Religion News Australia 2014 - 50 (Nov 16 - 23)
(23 November 14)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
November 16 - 23, 2014
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
abuse / catholic church / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society
ABUSE
'Love letter' clouds
abuse finding (The West
Australian)
Nov 21 - A love letter written by a man claiming to be a victim of child sexual
abuse to his alleged abuser made it difficult to later verify if the crime had
taken place, a royal commission has been told.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Sacked Bishop Bill
Morris to campaign for ordination of married men (Brisbane Times)
Nov 17 - Sacked Catholic Bishop Bill Morris will campaign for the ordination of
married men, during a book signing tour to Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Anglican Church
Church of England ends
centuries of tradition and allows women to become bishops (ABC
News)
Nov 18 - The Church of England has ended centuries of tradition by adopting
legislation allowing women to become bishops for the first time, with the first
ordinations set for next year.
Catholic Church
Pope Francis launches
Christmas giveaway to raise money for homeless (ABC
News)
Nov 22 - Pope Francis is raffling off unwanted gifts including a Fiat Panda, a
tandem bike and a coffee machine to raise money for the homeless.
Myanmar Catholics celebrate
500 years in the country (The
West Australian)
Nov 22 - Yangon (AFP) - Thousands of Myanmar Catholics marked 500 years of the
Church's presence inside the country in a lively celebration at a Yangon cathedral
held four years late because of religious restrictions under the former junta.
Islam
Virginity tests for
female Indonesian police force applicants 'discriminatory' (ABC News)
Nov 17 - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Indonesia's national police to halt
"discriminatory" virginity tests for women applying to join the
force.
Turkey to open mosques
'in every university' (The West
Australian)
Nov 21 - Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey's top religious body said on Friday that there
are plans to build a mosque in every state university, adding to concerns over
what critics say are creeping efforts to force Islamic values on the society.
Religious Violence
Barack Obama confirms
'evil' murder of US aid worker Peter Kassig (ABC
News)
Nov 17 - Islamic State (IS) militants fighting in Iraq and Syria have beheaded
American hostage Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig.
Also:
Islamic State claims
beheading of US aid worker Peter Kassig (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 17 - Threatening "slaughter" on Western streets, the Islamic
State has released a video purporting to show the execution of US aid worker
Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig along with at least 12 Syrians.
Also:
Islamic State claims
beheading of US aid worker Peter Kassig in brutal video (news.com.au)
Nov 17 - THE Islamic State jihadist group is claiming to have executed US aid
worker Peter Kassig as a warning to the United States.
Bangladeshi professor
Shafiul Islam hacked to death (news.com.au)
Nov 17 - SUSPECTED Islamic militants have hacked to death a university
professor in Bangladesh, several years after he led a push to ban students
wearing full-face veils.
Jerusalem synagogue
attack: At least four Israelis dead (ABC
News)
Nov 17 - At least four Israelis were killed when men armed with axes and a gun
attacked worshippers at a synagogue in Jerusalem, Israeli police say.
Also:
Jerusalem: Four killed
in attack on synagogue (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 17 - Jerusalem: Two assailants armed with a meat cleaver and a gun stormed
a synagogue complex in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of West Jerusalem
on Tuesday, killing at least four worshippers during morning prayers, according
to the police.
Also:
Benjamin Netanyahu
promises heavy response after axe-wielding Palestinians kill four rabbis (ABC News)
Nov 18 - Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised a heavy-handed
response after two Palestinians attacked a Jerusalem synagogue with a gun and
meat cleavers, killing four rabbis and wounding eight others.
Also:
Brutal murders of rabbis
at prayer in Jerusalem synagogue push a divided city to the edge (The Age, Melbourne)
Nov 19 - Beirut: In a city already deeply riven with sectarian tensions, the
brutal slaughter of four rabbis in an ultra-Orthodox synagogue has pushed
Jerusalem to the edge of what many fear could escalate into another Palestinian
uprising.
Also:
Israelis, Palestinians
look to personal safety in holy city on edge (The West Australian)
Nov 19 - JERUSALEM (Reuters) - On edge but faithful to their religious routine,
worshippers returned on Wednesday to the Jerusalem synagogue where four rabbis
and a policeman were killed in a Palestinian attack a day earlier.
Families in shock as
Islamic State lures sons into 'barbaric madness' (The West Australian)
Nov 18 - CARDIFF (Reuters) - “Do you know how much it hurts to raise someone
and watch them grow and suddenly they’re just gone?” says Ahmed Muthana, 57, a
retired electronics engineer in Wales whose two sons Nasser, 20, and Aseel, 17,
have gone to fight for Islamic State.
Jews bare (sic) the
brunt for naive hatred of Israel (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 20 - After all the beheadings, massacres, rapes and enslavements of women
by men running amok under the black flag of Islamic State, surveys have shown
that support for the group is much higher in Europe than it is in Middle East.
Islamic State video:
second Frenchman identified (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 20 - Paris: French authorities have identified a second French militant who
appears on a beheading video released by Islamic State at the weekend, a state
prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Israel razes East
Jerusalem home in synagogue attack crackdown (The Age, Melbourne)
Nov 20 - Israel on Wednesday demolished the home of a Palestinian behind a
deadly car attack in Jerusalem, pushing ahead with a promised crackdown
following a bloody assault on a synagogue.
Gunmen kill 28
non-Muslim bus passengers in north-east Kenya attack (ABC
News)
Nov 23 - Gunmen have seized a bus in north-eastern Kenya near the Somali border
and executed 28 non-Muslim passengers, police say.
Also:
Somalia's Shabab gunmen
kill 28 on Kenyan bus (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 23 - KENYA - Somalia's Shabab Islamists have ambushed a bus in Kenya and
executed 28 non-Muslim passengers in what they say is revenge for police raids
on mosques in the troubled port of Mombasa.
Also:
Kenya bus killings:
al-Shabab claim attack in retaliation for raids (The Australian)
Nov 22 - ONE gunman shot from the right, one from the left, each killing the
non-Muslims lying in a line on the ground, growing closer and closer to Douglas
Ochwodho, who was in the middle.
Other
Supermodel Ruslana
Korshunova had joined ‘dehumanising’ cult before jumping to death (news.com.au)
Nov 17 - A SUPERMODEL who jumped to her death from a New York building had
reportedly become involved with a “dehumanising” sect.
Woman’s chilling devil
exorcism filmed through keyhole (The
Courier-Mail, Brisbane)
Nov 20 - SECRETLY-FILMED keyhole footage of a woman’s real-life exorcism
possessed by the devil has gone viral on the internet.
Beer, wine flow in West
Bank village (The West Australian)
Nov 20 - A tiny Christian enclave in the overwhelmingly Muslim West Bank has
for years crafted the only Palestinian beer and brought thousands of visitors
flocking to its annual beer festival.
Indian 'godman' Rampal
charged with sedition after hundreds arrested at fortified compound (ABC News)
Nov 21 - The leader of a cult in India has been charged with sedition and
waging war against the state after a siege at his compound lasting several days
ended in his arrest along with 450 followers.
Eleven worshippers die
in Zimbabwe stampede (The West
Australian)
Nov 22 - At least 11 people died and many more were injured in a stampede in
Zimbabwe as thousands packed a stadium for a service by a celebrity preacher
and self-styled miracle-worker, police said.
ISLAM
Sydney brothers believed
to have joined Islamic State (Sydney Morning Herald)
Nov 17 - "We made it to Bilad al-Sham, we will see you in Paradise."
Attack on mosque at
Rockingham in WA leaves building partly spattered with paint (ABC
News)
Nov 18 - Police are investigating an attack on a mosque at Rockingham, south of
Perth.
Another racist attack at
Newcastle mosque (ABC News)
Nov 19 - There has been another racist attack at the Newcastle mosque with a
pig's head thrown into its grounds.
Also:
Pig's head thrown at
Newcastle mosque (ABC News)
Nov 21 - There has been another attack at the Newcastle mosque with a pig's
head thrown into its grounds.
Campaign to boycott
halal food gains momentum in Australia (ABC News)
Nov 21 - A campaign to boycott halal-certified food is gaining momentum across
Australia, with groups claiming that certification pushes up prices and the
money goes towards funding terrorism.
Islamic State death cult
claims responsibility for Numan Haider’s knife attack on police (Herald-Sun, Melbourne)
Nov 22 - THE Islamic State death cult has claimed responsibility for a
Melbourne teenager’s frenzied knife attack on two counter-terrorism officers.
POLITICS
Victoria election 2014:
Voters polarised over burka ban, Vote Compass reveals (ABC
News)
Nov 17 - Victorians are polarised by a suggestion to ban the burka, results
from the ABC's online survey Vote Compass indicate.
Halal certification
funds extremists: MP (The West
Australian)
Nov 20 - Consumers who buy Halal products could be funding Islamic extremism,
an Abbott government backbencher claims.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Immunisation rebels are
not moral crusaders (The West
Australian)
Nov 19 – (Opinion: Editorial) When most people hear the term
"conscientious objectors", it comes with an image of potential
soldiers who refuse to perform military service because they believe, on moral
or religious grounds, that it is wrong to kill another human being.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2014 – 49 (Nov 9 - 16)
Religion News Australia 2014 – 48 (Nov 2 - 9)
Religion News Australia 2014 – 47 (Oct 26 – Nov 2)
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