Religion News Australia 2017 - 5 (Jan 29 - Feb 5)
(04 February 17)by Greg Spearritt
Religion News Australia
January 29 – February 5, 2017
Religion news stories from Australia
(Research: Greg Spearritt)
abuse / arts & entertainment / international stories / islam / politics / religion & society
ABUSE
Child sex abuse set to cost Perth Anglican
diocese more than $1m over three years (Perth Now)
Jan 29 - CHILD sex abuse is expected to cost the Anglican diocese of Perth more
than $1 million over just three years.
Pair sue church over child abuse (The Australian)
Feb 3 - Two brothers are suing the Anglican Church after a 42-year campaign to
seek justice over their alleged child abuse.
Every Catholic archbishop to give evidence
next week (ABC News)
Feb 3 - Every Catholic archbishop in the country is to be called to give
evidence at next week’s royal commission hearings in Sydney into child sexual
abuse.
Also:
Child sex abuse royal commission:
Archbishops’ evidence will ’help provide closure for survivors’ (ABC
News)
Feb 4 - The Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council has welcomed
the announcement that almost all Australian Archbishops will front the Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Also:
Australian Catholic Church warns
congregation ahead of final ’grim’ royal commission hearing (ABC
News)
Feb 4 - Catholic Church leaders throughout Australia are warning church-goers
and school parents about the release of data on Monday at the child sex abuse
royal commission, describing it as an "horrific portrait of appalling
abuse".
Victims tell of abuse by notorious Stannies
paedophile priest Brian Spillane (Sydney Morning Herald)
Feb 4 - Victims of the notorious paedophile priest Brian Joseph Spillane have
told of devastating and lifelong effects suffered due to the sexual abuse
experienced at a prestigious Catholic country boarding school between the 1970s
and 1990s.
Also:
St Stanislaus chaplain targeted homesick
boys for abuse, court hears (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 4 - Former priest Brian Spillane took advantage of homesick young boarding
school students, then used emotional blackmail to ensure his victims kept
quiet, a court has heard.
Teacher watchdog leaked secret Yeshivah sex
abuse complaint (The Age,
Melbourne)
Feb 5 - The Victorian teaching regulator has leaked a confidential document
that publicly exposed the identity of a complainant, causing them to be
relentlessly bullied and ostracised, Fairfax Media can reveal.
Catholic use of confession to be
scrutinised by child abuse royal commission (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 5 - Whether what is heard in the confessional box should continue to stay
there will be considered by the child sexual abuse royal commission as it again
turns its focus to widespread offending in the Catholic Church in Australia
this week.
Focus on Church a waste of time (The Australian)
Feb 5 – (Opinion: Gerard Henderson) Almost all institutions mishandled child
sexual abuse allegations until recently.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
What real Australian Mormons think about
The Book of Mormon musical (ABC
News)
Feb 4 - The sell-out stage show The Book of Mormon mocks their faith.
Also:
What a (lapsed) Mormon thinks after
watching The Book of Mormon (The
Age, Melbourne)
Feb 4 - Most practising Mormons would know, or would have encountered, a
real-life Elder Cunningham, the not-so-street smart lead character of the hit
musical The Book of Mormon.
INTERNATIONAL STORIES
Catholic Church
Nun receives death threats for suggesting
Mary was not a virgin (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 3 - A nun in Spain who says she received death threats for suggesting that
Mary probably had sex with her husband, Joseph, has apologised for any offence
caused but accused her critics of deliberately misunderstanding her point.
Islam
Austria’s Muslim face veil ban (The Australian)
Feb 1 - Austria bans Muslim face veils as the government tries to counter the
rise of the far-right Freedom Party.
A show more extreme than reality (The Australian)
Feb 4 – (Opinion: David Kilcullen) The US ban on Muslim travel caused vast
disruption for little or no gain.
Queer Muslim women from the south: ’We
exist and we’re fierce’ (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 4 - It’s been especially challenging to be a Muslim this past week.
Steve Bannon’s Islamophobic film script just
one example of anti-Muslim views (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 4 - The emergence this week of a script for an Islamophobic film written a
decade ago by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has drawn new
attention to Bannon’s past statements about Islam, and to his view that “the
Judeo-Christian west” is engaged in a “global war” against “jihadist Islamic
fascism”.
Religious Violence
Bangladesh plans to relocate Rohingya
refugees to prevent ’intermingling’ (ABC
News)
Feb 1 - Bangladesh has resurrected a plan to relocate thousands of Rohingya
Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar’s north-western Rakhine State to a flooded
island in the Bay of Bengal to prevent them from "intermingling" with
Bangladeshi citizens.
Quebec mosque attack: Canadian Muslims
point to anti-immigrant ’trash radio’ (Sydney Morning Herald)
Feb 1 - Quebec: They call it "radio poubelle," or trash radio.
Also:
After the Quebec mosque attack, Canada
needs to take a hard look at itself (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 3 – (Opinion: Emer O’Toole) On Monday, a gunman walked into a mosque in
Quebec City and murdered six innocent people.
German police raid homes and mosques,
arrest Tunisian suspected of planning attack (ABC
News)
Feb 1 - More than 1,100 German police have searched 54 homes, business premises
and mosques in Frankfurt and other towns in the western state of Hesse and
arrested a Tunisian man suspected of planning an attack.
Jewish community centers in US receive
nearly 50 bomb threats in 2017 so far (The Guardian, Australia)
Feb 4 - Nearly 50 bomb threats have been received by Jewish community
organizations in the US since the start of the year, in a climate of rising
antisemitism nationwide.
Indonesian women being radicalised into would-be
suicide bombers – report (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 4 - Indonesia is being urged to tackle an increasing threat of would-be
female terrorists who are being spurred on via social media to engage in
extremist Islamist networks.
Isis paying smugglers’ fees in recruitment
drive among child refugees (The
Guardian, Australia)
Feb 5 - Islamic State is paying the smugglers’ fees of child refugees in a
desperate attempt to attract new recruits, according to a report highlighting
the potential vulnerability of unaccompanied minors to radicalisation.
Other
Johnson Amendment: Trump wants religion and
politics to mix (Brisbane Times)
Feb 3 - Washington: US President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to
"totally destroy" a measure that bars houses of worship from
endorsing political candidates, and eager Capitol Hill conservatives are ready
to fight for him.
Donald Trump prays for The Apprentice
ratings at DC National Prayer Breakfast (Brisbane Times)
Feb 3 - At the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday,
Donald Trump only had one thing on his mind: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The secret life of America’s modern Amish (news.com.au)
Feb 5 - THEY’RE known for funny hats, drab clothing, and horse-drawn buggies.
ISLAM
Halal snack pack named people’s choice
word of 2016 by Macquarie Dictionary (Brisbane Times)
Feb 1 - There were queues at kebab stands as its popularity skyrocketed, a HSP
appreciation society was formed, and the greasy treat made its mark on
Australian politics on election night when Labor senator Sam Dastyari offered
to take Pauline Hanson out for a halal bite.
World Hijab Day: Women show solidarity with
Muslims by covering their heads (ABC News)
Feb 2 - Women around the world have been sharing pictures of themselves wearing
a hijab in support of Muslim women on World Hijab Day on February 1.
Bankstown terror teen tried to join Islamic
State on family holiday, court hears (Sydney Morning Herald)
Feb 4 - It was supposed to be a family holiday to discover his homeland of
Egypt.
Systematic racism, dehumanisation and
Islamophobia (The Saturday Paper)
Feb 4 – (Opinion: Roj Amedi) The destruction and degradation of human life is
always insidious and systematic.
POLITICS
I broke bread with Malcolm Turnbull. Now he’s
breaking my heart (The Guardian,
Australia)
Feb 3 – (Opinion: Yassmin Abdel-Magied) Malcolm Turnbull is breaking my heart.
RELIGION & SOCIETY
’I was suicidal every day’: Gay
conversion Australia’s secret shame (news.com.au)
Feb 2 - SURVIVORS of gay conversion therapy say a new watchdog for dodgy health
practitioners doesn’t go far enough, and the practice is still alive and well
in Australia.
Bid to raise $1 million for giant Christian
cross in Central Australia (ABC
News)
Feb 2 - The Christian organisation behind plans to build a giant illuminated
cross atop a hill in remote Central Australia wants to raise a further $1
million for the project.
Mormons in the Never Never (ABC
News)
Feb 4 - It’s not a place you would expect to find Mormons knocking on your
door.
From the Archive…
Religion News Australia 2017 – 4 (Jan 22 - 29)
Religion News Australia 2017 – 3 (Jan 15 - 22)
Religion News Australia 2017 – 2 (Jan 8 - 15)
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Religion News Australia 2016 – 49 (Dec 25 - 31)
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Religion News Australia 2013 – 53 (Dec 29 – Jan 4)
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