Religion News Australia 2016 - 24 (June 12 - 19)
(19 June 16)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
June 12 - 19, 2016
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
abuse / catholic church / education / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society
ABUSE
Wollongong MP speaks of
sadness as Edmund Rice College apologises over historical abuse (ABC News)
June 17 - An Illawarra MP has spoken of his sadness after his former school
admitted it had let one of its students down by failing to protect him from a
paedophile Christian Brother.
Tony McCorkell reveals
secrets of the wealthy Christian sect Exclusive Brethren (Brisbane Times)
June 18 - Known for its obsession with privacy and its silencing tactics, the
Exclusive Brethren has managed to avoid any scrutiny over alleged child sex
abuse. Until now.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
Catholic orders take
their lead from the pope and divest from fossil fuels (The Guardian, Australia)
June 16 - Four Australian Catholic organisations have announced they are
completely divesting from coal, oil and gas in what they say is the first joint
Catholic divestment anywhere in the world.
EDUCATION
Mosaic helps Muslim and
Aboriginal communities piece together old and new connections (ABC
News)
June 19 - An art project at an Islamic school in Melbourne's north has led to a
remarkable cultural exchange between the country's oldest Australians, some of
the newest and some of the toughest.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Abuse
Man arrested for rape
after 12 Amish girls found in his home (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 18 - Philadelphia: A 51-year-old man was found living with 12 girls,
including two he fathered, after sexually assaulting a teenager he considered
his wife, US authorities said.
Islam
Dutch tourist who
claimed she was raped in Qatar sentenced for extramarital sex (news.com.au)
June 14 - A DUTCH tourist who claimed she was raped after her drink was spiked
at a high-end hotel bar in Qatar has been convicted for having sex outside of
marriage.
‘Bad hijab’ selfies
cause drought (The Australian)
June 14 - Iranian women who pose in photos without their headscarf are being
blamed for causing the nation’s rivers to run dry.
Judaism
Jewish group disgusted
at auction of Nazi relics, including underpants (ABC News)
June 17 - Germany's top Jewish group has labelled plans for an auction of Nazi
memorabilia, including Hermann Goering's silk underpants, as
"disgusting".
Religious Violence – Orlando Shooting
Orlando massacre: Trump
repeats calls for Muslim immigration ban, Obama says threat 'homegrown' (ABC News)
June 14 - Donald Trump has reiterated his call for a temporary ban on Muslims
entering the country in the wake of the Orlando massacre, but said it could be
lifted once they were properly screened.
Orlando shooter ‘used
gay dating app’ (The Australian)
June 14 - Omar Mateen reportedly visited the gay nightclub where he killed 49
patrons a dozen times and used a gay dating-chat app.
Obama and FBI confirm
Pulse nightclub shooter was radicalized on the internet (The
Guardian, Australia)
June 14 - The man who killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub in the worst gun
rampage in US history, was strongly radicalized using the internet, Barack
Obama and the head of the FBI have confirmed.
Orlando shooting: FBI
questions wife of gunman as debate over gun control continues (ABC
News)
June 16 - US investigators have questioned the wife of the gunman behind the
massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) says.
Was gunman Omar Mateen a
political extremist or repressed gay man? (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 16 - Orlando: This is where the investigative road divides spectacularly:
was Orlando gunman Omar Mateen driven by a love of Islamic State, or by a deep
sense of self-loathing – possibly triggered by an awareness that he was gay?
Unpicking radical
Islam's pathological obsession with sex (The Age, Melbourne)
June 16 – (Opinion: Julie Szego) Omar Mateen's emphatically brutal attack at an
Orlando gay venue lends itself to multiple readings, depending on your politics
and world view.
Orlando shooting: Donald
Trump 'hateful, awful' in wake of massacre, Louis Theroux says
June 17 - British documentary maker Louis Theroux has accused Donald Trump of
sowing fear and playing to xenophobia after the US presidential hopeful
reiterated his call for a ban on Muslims after the Orlando massacre.
Religious Violence
IS fighter ‘behind
police killing’ (The Australian)
June 14 - A news agency linked to the Islamic State reports an IS fighter is
behind killing of a police killing in Paris.
Also:
Paris policeman and wife
killed in possible Isis-linked terror attack (The Guardian, Australia)
June 14 - A man who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group stabbed a
French policeman to death on Monday night before being killed when police moved
in, sources close to the investigation said.
Philippines Islamists
behead second Canadian hostage (The
Australian)
June 14 - Soldiers in the Philippines were last night searching for the remains
of a Canadian man whom Islamist fighters claimed to have beheaded hours after a
deadline for a $9.2m ransom was missed.
Islamic State militants
committing genocide against Yazidis in Syria, Iraq: UN investigation (ABC
News)
June 17 - Islamic State is committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and
Iraq to destroy the religious community of 400,000 people through killings,
sexual slavery and other crimes, United Nations investigators say.
Iraq forces retake
Fallujah, facing little resistance from Islamic State (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 18 - Baghdad: After weeks of fighting, Iraqi forces have entered central
areas of Fallujah, facing little resistance by the Islamic State, as thousands
of civilians fled in a new wave of displacement that has overwhelmed the
ability of aid agencies to care for them.
Boko Haram murder 24 at
village funeral – mostly women (The
Guardian, Australia)
June 18 - Boko Haram militants have killed 24 people, mostly women, as they
mourned at a funeral in a village in northern Nigeria, looting and burning
their houses down.
Indian court jails 11
for life over Gujarat massacre of Muslims (ABC News)
June 18 - An Indian court has jailed 11 Hindus for life for the murder of
dozens of Muslims during riots in Gujarat in 2002 that shook India at a time
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's chief minister.
Other
Orlando shooting:
thoughts and prayers from hypocrites do nothing to help (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 14 – (Opinion: John Birmingham) The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the
old saying would have it. Unless they're gay, in which case… awkward!
Thousands gather at
Thailand's Dhammakaya temple as police try to arrest abbot (ABC News)
June 16 - Thousands of supporters of a wealthy and controversial Thai Buddhist
temple have gathered at its space-age headquarters north of Bangkok, as police
attempt to arrest the abbot on fraud charges.
Barack Obama meets Dalai
Lama at White House in spite of China protest (ABC News)
June 17 - US President Barack Obama has met the exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, at the White House despite a warning from China that
this would damage diplomatic relations.
ISLAM
Gay hate preacher visa
assessed (The Australian)
June 14 - Peter Dutton has called for a review into the case of Farrokh
Sekaleshfar who advocates death to gays.
Also:
Cleric who preached
death for homosexual acts and toured Orlando visits Sydney (The Guardian, Australia)
June 14 - A controversial British cleric who toured Orlando in March and
preaches that “death is the sentence” for homosexual acts is scheduled to speak
in Sydney throughout June.
Also:
Visa of anti-gay Muslim
cleric under review, says Malcolm Turnbull (The Guardian, Australia)
June 14 - The immigration department is reviewing the visa of a Shia Muslim
cleric who toured Orlando in March and argues that homosexual acts are
punishable by death under sharia law.
Islamism is the problem,
not us (The Australian)
June 14 – (Opinion: Chris Kenny) Pauline Hanson, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage
get so much support because of mainstream politicians’ timidity.
Bendigo mosque appeal request
thrown out by High Court (ABC News)
June 15 - A request to hear an appeal by opponents of Bendigo's first mosque
has been thrown out by the High Court.
Gay rights may be the
best weapon in the fight against Islamic State (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 17 – (Opinion: Jacqueline Maley) It's only a hunch. But I am pretty sure
that if you did up a Venn diagram of those who hate gay people and those who
hate Muslims, there would be such significant cross-over it would resemble a
near-eclipse.
Shut down sheiks who
incite (The Australian)
June 18 – (Opinion: Janet Albrechtsen) Silence on the relationship between
Islam and terrorism can be seen as complicity, as Pastor Niemoller reminds us.
Imams condemn
homosexuality (The Australian)
June 18 - Gay and lesbian people should be put to death or otherwise punished
under sharia, according to two imams.
Muslim homophobia in
spotlight after gay nightclub massacre (ABC News)
June 18 - The mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando by a radicalised man
who proclaimed to follow Islam has prompted strong reaction from several
religious leaders, and brought the issue of homophobia within Muslim
communities into the spotlight.
POLITICS
Bill Shorten warns
against Donald Trump's 'demonising' of all Muslims through immigration ban (Sydney Morning
Herald)
June 14 - Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has taken Donald Trump to task over
the presumptive Republican candidate's claims the Orlando shooting shows he was
right to call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Malcolm Turnbull regrets
hosting homophobic Islamic cleric Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman at Kirribilli (ABC News)
June 17 - Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has criticised Islamic cleric Sheikh
Shady Alsuleiman over his comments on homosexuality.
Malcolm Turnbull urges
unity with Muslims in face of attacks (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 17 - Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has appealed for unity as "one
Australian family" in the face of terror attacks such as the Orlando
massacre, telling a Ramadan gathering at Kirribilli House that the broader
Muslim community should not be blamed for the acts of minority extremists.
NSW Greens cave in to
community outrage over Fred Nile preferences (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 17 - The Greens have given in to days of pressure from members and
supporters outraged at the party's decision to preference anti-gay crusader
Reverend Fred Nile's party candidate above a Liberal Party candidate who is a
gay, Indigenous lawyer.
Aly’s ‘support’ for
preacher (The Australian)
June 18 - Labor MP provided a written ’offer of support’ for radical Islamic
preacher Junaid Thorne before he was imprisoned.
Liberal donors the
Exclusive Brethren deny being anti-gay. Here's proof they are (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 19 - The Exclusive Brethren church has denied that it is "resolutely
anti-gay", even though it mistreats its gay members, and has launched
numerous political campaigns against the rights of LGBTI people starting over a
decade ago.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
Scientologist ethos used
to train NSG financial planners to sell life insurance (Sydney Morning Herald)
June 14 - A Melbourne-based financial planning group targeted by the regulator
in a landmark court case used the teachings of Church of Scientology founder L.
Ron Hubbard as part of its staff training, a former employee has claimed.
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