Author archives: Faith Matters

Three killed in France in shooting, supermarket hostage-taking
March 23, 2018 By Faith Matters

Three killed in France in shooting, supermarket hostage-taking

Three people were killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a supermarket, screaming “Allahu Akbar”. Police later stormed the supermarket in the small town of Trebes and Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Twitter that the attacker had been killed. […]

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Saudi Arabia says revamping education to combat ‘extremist ideologies’
March 22, 2018 By Faith Matters

Saudi Arabia says revamping education to combat ‘extremist ideologies’

Saudi Arabia is revamping its education curriculum to eradicate any trace of Muslim Brotherhood influence and will dismiss anyone working in the sector who sympathises with the banned group, the education minister said. Promoting a more moderate form of Islam is one of the promises made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman under plans to […]

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Saudi women should have choice whether to wear abaya robe – crown prince
March 19, 2018 By Faith Matters

Saudi women should have choice whether to wear abaya robe – crown prince

Women in Saudi Arabia need not wear headcover or the black abaya – the loose-fitting, full-length robes symbolic of Islamic piety – as long as their attire is “decent and respectful”, the kingdom’s reform-minded crown prince said. With the ascent to power of young Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom has seen an expansion in […]

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Belgium takes back Brussels’ Grand Mosque from Saudi government
March 17, 2018 By Faith Matters

Belgium takes back Brussels’ Grand Mosque from Saudi government

Belgium is taking back control of the Grand Mosque of Brussels by terminating Saudi Arabia’s lease of the building with immediate effect over concerns it promotes radicalism, the government said on Friday. The announcement is Belgium’s first official confirmation of the move which comes after months of behind the scenes diplomacy to prevent any fall-out […]

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Facing far-right challenge, minister says Islam doesn’t belong to Germany
March 16, 2018 By Faith Matters

Facing far-right challenge, minister says Islam doesn’t belong to Germany

New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Islam does not belong to Germany and set out hardline immigration policies in an interview published on Friday, as he sought to see off rising far-right challengers. Seehofer told Bild newspaper he would push through a “master plan for quicker deportations”, in his first major interview since he was […]

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Palestinians Do Not Need Support from Groups like ‘Palestine Live’
March 12, 2018 By Faith Matters

Palestinians Do Not Need Support from Groups like ‘Palestine Live’

Numerous newspapers have picked up on the ‘Palestine Live’ Facebook group that the Labour Leader, the Rt Hon. Jeremy Corbyn, had once been a participant within. The Labour Party has also moved to suspend members of the secretive group according to Ha’aretz and the issue is not going to go away particularly when so many […]

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Tunisian women march for equal inheritance rights
March 11, 2018 By Faith Matters

Tunisian women march for equal inheritance rights

Hundreds of women took to the streets in the Tunisian capital on Saturday to demand equal inheritance rights as men, a subject often seen as taboo in the Arab world. The North African Muslim country grants women more rights than other countries in the region, and since last year has allowed Muslim women to marry […]

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Islamist gets life sentence for supermarket stabbing in Germany
March 11, 2018 By Faith Matters

Islamist gets life sentence for supermarket stabbing in Germany

An asylum seeker and radicalised Islamist who killed one person and injured six others in a knife attack in a Hamburg supermarket in July has been sentenced to life in prison, a spokesman for a city court said on Thursday. Hamburg residents threw chairs and other objects at the attacker – who had been known […]

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Saudi Crown Prince commits to interfaith tolerance, says Anglican church
March 9, 2018 By Faith Matters

Saudi Crown Prince commits to interfaith tolerance, says Anglican church

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met the head of the Anglican church in London on Thursday and promised to promote interfaith dialogue as part of his domestic reforms, the British faith leader’s office said. Prince Mohammed is making an official visit to London to promote Saudi Arabia as a tolerant, modernising economy and build […]

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Buddhist mobs target Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite state of emergency
March 7, 2018 By Faith Matters

Buddhist mobs target Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite state of emergency

Sri Lanka shut down social messaging networks including Facebook on Wednesday to control violence targeted at the country’s minority Muslims, officials said, even after the imposition of emergency in the Buddhist-majority island. Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of […]

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