. A problem he attributed to ‘heavy Jewish influence’ in the media. An ardent Holocaust denier, he also read Hitler’s Mein Kampf and  William Pierce’s white nationalist text “National Vanguard”.

In 1979, he joined the neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America, after quitting the National States’ Rights Party. Members of the National Socialist Party of America had murdered Communist Workers Party members at a rally. It contributed to his decision to move to Chicago.

Miller’s white supremacist activities signalled retirement from army life. During the 1980s, he created the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He sought to emulate Hitler, in his autobiography he wrote “My racist and anti-Semitic thoughts consumed me every day of my life. And, I was therefore, compelled to do everything possible to awaken White people, to organize them, and to try to save the White Race and Western civilization from those whom I believed were working to destroy both”.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) noted how Miller’s Carolina Knights marked a departure from KKK norms: gone were the clan robes, replaced with army-inspired fatigues and military training. Inspired again by Hitler, the organisation held rallies and marches on a near-weekly basis. In 1985, he founded another white supremacist group, The White Patriots Party. SPLC also linked Miller to a white supremacist terrorist group named The Order.

They used the legal system to break up Miller’s racist paramilitary. In spite of his conviction (pending appeal) for criminal contempt, he later became subject to a nationwide manhunt after declaring ‘war’ on Blacks and Jews. Miller appealed to his thousands of followers to overthrow the government in a ‘race war’.

“Let the blood of our enemies flood the streets, rivers and fields of the nation,” Miller wrote: “Rise up and throw off the chains which bind us to the satanic, Jewish controlled and ruled federal government. Let the battle axes swing smoothly and the bullets wiss [sic] true”.

By 1987, more than a dozen federal agents and state law enforcement agents captured Miller at a mobile home in Missouri. Once the tear gas cleared, officers found a hull of weapons: hand grenades, automatic rifles, pistols, about twenty pipe bombs, and flack jackets.

Miller had also posted thousands of copies of his “Declaration of War” to fellow white supremacists and media outlets.

To reduce his impending and lengthy prison sentence, Miller struck a plea bargain: he faced five years in prison in exchange for his cooperation and testimony against his former compatriots. He went on to claim in his autobiography that “I got myself out of prison without putting anyone else in”.

In the end, Miller served less than three years of that sentence. Upon release in 1990, the federal government issued Miller a new social security number under the name Frazier Glenn Cross. In Iowa, he pursued a new career in truck driving.

There is scant record of Miller’s formative years in Iowa and Nebraska; but he never recanted his beliefs. The internet provided Miller a wider outlet and white nationalist network. Outside his own website, Miller contributed over 12,000 posts to the Vanguard News Network (under the username “Rounder“). Miller asked Alex Linder, the Vanguard News Network’s admin, to post his online confession on 23 October 2014. He contributed and published Linder’s propaganda newspaper ‘The Ayran Alternative‘.

Miller confessed that his “conscious compelled me to kill Jews. That’s why I feel perfectly justified. My biggest fear was that I’d die without killing any Jews”. A paranoid Miller convinced himself that police monitored his online activities and offline movements. To ‘throw them off,’ he Googled Islamic community centers, Hispanic community centers, Baptist community centers.

He admitted making various trips to Jewish Community Center in the week leading up to the shootings. On the day of the murders, Miller visited the center three times. His target number was “maybe six or eight”victims. By 1pm, he returned to the Jewish Community Center. He claimed that he had a pistol in the front seat and two shotguns and a .30-caliber carbine in the trunk.

His documented health problems, chronic emphysema, meant that Miller sought a quick trial. Yet, he treated it as a spectacle: he fired his attorney and used the public platform to justify his race hate. He argued that: “According to the Declaration of Independence, it says that when a government conspires to destroy a people, it is not only the duty of the people, it is their right to rebel and replace that government”.

Jurors found him guilty of aggravated assault for pointing a shotgun at a woman and asking if she was Jewish. When she replied ‘No,’ he put his gun away and allowed her to live.

On Christianity, Miller wrote “Christianity is the second biggest trick the Jews ever played on us. The biggest was legalized abortion!” But it still represented the best hope for ‘white survival’. He preached a return to Odinism.

Miller also had a history of failed political campaigns: his most recent, in 2010, earned him a platform with Howard Stern; but he only managed seven votes.

A life of hate may soon end via a death sentence; if his chronic health problems do not catch up with him first. If Miller’s goal sought to divide Jewish communities, it failed, and for the victims, a measure of justice.

Sentencing takes place in late October.

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Hertfordshire Police arrested a man after three incidents of criminal damage caused at churches in Hitchin and Letchworth on August 25.

A 38-year-old man from Letchworth was also arrested in connection with further incidents of criminal damage on August 26.

The vandalism saw a stained glass memorial to World War I personnel smashed at St Mary’s Church, in Hitchin, alongside a depiction of Jesus Christ.

Vandals attack St Mary’s Church #Hitchin in an apparent religously aggravated crime any info call @HertsPolice on 101 pic.twitter.com/ha5QTdgWVP

— HE Heritage Crime (@HEHeritageCrime) August 27, 2015

At St Paul’s Church, in Letchworth, the vandal threw more than 50 pieces of flint and brick through its windows. The attacks soon switched to St Mary’s, with the first incident at 2.10pm then 9pm.

In total, damages total above £10,000.

Before the arrest, Sergeant Stephen Oliphant told local press:”We are currently following a line of enquiry that they are religiously aggravated and, due to the damage caused to these historical buildings, the incidents are also being treated as a heritage crime”.

In spite of the distress, Simon Moore, vicar of the Letchworth church, stressed forgiveness for the accused. Congregants banded together to sweep away broken glass.

On August 27, St Paul’s Church captioned a part of the vandalism that bore a cross. It read: “From the damage of Tuesday, something glorious was instantly created from the broken lead window tracing”. It resumed its regular Sunday service and thanked individuals for their support and prayers.

Nor did St Paul’s Church have a history of vandalism; the last incident took place more than a decade ago.

The man has been bailed till late September.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has stated that IS (Islamic State) executed over 90 people in the last month in Syria, with a third of them being civilians.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 32 civilians were among 91 people executed for ‘crimes’ that took place between July 29th and August 29th 2015. These included residents in areas controlled by the so-called Caliphate and which included forces loyal to Bashar Al-Assad, rebel fighters and even those affiliated with IS. Some of the crimes that are punishable by death include ‘witch-craft’,  homsexuality and working with the US-led Coalition.

To date, since the Caliphate was announced across Iraq and parts of Syria, approximately 3,156 people have been executed by IS. This includes about 1,841 civilians who have also lost their lives.

Some of these executions have been filmed and promoted by the media arm of IS, Al-Hayat, which produced high definition videos on the gruesome beheadings and crucifixions of individuals. Videos have also been circulated of alleged homosexuals being thrown off the roofs of buildings.

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Welcome to the age of post-ism. Racism is over, ageism is over, classism is over and so is sexism too, or at least this is popular thought. However, feminism is needed more now than ever and yet our feminist movement is beginning to eerily reflect the sort of attitudes we should be striving against, and at times blatantly demonstrating racist and illiberal attitudes.

Feminists have in the past seemed ill at ease with the religious, who have in some cases campaigned against abortions and gay marriage – the cornerstones it could be argued of modern feminist achievement. However with more dangers against women from the state than ever before, how can Western feminism become more inclusive of minority values, and in turn the religious?

First we must reflect on what feminism has always been about – was it to focus solely on the individual of the day or to empower women to be able to make decisions about themselves, for themselves? Focusing on a specific religious action with little understanding of context can cause unnecessary divides, whereas uniting on common ground such as wage disparity, maternity rights, and homelessness is plain common sense. Women: the all too often disproportional victims of austerity should not focus on language of gendered Orientalism; but that of liberty. We should not take on the policy of the media of deliberate misunderstanding and misinformation – but support our fellow women to make the decisions they want to make, even if we don’t share the same religious or moral values.

Values of equality and a sense of social justice do not belong to one ethnic, religious or social group and we should not act as such. ‘Colonial Feminism’ is an emergent term, based on a view that difference “must be civilized by a liberal, enlightened West”. It is closely tied to the term ‘white-knight syndrome’ where sufferers rush to the aid of any they perceive to be in any form of distress.

Recent news stories have highlighted some of these attitudes and actions amongst the feminist community. When Hannah Yusuf discussed her belief that covering her hair as part of her Muslim faith, could also be a feminist statement: “In a world where a woman’s value is often reduced to her sexual allure, what could be more empowering than rejecting that notion”.

She received almost instant negative responses on social media regarding her personal and spiritual beliefs. Almost all of them focused around the fact that the commenter felt they were more entitled to judge how Yusuf should be dressing, despite her being an educated, informed adult. “The problem is, for as long as the headscarf is forced upon some women, either through the State or by community pressure, it becomes justifiable to wonder whether a stranger is wearing the hijab out of her own free will...” This is a clear example of so called ‘colonial feminism,’ which appears when religious issues and in particular women’s issues intersect. The fact that this commenter feels they have the entitlement to question the personal attire of any Muslim woman is alarming at best; and a racist undertone at worst.

What other group of people would have their personal decisions questioned in such a way, other than the religious. Many a bad fashion choice could be called into question, yet they are not judged by the collective. This sense of the woman’s body belonging to not only her but to the society to investigate has concerning and misogynistic undertones.

Equally when Jewish Belz educational institutions released a letter regarding a religious statement of their belief that driving was not permissible for women, there was uproar at both their comments and the women who sought to defend their personal faith. Those like Chaya Spitz who stated “I respect my community custom [of not driving]… The expectations from women and men may not be the same, but they are equally demanding on both sexes.” Comparisons were made to supporting Saudi Arabia in the UK and the women who endorsed the ban were dismissed as naive and brainwashed. Shulem Deen went so far as to say it was a “damning and pernicious lie that Hasidim accept restrictions of their own free will” – comments such as these were repeated in articles and news reports for days until the school overturned its ruling and policy. Yet no one took words of the practicing women themselves who both agreed (and disagreed) with the policy as legitimate.

Religion is not the problem but communication is. Creating a false distinction between the feminist and the religious outlook leads to isolation, as demonstrated in recent hashtag campaign #dontneedfeminism although this is not by any means supported by those of faith alone. Some have tried to claim a feminist identity outside the liberal sphere by coining the term ‘Islamic Feminism’ and proudly reclaiming lost female Muslim icons. Rather than belittling the efforts of women who are striving to express their religious identity and empower themselves within their own capacity and perceived role, we should focus on the issues that affect women caused both by men and more widely the state.

Catherine is a design graduate and is pursuing an MA in Youth and Community work, with the long term aim of becoming an a Community Art Worker. She is the co-founder of a youth group for Muslims and is passionate about Interfaith work. She writes in a personal capacity.

The post Why feminism needs to ditch colonial attitudes to claim inclusivity appeared first on Religious Reader.

It is too often erroneously claimed that Sunni Islam is divided into a legalistic conservative mainstream presided over by jurists, and a mystical, liberal marginalised minority comprised of mystics. However such a perception came to emerge, it is inaccurate. From the beginnings of Islam in the Qur’an and in the person of the Prophet Muhammad himself, through to his companions and the jurists who established the four Sunni schools of Islamic Law, the external application of the law and the internal cultivation of the spirit have always been intertwined.

Consider the ritual prayer, performed by Muslims five times a day, as this most demonstrates the interdependence of the external and the internal. In the Qur’an it is said, “Perform the Prayer to remember Me.” In this it is made clear that the Prayer is not simply a series of movements and supplications performed in accordance with an established formula. Rather, its objective is the remembrance of God. The Prophet Muhammad elaborates that, “When performing the Prayer, one is conversing intimately with one’s Lord.” However, he makes clear that, “A man gets credit only for that part of his Prayer of which he is conscious,” and it is not sufficient to merely perform the outward action. The prayer, as with all acts of worship, ceases to be intimate communion, it ceases to truly be worship, if engaged in heedlessly without devotion. Therefore, both the essence and the purpose of the prayer is the pure and sincere intention with which it is performed. This centrality of intention applies to all action, as the Prophet teaches that, “All actions are according to intention.” The cultivation of sincere and pious intention is a fundamentally spiritual, mystical process, and those who have undergone this process most exemplify the unity of the internal and the external. They are the mystics of Islam, the Sufis.

It is often taken for granted by some that the Sufis, though emerging from Sunni tradition, have gone beyond it. It is assumed that they have discarded those alleged cumbersome codes of conduct and dry dogmas which confine the legalistic Sunni mainstream in favour of a freer, mystical approach which was once Islamic but no longer. Arguably, no Sufi evokes this image more than Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, the renowned 13^th century mystical poet, who’s deeply profound and intimate poetry speaks to millions such that it is a U.S. bestseller. Yet, it was Rumi who said, “Act and word are witness to the hidden mind; from these twain infer the inward state”- that is, correct word and action are a manifestation and an indication of one’s spiritual condition. If the action is bad, the heart is bad, and vice versa. Rumi was not exceptional in this regard, he was articulating an oft spoken principle voiced by many Sufis that, “with regard to the Law, mere formality is defective, while mere spirituality is vain.” For the Sufis, then, the mystical is not the polar opposite of the law, it is its completion, and the law is the correct means through which the mystical is cultivated and manifest.

Should the arbiters of the law, the Caliphs who ensure its implementation and the jurists who interpret it, not also be mystics? Indeed, the Prophet’s companion and the first and foremost of the Caliphs, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, is referred to as “the Imam of the Muslims in general, and of the Sufis in particular.” Many Sufis trace their spiritual lineage from teacher to student back to him, as they do also the fourth Caliph, ‘Ali ibn Abi-Talib, the Prophet’s cousin. Rumi lovingly proclaims of him, “A lover, I am, of Murtaza ‘Ali; in rapture, my very being cries out: ‘Ali ‘Ali.” The prominent jurists who came two generations after these companions, who established the four Sunni schools of Islamic Law, were also mystics, or had studied under them. For example, Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa, founders of the Maliki and Hanafi schools of Law respectively, both studied under the renowned jurist and mystic, Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq, who was himself a descendent of the Prophet. Just as the Sufis of later generations exhorted correct adherence to the Law when traversing the spiritual path, the lawmakers themselves had walked upon it, further illustrating the intimate relation between the legal and the mystical, the external and the internal.

In examining the foundations of the Sunni Islamic tradition, the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, his companions and the early jurists, we can see that the contention Islam has one community of dry legalists and another with rich spirituality is wrong. The exemplary individuals who have carried this tradition from its beginnings to contemporary times, from the early scholar-saints such as Imam al-Ghazali and Mawlana Rumi, to more modern names, such as Mawlana Shaykh Nazim of Cyprus and Shaykh Ninowy of America, make this point clear. For myself and many others, rather than there being a contradiction between the law and the spirit, you can’t have one without the other.

Hamza graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA (Hons) in Religion and Theology, and is continuing his studies to MA with the intention of pursuing a PhD. His research focuses particularly on Islam in Britain, and on understanding denominational difference. He writes in a personal capacity.

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