100 posts
Straw men and Sky Fairies
NEW
Guest Post from Pink Prosecco I’ve never come across the term “faitheist” before but, after reading Bruce Gorton’s post on Butterflies and Wheels I suspect I am one. This is Gorton’s definition of the term: “A fa...
The Russian Orthodox Church as a Political-Moral Force
NEW
While visiting the Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery in northwestern Russia in 2000, Vladimir Putin wrote in the guest book, “The revival of Russia and growth of its might are unthinkable without the strengthening of society’s moral foundations. The rol...
Catholic church bans yoga as “not compatible” with Christianity
NEW
A Catholic church in Southampton has banned yoga classes from its premises because the practice is “not compatible” with Christianity. St Edmund’s parish accepted a £180 booking fee for use of their church hall two months ago R...
Que savons nous de la rhétorique des islamistes extrêmistes ?
NEW
Pourquoi “L’innocence des musulmans”, médiocre film anti-islamique aux origines douteuses a-t-il provoqué des manifestations aussi violentes dans le monde ? Plusieurs analystes pensent que ce film n’a été qu’un prét...
Kopimismen och The God Delusion
NEW
Richard Dawkins har skrivit boken The God Delusion där han sågar Gud jäms med fotknölarna, i vart fall den kristna guden som vi är vana vid (och de närbesläktade varianterna inom judendom och islam). Jag köpte boken på Arlanda på väg till...
Russia: Religiosity & the Murdered U.S. Ambassador
NEW
Responding to the attack on U.S. embassies across the Muslim world (specifically the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya), Russian bloggers have addressed the perceived growth of religiosity in their own country, and used the incident a...
Temporary changes – Odessa Airport – Rosh Hashanah
NEW
For regular fliers to and from Odessa airport, be aware of a few temporary changes between 12 – 21 September at the terminal building. Odessa will be handling 40 flights relating to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and as always there will b...
The Guardian on the obscenity of Pakistan’s blasphemy law
NEW
The Guardian – not a publication known of its criticism of Islamic fundamentalism or, indeed, any other form of religious bigotry, today publishes a powerful piece by Mohammed Hanif. If you read nothing else today, read this: How to commit bla...
Russia: Patriarch's Press Secretary Wants LiveJournal to Ban Photoshops of Priests
NEW
In an interview [ru] with the Orthodox website Pravmir.Ru, Patriarch Kirill's press secretary, Aleksandr Volkov, complained that LiveJournal users are too often permitted to engage in “school bathroom” humor that derides the clergy.
Book Review: Europe’s Angry Muslims: The revolt of the second generation
NEW
Europe’s Angry Muslims traces the routes, expectations and destinies of immigrant parents and the plight of their children, transporting the reader from the immigrants’ ancestral villages to their strange new-fangled enclaves in Europe.
Russia: Pussy Riot & the Orthodox Reformation
NEW
Retired priest speaks out for Pussy Riot, breaking with the Patriarch and renouncing his holy orders, but his letter is mostly plagiarized. What does this mean for Russia's religious Reformation?
Patriarch Kirill in Warsaw
NEW
THE visit of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church to Poland last week was historic. It came after three years of negotiations propelled by the hope that it would improve relations between the two branches of Christianity as well as the two na...
Decline and Fall, Christianity Lashes Out: Political Double Standards Flourish.
NEW
Julian Assange disclosed the use of outright murder by American forces in Iraq. For that he is not the messenger of protest and the need for change but an Enemy of the State. Pussy Riot exposed the extending brutishness and extremism over Russian int...
Czechs, Render Unto the Churches …
NEW
A group of 30 intellectuals, Protestant ministers, and theologians even released a petition calling for the bill to be withdrawn, saying it would turn Christ’s teachings on their head.
Secularism
NEW
(Guest post from Pink Prosecco). It was this recent news item, about a German town recognizing Muslim as well as Christian holidays, which made me think again about the surprisingly slippery concept of secularism. I am at the same time unequivocally...
Beliefs and convictions
NEW
On the last Wednesday, the French Catholic Church prayed on the behalf of the traditional values of family, a subtle way to denounce the Jean-Marc Ayrault Government to allow the same-sex marriage in the country. This initiative, although it was R...
Moscow Patriarch Arrives in Poland for Landmark Visit
NEW
Patriarch Kirill I began his visit to Poland, the first ever by a head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country once controlled by Moscow.
Whatever the butler's role, the Vatican has questions to answer | Catherine Pepinster
NEW
What Catholics need to see now is an investigation into the truth of allegations in documents allegedly leaked by Paolo GabrieleIt has all the makings of a Hollywood adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Secrets of the Vatican exposed, documents stolen fr...
Should religion be banned from politics?
NEW
Last week, Debating Europe liveblogged the finals of the European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC 2012) in Belgrade, Serbia. The tournament winners have now been announced: Leiden University were crowned champions of the English as a Se...
Russia: Putin Refuses Controversial Kiss From Priest
NEW
While Putin was greeting local priests on a visit to a monastery in Karelia, one of them suddenly lunged forward and tried to kiss his hand, though the President instantly recoiled in apparent disgust. The public's subsequent interest in the incident...
The end of Catholic Ireland | Mary Kenny
NEW
Many Irish people have ditched the religion of their ancestors, but the generous impulses of faith live onIn the historic sense, Ireland's long love affair with the Catholic church was, as Ella Fitzgerald once sang, "too hot not to cool down". Cathol...
Book Review: Europe’s Encounter with Islam: The Secular and the Postsecular
NEW
Since 9/11, the Muslim presence in Europe has been increasingly perceived as ‘problematic’. Events such as the French ban on headscarves in public schools, the publication of the cartoons in Denmark, and speeches by political leaders have hit th...
Tennessee Tree House: Living, and Preaching, in an Appalachian Tree Cathedral
NEW
David Walter Banks has some remarkable pictures from Tennessee, where Horace Burgess has spent twenty years of his life building an enormous tree house that doubles as a… cathedral. In fact,The tree house includes seven trees, including one of the...
Why is the left quiet about Pussy Riot? Панк-молебен “Богородица, Путина прогони” Pussy Riot в Храме
NEW
“It was a sin against God and God is judging it; and all Christians should know this… “For the Orthodox Church, like for Muslims, of course the authorities and the church are understood as one thing. Our Ideal is the unity of the...
Iftar at Bayt Qatar
NEW
Many of the competing nations at the London Olympics have hired prestigious venues as their ‘House’ for the length of the competition, as a base for nationals, supporters and guests, with all sorts of events taking place, as well as scree...
Circumcision (2)
NEW
Things got a little awkward in the comments section of my earlier circumcision post today, because commenter Jade pointed out a rather glaring, embarrassing and altogether unforgivable shortcoming in my argument. The problem doesn’t concern the...
Deeply divisive
NEW
LATELY Poland has appeared as a rapidly modernising place, gradually less influenced by its old-fashioned Catholic clergy. The country now has one openly gay, one transsexual and two black MPs, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Geert Wilders is NO Dutch patriot!
NEW
Geert Wilders - the anti-Dutch Dutchman - is now attempting to define "Dutch patriotism" as both anti-Muslim and anti-EU. In this article, I use historical words to show just how anti-Dutch Geert Wilders' "patriotism" is and present Dutch patriotism...
Ramadan Quest
NEW
Image lifted from The Atlantic Earlier this month, Mehdi Hasan of the Guardian wrote about having to deal with Islamophobia on a day to day basis; how his work and family were affected but that he would continue, regardless, to do what he does. M...
Ramadan traditions with a digital twist
NEW
More a billion Muslims around the world today begin to observe the holy month of Today, more a billion Muslims around the world begin to observe the holy month of Ramadan, fasting from dawn to sunset. This year, we’re bringing some of the most ven...
Secularism and the role of religion in secular society [part 2]
NEW
European Week 2012, day 4 Lord Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford (UK) Afsin Yurdakul, freelance journalist based in Istanbul, writing for Foreign Policy and other publications (Turkey) Ghia Nodia, Professor, Director of International School fo...
Circumcision is child abuse – and Giles Fraser supports it
NEW
Above: Fraser: pompous, sanctimonious and ignorant “Yet the circumcision of babies cuts against one of the basic assumptions of the liberal mindset. Informed consent lies at the heart of choice and choice lies at the heart of the liberal societ...
Czechs close to compensating churches
NEW
MORE than two decades after the end of Communism, Czechs are close to compensating churches for properties seized during the four decades of Communist rule. A long-awaited restitution bill cleared the parliament's lower house after a lengthy debate i...
German court ruling: circumscribing the law | Editorial
NEW
The judgment that a doctor performing circumcision had committed bodily injury has reached international proportionsThe ruling was nearly two weeks ago, but the reaction to it has grown exponentially ever since. The judgment of the regional court in...
A Liberal Approach to Circumcision
NEW
I have to admit, when Max Steinbeis wrote it down in German, he gave me pause: "Wenn dieses Urteil richtig wäre, dann müssten ausgerechnet deutsche Staatsanwälte (...) Juden verfolgen, weil sie tun, was Juden tun." (Like Harry Muli...
Maajid Nawaz skewers Mehdi Hasan on Islamism
NEW
From the New Statesman of 9 July. An important debate in which the NS‘s self-righteous outgoing Political Editor is shown up for the lightweight, superficial bullshitter he is, by someone who really knows what they’re talking about; Hasa...
Only Vatican can change the Catholic Church
NEW
Though the Church is a very diverse organization. Questions: 1. We have seen some strong actions by the Holy See in the recent past. The papacy reprimanded American nuns for their book on sexuality and there was very strong aftermath of the Vati R...
Vatican has removed a popular Slovak archbishop Robert Bezak from his office
NEW
Bezak was told that he can not speak to media. He said he doesn’t know a reason for the decision as Vatican has refused to tell him. Question: In general, what can be the reason for dismissing an archbishop? It probably require some procedure,...
Islam’s European Hope
NEW
Mohamed Merah’s killing spree in and around Toulouse in March, like the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 suicide attacks in London’s Underground, has highlighted once again the dilemmas that Europe faces with regard to its growing...
Dark days for the Church of England?
NEW
Photo by Ashley Rose courtesy of Flickr under Creative Commons License The Archbishop of Canterbury resigns. Equal civil marriage hits the headlines and the Catholic Archbishop speaks out against it. Sunday trading for the Olympics sparks fears of Su...
A Traditionalist Catholic Priest on Lesbianism
NEW
It is mycontention that the cocktail of religion and human nature can be so dangerousprecisely because of the propensity that a person has to presume that onecannot be wrong in religious matters. It is too easy for the denial of humanfallibility to e...
The Trinity in a Traffic Safety Symbol: Amish Excess
NEW
On the Ides of March in the modern year of 2012, two members of the Swartzentruber Amish, a sect that stresses modesty and simplicity in one’s appearance, were represented by an ACLU lawyer at the Kentucky Supreme Court for having refused to affix...
UK court ends prayer in town councils - but on technicality
NEW
A UK court issued an interesting ruling today – finding that it is not lawful for town councils to say prayers before meetings. What makes it an interesting case is that the UK, unlike the US, does not have a legal separation between church and sta...
A Kopimist Creation Myth
NEW
The Missionary Church of Kopimism has been recognized as an official religion in Sweden. It is still a very young religion, so there are many aspects of it that need to be developed and defined. Here is my proposal for a Kopimist Creation Myth (previ...
Face to faith: Europe's crisis of faith | Pope Benedict XVI
NEW
In hard times, Europe could learn much from Africa's joyful passion for faithAs this year draws to a close, Europe is undergoing an economic and financial crisis, which is ultimately based on the ethical crisis looming over the old continent. Even if...
Islamists slaughter Nigerian Christians on Christmas day
NEW
“There was a car filled with dead bodies. Apparently it was a family coming to worship” - witness Timothy Onyekwere, quoted in today’s Guardian. At least 35 Nigerian Christians deliberately blown to bits as they worshipped (or...
Wise Egypt: Egypt denies visa to PVVer !
NEW
This week the Egyptians denied an entrance visa to a PVV Brownshirt that was supposed to be on a "Tweede Kamer visit." Well, it's good to see that the Egyptians are wise with regard to the purposes of such a visit - which were probably for the purpos...
Wise Egypte: Egypte ontkent visum voor PVVer !
NEW
Deze week de Egyptenaren ontkende een entree visum nodig om een PVV bruinhemd die verondersteld was om op een "Tweede Kamer bezoek." Nou, het is goed om te zien dat de Egyptenaren er verstandig met betrekking tot de toepassing van een dergelijk bezoe...
Elections, Islamists and the role of the EU in Tunisia
NEW
In my first posting I wrote about the sometimes heated discussions in Tunisia’s daily life. This week, two subjects attracted a lot of attention from the public. “Thy shall marry young” Ennahda, the political party which represents...
Reading the Qur’an in a week
NEW
This is the first post in a week-long series in which Jon will read the entire Qur'an, cover-to-cover. You can read the rest of the series and engage in the discussion at his blog, Reading the Qur'an in a Week. I find myself with some time to... Read...
Is God the Invisible Hand?
NEW
A Baylor University survey on religion and economics reveals something that may be distinctly American, culturally speaking. According to the survey results, about “one in five Americans combine a view of God as actively engaged in daily workings o...
Religion (Part I): Beyond History, Science, and Metaphysics
NEW
What is religion? In the process of answering this question, it is necessary to delimit it by saying what it is not. Religion itself (in the hands of human beings) may be too presumptuous in claiming hegemony (let alone validity!) in other domains.Fo...
Is Estonia really the least religious country in the world? | Ringo Ringvee
NEW
Estonians, and especially the young, have turned their backs on organised religion, but belief in neo-paganism is thrivingEstonia and the Czech Republic are the two nations that often claim to be the least religious in Europe. And they seem to be pro...
US Department of State July-December, 2010 International Religious Freedom Report
NEW
all of it here. TURKEY section here. Quotes: Section I. Religious Demography The country has an area of 301,383 square miles and a population of 77.8 million. According to the government, 99 percent of the population is Muslim, the majority o...
The End of the World! Today!! 6.00 pm!!!
NEW
And it’s all the fault of them homos. Well, you might as well go down smiling… …let us know what you’ll be doing at 5.55 pm today: what music you’ll listen to, what you’ll be eating and/or drinking, what film you...
Jose, Hermand… who?
NEW
EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso was not on the guest list to meet Pope Benedict XVI on May 1st, and were held back by guards with his wife and Italian commissioner Antonio Tajan. Apparently The Vatican was expecting Herman Van Rompuy instead.
Regarding the Destruction of the "Piss Christ" Artwork, One Blogger Has Had His Fill with the MSM's Indignation About Acts of Barbarity
NEW
Regarding the destruction of Andres Serrano's Piss Christ at an Avignon exhibit, Michel Garroté can no longer stand the mainstream media's take on the whole affair (such as The Guardian's Angelique Chrisafis) — with Garroté protesting that if we...
Silly “Muslim radicalization” hearings will expose Islamophobic myths?
NEW
The hearing held by Rep. King of New York are a hate-mongering farce that focuses on the ginned up "problem" of "Muslim radicalization." When we see the data on "homegrown" security threats in the US - we see this threat coming from the explosive gro...
A Holy Double Standard: Christians in the Middle East
NEW
In the wake of the extraordinary uprisings across the Middle East today, the complex religious and ethnic makeup of the region has resurfaced for discussion. Gripping images of Christians protecting Muslims during prayer in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, a...
Angela, David and Nicolas agree: multiculturalism has failed
NEW
European leaders don't seem to be able to agree on much these days, but it seems one idea they can all get behind is that 'multiculturalism' has failed in European societies.Over the past few months there's been a torrent of speeches from Europe's mo...
Commision's reverse ferret on Christmas
NEW
Responding to the awful press that has come about from the slight error in missing out Christmas whilst keeping in Eid in their children's Europa diary, the EU has issued a panic reply.Immediate remedial action taken to correct omission of Christian...
Salman Taseer: hero of decency, secularism, womens’ rights and democracy
NEW
Governor of Pakistani Punjab Province Salman Taseer speaks to journalists in Islamabad in March, 2009. Taseer was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad on Tuesday, apparently for opposing blasphemy laws. . From Adil Najam at All Things...
[US Institutions] Separation of Church and State
NEW
Not treating specifically of the US government institution anymore, but still discussing some key and/or puzzling aspect of the way the US institutions goes everyday. As such, there is no constitutional separation of Church and State in the US, the F...
Sudan: woman lashed by government-sponsored thugs
NEW
This is not the only interpretation of Sharia law, but it’s the one that the Sudanese government believes in. Relativist liberals and Guardianistas who think all cultures are worthy of “respect” really should watch this. But be wa...
Hitchens v Blair on religion: not to be missed!
NEW
Tonight on BBC Radio 4 at 8.00 pm: not to be missed! Listen and tell us what you think. The Religion Debate Hitchens versus Blair: The Religion Debate . Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens discuss the proposition that religion is a force for goo...
World's tallest jesus and crossing out secularism in Poland
NEW
Every country has its own vision of secularism.In late November, a 51-metre Jesus Christ statue was erected in western Poland, 14 metres taller than its colleague in Rio de Janeiro. Though privately funded, the Polish state is still looking for that...
Headscarf Ban in Belgian Restaurant Found Discriminatory
NEW
This guest post has been written by Katayoun Alidadi who is a PhD Candidate at the KULeuven (Institute for Migration Law & Legal Anthropology) and a project researcher in the European FP7 Project Religare on ‘Religious Diversity and Secular Mod...
