David Cameron Christianity Claim Backed by Religious Groups

Mr Cameron has spoken of the "peace" he has found in Christianity

BBC: Religious groups have backed Prime Minister David Cameron's assertion Britain is "a Christian country".

Hindu Council UK said it was "very comfortable" with the description. The Muslim Council of Britain said the UK was a largely Christian country.

He said the UK must be "more confident" about its Christianity, a view Downing Street says he has stated before.

It comes after a group of public figures warned the PM risked causing "alienation" with his comments. » | Monday, April 21, 2014

India's Elders Lift Ban on Inter-caste Marriages

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The decision to lift a ban on marriage between people from different castes has been hailed as a victory for love over tradition

One of India’s most influential tribal councils has lifted a ban on inter-caste marriages in a move hailed by campaigners as the start of a social revolution.

India’s more than 800 million Hindus are born into rigid castes which determine their opportunities in life and their social status.

Those who defy traditional barriers to marry someone from below their own caste are often shunned and occasionally murdered – there are more than 1,000 honour killings in India every year of those who cross caste and religious divides to marry for love.

Most of the killings have been in northern India where Hindus from the Jat tribe – traditionally regarded as peasant warrior – also forbid marriages between those from the same sub-caste or gotra, which they regard as incest. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Monday, April 21, 2014

Iran : Rohani admet qu'il y a encore beaucoup à faire pour les droits des femmes

LE POINT: On ne peut pas "marginaliser la moitié de la société", a assuré le président iranien, qui prône une plus grande ouverture en Iran.

"Aujourd'hui, les femmes bénéficient de nombreux droits, mais il existe toujours des insuffisances dans les droits des femmes et l'égalité entre les sexes." Pour la journée nationale de la femme en Iran, le président Hassan Rohani a estimé que les femmes ne pouvaient être considérées comme des citoyens de seconde zone. Il s'exprimait devant des représentantes de "l'élite féminine" du pays selon les médias, qui ont chaudement applaudi son discours.

M. Rohani, élu en juin 2013 avec le soutien des réformateurs et des modérés, prône une plus grande ouverture politique, culturelle et sociale en Iran, régulièrement critiquée par les organisations internationales de défense des droits de l'homme pour les discriminations dont sont victimes les femmes. La Journée de la femme est célébrée en Iran le jour anniversaire de Fatima, la fille du prophète.

"L'injustice et la violence contre les femmes doivent cesser", a-t-il plaidé. "Selon les règles islamiques, l'homme n'est pas le premier sexe ni la femme le second sexe, [...] les femmes sont aux côtés des hommes et les deux sont égaux." (+ vidéo) » | Source AFP | dimanche 20 avril 2014

Assad besucht zurückeroberte Stadt Maalula

DIE WELT: Der syrische Präsident Assad hat die alte christliche Stadt Maalula besucht, die von den Regierungstruppen zurückerobert worden war. Der Besuch dürfte nicht zuletzt der Staatspropaganda dienen.

Der syrische Präsident Baschar al-Assad hat am Ostersonntag ein kürzlich von seinen Truppen zurückerobertes christliches Dorf besucht. Wie die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Sana berichtete, besichtigte Assad in Maalula 60 Kilometer nordöstlich von Damaskus Schäden an Kirchen und Klöstern.

Rebellen, darunter Kämpfer der dem Terrornetzwerk al-Qaida nahestehenden Nusra-Front, hatten das Dorf im vergangenen Jahr mehrmals besetzt. Am Montag wurde es von Regierungstruppen eingenommen, die die Rebellen in die umliegenden Dörfer zurückdrängten.

Für die Regierung hatte die Rückeroberung auch einen wichtigen symbolischen Wert: Sie bemüht sich, als Beschützer religiöser Minderheiten, inklusive der Christen, wahrgenommen zu werden. Assad verfolgt mit seinem Besuch also durchaus propagandistische Ziele. In einem Konflikt, der bereits neun Millionen Menschen zur Flucht gezwungen und mittlerweile unzählige Opfer gefordert hat, versucht er sich gegenüber der Öffentlichkeit als Garant für den Schutz von Minderheiten zu inszenieren. » | AP/ds | Montag, 21. April 2014

Muslims in New York City Unite on Push to Add Holidays to School Calendar

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The meeting opened with a pledge from the podium to try to end, God willing, by the hour of the evening prayer. Clusters of colorfully veiled women kept watch over jittery young children. Rows of men conversed in a jangle of languages.

They were Muslims from Bosnia and Montenegro, Egypt and Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh — several hundred in all.

It was a gathering remarkable in its diversity from among New York City’s Muslims, a growing group whose members often find it difficult to work together politically because of differences in national origin, language, sect and class. But a single issue has managed to unify them: the push to close the city’s public schools for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the most sacred Muslim holidays.

The issue might seem of modest importance alongside deeper concerns among many Muslims in the city, including the Police Department’s monitoring of their community since the Sept. 11 attacks. But the rally, held recently in a public school auditorium in Queens and organized in barely a week’s time, was a testament to how the city’s Muslim community is gaining a measure of political confidence. » | Sharon Otterman | Thursday, April 17, 2014

Penny Pinching Prince? Britain's Charles Won't Share Riches with Public

Prince Charles is a member of one of the richest monarchies in the world but he faces questions for being penny-pinching. His private income from a swathe of inherited land and laws rakes in a tidy sum. Polly Boiko reports on calls to share the money with the public who pay for it.

Islam Fastest-growing Religion in UK as Churches Decline

While Christian Churches in the UK are struggling to draw people to worship, the Islamic community there is burgeoning. Some Muslim groups are doing all they can to counter fears the rapid growth is a challenge to British traditions.

New Dark Age Alert! Jews, Christians, Atheists & the Khilafah

Ibrahim Hewitt: My Journey to Islam

Related »

Private School Chief Linked to Islam Trojan Horse Plot Says: Stone All Adulterers to Death

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of Al-Aqsa school,
said that all adulterers should be stoned to death
and fornication should be punished with 100 lashes

MAIL ON SUNDAY: Fees at the school where boys and girls are segregated are £1,800 / School chairman claims fornication should be punished with 100 lashes / Ibrahim Hewitt runs the controversial Leicester school with his wife Adeba

A Muslim hardliner who says adulterers should be stoned to death and that gay men and fornicators should be lashed 100 times has set up an Islamic school that has received almost £1million of taxpayers’ money.

Ibrahim Hewitt, one of Britain’s most prominent Islamic firebrands – who also heads a charity branded a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the US – is the founder and chairman of trustees of the Al-Aqsa school in Leicester, which teaches 250 boys and girls aged between three and 11.

He has vilified homosexuals as paedophiles and said a man can take on a second wife if his first fails to satisfy him sexually. Mr Hewitt has published his views in a book on Islam, which he claims has sold more than 50,000 copies in Britain.

The preacher is the founder of another controversial organisation called the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS), whose leader has been accused of orchestrating a plot in Birmingham called ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ in which Islamic extremists have allegedly taken over 25 state schools in the city. » | Tom Worden and Abul Taher | Sunday, April 20, 2014

Ibrahim Hewitt: What does Islam say? »

Son of Distributor of Anti-Islam Film Fitna Accepts Islam

Iskander with his father, Arnoud.

KHALEEJ TIMES: Arnoud van Doorn's son, Iskander Amien De Vrie, was one of the 37 people who converted to Islam during the Dubai International Peace Convention.

The son of Arnoud van Doorn, the famous Dutch policy maker and distributor of an anti-Islam film Fitna that caused unrest in 2008, surprised the audiences at the three-day Dubai International Peace Convention by 
embracing Islam.

Arnoud’s son, Iskander Amien De Vrie, was one of the 37 people who converted to Islam during the convention.

“I bear witness that there is no God to be worshipped but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is his worshipper and last messenger,” said Iskander in his Shahadah (testimony) to become a Muslim.

…

“I saw my father become more peaceful after converting to Islam. That’s when I realised there is something good in this religion and it made me change my perception of Muslims. I started studying the Holy Quran and going through lectures of important scholars,” said Iskander in an interview with Khaleej Times. » | Muaz Shabandri | Monday, April 21, 2014

David Cameron ‘Fuelling Sectarian Division by Bringing God into Politics'

David Cameron bringing God into politics.

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Dozens of public figures accuse David Cameron of fostering alienation and division with call to view Britain as a Christian country

David Cameron is sowing sectarianism and division by insisting that Britain is still a “Christian country” an alliance of writers, scientists, philo[oso]phers and politicians has claimed.

In a letter to The Telegraph, 55 public figures from a range of political backgrounds accuse him of fostering “alienation” and actively harming society by repeatedly emphasising Christianity.

The group, which includes writers such as Philip Pullman and Sir Terry Pratchett, Nobel Prize winning scientists, prominent broadcasters and even some comedians argue that members of the elected Government have no right to “actively prioritise” religion or any particular faith.

It comes after a series of public statements in which Mr Cameron has been increasingly vocal about his own faith.

Last week, in an article for the Church Times, the Prime Minister said Britain should be unashamedly “evangelical” about its Christianity. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Sunday, April 20, 2014

NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’: Ukraine’s PM Yatsenyuk: ‘Putin Trying to Restore the Soviet Union’

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Worlds Apart: Oksana Interviews Saudi Expert, Dr. David Weinberg (March 2014)

US-Saudi relations have long been grounded in an oil-for-security exchange. But with U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil diminishing and Saudi power rising, is there a growing gulf in the Gulf? Has the US spat with Russia affected this relationship, and could it lead to a change in the Syrian deadlock? Oksana is joined by Dr David Weinberg, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, to drill into these issues.

Worlds Apart: Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch Director Interviewed by Oksana about Islamic Terror and the Jihad

A recent US report blamed Russia for the failure to prevent the Boston Marathon bombing, despite multiple warnings given to US authorities. And while the need for a foreign scapegoat is clear, perhaps the blame lies closer to home. What's fueling the global Jihad? Is it US foreign policy or Islam itself? Oksana is joined by Robert Spencer, an author and director of Jihad Watch, to untangle these issues.

Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ¡Felices Pascuas! Pasg Hapus!

Wishing all my visitors, followers, and Twitter followers a very Blessed and HAPPY EASTER. – Mark

Le pape exhorte à porter la foi «à tous»

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Samedi soir lors de la veillée pascale à Rome, le pape François a appelé les catholiques à porter la foi «jusqu'aux confins de la Terre».

Le pape François a appelé les catholiques à porter la foi «jusqu'aux confins de la Terre», samedi soir lors de la veillée pascale dans la basilique Saint-Pierre à Rome. Lors de son homélie, il a affirmé que Pâques signifie «puiser une énergie nouvelle à la racine de notre foi».

Son message rappelait son souhait répété d'une Eglise catholique plus proche des gens ordinaires, plus internationale et moins auto-centrée sur le Vatican. François a ainsi appelé les fidèles à devenir des «témoins» de la résurrection du Christ. » | Samedi 19 avril 2014

Abba: Under Attack

Islamist Plot: Six Schools Face Ofsted Special Measures

Four of the Birmingham schools at the centre of an alleged
Islamic takeover plot.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Six schools implicated in the so-called 'Trojan Horse' plot by extremists to 'Islamise' secular state education face being placed in special measures

At least six Birmingham schools at the centre of an alleged Islamic takeover plot are set to be placed in “special measures” by Ofsted in a move that could see their entire leadership removed.

The six schools are implicated in the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot by extremists to “Islamise” secular state education in Birmingham which has allegedly seen the illegal segregation of pupils and discrimination against non-Muslim pupils.

The Telegraph understands the six will be rated “inadequate” by the schools inspectorate after a series of snap inspections over the past few weeks.

The label usually leads to “special measures”, which in turn give Ofsted the power to remove senior managers or even close the schools.

Ofsted will also take action, although less drastic, at a further nine schools in the city where the attempted Islamic takeover is less advanced, or where secular head teachers are resisting it. Read on and comment » | Andrew Gilligan | Saturday, April 19, 2014

Abba: I Have A Dream