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breitbart--2019-12-06--More Black Men Have Jobs Than Ever Before, Unemployment Rate Holds at Lowest Level Ever
| 2019-12-06T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
More Black Men Have Jobs Than Ever Before, Unemployment Rate Holds at Lowest Level Ever
|
The unemployment rate for black men remained at the lowest level ever in November. The economy added 266,000 jobs in the month, far more than expected. Black men over 20 picked up 14,000 of those jobs, according to Labor Department data released Friday. That matched in increase in the civilian labor force for that cohort. As a result, the unemployment rate for black men stayed at the all-time low of 5.1 percent hit in October. The total number of black men employed in the U.S. rose to a seasonally adjusted 9,014,000, the highest on record. The total black male civilian labor force is comprised of just under 9.5 million individuals. The labor force participation rate held steady at 68 percent. The unemployment rate for black women ticked up a notch to 4.9 percent but remains near its recent record low of 4.8 percent. The combined unemployment rate for black men, women, and young people between 16 and 19 is a 5.5 percent, a tick above the all-time low of 5.4 percent hit last month.
|
John Carney
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/US59jSoLs_Y/
|
Fri, 06 Dec 2019 15:26:05 +0000
| 1,575,663,965 | 1,575,677,303 |
labour
|
employment
|
77,260 |
breitbart--2019-12-11--Pro-Employee Groups Slam Democrats' Amnesty Deal with Agriculture Industry
| 2019-12-11T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Pro-Employee Groups Slam Democrats' Amnesty Deal with Agriculture Industry
|
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and several other left-wing, anti-poverty groups are opposing the Democrats’ amnesty-for-cheap-labor deal, which faces a vote in the House today. The amnesty legislation, dubbed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, is designed to get support from agriculture employers by offering a huge wave of cheap H-2A visa workers to replace the 1.5 million illegal migrants who would be amnestied and given citizenship by the deal. The imported cheap H-2A workers are also expected to replace Americans in many jobs throughout the sector. The Democrats’ corporatist deal, H.R. 5058, is backed by many agriculture trade groups and by around 30 GOP legislators. “UFCW is concerned that the Farm Workforce Modernization Act will expand the length of the farm worker visa from seasonal to year-round and weaken the requirements to hire American workers,” says the December 8 letter sent to Democrat leaders by the UFCW’s director of legislative affairs. The letter continues: Currently, the H-2A program is for temporary or seasonal work and cannot be used to meet employers’ year-round agricultural labor needs. Allowing year-round visas would increase the number of employers that might consider using the program and decrease wages for workers in other sectors. … We are also concerned that this bill will result in pay cuts for workers. … Unfortunately, changes to how the [Adverse Effect Wage Rate] is calculated under this bill would lower wages for most H-2A workers, depressing wages for all farmworkers. UFCW opposes the exploitation of migrant workers and supports a path to citizenship for farmworkers in this country and that position remains unchanged. However, we are concerned hat the farm Farm Workforce Moderation Act sets up a framework that will harm agricultural workers and workers in neighboring industries such as meat and poultry processing. The amnesty side of the deal is being opposed by GOP leaders in the House, even as they support the widespread use of the H-2A visa workers in the agricultural economy. Business and investor groups prefer the cheap H-2A visa workers to the alternative policy of developing labor-saving machinery, or of competing with other employers to hire Americans at fair-market rates. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s deputies said he would veto the Democrats’ pending drug bill — but they did not threaten to veto the Democrats’ amnesty for at least one million illegals. “It is frankly astounding that the White House did not issue a veto threat on H.R. 5038,” a Capitol Hill source told Breitbart News, adding: The H-2A program is also being slammed by The Progressive: With little fanfare—even as the Trump Administration cracks down on immigrant deportation and threatens DACA—use of the program has exploded. The program has ballooned from 139,832 visas in 2015 to 257,667 in 2019. In 1996, it issued just 11,000 visas. The Trump Administration is now looking to use executive action to push rule changes aimed at “modernizing the H-2A program and eliminating inefficiencies.” John Bauknecht from United Migrant Opportunity Services warned these changes would allow employers to self-inspect living conditions, make major changes to job terms in the middle of the farm season, and change the hiring process in such a way that sharply reduces employers’ current obligation to recruit U.S. workers. The rule changes would also lower workers’ wages, expand the program to other industries, and shift costs for transportation—currently paid by employers—onto workers, again risking the creation of an indentured worker system. The changes were filed in July and received public comment in September. A “compromise” is now being considered in Congress, but the proposal, known as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019, maintains core regressive elements of the [2019] H-2C legislation. Crucially, it also creates new tools of worker coercion. The labor-for-amnesty deal is a crony-capitalist giveaway, says a new video from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which argues that the agricultural investors should hire Americans before importing more workers: Exploitation, greed, The status quo. This is the story of the American farm lobby and their quest for Cheap foreign labor,” says a FAIR video, which continues: They will do just about anything to get it, including sabotaging immigration reform at the expense of all Americans. Here’s what you need to know. F or years Americans across the country have been concerned about the situation at our nation’s borders. But despite promise after promise by politicians on both sides, nothing changes. For decades government commissions have laid out the best way to solve the problem: Interior enforcement, E-Verify, no amnesty, no green cards for lawbreakers, and a reliance on American workers to get the jobs done. But big agriculture has different plans. Now, these aren’t your small family farms. We’re talking about a huge mega-corporation. For 50 years, American voters have told these corporations to either use machinery for harvesting or find American workers. Yet big agriculture continues to demand and get a steady flow of foreign workers, usually here illegally. You see, Big Ag loves illegal workers because they work cheap, hard, and scared. Due to their status, they cannot demand [legal protections]. They just do the work and disappear into our cities, schools, hospitals, and communities, only to be replaced by the next group of illegal workers. Faced with proposals to stop this cycle once and for all, Big Ag reacts with false cries about worker shortage and then insists its very survival hinges on an endless supply of cheap labor. And the result — Big Ag has killed one immigration reform bill after another. There was 2007, then 2013, then 2017. Big Ag even stopped Congress from getting a border enforcement bill through in President Trump’s first term. And that brings us to today and the proposed Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Okay, the mega-farms finally say, we will use E-Verify. That sounds good, right, but there’s a catch. How about a fraud-ridden amnesty for 1.5 million illegal aliens. How about a massive expansion of a guest worker program that would literally bind immigrants to farms for ten years before getting a green card, and they can’t leave without losing their chance at a green card. That’s not just cheap labor — it is indentured servitude. It’s unethical, un-American exploitation, plain and simple. Big Agriculture has had 50 years to get its act together. Fifty years to find alternative ways to harvest crops. Fifty years to do it the right way. But they’ll never change until Congress cuts off their endless supply of cheap foreign labor. It is time to end big Agriculture’s foreign-labor addiction. It’s time for Big Ag to hire Americans and protect American prosperity. It is time for them to stop exploiting vulnerable foreign workers for profit. Let’s stop the so-called Workforce Modernization Act. Support E-Verify. End the exploitation of cheap labor, and hold Big Ag accountable once-and-for-all. Breitbart News has extensively covered the dispute amid near-total silence from established media outlets, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times.
|
Neil Munro
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/imxiHzjEtiM/
|
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:06:43 +0000
| 1,576,105,603 | 1,576,109,331 |
labour
|
employment
|
77,260 |
breitbart--2019-12-11--Pro-Employee Groups Slam Democrats' Amnesty Deal with Agriculture Industry
| 2019-12-11T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Pro-Employee Groups Slam Democrats' Amnesty Deal with Agriculture Industry
|
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and several other left-wing, anti-poverty groups are opposing the Democrats’ amnesty-for-cheap-labor deal, which faces a vote in the House today. The amnesty legislation, dubbed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, is designed to get support from agriculture employers by offering a huge wave of cheap H-2A visa workers to replace the 1.5 million illegal migrants who would be amnestied and given citizenship by the deal. The imported cheap H-2A workers are also expected to replace Americans in many jobs throughout the sector. The Democrats’ corporatist deal, H.R. 5058, is backed by many agriculture trade groups and by around 30 GOP legislators. “UFCW is concerned that the Farm Workforce Modernization Act will expand the length of the farm worker visa from seasonal to year-round and weaken the requirements to hire American workers,” says the December 8 letter sent to Democrat leaders by the UFCW’s director of legislative affairs. The letter continues: Currently, the H-2A program is for temporary or seasonal work and cannot be used to meet employers’ year-round agricultural labor needs. Allowing year-round visas would increase the number of employers that might consider using the program and decrease wages for workers in other sectors. … We are also concerned that this bill will result in pay cuts for workers. … Unfortunately, changes to how the [Adverse Effect Wage Rate] is calculated under this bill would lower wages for most H-2A workers, depressing wages for all farmworkers. UFCW opposes the exploitation of migrant workers and supports a path to citizenship for farmworkers in this country and that position remains unchanged. However, we are concerned hat the farm Farm Workforce Moderation Act sets up a framework that will harm agricultural workers and workers in neighboring industries such as meat and poultry processing. The amnesty side of the deal is being opposed by GOP leaders in the House, even as they support the widespread use of the H-2A visa workers in the agricultural economy. Business and investor groups prefer the cheap H-2A visa workers to the alternative policy of developing labor-saving machinery, or of competing with other employers to hire Americans at fair-market rates. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s deputies said he would veto the Democrats’ pending drug bill — but they did not threaten to veto the Democrats’ amnesty for at least one million illegals. “It is frankly astounding that the White House did not issue a veto threat on H.R. 5038,” a Capitol Hill source told Breitbart News, adding: The H-2A program is also being slammed by The Progressive: With little fanfare—even as the Trump Administration cracks down on immigrant deportation and threatens DACA—use of the program has exploded. The program has ballooned from 139,832 visas in 2015 to 257,667 in 2019. In 1996, it issued just 11,000 visas. The Trump Administration is now looking to use executive action to push rule changes aimed at “modernizing the H-2A program and eliminating inefficiencies.” John Bauknecht from United Migrant Opportunity Services warned these changes would allow employers to self-inspect living conditions, make major changes to job terms in the middle of the farm season, and change the hiring process in such a way that sharply reduces employers’ current obligation to recruit U.S. workers. The rule changes would also lower workers’ wages, expand the program to other industries, and shift costs for transportation—currently paid by employers—onto workers, again risking the creation of an indentured worker system. The changes were filed in July and received public comment in September. A “compromise” is now being considered in Congress, but the proposal, known as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019, maintains core regressive elements of the [2019] H-2C legislation. Crucially, it also creates new tools of worker coercion. The labor-for-amnesty deal is a crony-capitalist giveaway, says a new video from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which argues that the agricultural investors should hire Americans before importing more workers: Exploitation, greed, The status quo. This is the story of the American farm lobby and their quest for Cheap foreign labor,” says a FAIR video, which continues: They will do just about anything to get it, including sabotaging immigration reform at the expense of all Americans. Here’s what you need to know. F or years Americans across the country have been concerned about the situation at our nation’s borders. But despite promise after promise by politicians on both sides, nothing changes. For decades government commissions have laid out the best way to solve the problem: Interior enforcement, E-Verify, no amnesty, no green cards for lawbreakers, and a reliance on American workers to get the jobs done. But big agriculture has different plans. Now, these aren’t your small family farms. We’re talking about a huge mega-corporation. For 50 years, American voters have told these corporations to either use machinery for harvesting or find American workers. Yet big agriculture continues to demand and get a steady flow of foreign workers, usually here illegally. You see, Big Ag loves illegal workers because they work cheap, hard, and scared. Due to their status, they cannot demand [legal protections]. They just do the work and disappear into our cities, schools, hospitals, and communities, only to be replaced by the next group of illegal workers. Faced with proposals to stop this cycle once and for all, Big Ag reacts with false cries about worker shortage and then insists its very survival hinges on an endless supply of cheap labor. And the result — Big Ag has killed one immigration reform bill after another. There was 2007, then 2013, then 2017. Big Ag even stopped Congress from getting a border enforcement bill through in President Trump’s first term. And that brings us to today and the proposed Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Okay, the mega-farms finally say, we will use E-Verify. That sounds good, right, but there’s a catch. How about a fraud-ridden amnesty for 1.5 million illegal aliens. How about a massive expansion of a guest worker program that would literally bind immigrants to farms for ten years before getting a green card, and they can’t leave without losing their chance at a green card. That’s not just cheap labor — it is indentured servitude. It’s unethical, un-American exploitation, plain and simple. Big Agriculture has had 50 years to get its act together. Fifty years to find alternative ways to harvest crops. Fifty years to do it the right way. But they’ll never change until Congress cuts off their endless supply of cheap foreign labor. It is time to end big Agriculture’s foreign-labor addiction. It’s time for Big Ag to hire Americans and protect American prosperity. It is time for them to stop exploiting vulnerable foreign workers for profit. Let’s stop the so-called Workforce Modernization Act. Support E-Verify. End the exploitation of cheap labor, and hold Big Ag accountable once-and-for-all. Breitbart News has extensively covered the dispute amid near-total silence from established media outlets, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times.
|
Neil Munro
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/imxiHzjEtiM/
|
Wed, 11 Dec 2019 18:06:43 +0000
| 1,576,105,603 | 1,576,109,331 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
78,320 |
breitbart--2019-12-30--More Than 1 Million Employees Eligible for Overtime in 2020
| 2019-12-30T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
More Than 1 Million Employees Eligible for Overtime in 2020
|
More than one million employees could see a fatter paycheck in 2020 as the federal government is overhauling overtime pay requirements for the first time in 15 years. The Department of Labor’s recent overtime rule changes the salary threshold for overtime pay from $23,660 a year, or $455 a week, to $35,568 per year, or $684 weekly, the Wall Street Journal reported. This is the first time the figure has changed since 2004, and will affect an estimated 1.3 million workers if they put in more than 40 hours of work per week. They would be paid at one-and-a-half times their hourly rate. Salaried employees or those in managerial positions will not qualify for the new overtime pay rule. Not only could this rule benefit newly eligible employees, but it could also benefit employers. “In this day in age, where we’re really trying to attract talent in such a tight labor market, employers can embrace this change and position it as a positive for their employees,” Erron Stark, vice president of channel sales at ADP, told Fox Business. “If they recognize that benefit, there could be an inherent benefit to their organization as well.” The Department of Labor rule will take effect on January 1, 2020.
|
Katherine Rodriguez
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/Ksn_84wVAos/
|
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 23:16:07 +0000
| 1,577,765,767 | 1,577,837,251 |
labour
|
employment
|
78,320 |
breitbart--2019-12-30--More Than 1 Million Employees Eligible for Overtime in 2020
| 2019-12-30T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
More Than 1 Million Employees Eligible for Overtime in 2020
|
More than one million employees could see a fatter paycheck in 2020 as the federal government is overhauling overtime pay requirements for the first time in 15 years. The Department of Labor’s recent overtime rule changes the salary threshold for overtime pay from $23,660 a year, or $455 a week, to $35,568 per year, or $684 weekly, the Wall Street Journal reported. This is the first time the figure has changed since 2004, and will affect an estimated 1.3 million workers if they put in more than 40 hours of work per week. They would be paid at one-and-a-half times their hourly rate. Salaried employees or those in managerial positions will not qualify for the new overtime pay rule. Not only could this rule benefit newly eligible employees, but it could also benefit employers. “In this day in age, where we’re really trying to attract talent in such a tight labor market, employers can embrace this change and position it as a positive for their employees,” Erron Stark, vice president of channel sales at ADP, told Fox Business. “If they recognize that benefit, there could be an inherent benefit to their organization as well.” The Department of Labor rule will take effect on January 1, 2020.
|
Katherine Rodriguez
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/Ksn_84wVAos/
|
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 23:16:07 +0000
| 1,577,765,767 | 1,577,837,251 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
78,781 |
businessinsider--2019-09-19--Wayfairs CEO reportedly said he wants to hire non-political employees 3 months after workers walk
| 2019-09-19T00:00:00 |
businessinsider
|
Wayfair's CEO reportedly said he wants to hire 'non-political' employees 3 months after workers walked out to protest furnishing border camps (W)
|
Wayfair's billionaire cofounder and CEO Niraj Shah reportedly said that he wants to hire employees who are "non-political." Shah was asked on a panel in Boston on Thursday what Wayfair looks for when hiring, Boston Business Journal reported. Read more: Leaked Wayfair documents reveal massive racial disparity in company leadership as it grapples with employee-led crisis over furnishing border camps "We're generally just looking for people on two sets of criteria. One, it's just that … they're incredibly talented. They're intelligent, quantitative. Just that we think they have the raw material to really succeed and we feel confident," Shah reportedly said. "The second thing we look for — equally important — is the cultural fit. So we're bringing in non-political, you know, highly collaborative, just very driven and ambitious. There's a whole lot of cultural values that we think are important while we succeeded," Shah continued, according to Boston Business Journal. "We only hire (those candidates) who have these two sets; both kinds of traits for success." Wayfair said in a statement to Business Insider that Shah's comments were "misinterpreted and inaccurately positioned in this story." "We seek employees who are collaborative and focused on positive interaction in the workplace," a Wayfair representative said in a statement. "He was in no way referring to politics at large. Our culture, of course, welcomes and respects all viewpoints and perspectives and we are proud to have employees that engage in the greater community." The furniture company was slammed by progressive critics in June after employees discovered the company had sold more than $200,000 worth of furniture to be used at a facility being set up to detain young migrants. Hundreds of employees sent a letter to executives slamming the decision, with many walking out of work in protest.
|
Kate Taylor
|
https://www.businessinsider.com/wayfair-ceo-wants-to-hire-non-political-employees-report-2019-9
|
2019-09-19 20:14:52+00:00
| 1,568,938,492 | 1,569,329,881 |
labour
|
labour relations
|
78,837 |
businessinsider--2019-10-04--US adds fewer jobs than expected in September unemployment hits 50-year low
| 2019-10-04T00:00:00 |
businessinsider
|
US adds fewer jobs than expected in September, unemployment hits 50-year low
|
Government data out Friday showed that hiring cooled but held up at a solid pace in September, offering a snapshot of the American economy during a period marked by heightened uncertainty and concerns about a potential slowdown. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US added 136,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, fewer than the 168,000 created in August but enough to push unemployment levels to fresh lows, at 3.5%. Analysts had forecast an increase of 147,000 jobs. Average hourly earnings increased by 2.9% from a year earlier, the slowest pace since July 2018, which could bolster expectations for the Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs this month. "While the correlation between wages and inflation isn't particularly strong, tepid wage growth will still reduce concerns that a tight labor market will suddenly push prices higher," said Eric Winograd, the senior US economist at AllianceBernstein. "It removes one potential impediment to Fed rate cuts." Trade tensions have added pressure to a labor market that was already expected to slow this year as the effects of tax cuts and other stimulus measures began to fade. From July to September, 157,000 jobs were created each month on average. "Economic growth, and therefore job creation, are showing clear signs of slowing," said Cailin Birch, a global economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "The core issue behind this is trade policy uncertainty, and the negative impact this has already had on some key export markets for US firms, including the EU and China." The effects of tariffs levied between the US and major trading partners have grown increasingly evident in recent weeks, fueling broader concerns about the economy. On Tuesday, data showed that the manufacturing sector fell deeper into a recession in September as new orders and hiring cooled further. American factories lost 2,000 jobs last month, the BLS report said. "The uncertainty linked to the direction of trade policy may exact a larger price on hiring across goods producing and manufacturing jobs," said Joe Brusuelas, the chief economist at RSM, a financial-consulting firm. The Trump administration plans to expand tariffs to thousands of consumer products from China and the European Union in the coming months, which would put businesses and households more directly at risk. Separate data released Thursday suggested that higher costs and uncertainty have started to weigh on the service sector, which accounts for most of the activity in the economy. Retail trade lost 11,000 jobs in September and has shed 197,000 positions since a peak in January 2017. The labor market struggled to pull Americans from the sidelines last month. The labor-force participation rate held steady at 63.2%, a figure that is low by historical standards and compared with other countries. President Donald Trump seized on the employment report on Friday, suggesting that the 108th month of job gains could undermine impeachment proceedings against him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the inquiry last week after a whistleblower complaint said Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a 2020 campaign rival. "Breaking News: Unemployment Rate, at 3.5%, drops to a 50 YEAR LOW," the president wrote on Twitter. "Wow America, lets impeach your President (even though he did nothing wrong!)." Read more: Trump promised to revive US manufacturing. But the sector just plunged deeper into a recession. Now read: The chief strategist at a $1 trillion investing giant says Trump is doomed to lose his trade war — and explains why that would be the best possible outcome for markets
|
Gina Heeb
|
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/jobs-report-september-nonfarm-payrolls-unemployment-rate-2019-10-1028576957
|
2019-10-04 13:16:00+00:00
| 1,570,209,360 | 1,570,633,692 |
labour
|
labour market
|
79,666 |
buzzfeed--2019-04-22--The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Employers Can Discriminate Against LGBT Employees
| 2019-04-22T00:00:00 |
buzzfeed
|
The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Employers Can Discriminate Against LGBT Employees
|
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide whether it’s illegal under federal law for employers to discriminate against gay and transgender workers. The case centers around Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The Supreme Court will determine whether “sex” applies to sexual orientation and gender identity as well. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the employees claiming discrimination, it will be an important win for LGBT advocates who have been advocating for protections under the Civil Rights Act for decades. It would also be a major hit for the Trump administration, which has openly advocated against the Civil Rights Act applying to LGBT individuals in hearings and briefs. The court said Monday it will hear three cases on the issue: one from New York, one from Georgia, and one from Michigan. The New York and Georgia cases came to opposite conclusions about whether sexual orientation is protected by the Civil Rights Act. The Michigan case will examine whether gender identity is protected. The New York case, Zarda v. Altitude Express Inc., was brought by a skydiving instructor claiming he was fired because he was gay. In February, a federal court of appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled in favor of the employee, concluding that discrimination based on sexuality was a “subset of sex discrimination” because discriminating against someone for being attracted to someone of the same sex was, in part, based on what sex they are. "A woman who is subject to an adverse employment action because she is attracted to women would have been treated differently if she had been a man who was attracted to women," the majority wrote in the New York appeals court decision. "We can therefore conclude that sexual orientation is a function of sex and, by extension, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination." A court in Georgia drew the opposite conclusion, however. A child welfare services coordinator claimed he was terminated for being gay, and the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta ruled this was legal, citing a 1979 case that ruled the Civil Rights Act did not protect discrimination based on sexuality. Georgia’s ban on consensual sodomy wasn’t overturned until 1998. When examining the third case, in Michigan, the Supreme Court will consider the separate but related question about whether gender identity is protected under federal law. The case was brought by Aimee Stephens who sued the funeral home where she worked for firing her after she announced she identified as a transgender woman and would start presenting outwardly as female. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Stephens, concluding that discriminating against an employee because they are transgender was illegal. The New York and Michigan cases cited Supreme Court precedent that could help their arguments. In 1989 the Supreme Court ruled in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that it was illegal to discriminate against workers because they did not conform to ideas of how a certain gender should behave. Ann Hopkins had claimed she was denied a partnership at Price Waterhouse because she didn’t act feminine enough. The court ruled in that case that Price Waterhouse “had unlawfully discriminated against her on the basis of sex by consciously giving credence and effect to partners' comments about her that resulted from sex stereotyping.” The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, a federal agency, cited this precedent as well, in a hearing in the New York case in September, arguing that, “sex stereotyping says that if you are a man attracted to a man, or a woman attracted to a woman, you’re not behaving the way those genders are supposed to behave.” The Justice Department countered this point in the same hearing, arguing that there is “a common-sense difference between sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination.” The Supreme Court will hear the cases in its next term, which will begin in October 2019.
|
Ema O'Connor
|
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/supreme-court-discrimination-lgbt-title-vii
|
2019-04-22 21:41:29+00:00
| 1,555,983,689 | 1,567,542,199 |
labour
|
labour relations
|
80,069 |
buzzfeed--2019-07-16--Democrats Are Pushing A Bill To Give Domestic Workers Employee Protections
| 2019-07-16T00:00:00 |
buzzfeed
|
Democrats Are Pushing A Bill To Give Domestic Workers Employee Protections
|
Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Pramila Jayapal are leading a group of Democrats in Congress to introduce a bill giving domestic workers protections against sexual harassment and racial discrimination, which many currently don’t have because they’re excluded under civil rights laws. The bill, which legislators plan to introduce in the House and Senate on Monday, is unlikely to clear the Republican-controlled Senate and be signed into law by the president, even if Democrats pass it in the House. The National Domestic Workers Alliance, which represents housekeepers, home health aides, and nannies from across the country, was involved in crafting the new bill and nine other similar state-level bills in recent years. “This bill is a moral anchor for us in a time of national political strife,” Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said at a press conference in Washington, DC. Poo said the bill aims to correct loopholes in the Civil Rights Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and the National Labor Relations Act, which don’t currently require employers with fewer than 15 workers to abide by anti-discrimination and workplace health and safety laws. The measure includes a plan to set up a federal wages and standards board modeled on the boards in Seattle, New York, and California, training programs for industry groups, and a task force to focus on the issue run by the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It would also provide a minimum wage and overtime pay for domestic workers. “For a long time we have been experiencing inequality, wage theft, verbal abuse, physical abuse,” said June Barrett, a Miami-based organizer with NWDA who worked as a home health care aide for 16 years and said she was sexually harassed several times. “I think domestic workers have been excluded from the labor laws because they don’t see it as real work.”
|
Nidhi Prakash
|
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhiprakash/domestic-workers-congress
|
2019-07-16 05:12:45+00:00
| 1,563,268,365 | 1,567,536,500 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
80,539 |
buzzfeed--2019-10-25--Google Removed Employee Questions About Its Hiring Of A Former DHS Staffer Who Defended The Muslim T
| 2019-10-25T00:00:00 |
buzzfeed
|
Google Removed Employee Questions About Its Hiring Of A Former DHS Staffer Who Defended The Muslim Travel Ban
|
As a counselor to then–acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke in 2017, Taylor called the screening and vetting standards at the country’s borders “ no longer adequate to combat terrorism ” as the agency recommended a “ tough” and “tailored ” policy to replace expiring parts of a Trump administration travel ban that barred visitors from six Muslim-majority countries. Taylor went on to serve as the deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff to Nielsen, whom Trump appointed to the top DHS role in December 2017. Nielsen oversaw the administration’s family separation policy for immigrants at the southern border in 2018 before resigning in April. A spokesperson for Google declined to comment when asked if Google execs would address Taylor’s hiring at Thursday’s all-hands meeting. Multiple sources told BuzzFeed News following the gathering that Google's Vice President of Public Affairs and Public Policy Karan Bhatia defended Taylor's employment by saying that he was not involved in drafting the original Muslim travel ban and wasn't involved in family separation. Google still has certain policies for workplace and political discussions, though the company declined to comment on why questions about Taylor’s hiring were removed. Two sources close to the company confirmed that two questions had been deleted because Google management considered them personal attacks, and confirmed that other questions about Taylor still remained on Dory. The backlash against Taylor’s employment and the subsequent attempts to squash discussion on the matter is just the latest struggle for the search and advertising behemoth to balance workers' free expression with corporate harmony. Last month, Google settled with the National Labor and Review Board over complaints that it had stifled workplace dissent, leading the company to confirm that it would not prevent employees from discussing workplace issues. “Google has hired a former DHS Chief of Staff who defended policies including family separation and Muslim ban,” read one now-deleted post seen by BuzzFeed News, and confirmed by three employees. “Prior to hire, was the psychological safety of impacted communities at Google considered? How can we respect Google’s [diversity, equity, and inclusion] values and avoid hiring those who dehumanize marginalized groups?” On Wednesday, a question addressing Taylor’s hire on Dory, an internal service that allows employees to ask and vote on inquiries to be put to management, had garnered about 2,000 upvotes before being removed. BuzzFeed News reported Monday on Taylor’s hiring . Ahead of an all-hands meeting on Thursday at Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters, management twice deleted inquiries about Miles Taylor, the chief of staff of former DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who joined the company last month as a government affairs and public policy manager. In response, some employees have expressed anger in emails and group messages, asking why the company hired and shielded a former Trump administration member who helped implement policies Google and its executives had previously protested. Google has been removing questions from an internal company message board about its hiring of a former Department of Homeland Security staffer who once publicly defended the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban. "I personally thought the answers on stage were an insult to our communities here at Google." Google and its leaders had voiced their strong opposition to the Muslim travel ban and family separations occurring at the Mexico border. In January 2017, following the announcement of the original travel ban, Google cofounder Sergey Brin joined protesters at San Francisco International Airport, while Google CEO Sundar Pichai pointedly voiced his displeasure on Twitter, in an email to staff, and in a much-publicized employee meeting. “The stories and images of families being separated at the border are gut-wrenching,” Pichai tweeted as the Trump administration ramped up its anti-immigration policy in the summer of 2018. “Urging our government to work together to find a better, more humane way that is reflective of our values as a nation. #keepfamiliestogether.” The discussions about Taylor have spread to multiple employee groups on Twitter including those for Muslims, Iranians, Latinx members, activists, and the Women’s Walkout, which formed last year in the wake of stories about Google’s $90 million payout to an executive accused of sexual misconduct. One employee wrote about how they were directly affected by the travel ban, and how they were thankful for the outpouring of support from their colleagues. Another cited their previous time in the State Department and noted that some civil servants serve despite what political party is in power because of civic duty. “Your job is to carry out the policies of the U.S. Government,” they wrote. Another employee called the deletion of questions “in the name of ‘respect’” a “deeply misguided thing for Google to be doing” because of the power imbalance between a former Trump administration official and employees hoping to critique the company’s hiring of him. “I find it ironic that leadership is worried about the hurt feelings of a single powerful person, but not about the message that their hiring has _already sent_ to Googlers who are threatened or directly impacted by violence at our border and borders around the world,” the person wrote. “Serving as chief of staff to the person who oversaw the implementation of this country’s most cruel contemporary abuses of its great power feels like a totally different ballgame to me, and I think we’re right to be publicly questioning it,” they added. Two Google employees confirmed that a second question regarding Taylor’s hiring was deleted on Thursday. The deletions, however, only led to more questions. At least five more questions about the topic have popped up on Dory on Thursday afternoon, with a few landing in the top 10 based on upvotes. At the all-hands meeting, which was attended by Pichai and Senior Vice President of Global Affairs Kent Walker, Bhatia said there had been inaccuracies about how Taylor was being portrayed in press reports. He said that the new hire did not draft the original Muslim travel ban — despite going on record to defend a later version of the policy in September 2017 — and was not involved in family separation, which was implemented by his direct boss DHS Secretary Nielsen. When BuzzFeed News asked Google and Taylor about the nature of Taylor's work at DHS on Monday, neither provided comment. One employee said they felt "gaslit" by Bhatia, who went on to add at the meeting that Taylor was respected on both side of the aisle and would help with the company's government relations efforts. "I personally thought the answers on stage were an insult to our communities here at Google," said one employee on an internal group. "And it's a missed opportunity to not have voiced an objection to them right there and then." Another complained about how they spent the majority of the time discussing an extension on Google Chrome, the company's web browser; a minute on the hiring of Taylor; and no time on "the psychological safety issues" or the "censorship of questions." "Honestly, we might get clearer answers about our foreign policy from the presidential debate in under 50 seconds," they joked.
|
Ryan Mac
|
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/google-miles-taylor-questions-deletions-all-hands-muslim-ban
|
Fri, 25 Oct 2019 02:13:20 -0400
| 1,571,984,000 | 1,572,535,682 |
labour
|
employment
|
83,537 |
cbsnews--2019-05-01--Labor Department says gig workers arent employees
| 2019-05-01T00:00:00 |
cbsnews
|
Labor Department says gig workers aren't employees
|
The Trump administration is no fan of big tech companies. But a recent decision from its Department of Labor could give a long-term boost to tech giants like Uber, Lyft and the soon-to-go-public Postmates. These companies -- and many like them -- rely on a wide pool of on-demand workers who sign up through the companies' platforms to drive cars, make deliveries, run errands, walk dogs or clean houses. Many people doing this work disagree with the companies' assertion that they're not employees, but rather solo small-business proprietors using the platform of choice to perform their cleaning (or driving, or delivery) business. Now the Department of Labor has weighed in, with an opinion letter stating that an on-demand company that appears to provide a cleaning service is correct to classify its workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The decision adds more heft to behemoths like Uber and Lyft and house-cleaning company Handy, all of which face lawsuits accusing them of wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors. "For that particular company, the letter is sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card," said Maya Pinto, a senior researcher at the National Employment Law Project. "It will be used by this one company and could prod other companies to get similar letters. We believe in most cases, if not all cases, the workers are under control of the company and are in fact employees," she said. Handy, which wasn't named in the letter, is "a virtual marketplace company that "operates in the so-called 'on-demand' or 'sharing' economy,'" the DOL wrote. The marketplace requires workers' name, email and Social Security number to sign them up. It connects them with customers who pay on a per-job basis, and it provides training materials that workers can choose to review or not. The app does allow customers to rate workers and removes workers after they haven't been "active" for some time. A key reason the DOL cited for its decision is that the workers on Handy's platform have a great deal of control. The platform itself doesn't require a minimum of cleaning jobs, allows the workers to sign up with competitor apps or to work directly with customers, and it allows workers to sometimes ask for higher pay than the platform sets. That's substantially different from Uber and Lyft drivers, whose rates are determined by the companies' ever-shifting policies and who are liable to get thrown off the platform once their customer rating dips below about 4.3 stars. Lyft, which went public recently, faces six class actions and "thousands" of individual actions accusing it of misclassifying employees, it told the Securities and Exchange Commission. Uber faces two such lawsuits, according to securities filings. Handy has been sued five times by workers. "If workers are misclassified as independent contractors, and [a] court were to find they're employees, the employer could be responsible for back pay, overtime and minimum-wage violations and record-keeping violations. There could be [family and medical leave] implications, tax implications, workers' compensation implications," said Susan Harthill, a partner at Morgan Lewis, representing employers. "Classification is a big concern for all businesses." The nature of "platform" work can sometimes create a truly gray area on the employee-contractor spectrum. But the cost difference between paying a employee and an independent contractor is so large, companies often choose to err in their favor while the decisions are fought out in court, saving themselves potentially millions of dollars. (A study last year on ride-hail drivers in New York found that if Uber considered its drivers employees, it would be the largest employer in the city.) In exchange for freedom and flexibility, independent contractors give up most benefits that employees get, such as paid sick time, family leave, overtime or minimum-wage laws, and the right to start or join a union. That tradeoff often hits lowest-paid workers the hardest, labor advocates say. "Where we see misclassification of workers is a lot of low-wage jobs that have a service sector aspect, or in construction, where companies have a lot of workers and they're trying to cut costs," said NELP's general counsel, Catherine Ruckelshaus. "But the gig companies have made this a key part of their profitability."
| null |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/labor-department-says-gig-workers-arent-employees/
|
2019-05-01 01:38:37+00:00
| 1,556,689,117 | 1,567,541,500 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
83,537 |
cbsnews--2019-05-01--Labor Department says gig workers arent employees
| 2019-05-01T00:00:00 |
cbsnews
|
Labor Department says gig workers aren't employees
|
The Trump administration is no fan of big tech companies. But a recent decision from its Department of Labor could give a long-term boost to tech giants like Uber, Lyft and the soon-to-go-public Postmates. These companies -- and many like them -- rely on a wide pool of on-demand workers who sign up through the companies' platforms to drive cars, make deliveries, run errands, walk dogs or clean houses. Many people doing this work disagree with the companies' assertion that they're not employees, but rather solo small-business proprietors using the platform of choice to perform their cleaning (or driving, or delivery) business. Now the Department of Labor has weighed in, with an opinion letter stating that an on-demand company that appears to provide a cleaning service is correct to classify its workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The decision adds more heft to behemoths like Uber and Lyft and house-cleaning company Handy, all of which face lawsuits accusing them of wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors. "For that particular company, the letter is sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card," said Maya Pinto, a senior researcher at the National Employment Law Project. "It will be used by this one company and could prod other companies to get similar letters. We believe in most cases, if not all cases, the workers are under control of the company and are in fact employees," she said. Handy, which wasn't named in the letter, is "a virtual marketplace company that "operates in the so-called 'on-demand' or 'sharing' economy,'" the DOL wrote. The marketplace requires workers' name, email and Social Security number to sign them up. It connects them with customers who pay on a per-job basis, and it provides training materials that workers can choose to review or not. The app does allow customers to rate workers and removes workers after they haven't been "active" for some time. A key reason the DOL cited for its decision is that the workers on Handy's platform have a great deal of control. The platform itself doesn't require a minimum of cleaning jobs, allows the workers to sign up with competitor apps or to work directly with customers, and it allows workers to sometimes ask for higher pay than the platform sets. That's substantially different from Uber and Lyft drivers, whose rates are determined by the companies' ever-shifting policies and who are liable to get thrown off the platform once their customer rating dips below about 4.3 stars. Lyft, which went public recently, faces six class actions and "thousands" of individual actions accusing it of misclassifying employees, it told the Securities and Exchange Commission. Uber faces two such lawsuits, according to securities filings. Handy has been sued five times by workers. "If workers are misclassified as independent contractors, and [a] court were to find they're employees, the employer could be responsible for back pay, overtime and minimum-wage violations and record-keeping violations. There could be [family and medical leave] implications, tax implications, workers' compensation implications," said Susan Harthill, a partner at Morgan Lewis, representing employers. "Classification is a big concern for all businesses." The nature of "platform" work can sometimes create a truly gray area on the employee-contractor spectrum. But the cost difference between paying a employee and an independent contractor is so large, companies often choose to err in their favor while the decisions are fought out in court, saving themselves potentially millions of dollars. (A study last year on ride-hail drivers in New York found that if Uber considered its drivers employees, it would be the largest employer in the city.) In exchange for freedom and flexibility, independent contractors give up most benefits that employees get, such as paid sick time, family leave, overtime or minimum-wage laws, and the right to start or join a union. That tradeoff often hits lowest-paid workers the hardest, labor advocates say. "Where we see misclassification of workers is a lot of low-wage jobs that have a service sector aspect, or in construction, where companies have a lot of workers and they're trying to cut costs," said NELP's general counsel, Catherine Ruckelshaus. "But the gig companies have made this a key part of their profitability."
| null |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/labor-department-says-gig-workers-arent-employees/
|
2019-05-01 01:38:37+00:00
| 1,556,689,117 | 1,567,541,500 |
labour
|
labour market
|
85,993 |
cbsnews--2019-10-08--Supreme Court to hear LGBTQ employment rights cases
| 2019-10-08T00:00:00 |
cbsnews
|
Supreme Court to hear LGBTQ employment rights cases
|
Warren stands by account of being pushed out of her first teaching job
| null |
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/supreme-court-to-hear-lgbtq-employment-rights-cases/
|
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 12:36:38 +0000
| 1,570,552,598 | 1,570,542,792 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
85,993 |
cbsnews--2019-10-08--Supreme Court to hear LGBTQ employment rights cases
| 2019-10-08T00:00:00 |
cbsnews
|
Supreme Court to hear LGBTQ employment rights cases
|
Warren stands by account of being pushed out of her first teaching job
| null |
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/supreme-court-to-hear-lgbtq-employment-rights-cases/
|
Tue, 08 Oct 2019 12:36:38 +0000
| 1,570,552,598 | 1,570,542,792 |
labour
|
labour relations
|
90,461 |
charlotteobserver--2019-11-01--The Latest: US employers added solid 128,000 jobs in October
| 2019-11-01T00:00:00 |
charlotteobserver
|
The Latest: US employers added solid 128,000 jobs in October
|
The Latest on the U.S. employment report for October (all times local): U.S. employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused several thousand workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a five-decade low. For the second straight month, average hourly wages rose 3% from a year ago. The GM strike contributed to the loss of 41,600 auto factory jobs in October. But the settlement will likely lead to a rebound in the coming months. The report revised upward job gains in the prior two months by a combined 95,000, suggesting a healthier job market than initially believed. Still, hiring has slowed this year. Gains averaged just 167,000 in the past 10 months, down from a monthly average of 223,000 in 2018, according to Labor Department figures. The government's October jobs report being released Friday will help show whether hiring remains a key source of strength for a U.S. economy that's been weakened by trade wars and a global slowdown. It will also provide a glimpse of whatever short-term damage the now-settled strike against General Motors inflicted on the economy. Analysts have forecast that employers added 90,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a 50-year low, according to a survey of forecasts by data provider FactSet. The predicted gain is an artificially low one because of the GM strike. The strike is thought to have caused roughly 60,000 idled workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed during October, meaning that the expected job gain would otherwise be far higher, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody Analytics. Hiring has slowed this past year, though it remains high enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising in an otherwise mostly lackluster economy. On Wednesday, the government estimated that the economy grew in the July-October quarter at a modest 1.9% annual rate. Surveys suggest that employers have turned cautious in large part because of heightened uncertainties caused by President Donald Trump's trade conflicts. The president has imposed tariffs on many goods imported to the U.S., and other nations have retaliated with import taxes on U.S. exports. One result is that companies, especially in manufacturing, construction and retail but also in some other sectors, have slowed their hiring or have stopped hiring altogether. "The fundamental outlook for payrolls is deteriorating, with all the surveys we follow pointing to weaker labor demand," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "Layoffs are still very low and stable, but the downshift in hiring is substantial." Still, consumers, who drive about 70% of U.S. economic activity, have remained generally resilient. In September, they modestly stepped up their spending, and their incomes grew fast enough to let them save more, too. A rising saving rate is encouraging because it suggests that households have leeway to keep spending and supporting an economic expansion that has entered a record-breaking 11th year. At the same time, businesses have been a drag on the economy in recent months. Collectively, they have slashed their spending on industrial machinery and other equipment, mostly because the U.S.-China trade war has made them reluctant to commit to big purchases. The tariffs between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies, have also reduced U.S. exports. So far this year, job growth has averaged roughly 161,000 a month, down from a monthly average of 223,000 jobs in 2018, according to Labor Department figures. October is the usual start of hiring for the holiday shopping season. But the rise of e-commerce and increasing concentration of wealth in large U.S. metros have corresponded with the loss of more than 70,000 jobs at retailers this year. This trend could further diminish hiring by the retail sector, said Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial. "Given the ongoing structural changes within retail and this year's late Thanksgiving, there was likely much less seasonal hiring this October than in past years," he said. Sluggish pay growth is another source of concern. The low unemployment rate and a shortage of qualified workers in many industries have nevertheless failed to accelerate wages across the job market as traditional economy theory would suggest. Average annual hourly pay growth has slipped from 3.4% in February to 2.9% in September. Still, data tracked by the jobs site Glassdoor indicates that wage gains should start to rebound as companies continue to compete for workers in the hottest job markets. Noting an upward trend in wages in his company's data, Glassdoor economist Daniel Zhao said, "The labor market is showing no signs of stopping in October."
|
<span class="ng_byline_credit">The Associated Press</span>
|
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/national-business/article236898343.html#storylink=rss
|
Fri, 01 Nov 2019 08:35:38 EDT
| 1,572,611,738 | 1,572,613,402 |
labour
|
labour market
|
90,655 |
charlotteobserver--2019-11-11--Brazil launches job program amid mass unemployment
| 2019-11-11T00:00:00 |
charlotteobserver
|
Brazil launches job program amid mass unemployment
|
President Jair Bolsonaro launched a jobs program Monday largely based on tax reductions as Brazil struggles to put more than 12 million people back to work. The pension and labor secretary said the administration aims to create 1.8 million jobs for people ages 18-29 and almost 1 million other jobs by the end of 2022. The jobs package comes amid stubborn double-digit unemployment as well as violent protests elsewhere in South America, including Chile, stemming partly from economic difficulties. Brazil's economy is headed toward its third straight year of roughly 1% growth, following two years of deep recession, and patience is wearing thin. "People between 18 and 29 have double the (average) unemployment rate. That is why we chose them to be beneficiaries," labor secretary Rogério Marinho said. "We will make payrolls less expensive over the next three years, responsibly, showing how we will make up for it while respecting the budget." Marinho said labor costs for employers will fall as much as 34% with the program for young people. Other measures include stimulating microcredit for those currently unable to take out loans, and flexibility to work holidays and Sundays. Left-leaning politicians have opposed Sunday work in the past, arguing it would open the door to exploitation. The rules are already in effect, but Brazil's Congress must ratify them. The administration's tax cut aims to encourage employers to hire young people who haven't had a job before and who are often drawn into low-paying informal labor. The program runs through the end of 2022. "The proposal attacks a market failure. Young people don't have experience, so they don't get jobs. Since they don't get jobs, they don't get experience," said Marcelo Neri, an economist who directs the social policy department at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university. "Moreover, it's the group of people who suffered most in the past five years." Brazil's unemployment surged during the 2015-2016 recession and has been in the double digits since. Three years ago, Bolsonaro's predecessor, Michel Temer, pitched a labor reform as certain to stimulate jobs. However, most employment gains since have come from informal or part-time work. Unemployment has come down since its 13.7% peak in 2017, but not fast enough to satisfy a beleaguered workforce. Joblessness was 11.8% in the third quarter, down from 11.9% in the same period a year earlier. Many of those who cast their vote for Bolsonaro last October hoped the shift in policy would reinvigorate the economy. Brazilians in recent years have turned to self-employment, for example performing odd jobs, doing deliveries on bike or motorcycle and driving for ride-share apps like Uber. Postings for steady jobs, even those paying as little as $400 a month, draw long lines of applicants. Official data from the third quarter show 4.7 million people are so disheartened that they have stopped looking for work.
|
<span class="ng_byline_name">By DAVID BILLER </span><span class="ng_byline_credit">Associated Press</span>
|
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/national-business/article237261744.html#storylink=rss
|
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 19:43:24 EST
| 1,573,519,404 | 1,573,520,329 |
labour
|
labour market
|
91,334 |
charlotteobserver--2019-12-09--New program to allow state employees to take infants to work
| 2019-12-09T00:00:00 |
charlotteobserver
|
New program to allow state employees to take infants to work
|
Starting in January, New Hampshire state employees will be able to take part in a program that will allow them to take their infant children to work, Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday. Sununu signed an executive order allowing parents and eligible guardians of infants between the ages of 6 weeks and 6 months to bring their child to work, so long as their state agency or department has elected to participate; the worker receives prior written authorization from the agency's human resource officer; the worker has completed an individualized plan for the infant; there's no safety hazard or concern to the parent of the infant; and there is limited disruption in the workplace. Sununu said over 20 state departments and agencies have chosen to participate so far. The program will be based on programs in several other states, including Arizona, Vermont and Washington. “This initiative can provide working families with options to give their kids the healthiest possible start to life while allowing them to remain in the workforce if they choose to do so," Sununu said at a news conference. When asked how many state employees this could affect currently, Sununu said “it's not that many, to be honest, but part of doing this is we hope it's more. We're trying to encourage and attract young people into the workforce." The policy says that “habitually disruptive or sick infants are not permitted in the workplace "and that parents participating in the program are required to comply with current state regulations governing child immunizations. The infants shall not be brought to meetings unless approved in advance by the agency's human resource officer and the meeting organizer. Diaper changes and disposal must take place only in a restroom, the policy said. The employer will provide at least one diaper changing station in their facility. Supervisors must allow lactating mothers flexible schedules to breastfeed and/or express milk. “This will alleviate a lot of that anxiety" that comes with the stress of being a new parent, said Sarah Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources who approved the policy. “I look forward to supporting the new moms and dads that work in our department." A spokeswoman for New Hampshire's largest state employee union, the State Employee Association, said the union wasn’t consulted and that there are agencies it doesn’t apply to.
|
<span class="ng_byline_name">By KATHY McCORMACK </span><span class="ng_byline_credit">Associated Press</span>
|
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article238196269.html#storylink=rss
|
Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:40:18 EST
| 1,575,938,418 | 1,575,939,249 |
labour
|
labour relations
|
91,334 |
charlotteobserver--2019-12-09--New program to allow state employees to take infants to work
| 2019-12-09T00:00:00 |
charlotteobserver
|
New program to allow state employees to take infants to work
|
Starting in January, New Hampshire state employees will be able to take part in a program that will allow them to take their infant children to work, Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday. Sununu signed an executive order allowing parents and eligible guardians of infants between the ages of 6 weeks and 6 months to bring their child to work, so long as their state agency or department has elected to participate; the worker receives prior written authorization from the agency's human resource officer; the worker has completed an individualized plan for the infant; there's no safety hazard or concern to the parent of the infant; and there is limited disruption in the workplace. Sununu said over 20 state departments and agencies have chosen to participate so far. The program will be based on programs in several other states, including Arizona, Vermont and Washington. “This initiative can provide working families with options to give their kids the healthiest possible start to life while allowing them to remain in the workforce if they choose to do so," Sununu said at a news conference. When asked how many state employees this could affect currently, Sununu said “it's not that many, to be honest, but part of doing this is we hope it's more. We're trying to encourage and attract young people into the workforce." The policy says that “habitually disruptive or sick infants are not permitted in the workplace "and that parents participating in the program are required to comply with current state regulations governing child immunizations. The infants shall not be brought to meetings unless approved in advance by the agency's human resource officer and the meeting organizer. Diaper changes and disposal must take place only in a restroom, the policy said. The employer will provide at least one diaper changing station in their facility. Supervisors must allow lactating mothers flexible schedules to breastfeed and/or express milk. “This will alleviate a lot of that anxiety" that comes with the stress of being a new parent, said Sarah Stewart, commissioner of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources who approved the policy. “I look forward to supporting the new moms and dads that work in our department." A spokeswoman for New Hampshire's largest state employee union, the State Employee Association, said the union wasn’t consulted and that there are agencies it doesn’t apply to.
|
<span class="ng_byline_name">By KATHY McCORMACK </span><span class="ng_byline_credit">Associated Press</span>
|
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article238196269.html#storylink=rss
|
Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:40:18 EST
| 1,575,938,418 | 1,575,939,249 |
labour
|
employment legislation
|
2 |
21stcenturywire--2019-01-01--YEAR IN REVIEW 2018 Top Ten Conspiracies
| 2019-01-01T00:00:00 |
21stcenturywire
|
YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018 Top Ten Conspiracies
|
Once again, we’ve arrived at our New Years Eve wrap-up, showcasing some of the most compelling and downright conspiratorial stories of the year. This past year was one of thee most polarizing ever, exposing some of the fundamental flaws in the current globalized command and control system. Unlike the establishment gatekeepers, when we use the word ‘conspiracy’ here, we are not talking about theories, but actual bona fide conspiracies and their cover-ups. There were a number of honorable mentions this year which would have been good enough to break into the top ten in previous years, but not this one… On the international scene, the world got a taste of what “Peace in the Pacific” might look like, as détente broke out on the Korean Peninsula, when North Korean leader Kim Jung-un sat down with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in to discuss a future without war, and with President Trump hoping to catch some of the kudos as he angles for the de-nuclearization of the Peninsula. Meanwhile, Trump proceeded to turn economic warfare into a national pastime, first by unilaterally pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and immediately slapping harsh sanctions on Iran. Trump then waged economic warfare against America’s top trading partners, including China, sending the stock market on one roller coaster ride after another. Over in Europe, the BREXIT debacle continued to ferment between London and Brussels, while a number of right-wing and populist movements continued to sweep across the EU, confounding pundits and analysts along the way. In the US, endless #MeToo sex scandals plagued Hollywood and the media, while the #NPCMeme nearly broke Twitter. We also witnessed the surreal Beatification of John McCain by the US political and media establishment, with a strange week of ceremonies and eulogies in honor of one of the most belligerent warmongers American history, but not to be outdone by the state funeral for President George H.W. Bush a few months later, who was given a similar saint-like, posthumous treatment. Later in the year, we also witnessed NATO and its proxy Ukraine nearly came to blows with Russia over the Kerch Strait provocation in Crimea – as the West’s case for war with Russia continues to press forward. The most important thing to bear in mind about 2018 is that nearly all of the marquee plots exist within either Trump or Russia framework, or both simultaneously. We can see that a sizeable portion of international politics is now being driven by domestic US politics – with the public left to believe that all roads lead back to Moscow, or to Trump Tower. By using these two skeleton keys, and you can skillfully surf almost all of the top conspiracies of 2018… 10. Parkland – Another day, another mass shooting, or so it seemed. They’ve almost become routine in America, complete with the usual scripted media template: breaking news of a lone gunman with mental issues who goes on an AR-15 rampage at a school, shopping mall or airport. That very character materialized again in the form of 19 year-old Nikolas Cruz, named as the suspect in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, apparently killing some 17 students and staff. However, never in the history has such an off-beat tragedy become such an overtly politicized event. Aside from the usual horror and outrage, what was unique about this incident was how rapidly it was transformed into a national political campaign, within hours in fact. No sooner were the bodies counted that a hand-picked group of good-looking, photogenic and camera-friendly students were being shuttled from one corporate media outlet to another, for around-the-clock interviews, coached by a team partisan TV producers and political operatives, and soon after speaking at public rallies around the country. What made this post-tragedy theatrical performance all the more contrived though, was how the over-arching imperative was not confined to elevating the issue of ‘gun control,’ or even the fact it was used as an anti-Trump media launching pad, but rather by using the emotive spectacle as a political platform for registering new Democratic Party voters in time before the 2018 US Midterm Elections. This drama took place in Florida’s Broward County, a hot bed of political corruption and organized crime, which for some unknown reason has also become a regular venue for a string of freak events – like the Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooting, and last October with another seemingly made-to-order political event right before midterm elections with faux a letter bomb extravaganza by alleged pro-Trump ‘MAGA Bomber’, Cesar Sayoc. Looking back, what’s perhaps even more bizarre is how fast all of these consumable “breaking” dramas fade from public view. 9. 2018 Midterm Circus – Normally, midterm elections pass without much fanfare, and rarely is it ever treated as a life and death national emergency. Never in US history has there been a more politicized midterm election than this one, with a series of dramatic plots and twists, all lined-up to try to sway or energize voters. Months before the election the media were already ginning up fear of “Russian Meddling!” – which of course never actually materialized. The Russian canard also prompted Facebook to instigate a mass political purge of alternative and conservative pages from its platform in the weeks before the midterm elections – a level of partisan corporate election interference never seen before in US history. Also set in motion just in time for the election was the Migrant Caravan of some 5,000 prospective immigrants from Central America hoping to rush the US southern border in November. This was coupled with a media campaign custom designed to shame President Trump and the Republican Party for not being compassionate enough in allowing for open borders to accommodate a seemingly unlimited number of migrants (future Democratic Party voters) into the country. Despite denials by various “fact checking” websites, it turned out that the Caravans have been mainly organized by a charity that’s bankrolled by NGOs funded by Democratic Party financier George Soros. While the Caravan was steaming along, a Congressional inquisition was also underway with Trump’s Supreme Court Justice pick, commonly known as the ‘Kavanaugh Hearings,’ which quickly descended into a #MeToo circus, with judge Brett Kavanaugh besieged by various and sundry women, including the opposition’s star witness, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford,who had accused Kavanaugh of a drunken high school sexual indiscretion some 35 years earlier, although she admitted she could not remember the details. As it turned out, most of the women accusers later admitted they had fabricated their stories and worked with partisan lawyers and media outlets in order to try to derail the confirmation of justice Kavanaugh. But the real piece de resistance came just days before voters were set to go to the polls. As if by magic, numerous fake letter bombs all appeared at the same time and same day at the homes and office addresses of Democratic Party luminaries George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters, Robert De Niro, and ex-CIA spook chieftain John Brennan. Bizarrely, Brennan’s fake package was addressed in care of CNN’s Manhattan headquarters – which allowed Democratic Party-oriented network CNN to sound the alarm dramatically announcing on-air they were evacuating its studios. These faux letter bombs were supposedly sent by one Cesar Sayoc, a Trump-supporting nutter dubbed (oddly, in advance of any evidence) by the media as the #MAGABomber (this made-to-order hashtag was deployed within minutes of news breaking). Naturally, the entire incident was blamed on Trump by CNN and others. Not to be out done, less than 48 hours later another ‘lone gunman’ appeared, identified as one Robert Bowers, a distraught middle aged social media user who stormed into the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, and shot 11 people. Aside from talk of ‘antisemitism’, the Pittsburgh event also helped to propel the issue of gun control back into the headlines ahead of the election, but more importantly, the shooting was used by mainstream media outlets who claimed that Trump was somehow responsible for the shooting – a clear case of the corporate media using what was an apparent tragedy in order to gain political leverage just days before an election. Needless to say, Americans were relieved when the 2018 midterms were finally over. 8. ‘Antisemitism in the Labour Party!’ – Undoubtedly, one of the biggest threats to the transnational war machine, and to Israel’s 70 year illegal occupation of Palestine – is the prospect of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn assuming the office of Prime Minister. As a result, the mainstream corporate media establishment and the Israeli Lobby have been working overtime to try and cut-down or discredit Corbyn in any way possible. Led by Rupert Murdoch’s Times of London, the establishment press have accused him of being an IRA terrorist, or an ISIS sympathizer, and of course, a Kremlin spy. This full-on assault was engineered by a conclave of pro-Israeli Zionist groups within the Labour Party, including LFI (Labour Friends of Israel), the JLM (the Zionist ‘Jewish Labour Movement’), backed up with endless fake stories about ‘Corbyn’s antisemitism’ planted in the mainstream media – all trying, but clearly failing to paint Corbyn as a raving anti-semite. As activist and Palestinian advocate, Miko Peled points out, the problem is not anti-Semitism but Corbyn’s stance on Palestine. “These Zionist groups want to get rid of Corbyn because of his principled stance on Palestine, Israeli colonialism and occupation of Palestine, and they use anti-Semitism labels because they think it will work,” said Peled. One should not underestimate just how deeply embedded the Israeli Lobby is in US and UK politics, and how The Lobby wages covert warfare in order to make sure American and British politicians are doing its bidding. The facts speak for themselves. 7. Gilet Jaunes aka Yellow Vests – This past autumn in Paris, Yellow Vests began to appear on the streets of Paris. At first, the world didn’t take much notice, but it wasn’t long until this protest developed into one of the most significant grassroots political movements in living memory – and nearly bringing the French government of globalist Emmanuel Macron to its knees. Naturally, the media tried the blame the movement on Russia, which was laughable. The Yellow Vests, or Gilets Jaunes, in French, sprouted up as an organic “leaderless movement”, but is described by a fearful mainstream press as ‘populist.’ They had initially gained steam in November, marshaling support against the government’s diesel fuel tax hikes, but quickly morphed into a general expression of anger against Macron, and even the EU. The movement is spreading beyond France too. Their complaint seems to be similar to so many people who’ve been scorned by the false promise of globalization and the all-singing and all-dancing technocracy espoused by social engineers and masters of high finance in Brussels. The sums simple don’t add up anymore for the working man and women, and now they are dedicated to disrupting a system which they believe no longer works for them. Watch this space in 2019. 6. Julian Assange – In 2018, it became clear that concerted moves were afoot between the US and Ecuadorian governments, conspiring in behind closed doors to bring WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange’s eight year standoff to an end. However, what our bought-and-paid-for corrupt corporate mainstream media won’t tell you is that Assange is actually holding the line for press freedom – and his fate may ultimately determine the future of the Fourth Estate. While US officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly accuse WikiLeaks of being “a non-state hostile intelligence service,” the reality is that Julian Assange and Wikileaks are a publisher and therefore should be protected under freedom of the press. Moreover, the US has no legitimate legal jurisdiction over Wikileaks which resides overseas. In order to force WikiLeaks into Washington’s legal field of gravity, the Western establishment is trying to frame Assange and WikiLeaks as somehow part of the official Trump-Russian Collusion conspiracy theory, which led the Establishment to draft in help from what has recently become the premier deep state disinformation and propaganda outlet, the UK’s The Guardian newspaper, and one of its many serial fabricators, ‘journalist’ Luke Harding who invented an elaborate front page story about how Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort (a central ‘person of interest’ in Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation into alleged Trump-Russia Collusion) had visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, supposedly as part of some secret Russian plot to put Donald Trump in the White House in 2016. This was clearly a move to slander Assange ahead of a possible extradition to the US following the revelation a secret sealed Grand Jury indictment filed years earlier. The tea leaves say this situation may soon come to a head – and when it does, either way, the trans-Atlantic Establishment will have to show their true face. 5. Trump Brings the Troops Home – Just before Christmas, President Trump attempted to do what no other US President has ever done, which is come good on his campaign promises. Trump shocked the world and the US foreign policy and military establishment when he announced the withdrawal of US troops from northeastern Syria, along with a draw-down of 7,000 troops (out of 14,000) from Afghanistan. The announcement came as a surprise to even the most ardent anti-interventionists who had all but resigned themselves to an indefinite US military presence in both those overseas locations. Trump’s decision triggered the resignation of Defense Secretary James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, supposedly in protest. As 21WIRE pointed out, the Military Industrial Complex will not let go of Afghanistan easily, as “The Generals” immediately began to disregard Trump’s remarks claiming they were ‘a rumor’. On Syria, it only took a week for Trump to back-pedal after a desperate intervention from the unhinged Neoconservative warmonger, Senator Lindsey Graham, who seems to have convinced the President not to fully withdraw from the illegal occupation in Syria. Bottom line: don’t trust the mainstream headlines, and certainly don’t trust the promises of politicians. – no matter how good they sound. 4. Khashoggi – If you believe everything you’ve heard from the mainstream press and the CIA, on 2nd October, Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known journalist and occasional critic (and hardly a dissident) of the Saudi government, walked into the country’s consulate in Istanbul, where he was supposedly murdered, and his body hacked to pieces by a bone saw, before the crime scene was ‘cleaned’ by a Saudi version of Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. Apparently, the Saudi Arabian government half owned-up to the crime, with its public prosecutor saying that Khashoggi was killed by a ‘rogue’ intelligence operation. Here’s the real kicker though: his body has not yet been found. In any court of law in the world, no guilty verdict could ever be reached in murder case without habeas corpus. But when it’s trial by media with high geopolitical stakes – pretty much anything can make it over what would normally be a much higher bar of justice. Ditto with Skripal, and ‘Assad’s chemical weapons’, too. The CIA’s well-timed announcement fingering Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the man who ordered the gruesome killing was then used to corner Trump who was attempting to salvage a lucrative US arms deals with the Kingdom. “Why is Trump is doing business with a murderer?” crowed the headlines. Aside from slating Saudi Arabia in the global court of public condemnation, the other upside of this affair is that it placed a spotlight on the US-UK partnership with Saudi in prosecuting the brutal 4 year war on Yemen, and has provided the US with an unlikely, yet smooth exit from a highly illegal military operation started by Barack Obama in March 2015. Every week it seems that the Turkish media is drip-feeding possible evidence, like secret ‘unreleased’ photos, or a new grainy CCTV video depicting something which might be construed as evidence – all in an effort to shore-up the official conspiracy theory, but still not definitive. So the murder of Khashoggi may not be a game of Clue, but it certainly resembles one. Still waiting for that body to turn up… 3. Integrity and The ‘New Knowledge’ – For those who know that the entire Russiagate conspiracy is a complete dud, Christmas came early this year. A cache of allegedly hacked documents posted on an Anonymous website revealed an international network, ironically called the “Integrity Initiative,” which is spread across NATO member states comprised of bureaucrats, politicians, journalists, academics, and military intelligence officers – all running a clandestine anti-Russian propaganda operation funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and with help from NATO, and deep state-linked Silicon Valley corporation Facebook. Integrity’s mission seems to be instigating and sustaining a New Cold War with Russia, by constantly driving fake news stories into the western press designed to create a climate of fear around all things Russian. The leak proved what many had suspected for years, but couldn’t yet prove existed. The operation is the brainchild of a Scotland-based think tank, with the cryptic title of the Institute for Statecraft, complete with a fake address, but whose members read like a who’s who of deep state intelligence operatives. Just follow the money and you’ll soon see that this is no ordinary ‘think tank’ initiative. Over in the US, a similar revelation came to light which exposed something amazing – that supposed ‘Russian meddling’ was actually run by a group of “tech specialists who lean Democratic,” New Knowledge has ties to both the US military and intelligence agencies. In other words, Democratic Party operatives bankrolled and ran a “false flag” meddling operation designed to be blamed on Russia. Admitted by even the New York Times, the group’s CEO and co-founder Jonathon Morgan previously worked for DARPA, the US military’s advanced research agency, along with partner, Ryan Fox, from the National Security Agency (NSA) and Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Together they perpetrated election interference by constructing their own “Russian Bot Farm” to give the false impression that the Russians were backing Republican candidate Roy Moore in Alabama’s special Senate election in 2017. Moore would go on to lose by a small margin. What Integrity and New Knowledge demonstrate is that everything the Western political establishment and media have accused the Russian government of doing – but never presented any evidence to prove it – is actually being done by agencies in the US and UK, against their own people. If that’s not a true black pill moment, then nothing is. 2. Skripal – If ever there was dazzling operation of international intrigue, obtuse statecraft, and pure Orwellian propaganda, it has to be the Skripal Affair. The plot goes like this: evil Russian assassins come to a sleepy Wiltshire town to launch a deadly chemical weapons attack against retired former Russian spy (technically a Russia-UK double agent), Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. The murder weapon: an esoteric chemical weapon known as Novichok, which UK authorities assured us was the deadliest nerve agent known to man. Only it wasn’t, as both the Skripals survived somehow, although never to be seen in public ever again. The motive: no apparent reason, just Putin being mean. “There’s no logic in it; it doesn’t make sense, and I don’t think it needs to make sense, because essentially what the media is doing is propagandizing the population in favor of the madman theory. That’s critical to do when you’re trying to start aggression against a country,” says Moon of Alabama. The story has since been advanced to ratchet-up western sanctions against Russia, and lay claim to the narrative that “Russia launched the first chemical weapons attack on European soil since WWII.” So the story goes, and it keeps going, with new innovative, just-in-time plot lines conjured to bridge the reality gap by NATO’s convenient, but as yet unofficial ‘open source’ investigative agency, Bellingcat. Yes, a truly unbelievable story. We’ll just leave it at that. 1. R.I.P. Liberal World Order – Of course, the big ticket item has to be the one which challenges the enduring post-World War II world order. Ever since Donald Trump was sworn-in early 2017, the globalist establishment have been commiserating in their various journals of record – about the end of the ‘Liberal World Order’. And they all seem to be blaming it on the ascendency of Donald Trump who they believe is buttressed by the Alt-Right and Vladimir Putin, all of whom are hell-bent on dismantling 70 years of progress and all of the various multilateral international institutions starting with the UN. So the narrative goes. If CFR luminaries like Richard Haas are to be believed, this historical collapse of the liberal elite order is all because of Trump, uneducated Brexit voters, the Russians, and anti-immigration nationalists in Europe. “Liberalism is in retreat. Democracies are feeling the effects of growing populism. Parties of the political extremes have gained ground in Europe. The vote in the United Kingdom in favor of leaving the EU attested to the loss of elite influence. Even the US is experiencing unprecedented attacks from its own president on the country’s media, courts, and law-enforcement institutions,” said Haas in March. The refusal of the liberal intelligensia to admit the real reasons why their order is coming apart at the seams will only hasten its demise. Perhaps it is because of their own arrogance and out-of-touch relationship with the other 90% who work for living, as well as the endless wars for profit, transnational corporate monopolies, and spiraling taxes, fees and fines across the board. Rather than have an honest ‘come to Jesus moment,’ instead they are throwing their toys out of the pram – just look at the diabolical media coverage across CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, the BBC, and the like. Rather than learn or listen to the throngs of protesters in France, German, Brazil, Italy, Greece, or Sweden, instead, elites are doubling down on their Trump-Russia conspiracy theories. It’s for this reason too that the Yellow Vest movement is completely lost on the CFR crowd. It’s true, the world is changing, and rapidly. Granted, it’s not certain that whatever replaces the current world order will be any better than its predecessor; if we are honest about why the old order is no longer fit for purpose, then there is less chance that any real progress is going to be made going forward. Let that be the underlying lesson of 2018.
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21wire
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https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/12/31/year-in-review-2018-top-ten-conspiracies/
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2019-01-01 04:59:48+00:00
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politics
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government policy
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21stcenturywire--2019-12-13--The Financialization of the US Economy Should Terrify All Americans
| 2019-12-13T00:00:00 |
21stcenturywire
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The Financialization of the US Economy Should Terrify All Americans
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Wall Street road sign with the New York Stock Exchange bearing American flags visible in the background. (Photo: Alex Proimos. Source: Wikicommons) Although academics have nuanced definitions of financialization, it boils down to the financial sector – such as banks, credit card businesses, and insurance companies – becoming an increasingly larger part of the overall economy. Financialization enriches a select few at the majority’s expense and should terrify all Americans. The financial sector produces no goods that can be consumed, such as food, clothing, or medicine. As a result, an expanding financial sector without the matching growth of the “real” economic sector transforms productive economic activities to the business of a casino, using real resources but producing no tangible output. Even more, a rapidly growing financial sector is stoked by borrowed money or debt, something that has historically been the catalyst for financial crises, recessions, and even depressions. If unchecked, the financial sector’s increasing prominence will, in time, damage the real economy and the social fabric of the United States. The financial sector sits between savers and borrowers: it takes money from savers and channels those funds those who want to borrow, such as businesses and projects. The performance of the financial sector depends on how well it carries out two tasks: providing savers with the range of financial instruments they want and channeling savings to the most productive areas, namely, projects with the highest rate of return. This then supports the growth of the real economy that produces goods and services that can be consumed or invested in, creating high paying jobs and overall prosperity in the process. The financial industry plays an essential role in creating a balanced and high performing economy that includes growth, low unemployment and inflation, stability, and a manageable level of national debt to protect future generations. Since 1980, the relative size of the American financial sector has about doubled in the overall economy. Now the question is, has the U.S. economy’s real performance increased since then? In the 1950s and 1960s, the average real annual economic growth rate was above 4 percent, but since 2009, it has been below 2 percent. From 1946 to 1973, real median household income surged 74 percent, but the numbers have not risen significantly for nearly 40 years. Financialization has increased the wellbeing of the top 1 percent and especially the top 0.01 percent, and all of this with the debt-to-GDP ratio rising from 32 percent in 1980 to a whopping 106 percent in 2018…. Continue reading this story at The Globe Post *** Author Hossein Askari is an Emeritus Iran Professor of International Business and International Affairs at the George Washington University. In 1991, he was asked by the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia to mediate and restore their diplomatic relations and by the government of Kuwait to improve relations with Iran READ MORE FINANCIAL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Financial Files
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Featured News
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https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/12/13/the-financialization-of-the-us-economy-should-terrify-all-americans/
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Fri, 13 Dec 2019 15:41:14 +0000
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economy, business and finance
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economy
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breitbart--2019-09-21--Trump to Host UN Event Urging Protection of Religious Freedom
| 2019-09-21T00:00:00 |
breitbart
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Trump to Host U.N. Event Urging Protection of Religious Freedom
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Trump will keynote the event, and Vice President Mike Pence will introduce the president. Trump will seek broader international support for efforts to safeguard religious freedom amid the increasing persecution of people based on their faith beliefs and the growing number of attacks on houses of worship. “The President will call on the international community to take concrete steps to prevent attacks against people on the basis of their religion or beliefs and to ensure the sanctity of houses of worship and all public spaces for all faiths,” the press release states. Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins said in a statement to Breitbart News, “We are grateful for President Trump’s bold decisive leadership on international religious freedom.” No one should have to practice their faith or worship God in fear. The Trump administration’s record is witness to the fact that they clearly understand the foundational role international religious freedom plays in our national security, as well as the economic and social stability of foreign nations. History will record President Trump was right in making religious freedom a top priority in our nation’s foreign policy. The Trump administration continues to expand efforts to combat the persecution of people based on their religious beliefs and to broaden support for the defense of human life throughout the world. Travis Weber, FRC vice president for policy and government affairs, wrote Tuesday at Townhall that the United States under Trump’s leadership has “already distinguished itself as a global leader” on the issue of religious freedom. Weber also observed four ways the Trump administration can continue its “wake-up call” to the “current worldwide crisis” of religious freedom: “The U.S. can and should lead the world in advancing religious freedom,” Weber wrote. “The consequences of ignoring the victims of religious oppression are far too grave. If President Trump highlights these areas in his UN speech … it would boost the United States in its role as a world leader on religious freedom.” On the issue of the dignity of all human life, Bradley Mattes, president of Life Issues Institute and the International Right to Life Federation, recently commended United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar for their “unprecedented letter” inviting other world leaders to stand with the U.S. in defending life at the U.N. The secretaries’ letter followed a joint statement at the 2019 World Health Assembly by the U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia in which the countries condemned the use of the phrase “sexual and reproductive health and rights” to force a pro-abortion agenda. “[P]lease encourage other countries in your region to join this growing coalition to push back against harmful efforts to interpret long-standing international instruments as requiring anti-family and pro-abortion policies,” Pompeo and Azar wrote to the other world leaders, “and to promote proactively positions that will protect families and strengthen the health of all people.”
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Dr. Susan Berry
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/LquNCKSFAdw/
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2019-09-21 17:24:04+00:00
| 1,569,101,044 | 1,570,222,530 |
religion and belief
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religious belief
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aljazeera--2019-01-15--Indias mega Kumbh festival gets BJP boost ahead of election
| 2019-01-15T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
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India's mega Kumbh festival gets BJP boost ahead of election
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New Delhi, India - Over 100 million people will be taking a holy dip at the confluence of two rivers in northern India's Prayagraj city as the eight-week-long Kumbh festival began on Tuesday. The Kumbh, billed as the world's biggest gathering of humanity, is a mass pilgrimage in which Hindus gather in specific locations along the holy rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical river Saraswati for a holy dip that they believe will cleanse their sins and bring salvation. The religious event in the Uttar Pradesh state, which will continue till March 4, is being organised by the right-wing governments at both the federal and state levels in an election year. Astrology determines most aspects of the UNESCO-listed festival, including its exact date and length. Where the festival will be held depends on the positions of the planet Jupiter, sun and the Earth. "It is an exhilarating experience. To be part of a sea of humanity that arrives to take a dip in the holy waters, it is humbling and joyful. You abandon your fears at the Kumbh and hopefully your sins," Gopal Mishra, a devout Hindu who has been to the festival several times, told Al Jazeera. There are six particularly auspicious days to bathe, termed as Shahi Snan, meaning a royal bath. The biggest bathing day is February 4, when approximately 30 million people are expected to take a dip. The first Shahi Snan began before the dawn on Tuesday. "Teams will be managing crowds on the river bank. All roads leading to the Kumbh Mela grounds will be packed with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in the coming days," Bimlesh Kumar, a senior official at the government tourism department told Al Jazeera. "We are expecting around 120 million people, and an additional two million foreign visitors this year. The festival will continue for 49 days. An average two million people are likely to take a dip every day," he added. Prayagraj city had been preparing for the festival for months as the government built communal areas with 20,000 beds and a tented city with 4,200 "premium" tents around the river. According to a report, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led federal and state governments are spending over $620m, more than triple the public money spent in 2013 on the same event. The government says 116 roads have been constructed and 524 shuttle buses deployed to transport the pilgrims. More than 122,000 toilets have been built for the attendees. On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to say he hoped visitors to this year's Kumbh would "experience India's spiritual, cultural and social diversities". Translated tweet: "Good wishes for the sacred Kumbh Mela starting at Prayagraj. I hope the devotees from India and abroad will get a glimpse of the country's spiritual, cultural and social diversities. I wish more and more people become part of this divine and grand event." The relentless promotion of Kumbh by the ruling BJP coincides with the general election due in a few months. The BJP's electoral losses in five Indian states last month have shown a dip in Modi's popularity. The ruling party is making renewed appeals to its hardcore Hindu nationalist base in Uttar Pradesh, India's politically most important state, which is hosting this year's Kumbh. Ahead of the Kumbh gathering, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath changed the name of the historical city of Allahabad to the more "Hindu" sounding Prayagraj. The BJP has also announced the construction of a giant statue of Hindu deity Ram in the state. In contrast, the state police are cracking down on Muslims praying in open areas like parks. Earlier in 2018, the Indian government had also announced the end of a decades-long policy of giving subsidy to thousands of Muslims heading to the holy city of Mecca to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 200 million people, sends 80 MPs to Parliament's lower house, the reason it is a politically crucial state. Opposition parties say the government is trying to hide its failures in governance and is promoting itself in the media instead of the Kumbh festival. Images of Modi and Adityanath are splashed on Kumbh promotional billboards across Prayagraj city. "Kumbh is not a substitute for effective governance. The BJP often behaves like a publicity and marketing company. This holy festival has always been organised by the government. But money was never spent such lavishly, solely for advertisements of the government," Akhilesh Pratap Singh, national spokesperson of the Congress party, told Al Jazeera in Lucknow. "At the moment, people want answers from them. Where are the jobs for our youth, safety for women, rule of law, industry? It's not possible for them to deflect attention from their governance failures any more," he added. The Kumbh has been marred several times by stampedes. Over 800 people were killed in 1954, 40 died in Nashik western India in 2003, while 36 people died in the 2013 gathering in Allahabad (now Prayagraj). On Monday, a small fire broke out at one of the camps, although no casualties were reported. Hindu religious belief says that in a fight over an urn between the gods and the demons, a few drops of the essence of immortality spilled on to four places on the Earth, which now host the Kumbh, one of which is Prayagraj. There are three different kinds of Kumbh: an Ardha (or half) Kumbh held every six years at two locations, a Purna (or full) Kumbh every 12 years at four locations and a Maha Kumbh that happens every 144 years or after 12 Purna Kumbhs. Critics of the Modi government say a half Kumbh is being given unprecedented prominence this time and there is a conscious attempt to boost support for events that reinforce Hindu symbols appealing to the BJP's Hindu nationalist support base. India's 1.3 billion people are about 80 percent Hindu and appeals to religion or caste are deeply ingrained in Indian politics. A report by the investigative magazine Caravan last month said the BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is attempting to drum up support for the government using the Kumbh ahead of the elections. Hindu supremacist groups such as the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are clamouring for a government order to bypass the Supreme Court in order to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya city of Uttar Pradesh. In 1992, a Hindu mob tore down a medieval mosque, which they claim stood at a contested site believed to be the birthplace of Ram. "Right from the Babri mosque demolition, the right-wing in India always uses religious congregation to promote Hindutva or a militant radical strain of Hinduism backed by the current ruling party. Previous Kumbh festivals from the mid-1980s onwards have been fertile ground for making political demands," Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera. But the ruling BJP denies any political overtones to the festival. "It is a sacred and auspicious time for Hindus. Kumbh has a special place in not just the religious but cultural life of Indians. Every government, irrespective of ideology, has been organising this festival at a mega scale," Sudhanshu Mittal, spokesperson of the ruling BJP, told Al Jazeera. On January 31 and February 1, a Dharma Sansad (religious assembly) will be held at the Kumbh by the VHP, one of the many far-right Hindu groups linked to the ruling BJP party. On the opening day of the festival, the Indian media reported slogans of "Modi, you lead the fight, we are with you" and "the temple will be built in Ayodhya" being raised on loudspeakers amid religious Hindu chants. The idea is to use Kumbh as a rallying point, says Akshaya Mukul, the author of "Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India". "In the times of divided polity and an election year, a Hindu nationalist party like BJP will definitely extract political mileage out of it. Social media is abuzz with videos praising the BJP for its arrangements. Apparently, never before has a state administration worked so hard," Mukul told Al Jazeera. "It is ironic that in a state where infants die for the lack of oxygen, arrangement of a religious fair is seen as a marker of good administration," he said, referring to a 2017 tragedy in which more than 60 infants died for lack of oxygen in a state-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh due to unpaid bills. "The BJP will use this year's Kumbh to the hilt and maximise benefits. It remains to be seen if it succeeds or not since it has failed in fulfilling its basic promises of jobs, education and healthcare," said Mukul.
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/india-mega-kumbh-festival-bjp-boost-election-190115074006347.html
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2019-01-15 09:49:51+00:00
| 1,547,563,791 | 1,567,552,409 |
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9,867 |
aljazeera--2019-02-15--The victory was so strong Afghans celebrate Soviet pullout
| 2019-02-15T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
|
'The victory was so strong': Afghans celebrate Soviet pullout
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Kabul, Afghanistan - Mohammad Wazir Razi "Kabuli", now about 52, was very young when the Soviet Army invaded his country. But his memory of what followed in the years after is impeccable. "I was in grade six and everything changed overnight, our school, our neighbourhood. The Soviets hadn't just invaded the country, they invaded our culture and religion too," he recalled. "They imposed the national anthem on us, they made young boys forcefully attend pro-Soviet meetings and join national marches. They even tried to stop people from praying and attending religious events," he told Al Jazeera. The Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support a communist government that was facing internal threats. The largely Muslim population did not welcome a Russian intervention in support of an already unpopular regime. Armed Afghan fighters, labelled the mujahideen, launched a rebellion against the superpower that resulted in a decade of bloodshed and destruction. For Kabuli, the horrors of the invasion came too close to home. As a family of religious scholars, they faced persecution from the Soviet-supported communist regime. "They targeted not just the young men, but also women, children and the elderly. They tortured religious leaders, removed their nails. They jailed hundreds of people," he said. Witnessing the suffering of those around him convinced Kabuli it was his duty to join and fight the Russians, and at a very young age, he left school to help the fighters. "Being young, I was mostly given logistical responsibilities and in the few battles that I did participate, I was given the role of a nurse to provide first aid to the injured," he said. "In the end, after nine years of fighting, we won. We defeated the Soviets, with few resources. And today, we celebrate that victory of Islam against the communists," he added with pride. Some of the prominent Mujahideen leaders went on to establish themselves as political actors. Among them is Atta Mohammad Noor, a prominent leader of the Jamiat-i-Islami party and the former governor of Balkh province. He celebrates the anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal as a victory not just for Afghans, but also for everyone in the former Soviet bloc. "We are very proud of our fight and struggle against the Soviet Union. We are proud that we defeated one of the two major superpowers of that time, despite poverty and lack of resources," he told Al Jazeera. "The mujahideen victory brought freedom to so many other countries in the eastern bloc which was controlled by Soviet Union. They got freedoms because of the mujahideen. Because we took up weapons in our country, they were able to get freedoms," he said. "Militarily the Soviet army was not defeated. They continued to control much of Afghanistan, at least the cities and also part of the countryside - not unlike the current situation," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director, Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), drawing a comparison with the potential withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. "But unlike the US now, they really were in an economic crisis," he added. The nine-year-long Afghan war was too costly for the Soviet Union. An estimated 15,000 Soviet troops lost their lives, with more than twice that wounded. The financial burden ran into the billions. A number of historians say the withdrawal of the Soviet army dealt a blow to the national morale that contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union. "The victory was so strong that its impact was felt in Germany with the fall of the Berlin wall, and in at least 10 other countries that eventually separated from the Soviet Union control," Kabuli said. He said Afghans didn't get to experience the fruits of their struggle because of the persistent conflict that followed in their country. After the Soviet withdrawal, the mujahideen descended into factions that fought brutally among themselves and reduced parts of the capital to rubble. "As a result, the Taliban emerged and gained dominance," Noor said. "That not only undermined our achievements but also the name of the mujahideen to some extent." Thirty years after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Kremlin is once again trying to have influence in Afghanistan. Last summer, US officials began to hold a series of peace talks with the Taliban representatives. Russia started its own parallel negotiating track, hosting meetings in Moscow in November and earlier in February. At that gathering, several Afghan politicians, many of whom were former mujahideen fighters, including Noor, represented Afghan interests, in a first of its kind meeting with the Taliban. "Any country that helps in ensuring security and peace in Afghanistan, we welcome and support it," Noor told Al Jazeera. The Russian special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said on Wednesday that the US had "completely failed" in Afghanistan, and Moscow could be an honest broker. He urged US troops to leave as quickly as possible. "They could stay for another few years but in the end, they'll have to go, and this time in disgrace," Kabulov said. Some of the former mujahideen, however, view Russia's role in the peace talks with suspicion. "I believe that Russians only want to take revenge from the US, for their defeat in Afghanistan. They want to once again be involved in our regional politics actively," said Faizullah Jalili, a former mujahideen fighter. "This is a good opportunity for the Taliban to have such a powerful partner on their side against the US," he said. "After the lessons that the Russian learned from their experience in Afghanistan, I don't think they have the will to do what they did back then," shared Kabuli. "But whoever wants to make peace with us, our arms are open for embrace," he added.
| null |
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/victory-strong-afghans-celebrate-soviet-pullout-190215145700258.html
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2019-02-15 18:25:46+00:00
| 1,550,273,146 | 1,567,548,435 |
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15,995 |
aljazeera--2019-09-20--Multiple casualties after bomb goes off on bus outside Karbala
| 2019-09-20T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
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Multiple casualties after bomb goes off on bus outside Karbala
|
At least 12 people have been killed and several others wounded in a blast from a bomb planted on a bus near the Iraqi city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, two local police officers said. Two police spokesmen at the blast site told Reuters News Agency that an explosive device planted on the bus detonated at a northern entrance to the city, setting fire to the vehicle. Quoting local officials, the Associated Press said five passengers were wounded in the explosion, which occured as the bus was passing through an Iraqi army checkpoint between Karbala and the town of al-Hilla. One official told The Associated Press that before the blast, a passenger exited the minibus but left a bag containing explosives under one of the seats. The device was then detonated remotely at the checkpoint. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The officials said all of the dead were civilians killed in the explosion and subsequent fire in the bus The bombing took place during a holy period marked by Shias between two important religious events, Ashoura and Arbaeen. Arbaee is the annual commemoration marking the end of the mourning period for the martyrdom of Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson. Iraqis and Shia pilgrims from around the world visit Karbala, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad, during this time of year.
| null |
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/deadly-bombing-targets-bus-iraqi-city-karbala-190920183400987.html
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2019-09-20 20:34:10+00:00
| 1,569,026,050 | 1,569,590,596 |
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aljazeera--2019-10-08--Iran sees Iraq unrest as a plot to undo bilateral ties
| 2019-10-08T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
|
Iran sees Iraq unrest as a plot to undo bilateral ties
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Since they erupted a week ago, the deadly protests in Iraq have been tracked closely in Iran where they are seen as a plot to undermine ties between the neighbours. Tehran has close but complicated relations with Baghdad, holding significant clout among its Shia political groups. The two countries fought a devastating war from 1980 to 1988 and Iran's influence in Iraq grew after the US-led invasion toppled longtime ruler Saddam Hussein in 2003. Clashes that broke out in Iraq last week between protesters and security forces have killed over 100 people and wounded over 6,000 - most of them demonstrators struck by bullets. The rallies began on Tuesday with calls to reduce corruption and unemployment but have spiralled into demands for the fall of the government and overhaul of the political system. A string of Iranian officials have since come out with statements accusing their country's arch-foes of being behind the unrest. "Enemies seek to sow discord but they've failed & their conspiracy won't be effective," supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on his office's Twitter account. "Iran and Iraq are two nations whose hearts & souls are tied together...This bond will grow stronger day by day," it said. State news agency IRNA said the supreme leader was reacting to the violence in Iraq. The official news agency weighed in with its own commentary, accusing the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel of stirring the Iraqi protests in order to spoil Iran's ties with Iraq and Syria. "Unprecedented protests in Iraqi cities... show that some forces inside and outside of the region are seriously concerned about the closeness and cooperation" of Baghdad, Tehran and Damascus, it added. Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei opened his weekly news conference on Monday with a statement on the Iraqi crisis. He said there "are ill-wishers who seek to sabotage any opening between us and those neighbours who have had differences of opinions in recent years". The spokesman called on "the great people of Iraq to show more self-restraint and seek democratic and legal means to reach their demands. "As always, the Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its readiness to stand beside Iraqi brothers and sisters and help them. No form of propaganda can sever the people of Iran and Iraq." Iran has accused its foes of deliberately stirring trouble in Iraq at a time when vast numbers of pilgrims are heading there for one of the world's largest religious events. A top military adviser to Khamenei said those behind the unrest would be unable to deter the faithful, however. "They want to scare people into not going to Arbaeen, but even if it rains arrows and stones, Hussein's lovers will not be afraid," Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. Arbaeen marks the end of the 40-day mourning period for the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein by the forces of the Caliph Yazid. Last week, Iran urged citizens who were planning to head to Iraq to delay their travel for the pilgrimage, which culminates on October 17 with the Arbaeen commemoration. On Monday, Iran reopened the Khosravi border crossing with Iraq following its closure last week as the protests raged. IRNA said the fact that the "provocations" came ahead of Arbaeen showed Iran's enemies were "scared". Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said those responsible for the unrest in Iraq aimed to undermine Arbaeen. "The seditionists intend to undermine and sap enthusiasm for this great event," he said, quoted by state television's website. "The vigilant people of Iraq exposed this sedition. But everyone must be careful. The seditionists are seeking new tricks at any moment to overshadow the Arbaeen ceremony and to undermine it." The hardline Keyhan newspaper said "evidence" pointed to the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel being involved. A columnist in the reformist Shargh daily also suggested the Americans, Israelis and Saudis might be the "hidden hands" behind the Iraqi protests. "Even if that is not the case, the chaotic and tense situation in Iraq today can prepare the grounds for these actors to ride the wave to fulfil their objectives and demands," wrote Abdelrahman Fathollahi.
| null |
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/iran-sees-iraq-unrest-plot-undo-bilateral-ties-191008052830021.html
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Tue, 08 Oct 2019 07:42:05 GMT
| 1,570,534,925 | 1,570,544,522 |
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bbc--2019-08-25--Nigerias fertility goddess festival
| 2019-08-25T00:00:00 |
bbc
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Nigeria's fertility goddess festival
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The Osun Osogbo festival, a traditional celebration that is thought to be 600 years old, is under way in Nigeria's south-western Osun state. The two-week festival is considered to be the biggest annual traditional religious event of the Yoruba people. It attracts thousands of worshippers and spectators not just from Nigeria but from all over the world. Traditional beliefs involving animist spirits are still widely held in Nigeria. Devotees at the Osun-Osogbo festival believe that the sacred grove forest, situated on the outskirts of the city of Osogbo, is one of the last remaining places that the spirits, or "Orishas" reveal themselves to bless them. The festival is marked with daily performances of people dancing, singing, playing the drums and showing off elaborate costumes to appease Osun, the goddess of fertility. The famous Eyo masquerade performers from Lagos state have taken part in this year's festival. The main attraction of the festival is the Arugba, a virgin maiden who is supposed to help the people communicate with the deity, who leads a procession of devotees to offer sacrifices to the river. The Arugba, also known as the 'calabash carrier', has a large calabash on her head underneath a colourful veil. It contains the sacrifices of the entire community and those offered by the people in attendance. Every Arugba has to remain a virgin during her time in the role. You may be interested in: Before the procession to the river, worshippers offer prayers at the priestess' shrine. Experts on traditional religion in Nigeria say the festival was started by the founders of the town of Osogbo around 600 years ago. They had planned to build their houses by the river bank, but as they began felling trees, it is said the spirit of the river-god Osun called out to them, ordering them away. The grove has been a sacred area of worship for the spirit's devotees ever since. In 2003, the last remaining 67 acres of virgin forest in the area, was recognised by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The chief host of the festival Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, whose title is Ataoja of Osogbo, also plays a major role in the event. Here he is honoured by visiting monarchs from neighbouring towns. The festival also attracts foreigners, some of them are tourists, others are drawn by what they see as a religious and cultural connection. "We have a large group of Orisha devotees in Slovenia and in all parts of ex-Yugoslavia, so a lot of these people came here to celebrate with the Nigerian people because we share the same culture... we all worship the nature," a worshipper from Slovenia told the BBC. "We are thrilled about this festival and we are all getting the blessing of Osun here, from the very source of it, and we are grateful to all Nigerian people for making this place available for tourists and devotees." Traders take advantage of the thousands of visitors to the town to sell beads and religious ornaments. Christian missionaries had tried to stamp out animist beliefs while Nigeria was under British rule. Rituals involved with Orisha worship at that time included human sacrifice, which was stopped by the authorities. But since the 1980s, the festival's popularity has been growing in part because of the activism of Austrian-born artist Susanne Wenger, who rebuilt the shrines and worked to get the grove protected. Ms Wenger arrived in Nigeria in 1950s, she later divorced her husband and resolved to stay in Osogbo for the rest of her life. She was also known as Adunni Olorisha.
| null |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-49367967
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2019-08-25 23:19:51+00:00
| 1,566,789,591 | 1,567,533,434 |
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birminghammail--2019-04-01--Isra and Miraj 2019 - when is it how is it celebrated and is it a public holiday
| 2019-04-01T00:00:00 |
birminghammail
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Isra and Miraj 2019 - when is it, how is it celebrated and is it a public holiday?
|
With the holy month of Ramadan not far away, the Islamic calendar is beginning to come to life with various events. Next up is Isra and Miraj - the name for two parts of a night-time journey undertaken by the Prophet Muhammad. It comes a month before Ramadan so it is part of a greater awareness and preparation for that upcoming month of daily fasting. This physical and spiritual journey is remembered and celebrated each year - usually on the 27th day of Rajab, the seventh month in the Muslim calendar. So what is this event and how is it celebrated? Here's all you need to know. Isra and Miraj refers to two parts of a journey made by Muhammad. The Isra refers to his physical journey from Mecca to what the Qur'an describes as the 'farthest mosque in Jerusalem.' Miraj refers to the prophet's spiritual journey to Heaven. This religious event is also known as Lailat al Miraj, with the first word translating as 'night'. Masjid Al Aqsa is regarded as the location of the 'farthest mosque' - this traditionally describes the large sacred site sometimes called Haram Al Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). The sanctuary contains multiple mosques including the gold-plated Dome of the Rock and the silver-domed Quibly building. Some worshippers refer to the Quibly mosque as Masjid Al Aqsa but this name is usually used to describe the entire site. He is said to have travelled on a flying creature called the Buraq, which had the head of a woman, the body of a horse, wings and - in some depictions - the tail of a peacock. Muhammad ascended to Heaven with the angel Gabriel and met a different prophet at each of the seven levels of Heaven. Firstly he met Adam, then John the Baptist and Jesus, then Joseph, Idris, Aaron, Moses, and Abraham. He was then instructed by Allah (God) that Muslims must recite a ritual prayer called Salah (or Salat) several times a day - he was initially told they must pray 50 times a day but after asking for this to be reduced, it eventually ended up at the five daily prayers that are now one of the pillars of the religion. In 2019, Isra and Miraj is on Wednesday, April 3. Although the exact date of Muhammad's journey is not certain, it is widely believed to have taken place in 621 AD on the 27th day of Rajab, the seventh month in the Muslim calendar and one of four holy months in which fighting is not allowed. The Islamic calendar is based on the moon and, because the Western calendar is based on the sun, the dates of Muslim events move back each year. So the 2019 date is earlier than in 2018, when Isra and Miraj was on Friday, April 13, which is in turn 10 days earlier than in 2017. Muslim days runs from sunset to sunset and so worshippers will start to celebrate on the evening of Tuesday, April 2. However, some scholars believe Muhammad's journey took place in another month altogether - such as Dhu'l-Hijjah, Ramadan or Rabi' al-Awwal. Because Islamic officials cannot say with absolute certainty when it should take place, Isra and Miraj is not a compulsory celebration. Islam only has two annual celebrations that Muslims MUST take part in: the two Eid events of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Other events on the Islamic calendar are not mandatory. For those that choose to do so, Isra and Miraj is marked in various ways. Some Muslims gather at their local mosque for prayers, while others celebrate at home by telling the story of Muhammad's journey to children and reciting prayers at night. In some Muslim countries, cities are illuminated with candles and lights. Worshippers sometimes take part in fasting. Fasting can be observed at any time except on six prohibited days of the year so it is allowed at Isra and Miraj but is not any more significant or beneficial than on a normal day. Because of uncertainties over the exact date, some Muslims don't celebrate Isra and Miraj at all. Isra and Miraj has NOT been designated a public holiday in the United Arab Emirates this year. It was a public holiday in previous years, but has not been included in the UAE Cabinet's list of official holidays for 2019. There will, however, be a 'dry day' in the UAE city of Dubai. Hotels in Dubai will refrain from serving alcohol between 6pm on Tuesday, April 2, and 7pm on Wednesday, April 3, to mark the occasion, reports The National. Oman has announced a two-day public holiday (April 3 and 4) to mark Isra and Miraj, and in Kuwait there is a holiday on April 4. It's not a bank holiday in the UK.
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David Bentley
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https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/isra-miraj-2019-it-how-16061073
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2019-04-01 22:50:56+00:00
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birminghammail--2019-09-04--When is Diwali 2019 in the UK All the dates and celebrations for Festival of Lights
| 2019-09-04T00:00:00 |
birminghammail
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When is Diwali 2019 in the UK? All the dates and celebrations for Festival of Lights
|
As the nights start to draw in and we head towards autumn and winter, we will soon be glad of some illumination to brighten the gloom. The celebrations of Diwali - the Festival of Lights - will be among the events that bring a warm and pretty glow to Birmingham and cities across the UK and around the world. It involves millions of lights being placed at temples, shops, homes, businesses and other buildings in the countries where the festival is observed. Diwali comes around in October or November every year. But like so many other religious events, the date varies from year to year. This festivity - also written as Dipavali, Deepawali and similar variations - is celebrated by the Hindu community. The word means 'rows of lamps.' It's also observed by Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists. So when will it be this year? Here's what we know about Diwali in the UK for 2019. The main date of Diwali this year is Sunday, October 27. Diwali is actually a five-day festival so it runs two days before and after that main night. It will begin on Friday, October 25 and end on Tuesday, October 29. In southern India and Singapore, the main day of Diwali will be a day earlier, on October 26. In 2018, Diwali fell on November 7 and in 2020 it will be on November 14. Diwali is one of the religious festivals where dates change every year, as also happens with Islamic events including Eid and with Christian events including Easter, Lent and Mother's Day. The third day of the festival - the main Diwali night - takes place on the darkest night of the lunar month, which is when there is a new moon. That's known as Kartik Amavasya (New Moon Day). It is the darkest night after the Hindu month of Ashvin has ended and the month of Kartika has begun. When the date of that new moon is known, the Diwali festival can be given its place on the calendar. It also falls on the 15th day of the month of Kartika. Diwali is not a public holiday in the UK. But it is an official holiday in several other countries including India, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, Myanmar, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Diwali symbolises the victory of light over darkness, right over wrong, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. The exact events behind Diwali vary, depending on the region and the religion. For some, it celebrates the story of King Rama's return from exile after he defeated Ravana and his evil army. As Rama returned to the city of Ayodhya, people lit the path home by lighting rows of clay lamps. Others see it as the day that Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. And in eastern India, Diwali is linked to the goddess Kali, who represents the destruction of evil. The first day of the festival is also the time when the goddess Lakshmi was born and the main night is when Lakshmi married the god Vishnu. For some Hindus, the main night of Diwali is also the start of the new year. For Sikhs, Diwali comes on the same day as Bandi Chhor Divas - the Day of Liberation. It marks the date when Guru Hargobind was released from prison. It also marks other Sikh historical events including the founding of the city of Amritsar in 1577 and the day of the death of Bhai Mani Singh in 1738. And for Jains, Diwali is an observance of the death of Mahavira.
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[email protected] (David Bentley)
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https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/when-is-diwali-2019-uk-16864556
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2019-09-04 13:50:24+00:00
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drudgereport--2019-01-16--Hindus converge for largest-ever human gathering
| 2019-01-16T00:00:00 |
drudgereport
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Hindus converge for largest-ever human gathering...
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From June last year, Dilip Trigunayak would stride out each morning to the banks of the Ganges and will the holy waters to recede. The clock was ticking. In six months, the floodplains where he stood would be the site of the largest human gathering in the world, probably ever. “I would watch the water levels going up and down,” the bureaucrat says. “From then my anxiety started.” More than 120 million Hindu devotees, as well as tourists, are expected to visit the north Indian city of Prayagraj over the next few weeks for the Kumbh Mela, a vast spiritual festival at the point where two sacred rivers, the Ganges and Yamuna, converge. As the rivers have emptied of monsoon rain in recent months, Indian authorities have swung into action, reclaiming the riverbed and laying the skeleton for a temporary city that at 15 sq miles (39 sq km) is two-thirds the size of Manhattan. The festival started on Tuesday morning when tens of thousands of Hindu ascetics charged – roaring, naked and ash-smeared – into the water, sanctifying it for the tens of millions of pilgrims who will follow in the coming days and weeks. Praygraj is said to be one of four sites in India where drops of the essence of immortality were spilled from an urn being fought over by gods and demons. The festival moves between the four locations, with Prayagraj the largest and most lavish. Pilgrims travel from across the country and wait for days for their opportunity to bathe there for a few seconds, including at least 30 million people on the most auspicious day. “People come here to taste the nectar of immortality,” says Sarabhang Giri, an Australian who was ordained a sadhu, or Hindu saint, in 2004. With an election looming in India, more earthly matters are also under contemplation. For India’s Hindu nationalist government, the Kumbh’s message of unity across the religion’s castes and innumerable deities dovetails nicely with the ruling Bharatiya Janata party’s goal of consolidating Hindu votes. This is the first Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj since the city’s Mughal-era name of Allahabad was changed. No Kumbh Mela has ever been so well funded, or so heavily promoted in the media and on billboards, invariably alongside the face of Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister. “In many recent Kumbhs there’s always been a political presence of some sort,” says Kama Maclean, an associate professor of south Asian history at the University of New South Wales. “For most people who go it’s a religious event. But from the 1930s people were going to the Kumbh Mela, bathing in the Ganga, and then going up [India’s first prime minister] Jawaharlal Nehru’s house and learning about nationalism.” Pilgrims at the Unesco-listed festival will traverse a pop-up city of more than 185 miles (300km) of roads, nearly two-dozen pontoon bridges, a hospital, 40 police stations and 120,000 toilets. At night, the city is illuminated by more than 40,000 lights. Last Sunday a parade of Hindu ascetics on elephants and camels passed billboards advertising matrimonial websites and the Kumbh’s free wifi. The core of the festival is the estimated 200,000 Hindu saints in attendance, many of whom emerge from seclusion in forests and mountains to take up residency in the tent city, where they perform prayers, administer blessings and lecture on Hindu scripture. Many belong to one of the 13 major sects represented at the fair, first formed as militant defenders of Hindu temples, and who in the past have turned their fire on each other to determine who bathes in the holy river first. “They have physically fought over the order,” says Giri. “Thousands of people have died in Kumbh Melas through history. Now they’ve worked out treaties saying this is the order in which we do it, and if there’s any change, there has to be big discussions.” As well as keeping the peace between holy orders, organisers must work to ward off disease. Some epidemiologists and historians trace the first cholera pandemic of the 19th century to 1817’s Kumbh Mela, from where the infection spread via colonial British naval ships to rest of Asia, Europe and eventually the United States. Apart from building toilets, and deploying an army of more than 9,000 “night sweepers” to collect or treat waste, authorities try to keep the river flowing at an optimum speed of at least 200,000 litres a second: fast enough to avoid stagnation, but not too quick that it washes away bathers. Stampedes are another constant threat. Thirty-six people where killed by a crush at a Prayagraj train station at the most recent event. In 1954, an elephant charged a dense crowd, killing more than 500 people. The key to public safety is to keep the mammoth crowds moving, says Devesh Chaturvedi, the chief public servant who organised Prayagraj’s last Kumbh Mela in 2013. “Even if the water is 500 metres away, we have a system where the pilgrims can be moved for another three or four kilometres. People won’t worry about how much they have to walk. But after five or six hours of walking they should finally get their dip.” One pilgrim, Devi Prasad, says he has walked hundreds of miles by foot from his village in Bihar state to bathe in the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna. A few more hours on foot is no trouble, the 63-year-old adds. “If you want to get close to God, you have to walk.”
| null |
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/T2CSb978U7g/kumbh-mela-hindus-converge-for-largest-ever-human-gathering-prayagraj-festival
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2019-01-16 17:28:37+00:00
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eveningstandard--2019-08-26--Union demands new bank holiday between August and Christmas
| 2019-08-26T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Union demands new bank holiday between August and Christmas
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The government has been urged to create a new public holiday before Christmas to help people cope with the "intense" pressures of the world of work. Workers will have to wait until Christmas for the next bank holiday after today, a four-month gap which the TUC said should be filled with a new statutory day off. The union said workers in Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland and Cyprus are entitled to 15 bank holidays a year, almost twice as many as in the UK. General secretary Frances O'Grady said: "As new technology changes our economy, the benefits should be shared by working people. That means less time at work, more time with family and friends, and decent pay for everyone. "But, instead, work is becoming more intense. Workers in Britain put in millions of hours of unpaid overtime every year but get fewer public holidays than their counterparts across Europe. "Working people deserve a break and, as the days start to get shorter, we could all do with something to look forward to. The government should create a new public holiday between now and Christmas." A business department spokesman said: "We regularly receive requests for additional bank and public holidays to commemorate a variety of occasions - such as cultural, history, military and religious events - and we consider them on a case-by-case basis. "We have no current plans to add to the well-established and acknowledged bank holidays already in place, but next year's early May bank holiday will be on May 8 to ensure as many people as possible can mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day."
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James Morris
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https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/union-demands-new-bank-holiday-between-august-and-christmas-a4221266.html
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2019-08-26 06:06:23+00:00
| 1,566,813,983 | 1,567,533,349 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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216,480 |
france24--2019-08-09--More than two million Muslims begin annual hajj pilgrimage
| 2019-08-09T00:00:00 |
france24
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More than two million Muslims begin annual hajj pilgrimage
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Fethi Balaid | Mulism pilgrims wait for prayers at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on August 8, 2019, prior to the start of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in the holy city. More than two million Muslims begin the annual hajj on Friday as the Saudi hosts seek to deter politicisation of the pilgrimage against a backdrop of simmering Gulf tensions. The hajj, one of the world's largest religious gatherings, is one of Islam's five pillars and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives. It consists of a series of religious rites which are completed over five days in Islam's holiest city and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia. "All of the arms of state have been deployed (and) we are proud to serve as 'God's hosts'," said security forces spokesman Bassam Attia. In total some 2.5 million faithful, the majority from abroad, will undertake the pilgrimage this year, according to local media. "More than 1.8 million visas were delivered online without the need for middlemen. It's a success," said hajj ministry official Hatim bin Hassan Qadi. "We feel cleansed by achieving this pillar of Islam and meeting people from across the world. It's marvellous," said Mohamed Jaafar, a 40-year-old Egyptian pilgrim. "It's an indescribable feeling. You have to live it to understand it," said an Algerian in his fifties completing the pilgrimage for the first time. "It's a golden opportunity and moment," said his female companion. Mecca, built in a desert valley, is home to the Kaaba, a cube structure that is the focal point of Islam and draped in a gold-embroidered black cloth. Muslims around the world pray towards the Kaaba, which is located in the Grand Mosque, and pilgrims walk around it seven times. Worshippers will participate in weekly prayers late on Friday morning. During the pilgrimage separate streams of men and women, grouped by nationality, will travel to Mina on foot or in buses provided by the authorities. A district of Mecca, Mina sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains and is transformed each year into a vast encampment for pilgrims. A total of "350,000 air-conditioned tents have been pitched," said a Saudi official. Worshippers will climb Mount Arafat, also known as the "Mount of Mercy", for hours of prayers and Koran recitals. After descending, they will gather pebbles and perform the symbolic "stoning of the devil". That marks the beginning of Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, marked on Sunday. Pilgrims then return to the Grand Mosque to perform a final "tawaf" or walk around the Kaaba. This year's hajj takes place to a backdrop of Gulf tensions following a series of attacks on tankers, the downing of drones and maritime traffic being intercepted. Riyadh blames regional foe Tehran for the attacks on commercial shipping, accusations Iran vehemently denies. Despite the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries, some 88,550 Iranian pilgrims are due to take part in the hajj this year according to the Tasnim news agency. As in previous years, Saudi authorities have been at pains to stress that the hajj is a religious event and have sought to prevent its politicisation. Riyadh claimed its two-year embargo on Doha -- which includes restrictions on Qataris travelling to the kingdom -- would not affect the pilgrimage. But hajj official Hassan Qadi acknowledged "very few Qataris have come to Mecca for the pilgrimage". Saudi's hajj ministry accused Qatar of "politicising the hajj and creating obstacles for Qatari pilgrims," the SPA state news agency reported. The scale of the pilgrimage presents vast security and logistical challenges, with tens of thousands of safety officers deployed. Riyadh faced strong criticism in 2015 when some 2,300 worshippers were killed in the worst stampede in the gathering's history.
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NEWS WIRES
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https://www.france24.com/en/20190809-saudi-arabia-muslims-hajj-mecca-medina-pilgrimage-five-pillars-islam
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2019-08-09 02:38:21+00:00
| 1,565,332,701 | 1,567,534,545 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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217,418 |
france24--2019-11-09--India's Supreme Court approves Hindu temple on disputed land
| 2019-11-09T00:00:00 |
france24
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India's Supreme Court approves Hindu temple on disputed land
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Hindu devotees celebrate after the Supreme Court's verdict on a disputed religious site, in Ayodhya, India, on November 9, 2019. India’s Supreme Court on Saturday ruled in favor of a Hindu temple on a disputed religious ground in the country’s north and ordered that alternative land be given to Muslims to build a mosque — a verdict in a highly contentious case that was immediately deplored by a key Muslim body. The dispute over land ownership has been one of India’s most heated issues, with Hindu nationalists demanding a temple on the site in the town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state for more than a century. The 16th century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners in December 1992, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim violence that left some 2,000 people dead. Saturday’s verdict paves the way for building the temple in place of the demolished mosque. As the news broke, groups of jubilant Hindus poured into Ayodhya’s streets and distributed sweets to celebrate the verdict, but police soon persuaded them to return to their homes. The five Supreme Court justices who heard the case said in a unanimous judgment that 5 acres (2 hectares) of land will be allotted to the Muslim community to build a mosque, though it did not specify where. The court said the 5 acres is “restitution for the unlawful destruction of the mosque.” The disputed land, meanwhile, will be given to a board of trustees for the construction of a temple to the Hindu god Ram. Hindu hard-liners have said they want to build a new temple to Ram on the site, which they revere as his birthplace. They say the mosque was built after a temple dedicated to the Hindu god was destroyed by Muslim invaders. Zafaryab Jilani, a representative of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, a key Muslim body in the state and a party to the dispute, opposed the ruling. “We are not satisfied with the verdict and it’s not up to our expectation,” he said. “These 5 acres of land don’t mean anything to us. We are examining the verdict and whatever legal course is open for us.” Jilani hinted at filing a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging the verdict. At the same time, he appealed to members of all communities to maintain peace. The judges said that the demolition of the mosque in 1992 was “in violation of the status quo orders of this court.” But they didn’t order any punitive action against those who demolished the mosque in the presence of several top leaders of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi hailed the decision and said it had settled a long-standing matter. “Every point of view was given adequate time and opportunity to express differing points of view. This verdict will further increase people’s faith in judicial processes,” Modi tweeted. Hindu supporters and activists celebrated the ruling on the court lawns, blowing bugles and chanting “Jai shree Ram,” or “Hail god Ram.” The five judges said Hindus’ belief that Ram was born at the site “is undisputed,” and that Muslims have not provided evidence that they were in exclusive possession of the disputed site. The judges also said the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board had failed to establish its case. On the contrary, Hindus established their case that they were in possession of the outer courtyard of the disputed complex, they said. Vishnu Shankar Jain, an attorney who represented the Hindu community in the case, said the journey over several years had been a struggle. “It was a huge legal battle and we are happy that we convinced the Supreme Court. It’s a historic moment for Hindus,” he said. In Islamabad, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, criticized the verdict, saying it was indicative of the “hate based mindset” of Modi’s government. After the demolition of the mosque, Hindus and Muslims took the issue to a lower court, which in 2010 ruled that the disputed land should be divided into three parts — two for Hindus and one for Muslims. That was challenged in the Supreme Court by both communities. The five judges started daily proceedings in August after mediation failed to find a compromise. Modi had promised to build the temple during 2014 elections that brought him to power. But he later decided to wait for the court verdict despite pressure from millions of Hindu hard-liners who asked his government to bring legislation to build the temple. Authorities on Saturday increased security in Ayodhya, which is located 550 kilometers (350 miles) east of New Delhi, and deployed more than 5,000 paramilitary forces to prevent attacks by Hindu activists on Muslims, who comprise 6% of the town’s more than 55,500 people. Overall, Hindus comprise more than 80% and Muslims around 14% of India’s 1.3 billion people. The town looked deserted on Saturday, with authorities turning back thousands of Hindu pilgrims who were congregating for a religious event scheduled for Tuesday. Police have arrested about 500 people for posting provocative messages on social media in Uttar Pradesh. Police also have detained around 5,000 people with criminal backgrounds across the state to prevent them from creating trouble after the court verdict, according to Uttar Pradesh government spokesman Awanish Awasthi. Authorities have stopped the entry of people into the state through the land border from Nepal, and ordered all of the state’s schools and colleges to remain closed until Monday.
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NEWS WIRES
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https://www.france24.com/en/20191109-india-s-supreme-court-approves-hindu-temple-on-disputed-land
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Sat, 09 Nov 2019 14:09:05 GMT
| 1,573,326,545 | 1,573,346,370 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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289,914 |
lifesitenews--2019-10-10--Proposal for ‘Amazonian Catholic rite’ comes as a surprise at Synod
| 2019-10-10T00:00:00 |
lifesitenews
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Proposal for ‘Amazonian Catholic rite’ comes as a surprise at Synod
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ROME, October 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) -- There is nothing truly unexpected about the proposals that were presented on Monday during day two of the Amazon Synod. Among them were instituting new ministries for laymen and women, including “the possibility of diaconal ordination for women,” and creating a new Catholic rite, the “Amazonian rite,” that would probably include the ordination of married men and an inculturated “Mass” of which several rituals performed these last few days by indigenous Amazonians in and around the Vatican could be a foretaste. All of these innovations were clearly present in the Instrumentum laboris of which several cardinals – Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller, Gerhard Müller – have stated lately contains heresy or even apostasy in its naturalistic approach, where Jesus Christ and redemption are notably absent, and in its exaltation of the indigenous lifestyle, its promotion of the ordination of married men, and of some form of ordained ministry for women. But while the Instrumentum laboris repeatedly called for a church with an Amazonian face, this is apparently the first time that there has been a public appeal for a new Amazonian rite within the church. In fact, this proposition was not present in any press briefings in different languages. This point was reserved for the Spanish communiqué. The communiqué, which has apparently not been published online, was quoted by ACIPrensa (the Spanish service of Catholic News Agency) and by Religión Digital, a major progressive Spanish-speaking religious news service. Speaking of the “Synod fathers (and mothers)” Jesús Bastante of Religión Digital said the proposal to create an “Amazonian Catholic rite” was the “star position” during afternoon discussions on Monday in the Synod Hall. These indigenous rites, according to the Vatican note, could be instituted ad experimentum, that is for a theoretically limited time in order to test their usefulness. “The Church considers with benevolence all that is not linked to superstition in order to harmonize it with the true liturgical spirit,” explained the note. “From there, the suggestion to have in Amazonia a sharing process regarding the experience of indigenous communities that have enculturated celebrations for certain sacraments such as baptism, matrimony or priestly ordination. (…) One of the proposals that was presented involves thinking about establishing – ad experimentum and following the right theological, liturgical and pastoral discernment – a Catholic Amazonian rite in order to live out and celebrate faith in Christ,” according to the note as quoted by ACIPrensa. “Fundamentally, it was underscored in the Aula, in the same way that exists an environmental ecosystem, there also exists an ecclesial ecosystem.” What would an Amazonian rite look like? The ceremony of the planting of an oak tree in the Vatican Gardens last Friday under the eyes of Pope Francis and in the context of an easily identifiable indigenous ritual to the Mother Earth gives a number of indications. The leading role was played by a woman – an important point – raising her hands in prayer facing a blanket on which many Amazonian objects had been placed, including two statuettes of naked pregnant women, one of which is now referred to by some journalists in Rome as “Our Lady of the Amazon” as it pops up repeatedly in churches where Masses linked to the synod are being celebrated, including St. Peter’s Basilica. During that ritual in the Vatican Gardens, participants prostrated themselves toward the blanket and figurines. They did so again in Santa Maria in Traspontina, at the bottom of the Via della Conciliazione leading to St. Peter, that same day, surrounding the same blanket with symbolic offerings (to Mother Earth?) during a prayer vigil in view of the Synod. The event included woman executing a barefoot dance with what appears to be the New Testament, in the nave of the church, in the presence of priests and religious. What is especially worrying about these obviously religious events is that they are not purely pagan ceremonies – which would be bad enough – but that Christian elements, such as prayers to Christ and signs of the cross are included, creating a syncretistic pseudo-Catholic rite that is orientated not toward Our Lord but toward pagan artifacts. As far as “theological, liturgical and pastoral discernment” is concerned, this seems to have been massively absent from the rituals that were performed in churches and even under the eyes of the Pope without encountering any form of visible opposition. The idea of having women deacons or another form of feminine ordained ministry was also present during the first day of discussions on Monday when participants were invited to express themselves during four minutes, by fours, with time left in between for the synod fathers to “meditate.” LifeSite reported on Cardinal Claudio Hummes’ and Sister Alba Teresa Castillo, who mentioned the need for change because of the lack of priests in the Amazon region: “This means pastoral care made up of sporadic visits instead of adequate pastoral care,” said the cardinal. The nun underscored how women religious are already performing baptisms and presiding at marriages in regions where priests are not easily available. She also said when death is near the indigenous will “confess” their sins to a woman religious who cannot give absolution. All lay people can baptize in case of necessity as long as they respect the form of the rite and want to conform to the Church’s intention. Marriage is in fact a sacrament whose ministers are the man and woman exchanging vows and this can be done without a priest if none will be available to witness them for an extended period. As to telling one’s sins to another person when there is no priest, even St. James would agree, as long as no absolution is given: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” But on the other hand, baptism and the receiving of marriage vows are part of the ordinary ministry of deacons. Putting forward a woman religious to speak about these forms of ministry without recalling the rules of the Church feels very much like a subtle promotion of ordination for women so that they may ordinarily provide these sacraments, even when there is no emergency. The very “feminine” face of the indigenous rites performed in the Vatican over the last few days is in the same vein. Indeed, several participants in Tuesday’s discussions at the Synod openly spoke of the “possibility of diaconal ordination for women, so as to emphasize their ecclesial vocation.” In particular, they said the ordination of married men and the creation of “lay ministers” such as permanent deacons with the role of assisting in administering the sacraments would help in “promoting indigenous vocations.” “Having lay men and women contribute to the spiritual life of their communities, particularly in bringing them the sacrament of the Eucharist, would help the Church pass from a ‘pastoral ministry of visits’ to a ‘pastoral ministry of presence,’” said Tuesday’s official news summary from the Vatican. Interestingly, Fr. Pablo Mora, a Jesuit priest who has worked for the Servicio Jesuita a la Panamazonia (SJPAM) and the Red Ecleisal Panamazónica (REPAM) and is currently helping to prepare the Amazon Synod as an official of the Bishops’ Synod in Rome, published an op-ed on Amerindiaenlared.org in which he spoke extensively of this “pastoral ministry of presence,” on Monday. Fr. Mora did make clear that he was expressing himself personally and not in the name of the Synod officials of which he is a member. Nonetheless, it is the vocabulary he uses that is being employed in the Synod Aula, where calls for “new ministries” echo his dreams. Speaking of the central character of the Eucharist in the Catholic faith, he said Jesus should not be brought to the indigenous communities occasionally but should “dwell with them,” in his “tent” or “tapiri.” Priests are trying to give a more “Amazonian taste” to their chapels so that the liturgy can be “better identified by the local culture,” using materials from the local forest and “native paintings and images,” he said, but argued that “inner changes are also required,” with indigenous people celebrating the Eucharist and accepting “cultural distance.” According to Fr. Mora, this needs to take into account the importance of community for the Indian tribes “where the collective being or identity take precedence over individual being or identity.” Even more, he argued, this requires understanding of the fact that “from the perspective of an indigenous community, it is difficult to understand that the priest should be celibate and in truth, this matters little … They simply do not believe that an adult man can be celibate and not have a family and children. “In many indigenous communities, a man without the company of a woman is considered to be an incomplete man who has not reached ‘maturity.’ This vision of the cosmos suggests a mentality of that which is dual, opposites and complementary. It means that in the case of man and woman, their complementarity in different levels of family life, social interaction and work are a necessary reality, one that is simple and needs no explaining. So we understand why initiation rites into adult life, that soon leave to indigenous marriage, take place very early in adolescence.” Bishop Erwin Kraütler, emeritus of Xingu in Brazil, a vocal proponent of married priests, said much the same during Wednesday’s press conference about the Synod in Rome. Fr. Mora goes into far more detail, making clear that a Church with an “Amazonian face” would be something very different from the Church that is centered on Christ and dispenses His saving grace.
| null |
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/proposal-for-amazonian-catholic-rite-comes-as-a-surprise-at-synod
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2019-10-10T00:53:00+00:00
| 1,570,683,180 | 1,570,708,999 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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343,009 |
newsbusters--2019-06-28--A Lot to Celebrate on the Fourth of July
| 2019-06-28T00:00:00 |
newsbusters
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A Lot to Celebrate on the Fourth of July
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Sixty-six percent of Americans believe that the Fourth of July is one of our nation's most important holidays. To celebrate, 62% of Americans will watch fireworks, 54% will enjoy a cookout with family and friends, 19% will attend a parade, 13% will go to the beach, and 11% will sing patriotic songs. Only 6% will read the document that started it all: the Declaration of Independence. And to be honest, many probably mix up the declaration and the Constitution. But the vast majority continue to embrace the core ideals expressed in our nation's founding document. Ninety-four percent agree with a sentiment sometimes defined as the American Creed: Every American should have the right to live their own life as they see fit, so long as they respect the rights of others to do the same. Obviously, we still have problems to overcome. Seventy-four percent of voters believe our political system is badly broken, and 67% believe our political leaders don't respect the voters they are supposed to serve. Eighty-seven percent believe corruption is widespread in the federal government. In fact, just 27% believe the federal government primarily serves the interests of the American people. More than twice as many -- 60% -- believe it primarily looks out for its own interests. But despite these problems, Americans are optimistic. Fifty-eight percent believe that our nation's best days are still to come. That optimism is found among rural, urban and suburban communities. It is shared by white voters, black voters and Hispanic voters. To some who live and breathe politics, that makes no sense. They wonder how people look at our nation's toxic and dysfunctional political system and are still optimistic. The answer is that there's more to a nation than politics. Sixty-five percent recognize that positive change in America generally comes from outside of the political system. Additionally, voters keep politics in perspective. Sixty percent agree that politics has a role to play in governing our society, but it is not the lead role. Instead, 77% agree with the following statement: "For America to succeed, we need an all-hands-on-board approach that unleashes the creativity and resources of individual Americans, families, community groups, churches, entrepreneurs, small businesses, local governments, and more." Eighty-nine percent believe that volunteering for community activities has a bigger positive impact on the nation than engaging in political campaigns. Ninety-four percent believe that giving to charity is a better use of money than giving to a political campaign. Not only that, voters live out that belief with the use of their time. Over the past year, the single most common political activity was displaying a political sign or bumper sticker. Even though that involves very little personal involvement, just 15% have engaged politically in that way. During that same time frame, a larger number have volunteered to help the poor (31%), volunteered at a church or religious event (28%), given blood (23%) or volunteered with a school organization (22%). In other words, Americans would rather give blood than get involved in politics. So, this Fourth of July, let's celebrate the fact that Americans have been blessed with a proud legacy of individual freedom. That freedom allows us to work together in community and create a better world.
|
Scott Rasmussen
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https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/scott-rasmussen/2019/06/27/lot-celebrate-fourth-july
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2019-06-28 01:45:00+00:00
| 1,561,700,700 | 1,567,537,780 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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459,501 |
redstate--2019-11-26--Kanye West Gets Targeted by the Left for Ministering to Prisoners
| 2019-11-26T00:00:00 |
redstate
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Kanye West Gets Targeted by the Left for Ministering to Prisoners
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Rapper Kanye West smiles as he talks with President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) This seems like a good use of some leftwinger’s time, right? The Freedom From Religion Foundation is going after a local sheriff and Kanye West for providing a little light in the darkness that is our prison system. Because what prisoners really need is to be deprived of a source of hope and belief in something greater than themselves. This all happened after West held a completely voluntary church service with his choir at a local jail in Houston. Despite the unmitigated good this service turned out to be, the FFRF decided to file a formal complaint against the Sheriff for allowing West to come. In short, this was unconstitutional. You were elected to a secular office and to uphold a secular Constitution. You cannot use that public office to promote your personal religion, even if it happens to be a religion Kanye West shares. This constitutional violation is particularly egregious because it imposed religion on inmates—literally a captive audience—who have a deep and immediate interest in being seen favorably by you and your staff. When you signal that you prefer Christianity to inmates, you tell non-Christian inmates that they would be viewed more favorably if they convert to your preferred religion. It is no excuse that Kayne West is famous. If anything, this makes the violation worse because the captive audience may be more receptive to his message. Too often we see religion assisting the vulnerable as a means of converting the susceptible. While Christians are vastly overrepresented in the prison population, it is still inappropriate to expose any prisoner to proselytizing, be it through music or a worship service. Now, more than one-quarter of Americans, 26%, are religiously unaffiliated and nearly 30% are non-Christians, either practicing a minority religion or no religion at all. Younger Americans are not just religiously 5 unaffiliated, they are largely atheist or agnostic. A recent survey found that 21 percent of Americans born after 1999 are atheist or agnostic.6 The First Amendment does not guarantee that religious activities may never happen within government facilities, much less prisons. Nor does it guarantee that a person never be exposed to religion. It simply guarantees that the government can not make religion compulsory, nor discriminate based on what someone’s religion (or lack of) may be. For as long as jails have been around, wardens have allowed voluntary participation in religion, if for no other reason than it promotes well-being and peace among the inmates. Further, it is standard practice for jails to allow prison ministries performed by outside groups. The service West held was not forced on inmates. None of them had to attend. Like any other religious event, it was voluntary. All accounts are that the prisoners were very grateful and got a lot out of it. But leave it to some woke atheist group to get their panties in a bunch when the prisoners themselves weren’t offended. I’ll note this is the same dumpster fire organization that spent years fighting to get a WWI memorial cross taken down. They eventually lost that battle. There is no First Amendment right to “freedom from religion.” Period. If someone wants to evangelize you, you have the right to say no. If there’s a church service in a prison, you have the right to sit in your cell. Hopefully, this sheriff tells this group to go jump in a lake. Enjoying the read? Please visit my archive to read more of my latest articles. Find me on Twitter and help out by following @bonchieredstate
| null |
https://redstate.com//bonchie/2019/11/26/kanye-west-gets-targeted-left-ministering-prisoners/
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Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:00:18 Z
| 1,574,805,618 | 1,574,813,729 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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493,474 |
sluggerotoole--2019-08-11--An insiders guide to the Royal Black Institution and the Fermanagh Black Twelfth
| 2019-08-11T00:00:00 |
sluggerotoole
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An insiders guide to the Royal Black Institution and the Fermanagh Black Twelfth…
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The anticipation of the big parade has been building up for the past year and come the first Saturday in August all preparations are about to be realised. There’s a plethora of speculation about who will be within the procession with some very famous dignitaries anticipated along with spectators expected to reach tens of thousands. There is a buzz, there is vibrancy, and there is a feeling that this parade is part of the mainstream psyche. The media coverage has been astronomical, and history is being made, however enough about Belfast Pride, for this instalment we’re going to take a drive up the M1 to Brookeborough for a very contrasting parade. It’s one of the lesser-known Loyal Order events called the Fermanagh Black Twelfth also known as the “The Battle of Newtownbutler Annual Black Parade”. I have used Pride as a backdrop to this parade as they are very different events, Pride is popular, vibrant and a little tacky whereas the Fermanagh Black Twelfth is virtually unknown, small, somber and styled on being dignified and respectable. The origins of why the Royal Black Institution (RBI) was formed are fairly simple; it came about in 1797 two years after the Loyal Orange Institution with a mission statement that amounts to the promotion of scriptural truths and the Christian Reformed faith. The Orange is seen as Christian centric with historical, political and cultural dimensions, but the raise de entre for the Black is exclusively religious. The Orange only has two official degrees which are reasonably straightforward, however, within the Black there are 11 degrees, so it is a lot more involving. To get into the Royal Black Institution is a little confusing, one has to be a member of the Loyal Orange Institution and male, however, one also has to have completed the Royal Arch Purple (RAP) degree which is linked to Orangeism but is not recognised by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. In fact RAP meetings are rarely held, they are supposed to be opened after a normal Orange meeting closes but as many members have not completed this degree and indeed the RAP meeting will have nothing of note linked to them, it’s a rather pointless process. The RAP is another example of disunity and ambiguity within the Loyal Orders, it would make more sense if the Orange recognised the degree and brought it inhouse. The degree itself is fairly controversial as it is heavily ritualistic and plays out parts of the old Testament, nobody prepares members for what they undergo, and the experience is unique. I did mine many years ago, I didn’t mind it, but it was daunting, however, at the end there was a great feeling of camaraderie between other members and me and as a reward we were served tea and sandwiches. I did think to myself at the time that this process would be a difficult sell to most people outside of the Orange, however as I have since learnt it is a difficult sell to many within the Orange hence why it is not recognised by Grand Lodge which is absurd as most within Grand Lodge will have completed it. The process of completing the RAP is known affectionately within the Institution as “riding the goat” or as we say in Fermanagh “riding the buck” (no animals are harmed when completing the initiation). As previously mentioned, the Royal Black Institution is more ritualistic than the Orange and within it there are 11 degrees namely: 1. Royal Black Degree 2. Royal Scarlet Degree 3. Royal Mark Degree 4. Apron and Royal Blue Degree 5. Royal White Degree 6. Royal Green Degree 7. Gold Degree 8. Star and Garter Degree 9. Crimson Arrow Degree 10. Link and Chain Degree 11. Red Cross Degree (A red cross will be on most banners) There is an overall retrospective degree that covers the 11 mentioned above and is like a refresher, however this is unofficial and is rarely rolled out. None of these degrees are in the same league as the RAP and all are much milder in tone. Membership of the Black requires much more commitment than that of the Orange and for this reason it puts many off. In fact, despite or because of the numerous degrees many members prefer the Black over the Orange considering it to be a more mature and introspective organisation with a strong sense of fraternity, and Christian fellowship whilst charitable donations are also a significant part of the Black. The Royal Black Intuition is seen as the most senior of the Loyal Orders with the Orange being the intermediary and the Apprentice Boys the junior organisation. The Black is also the organisation that is the most old fashioned and conservative whilst also the one that is declining fastest. Members of the Institution are sometimes referred to as Blackmen but for obvious reasons, this has been a word used less often in recent years. The official title for a member of the Black is “Sir Knight” which for me is dreadfully out of date, in the Orange members are referred to as Brothers and Sisters. Fermanagh has three Black districts comprising of 24 Preceptories namely: 1. Enniskillen (13 Preceptories) 2. Lisnaskea (8 Preceptories) 3. South Donegal (3 Preceptories, despite the name this area covers Kesh) A Preceptory is like a club so for example in the Loyal Orders there are Orange Lodges, Black Preceptories and Apprentice Boy Clubs. All Preceptories rollup into the district and the district rolls up into the County Grand Black Chapter. The Country Grand Master of the Black in Fermanagh is well known local politician Tom Elliott. In many ways Tom is the perfect candidate for the role, he has strong Loyal Order credentials (one of the few politicians who is not a member to gain votes), active within his church, experienced leadership roles throughout the Black, is a former County Grand Master of the Orange and he has strong political credentials. However, I fear that things have not improved thus far under Tom’s tenure (just over one year to date), if a list of success stories were rolled out for the year, I can imagine that they would be the following: – New banner unfurled by Brookeborough Black Preceptory (Not linked to the leadership) – Successful Black Twelfth in Brookeborough (the stock line after every Twelfth is to indicate what a success it was) The above is a significant problem as the lack of effective leadership is causing decline within the Black and most fear Tom’s role is more figurative rather than to actually improve the Institution within Fermanagh. I feel if I asked Tom for an action plan about how the Institution can be improved over the next 12 months, there would be a blank response but secretly one imagines he would hope that the decline can be slowed down, this is simply not going to save the Institution within Fermanagh. The structure of the Black and the problems faced are very similar to that of the Orange and in many ways the Black needs the Orange to fix its problems so that changes can feed their way up. Attracting new members is almost impossible due to the following: – Limited pool to choose from – Being seen as old fashioned – Many feel being in the Orange is enough – Fees are off-putting. My own Preceptory costs £80 per year with an additional levy of £20 which is for charitable contributions, in addition to this there are several expensive pieces of regalia that members are required to purchase. The usual problems of collecting dues are apparent within the Black, however, because of the extra dedication needed for the Black over the Orange it’s not quite as painful, and most members will pay on time. Meetings are generally on the second Monday of each month and like the Orange attendance at meetings is low at around 35%. Outside of the degrees there is not enough to compel members to attend, meetings can be bland or indeed similar to that of the Orange which is a huge issue. The nuts and bolts of the Black Twelfth are similar to that of an Orange Twelfth in that all Preceptories will have their church parade leading up to or sometimes after the Twelfth. In recent years the Fermanagh Black Twelfth was on the second Saturday in August, however as this clashed with Derry day (the main Apprentice Boys of Derry’s parade) Fermanagh suffered in attracting the crowds with many preferring the popular Derry day. For many years a push was made to get the date of the Fermanagh Black Twelfth changed to avoid this clash and eventually this happened around 2010/11, however by this stage the crowd was lost, failure to adapt by the Loyal Orders contributes significantly to our downfall. Ironically we now clash with Pride, however I don’t envisage the date changing to allow supporters to attend this event also. The Black in Fermanagh for a rather quasi reason holds this event to commemorate the battle of Newtownbutler, however it has always appeared strange why the Black aligns itself to a battle and it’s further confusing as most Black Twelfths pass without even an utterance of Newtownbutler. Further irony is that Newtownbutler is a town where the Twelfth is never held and commemorating an event that took place so long ago that only made up part of the Williamite wars compares unfavorably to Pride which has an actual forward-looking reason for its parade. In the Loyal Orders we need to look forward more rather than constantly harking back, this does not mean we should not remember but we have to have an active and vibrant purpose in 2019 and beyond. My Preceptory and band have our meeting at 9 am and parade our town at 10 am which is a much more sensible time and causes less issues with local residents. Turnout was extremely low, we have around 55 on the books, however only 25 were on parade that morning including 6 visitors. In the Black we pride ourselves on our appearance, dark suits, white shirts, ties, black collarettes, white gloves, ceremonial aprons and bowler hats are the order of the day with no exceptions. However, that morning several bowlers are missing (particularly noticeable on a bald head) and several in the ranks look scruffy. I am much less active in the Black than the Orange, however the standards slipping is extremely disheartening with nobody taking ownership of the issue, I mention it to a few who look particularly haphazard but it’s a delicate topic and a directive really needs to come from the top. I’ll raise it at the next meeting as it’s a widespread problem. I am questioned a number of times on the day from members of the public as to what the dress code is for the Black? On a few occasions I am told that the Black in 2019 now almost look as scruffy as the Orange on parade and it seems like the bowler hat is on the decline. I receive negative feedback from several people that a number of Preceptories are looking untidy on parade, it is an issue that the public clearly don’t appreciate (nor do many members to be fair), however getting it tackled by the County has proven an uphill battle. I drive to Brookeborough with my wife (I feel she would have preferred to have went to Pride), there are no issues with queues going into Brookeborough, the Black Twelfth is a much more condensed event and the turnout at the Demonstration will be small. My wife and I park and call into the local Orange hall for coffee and traybakes (that’s a true stereotype I’m afraid). The atmosphere is very mild-mannered and respectable, the ladies working there are extremely generous and friendly and the hall is an amazing historical gem with many old Orange banners hanging on the walls around it. I’m reminded of discussions on this topic on Slugger and the fact that there is so much history and culture encapsulated within these banners that it would be to the shame of my generation is these were permanently consigned to history. I should note that on the subject of halls there are no RBI halls in Fermanagh and very few in Northern Ireland with Orange halls generally playing host to Black meetings. After our Preceptory parade to the Assembly field my wife and I walk around the village and catchup with friends and family. The atmosphere is very sedate, crowds are small but respectful and primarily comprises of the family members of those on parade. Walking past the public houses there seems to be a good trade established, not quite as lively as at the Orange Twelfth but it still fits in awkwardly with the principles of the day. Stalls selling the usually rubbish are plentiful, one can purchase an upside-down Union flag attached to a pole or an Israeli flag for £10, other disposable toys that break upon being unpackaged are available. Israeli flags are particularly inappropriate at an RBI event and this really does illustrate the lack of knowledge some have of the organisation. The procession kicks off at 12:40 so my wife, a few from my Preceptory and I take a position close to the Assembly field and watch as the parade winds down the main street of Brookeborough. The opening of the parade in which all the leading dignitaries of the Black are assembled is always impressive and there are no attire issues here. Killskeery Silver band lead the parade (One of two Tyrone bands within the procession), they’re a bit scratchy in general, they seem to have lot of young members but the more mature members have dropped off and they are out of formation with some missing pieces of uniform and it’s not a good impression from the band leading the parade, I am very surprised with the RBI allowing this to happen. Killskeery is a band with huge potential but without the necessary leadership it appears incoherent on parade and perhaps with some fine tuning it would be more apt at leading a parade. The next contingents are those from the Republic (Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal and Leitrim), however the writing is on the wall for the Institution here, some Preceptories had around three people parading with them, others had non-members carrying their banners which is a terrible look on a Black parade and one that has infiltrated the Scarva event too. I feel that if truth be told many of these Black Preceptories in the Republic probably don’t actually exist and only show up on the Twelfth with a banner, at some point in the near future this will almost certainly cease too. One small Orange Lodge and Black Preceptory in the Republic are lead each year by the Enniskillen Fusilier’s flute band, however it looks bizarre on parade to have a rather large band accompany a virtually nonexistent Lodge/Preceptory. Obviously, Lodges and Preceptories can be led by whatever band they choose but it would be more apt to pick a local band from the Republic who might relish an extra parade in the year and who would not dwarf the Preceptory. The dress code amongst Sir Knights from the Republic leaves much to be desired, virtually no bowler hats are worn, several look scruffy with ties hanging loose at the collar if indeed worn all and many stragglers are allowed into the ranks. It would be unfair to label only the Republic as having dress code issues as the Fermanagh ranks have declined in standards too, this decline in standards was possibly allowed to slow down the decline in numbers but in reality, our loose standards have only accelerated numerical decline and this feedback is received every year. Numbers within the Fermanagh Preceptories were concerning across the board, Enniskillen, Killadeas, Necarne, Lisnaskea, Ardess, Brookeborough, Cleenish and Tempo all had extremely low turnouts, furthermore the rate of decline within the County Grand Master’s ranks of Ballinamallard continues to gather pace, clearly something is wrong with the Loyal Orders in this part of the world and this is certainly where the County Grand Master’s work begins. The two biggest Preceptories in Fermanagh have also declined, Maguiresbridge looked smaller and scruffier than normal whilst Derrygonnelly looked reasonable but benefitted from having a number of visitors within its ranks. I mentioned that some of the bands looked scratchy, this is more concerning in that as less bands appear at the Black Twelfth(35 this year) and it’s usually the higher quality assembles that are on parade. However Newtownbutler Border Defenders, Loughkillygreeen, Ballinamallard and Tempo Accordions, Magerheraboy and Florence Court flute bands all looked disheveled and or depleted on parade and a few from the Republic looked worryingly weak and untidy including Cappa Accordion. There were some great bands on parade too including Moyne, Killadeas, Drumharvey and Enniskillen Pipe bands and Brookeborough Flute band (although with this band the former County Grand Master of the Orange should have paraded with the Black and not the band, protocol can be conveniently ignored). We’re close to the end of the procession this year and as we make our way to the Assembly field the band is ready and waiting. As usual there is not much communication between Preceptory and band, their fee is £400 which is painful but it also includes them leading us on our church parade. Like the Orange this cost is unsustainable based on our declining numbers and other Preceptories are likely to be in a similar position. Our ranks are now around 30 which is an improvement but questions will have to be asked about our missing members and where we’re going wrong? Most of the music at a Black Twelfth in Fermanagh will be hymns with the exception of a few renditions of “The Sash”, “Killaloe” and of course “Old Lang Syne”. Jokes aside I think we need to phase out “Old Lang Syne” otherwise we’re going to run the risk of “Jingle Bells” infiltrating our ranks and Christmas is going to start in Fermanagh on July 12th. As we make our way through Brookeborough there is a lovely atmosphere with small pockets of families lining the streets, the crowds are not overwhelming but are dignified, respectful and there is a good age mix. It’s mostly females and children spectating with males on parade and this is the reality of the gender imbalance within the Loyal Orders and accompanying bands. The banners are generally of a very high quality and depict images primarily from the Old Testament, there are no depictions of William crossing the Boyne on a Black banner. Like the Orange Twelfth the parade makes its way to a Demonstration field for the religious service. As is the norm most people avoid the platform proceedings and make their way back into town to meet family members, enjoy a picnic or indeed grab a swift half. Considering that few concern themselves with this aspect of the day it is something that both the Orange and Black need to look at, I genuinely feel as both organisations as based on Protestant Christian principles then the religious aspect should happen but perhaps it is the timing that needs to change with all members encouraged to attend the religious event. County Grand Master Tom Elliott marketed the Black Twelfth as a family day with a festival atmosphere, however in essence it’s a parade to and from a religious service so again the narrative from the Loyal Order is confusing. As I have said previously the RBI is solely a religious organisation, however in Fermanagh it dabbles in politics by promoting the Union and the Royal Family as well as drifting off to remember the Williamite wars including of course the battle of Newtownbutler. We really need to get better within the Loyal Orders of promoting a consistent and clear message that is true to our principles because at present the narrative is frankly confusing and contradictive. The Demonstration ends with the National Anthem, like the Orange we will play this again at the end of the procession and once more for good luck when we finish the parade in our home town. When the parade makes its way back through Brookeborough there are the usual problems, however one sight stood out in relation to a Preceptory on parade. Trillick Preceptory returning from the Demonstration field looked noticeably disheveled, either they were reenacting the battle of Newtownbutler at the field or they were intoxicated on the return leg, if it was the latter then this will not have been the first time this Preceptory has been guilty of such antics and the County Black Chapter needs to take action, we certainly don’t want this nonsense happening in Fermanagh or at any Loyal Order event in the world. Trillick’s ranks are severely depleted in comparison with previous years and I have no doubt that this drinking culture is partially to blame. I am certainly not against anyone having a drink but there has to be a modicum of common sense used particularly on public parade and if people are staggering around and looking disheveled then clearly this is unacceptable. As I have mentioned before the return leg at Loyal Order events is a mess with contingents falling out at random locations, there were several examples caught on video of the lead part of a Preceptory parading one way with the band and remainder of the Preceptory breaking off and parading in a different direction, if ever there was a literal metaphor illustrating the problems of the Loyal Orders in Fermanagh then this was it. During the return leg most of the procession got caught in heavy rain, I noticed during this time that as Preceptories were falling out that some managing the banners were not well versed in the task and a few banners were being trailed in deep puddles when they were being rolled up which has the potential to cause damage to the banner. With banners costing in the region of £2-4k we can ill afford to be so cavalier in how we treat them lest we mention the history and significance behind banner and this is an issue that could be remedied with some leadership and a little bit of training. After the parade ends, we return back to our hometown to parade it one final time. There is generally nothing arranged by any of the Preceptories for the Twelfth evening so we meet up with friends and go out for dinner. There will be no TV coverage of the parade although the local newspapers may devote a few lines to us in their next edition along with a photograph of someone eating an ice-cream. As we enjoy a lovely meal that evening a friend asks me if I think there will be a Black Twelfth in 10 years’ time? I smile but say nothing but others at the table are much more vocal on our pending extinction. If people struggle to understand the Orange then the Black is almost an alien concept to many and I don’t believe very many watching understand our principles, I am also beginning to feel this is true of our members too. There is no education done on the day in terms of stalls etc and anyone wishing to join will have to be asked. I do find it bizarre that many very senior Orangemen are not in the Black, furthermore the majority will not even attend the Black Twelfth which is a problem in itself. I’m not as well versed on the numbers within the Black in Fermanagh, however there are 24 Preceptories within the county and there is an average of 30 members within each (I suspect in many cases 30 is being extremely generous) which leaves 720 members within the county of which 85% are over 55, the reality is that unfortunately the Black Twelfth is unsustainable. I recognise that it is old fashioned and for many a little stuffy and unwilling to change, however its decline is very disheartening. I know some would sacrifice the Black to save the Orange, however as both are in decline this is not a viable tactic and there are opportunities for it to survive which I will delve into further within the next installment. I wanted to share a few lines on Scarva, this is an event that I have attended a number of times over the years and to be perfectly frank I really don’t like it but I feel that I should as it’s the Loyal Order’s showcase event. The Scarva Demonstration is overcrowded in the extreme with a small village hosting in excess of 60,000 people (this time the Loyal Orders have not exaggerated the figures). The venue feels cramped and uncomfortable and there is almost no toileting facilities to accommodate the huge crowds. The procession itself it tight and there are a number of exceptional bands on parade, however others are less impressive and often consist of various members from different bands. Like Fermanagh the Preceptories are declining fast in terms of numbers and many on the day will have had their ranks swollen by visitors. Furthermore, there is the issue of many members of the RBI missing pieces of attire which in the past was unheard of at Scarva and almost all of the banners are carried by non-members which is not a good look on parade. The Demonstration field is almost like a funfair with amusements and very loud pop music being played along with endless burger and ice-cream vans. The famous Sham fight occurs after the first leg of the parade which few will get to see due to the confined space it happens within and also due to the large crowds but it really isn’t worth watching and consists of groups of men firing blank rounds at two flags until they fall off their pole while William and James battle it out in a sword duel. One of the problems with this fight is that some Loyal Order members seriously advise that this is historically accurate with James having being chased from the Boyne to Scarva where he dies in an epic sword fight against William. As one person told me, “If it didn’t happen then why is this event here every year?” Quite why the Black host the Sham fight is beyond me as it’s better suited to an Orange Twelfth, however I do feel a proper reenactment of an aspect of the Battle of the Boyne or even something from World War I is a serious opportunity for the Loyal Orders and would garner significant interest. After the Sham fight the religious service begins with very few watching it, many instead prefer to have their picnics or a cool one before the return leg, of course all the amusement rides etc are going on throughout the service and to say it’s an odd mix is an understatement. Some of the parade participants do look disheveled on the return leg and like Fermanagh the route can vary, in fact I have seen the return parade begin before the religious service has ended as some bands have to catch their train by a set time. Scarva also has a notorious drinking culture particularly within the wooded area coming into the Demonstration field, everyone turns a blind eye to this but it sits extremely awkwardly within the context of a Christian organisation’s showcase event and on a few occasions, I have seen some low level scuffles breaking out. Overall there are a lot of good ingredients within the Scarva event, however it does not quite come together, I feel the better RBI events are held on the last Saturday in August or even the modest Fermanagh Black Twelfth is a much more fitting occasion than Scarva. I wanted to conclude this segment on the Black Twelfth in Fermanagh with this thought. On a day in which everyone was talking about the Belfast Pride event, for me my pride was within the many good members within the Loyal Orders and bands in Fermanagh who make it tick and contribute so much to the survival of their religion and culture. The Loyal Orders are evolving too as there were several gay members on parade with many of them being very active within their Preceptories and lodges and perhaps this pride that they have in being themselves within the Loyal Orders is a great testament to an organisation that’s more diverse than one might think.
|
Soapbox
|
https://sluggerotoole.com/2019/08/11/an-insiders-guide-to-the-royal-black-institution-and-the-fermanagh-black-twelfth/
|
2019-08-11 07:01:57+00:00
| 1,565,521,317 | 1,567,534,420 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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529,594 |
sputnik--2019-03-31--Pope Francis Celebrates Mass in Moroccos Rabat Stadium VIDEO
| 2019-03-31T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Pope Francis Celebrates Mass in Morocco's Rabat Stadium (VIDEO)
|
Pope Francis, who is currently paying a visit to Morocco in a two-day trip, is celebrating mass at the Rabat Stadium; some estimates indicate that 10,000 people gathered for the religious event on Sunday. During his first day in Morocco, Pope Francis commented on Jerusalem, stressing that it should become a "symbol of peaceful coexistence" for Christians, Jews and Muslims — this statement echoes the views of Morocco's King Mohammed VI who invited the prominent Catholic figure to the predominantly Muslim state.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/africa/201903311073706723-pope-francis-morocco/
|
2019-03-31 12:29:00+00:00
| 1,554,049,740 | 1,567,544,608 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
539,311 |
sputnik--2019-07-30--Indian Godwoman Radhe Maa Booked by Police for Allegedly Assaulting Journalist at Spiritual Event
| 2019-07-30T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
Indian Godwoman Radhe Maa Booked by Police for Allegedly Assaulting Journalist at Spiritual Event
|
The alleged assault occurred on Sunday evening when the scribe had gone to cover a religious event of the godwoman in Panipat city of the Indian state of Haryana. While the journalist was reportedly invited by the godwoman’s supporters, she was reportedly miffed over some of his disturbing questions and allegedly threatened him. It followed with her followers allegedly assaulting the journalist and damaging his camera. They even purportedly tried to kidnap the scribe but were prevented from doing so by policemen present on the occasion. “The police are enquiring into the matter, though no arrest has been made yet. The alleged assault on the journalist took place in her presence,” Indian Express quoted a police official as saying. Radhe Maa, who prefers dressing up in modern dresses or red-coloured traditional attires and sporting heavy gold ornaments, is considered as a reincarnation of Hindu goddess Durga by her huge number of fans and followers. The godwoman, whose original name is Sukhvinder Kaur has often left a lot of people amused with her gimmicks and fancy attires. In 2015, she had caused a social media row after a video of her wearing a red mini skirt went viral. She was subsequently booked on charges of obscenity.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/asia/201907301076404891-indian-godwoman-radhe-maa-booked-by-police-for-allegedly-assaulting-journalist-at-spiritual-event/
|
2019-07-30 09:38:35+00:00
| 1,564,493,915 | 1,567,535,379 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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545,685 |
sputnik--2019-10-03--IRGC Intelligence Says Assassination Attempt on Quds Force Commander Has Been Foiled - Reports
| 2019-10-03T00:00:00 |
sputnik
|
IRGC Intelligence Says Assassination Attempt on Quds Force Commander Has Been Foiled - Reports
|
Iranian authorities have thwarted an assassination plot against Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force commander Soleimani, with three alleged plotters arrested, Iran's Fars News Agency has reported. According to authorities, the attempt to assassinate the commander was a "regional," "joint Israel-Arab" plot, with no information provided yet regarding the identities and/or nationalities of those arrested. According to Hossein Taeb, the head of the IRGC's Intelligence Organisation, the plot by a "group of terrorists" took several years to concoct, with the plotters planning to plant between 350 and 500 kg of explosives under a congregation hall at a religious event in Kerman, southeastern Iran, at which Soleimani was supposed to appear in September. The plotters were said to have been captured and arrested before being able to carry out the operation. Known for participating in operations to assist Iraqi and Syrian forces engaged in the fight against Daesh, Soleimani has repeatedly accused the United States of 'collaborating' with the terrorists to achieve their regional aims. In 2015, then CIA Director John Brennan voiced concerns over Soleimani's involvement in the war against Daesh in Iraq, arguing that his presence in the country posted a significant threat to US counterterrorism efforts. Earlier this week, Soleimani gave a rare interview with Iranian television, revealing that he and Hassan Nasrallah, the current secretary-general of Lebanese politicial and militia movement Hezbollah, barely escaped an Israeli drone attack during the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. Iran's Revolutionary Guards units have faced multiple terrorist attacks on its members in recent years, including a February 2019 car bomb attack which killed over two dozen IRGC servicemen. Iran has accused regional adversaries in the Gulf as well as Israel and the United States for the acts of violence. *A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201910031076951023-irgc-intelligence-says-assassination-attempt-on-quds-force-commander-has-been-foiled---reports/
|
2019-10-03 09:14:59+00:00
| 1,570,108,499 | 1,570,221,733 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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560,818 |
tass--2019-02-03--Kiev holds liturgy to celebrate enthronement of head of new Ukrainian church
| 2019-02-03T00:00:00 |
tass
|
Kiev holds liturgy to celebrate enthronement of head of new Ukrainian church
|
KIEV, February 3. /TASS/. A liturgy was held in Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral on Sunday to celebrate the enthronement of the head of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany. According to the Pryamoy TV channel, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, government members and foreign delegations attended the event. The church community was represented by nearly 60 bishops, including hierarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies beefed up security, installing a metallic barrier in front of the cathedral. Many journalists were not allowed to enter the building. However, the religious event did not generate interest among ordinary Ukrainians and the square in front of the cathedral was almost empty. The symbolic enthronement of Metropolitan Epiphany was held on his 40th birthday. On Monday, the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church is expected to convene the first meeting to discuss the new church’s structure. The so-called honorary patriarch of the Ukrainian Church Filaret, anathemized by the Russian Church, did not attend the ceremony over feeling sick, Archbishop Evstratiy told the TV channel. ## Church standoff in Ukraine Ukraine’s current leadership has sought to create a local Orthodox church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate in the country since it came to power after the 2014 coup. Last April, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople requesting autocephaly for the Ukrainian church. The Poroshenko regime cobbled together a "unification council" that was held in Kiev on December 15, which announced the creation of a new church, the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Tomos of Autocephaly (a clerical decree on establishing an independent church) was handed over to its head, Metropolitan Epiphany, on January 6. Both the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church consider the newly-established ecclesiastical institution to be schismatic. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church earlier said full communion with Constantinople was no longer possible. In other media
| null |
http://tass.com/society/1043039
|
2019-02-03 10:17:06+00:00
| 1,549,207,026 | 1,567,549,755 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
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569,139 |
tass--2019-08-15--Chinese Halloween The Ghost festival kicks off on Hainan
| 2019-08-15T00:00:00 |
tass
|
'Chinese Halloween': The Ghost festival kicks off on Hainan
|
BEIJING, August 15. /TASS/. Hainan residents celebrate an important date this week - the Hungry Ghost festival, which some jokingly call the "Chinese Halloween." On this date, it is customary to launch lanterns in the air or along the river, treat oneself to exotic delicacies, as well as appease ghosts with treats. According to legends, usually on the 15th of the 7th month according to the lunar calendar (this year falls on August 15), the souls of the deceased take to the streets with at night to walk alongside the living. According to Buddhist tradition, people on this date visit the graves of those who recently passed away, paying their respects. At the same time, it is customary to appease "wandering" ghosts - the spirits who, due to special circumstances of their deaths, could not find peace. The Hainan residents usually launch paper lanterns into the air on this occasion; the lanters are considered magical, because, according to legends, they "help to send unsatisfied ghosts to heaven." In various regions of China there are many superstitious restrictions on this day associated with the need to avoid dangerous contacts with the ghosts of the deceased, as a result of which, according to ancient beliefs, the ghosts can take hold of a person’s body, and their own soul will become a shell, or will destroyed by the intruder. For example, before going to bed, one should put slippers in front of the bed so that they look in an opposite direction, in order to confuser the ghosts. People shouldn’t be calling each other by their names in the evenings, dry clothes at dusk, say the word “ghost”, mock the underworld, pick up money from the pavement as it is believed that the money now belongs to the spirits. Also, one should not lean their backs against the walls, turn around if someone pats them on the shoulder, stay awake at night, stroll along the banks of rivers and ponds. “No matter what they say, however, the people of Hainan treat this special day with reverence,” said one of the locals. “Local residents know ways to turn the Ghost Day into a cheerful spiritual holiday.” Some people on the Island of Hainan also traditionally believe that on this day one should not leave the house for long, go to the hairdresser, buy clothes, shoes and products made of wood - otherwise, according to legend, there is a danger that perfumes will take someone’s life from loved ones. At the same time, it is believed that a person should visit crowded places where, in the midst of general fun, he can dump negative energy from himself. In South China, Zhongyuanjie is a significant date, second only to two major events: the traditional New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival Zhongjujie. It is also believed on this day the god of the earth was born. Buddhists, as a rule, on this occasion pay respects to their ancestors praying for the dead, hold religious events.
| null |
https://tass.com/society/1073529
|
2019-08-15 11:10:48+00:00
| 1,565,881,848 | 1,567,534,132 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
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578,221 |
theatlantic--2019-02-06--emThe Atlantic emPolitics amp Policy Daily Next in Line
| 2019-02-06T00:00:00 |
theatlantic
|
<em>The Atlantic </em>Politics & Policy Daily: Next in Line
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Female members of Congress cheer after President Donald Trump acknowledges the increased number of women in Congress during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP) (David Frum) “Successful State of the Union speeches are backed by considered plans of action. If a president talks about infrastructure modernization, it’s because he and his party have an infrastructure bill ready to go. The dysfunctional Trump administration does not.” The Vatican and the Gulf Have a Common Enemy (Graeme Wood) “For the past week, the United Arab Emirates has been preparing for one of the most significant interreligious events in modern memory. A conference on “global fraternity” has featured rabbis, imams, swamis, cardinals, and obscure religious officiaries whose titles I had never heard before.” What I’ve Gained by Leaving the Republican Party (Peter Wehner) “It would be deeply unfair to claim that most Republicans are bigots. But it is fair to say that most Republicans today are willing to tolerate without dissent, and in many cases enthusiastically support, a man whose appeal is based in large part on stoking racial and ethnic resentments, on attacking ‘the other.’” (Reihan Salam) “Given his propensity toward hyperbole, this could be dismissed as little more than a rhetorical flourish. One wonders, though, if it’s a sign of things to come.” ◆ Fight the Ship: Death and Valor on a Warship Doomed by Its Own Navy (T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose, and Robert Faturechi, ProPublica) ◆ In Need of Water, an Idaho Town Turns to Its Neighbors (Emily Benson, High Country News) ◆ It Will Take More Than Congress to Cure America’s War Addiction (Gunar Olsen, The New Republic) We’re always looking for ways to improve The Politics & Policy Daily, and will be testing some formats throughout the new year. Concerns, comments, questions, typos? Let us know anytime here. Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up for our daily politics email here.
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Olivia Paschal
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https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/virginias-northam-fairfax-and-herring-trouble-politics-daily/582229/?utm_source=feed
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2019-02-06 22:02:42+00:00
| 1,549,508,562 | 1,567,549,440 |
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thegatewaypundit--2019-08-25--Jewish Skirball Center and Museum in Los Angeles Hosts Radical Leftist Exhibits And Pushes Indoctrin
| 2019-08-25T00:00:00 |
thegatewaypundit
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Jewish Skirball Center and Museum in Los Angeles Hosts Radical Leftist Exhibits And Pushes Indoctrination Materials On Children
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It’s main purpose and permanent museum collection is of and to celebrate Jewish Culture. It is located adjacent to other prominent Jewish cultural institutions The Milken School, The American Jewish University and The Steven S. Weiss Synagogue. The Skirball Center itself even has synagogue space on its grounds and hosts Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services as well as Jewish Weddings and Bar Mitzvah receptions. Many West LA Jews have been to its extensive and beautiful grounds for these religious events as well as to the museum which has displays on Jewish Cultural history for adults and playgrounds and a permanent “Noah’s Ark” learning and play area for children. The museum also has rotating displays. For instance they recently displayed an installation called “The Notorious RBG” which was a celebration of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Since Ginsburg is Jewish, this exhibit made sense for the Skirball Center to be the host museum. But the Skirball Center also hosts exhibits that don’t make sense for a Jewish institution. The Skirball Center is currently hosting two exhibits that are highly questionable as to how they relate to Jewish heritage, tradition and existence. One is “Black is Beautiful” on the civil rights movement focusing mostly on extremely radical political activism. The other a “celebration” of the LGBT “movement”. While it is fine to host any exhibit a museum wants, the supporting materials and the content in the museum gift shop is another matter entirely. For the “Black is Beautiful” exhibit, legitimate books on the subject for adults are displayed right next to radical indoctrination materials aimed at children! The books that correspond with the LGBT exhibit are controversial to many including such titles as “Jacob’s New Dress”, “Jacob’s Room To Choose” and “Sparkle Boy”. These books for children are displayed right next to books on clearly adult subjects like gay fashion icons and the Stonewall Riot. One would think the radical indoctrination books might be displayed in the store only for controversial subjects like ones corresponding to an exhibit but look at the “Feminist Baby” children’s books that go with the Justice Ginsburg books. Then we have the coup de grace: A children’s book called “First Generation” that has ILHAN OMAR front and center on the cover!!!! This book is located in the store away from an exhibit book displays but in the permanent area!!!! What a disgrace for a Jewish institution to go out of it’s way to celebrate ideas and people that embody the opposite of Jewish cultural traditions and them indoctrinate Jewish children who come to this place with these destructive ideas. Would a pro radical racial justice or LGBT museum carry children’s books celebrating Anita Bryant or Jimmy Swaggart? So why should a Jewish institution celebrate people who wish to destroy Jewish culture and Israel?
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Jim Hoft
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/jewish-skirball-center-and-museum-in-los-angeles-hosts-radical-leftist-exhibits-and-pushes-indoctrination-materials-on-children/
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2019-08-25 17:42:56+00:00
| 1,566,769,376 | 1,567,533,434 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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685,017 |
theguardianuk--2019-01-14--Kumbh Mela Hindus converge for largest-ever human gathering
| 2019-01-14T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
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Kumbh Mela: Hindus converge for largest-ever human gathering
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From June last year, Dilip Trigunayak would stride out each morning to the banks of the Ganges and will the holy waters to recede. The clock was ticking. In six months, the floodplains where he stood would be the site of the largest human gathering in the world, probably ever. “I would watch the water levels going up and down,” the bureaucrat says. “From then my anxiety started.” More than 120 million Hindu devotees, as well as tourists, are expected to visit the north Indian city of Prayagraj over the next few weeks for the Kumbh Mela, a vast spiritual festival at the point where two sacred rivers, the Ganges and Yamuna, converge. As the rivers have emptied of monsoon rain in recent months, Indian authorities have swung into action, reclaiming the riverbed and laying the skeleton for a temporary city that at 15 sq miles (39 sq km) is two-thirds the size of Manhattan. The festival starts on Tuesday morning when tens of thousands of Hindu ascetics will charge – roaring, naked and ash-smeared – into the water, sanctifying it for the tens of millions of pilgrims who will follow in the coming days and weeks. Praygraj is said to be one of four sites in India where drops of the essence of immortality were spilled from an urn being fought over by gods and demons. The festival moves between the four locations, with Prayagraj the largest and most lavish. Pilgrims travel from across the country and wait for days for their opportunity to bathe there for a few seconds, including at least 30 million people on the most auspicious day. “People come here to taste the nectar of immortality,” says Sarabhang Giri, an Australian who was ordained a sadhu, or Hindu saint, in 2004. With an election looming in India, more earthly matters are also under contemplation. For India’s Hindu nationalist government, the Kumbh’s message of unity across the religion’s castes and innumerable deities dovetails nicely with the ruling Bharatiya Janata party’s goal of consolidating Hindu votes. This is the first Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj since the city’s Mughal-era name of Allahabad was changed. No Kumbh Mela has ever been so well funded, or so heavily promoted in the media and on billboards, invariably alongside the face of Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister. “In many recent Kumbhs there’s always been a political presence of some sort,” says Kama Maclean, an associate professor of south Asian history at the University of New South Wales. “For most people who go it’s a religious event. But from the 1930s people were going to the Kumbh Mela, bathing in the Ganga, and then going up [India’s first prime minister] Jawaharlal Nehru’s house and learning about nationalism.” Pilgrims at the Unesco-listed festival will traverse a pop-up city of more than 185 miles (300km) of roads, nearly two-dozen pontoon bridges, a hospital, 40 police stations and 120,000 toilets. At night, the city is illuminated by more than 40,000 lights. Last Sunday a parade of Hindu ascetics on elephants and camels passed billboards advertising matrimonial websites and the Kumbh’s free wifi. The core of the festival is the estimated 200,000 Hindu saints in attendance, many of whom emerge from seclusion in forests and mountains to take up residency in the tent city, where they perform prayers, administer blessings and lecture on Hindu scripture. Many belong to one of the 13 major sects represented at the fair, first formed as militant defenders of Hindu temples, and who in the past have turned their fire on each other to determine who bathes in the holy river first. “They have physically fought over the order,” says Giri. “Thousands of people have died in Kumbh Melas through history. Now they’ve worked out treaties saying this is the order in which we do it, and if there’s any change, there has to be big discussions.” As well as keeping the peace between holy orders, organisers must work to ward off disease. Some epidemiologists and historians trace the first cholera pandemic of the 19th century to 1817’s Kumbh Mela, from where the infection spread via colonial British naval ships to rest of Asia, Europe and eventually the United States. Apart from building toilets, and deploying an army of more than 9,000 “night sweepers” to collect or treat waste, authorities try to keep the river flowing at an optimum speed of at least 200,000 litres a second: fast enough to avoid stagnation, but not too quick that it washes away bathers. Stampedes are another constant threat. Thirty-six people where killed by a crush at a Prayagraj train station at the most recent event. In 1954, an elephant charged a dense crowd, killing more than 500 people. The key to public safety is to keep the mammoth crowds moving, says Devesh Chaturvedi, the chief public servant who organised Prayagraj’s last Kumbh Mela in 2013. “Even if the water is 500 metres away, we have a system where the pilgrims can be moved for another three or four kilometres. People won’t worry about how much they have to walk. But after five or six hours of walking they should finally get their dip.” One pilgrim, Devi Prasad, says he has walked hundreds of miles by foot from his village in Bihar state to bathe in the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna. A few more hours on foot is no trouble, the 63-year-old adds. “If you want to get close to God, you have to walk.”
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Michael Safi and Kakoli Bhattacharya in Prayagraj
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/15/kumbh-mela-hindus-converge-for-largest-ever-human-gathering-prayagraj-festival
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2019-01-14 23:55:24+00:00
| 1,547,528,124 | 1,567,552,583 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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703,400 |
theguardianuk--2019-06-26--Gambian pageant winner accuses ex-president Yahya Jammeh of rape
| 2019-06-26T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
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Gambian pageant winner accuses ex-president Yahya Jammeh of rape
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A Gambian pageant winner has accused the country’s former president of rape as an investigation claims Yahya Jammeh systematically sexually abused young women. Jammeh, who reluctantly stepped down in 2017 after 22 years of rule, presented himself as a deeply religious figure and an advocate of girls’ rights and declared his small west African nation an Islamic republic. But Toufah Jallow claims he raped her as a teenager at a religious event on the eve of Ramadan. Two other women also accused Jammeh of rape and sexual assault in interviews with Human Rights Watch and Trial International, and eight former Gambian officials said they had direct knowledge of the events. Jallow is the only one disclosing her real name. The former winner of the prestigious Miss July 22nd beauty and scholarship pageant said she wanted to “start the conversation about something that is destroying the fabric of society” – girls carrying the burden of sexual abuse. “I felt like if I can do that with the president of the country, it becomes somewhat easier for someone who’s dealing with a CEO, with a boss, with a schoolteacher or with an uncle, because the highest level is being exposed,” she told the Guardian. For years Jallow had watched the prestigious July 22nd pageant – named for the date Jammeh seized power – on television. When she was crowned winner in 2014, she thought a scholarship would soon follow. Instead, she said, Jimbee Jammeh, the president’s cousin and a State House protocol officer, began calling her to ask about a drama project she had to submit after winning the pageant. Soon she found herself being taken to Jammeh’s private residence. “Fula girl,” he greeted her, using traditional teasing between their ethnic groups, Jallow recalled. He was wearing a shirt and trousers, not his usual bulky robes. He gave her a fatherly hug and switched on the Animal Planet channel. “He was watching this lion hunt his prey, talking about it,” she said. “He said his uncles were hunters and that hunters actually just mimic what lions do, and they have to take their time.” He talked until midnight, she said, going through her proposal and reminiscing about his childhood. Then she left. After several more meetings, Jammeh arranged for Jallow’s mother’s house to get a water supply, and he sent gifts of furniture and offered Jallow a job like Jimbee’s. Then one night at dinner, she said, he allegedly told her: “I want to marry you, you know. When can I send people to go see your parents?” She said no, blocked Jimbee’s number and decided to have nothing more to do with Jammeh. But the night before Ramadan, Jimbee got through on a private number and told her to come to a Qur’anic recitation ceremony at State House along with previous pageant winners. She felt unable to decline. Jimbee allegedly engineered it so that they were in a room alone and then left. Jammeh walked in. “This time it wasn’t the fatherly ‘hey Fula girl’. His eyes were so red and he was so angry,” she claimed. “He said to me: ‘Who do you think you are?’ His ego was bruised, seriously.” Shouting that he could get any woman he wanted, he allegedly dragged her into the next room. “He said to me: ‘This could have gone way, way, much better if you had just gone along. But it seems like this is how you want it,’” she claimed. “The echo of the reading of the Qur’an outside was loud; I could hear every word of it when I was in that room. He pushed me so I was kneeling on the floor. And he pulled his genitals out and rubbed it on my face, saying things like ‘let’s see if you’re a virgin’, and I was screaming,” she alleged. “He said ‘it’s not going to kill you’. Then he took [a syringe] from his pocket and injected me right here,” she claimed, pulling up her sleeve to show a scar. After that, Jallow said, she could not hear her own screams. She claimed he pulled off her leggings and underwear and anally raped her. She alleges she passed out, and when she woke up at 2am he was sitting on the couch watching her. He told her: “Get out.” Jallow decided she had to escape. She put on a niqab and went to the market where she gave the men following her the slip, she said. She crossed the Gambia River in a fisherman’s boat, begged a truck driver to smuggle her across the Senegalese border and slept in a Dakar bus station until she could get help, then sought asylum in Canada. What allegedly happened to Jallow was not a one-off but appears to be part of “a state-sponsored system to get women into his bed,” said Reed Brody, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch who along with Marion Volkmann-Brandau has been building a case against Jammeh that covers the alleged massacre of migrants and his bogus HIV “cure” programme. Jammeh allegedly lavished gifts on the impoverished family of “Anta”, a pseudonym for one of the other women who has accused him of sexual assault. She claims she refused his advances until he threatened to take everything away from the family. She further alleges that a soldier was sent with Jimbee to force her to move to State House to be on call for sex whenever he wanted it. The third woman, referred to as Bintu, claims she was groomed and then told to undress in front of Jammeh and Jimbee, and when he started to touch her she started crying. She was told to leave and her scholarship was cancelled. Jammeh is hiding out in Equatorial Guinea along with Jimbee, protected by the country’s president, Teodoro Obiang. Now a keen boxer who works in sales but still has the acting dream, Jallow is preparing to travel to the Gambia to tell her story there. On her way to a boxing class in Dakar, Senegal, on Tuesday night, shocked messages of support trickled in from friends hearing about her case. “It’s hard. But what happened is harder,” she said. Her goals are clear: she wants her story to make a difference and, if the case comes to trial, she wants sexual assault to be treated as seriously as murder, kidnapping and torture, of which Jammeh is also accused. “I want it to be part of whatever brings him down.” Efforts to obtain contact details for Jammeh in order to put the allegations to him were unsuccessful.
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Ruth Maclean in Dakar
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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/26/gambian-beauty-queen-accuses-ex-president-yahya-jammeh-of-rape
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2019-06-26 10:36:53+00:00
| 1,561,559,813 | 1,567,538,054 |
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theindependent--2019-03-18--Easter 2019 When is it and why does the date change every year
| 2019-03-18T00:00:00 |
theindependent
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Easter 2019: When is it and why does the date change every year?
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One of the most important festivals in the Christian faith, Easter celebrates the period during which Christians believe Jesus Christ was resurrected following the crucifixion. For non-Christians, it is also a time to come together as a family. Unlike Christmas, the date of Easter is subject to change, as its date is determined by a lunisolar calendar. So when is Easter, why does its date vary and how is it celebrated? Here's everything you need to know: Easter marks the end of the 40-day period of Lent, during which those who observe the festival abstain from everyday luxuries such as rich foods. The week before Easter is widely referred to by Christians as "Holy Week", as it recalls the events surrounding the passion, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This year, Easter Sunday is taking place on Sunday 21 April. It marks the latest Easter has occurred since 2011, when it fell on 24 April. Some sectors of Christianity celebrate Easter on a different date in accordance with the Julian Calendar, a Roman calendar first proposed by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. Orthodox Christianity will celebrate Easter on Sunday 28 April this year, a week after Western Christianity. Much like other religious events such as the Hindu celebration of Diwali and the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah, Easter is a moveable feast. This means its date on the Gregorian calendar can vary every year. The date of Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox in March. By taking into account the date of the vernal equinox (which this year falls on Wednesday 20 March) and the next following full moon (Friday 19 April), it was therefore calculated that Easter Sunday would take place on Sunday 21 April in 2019. Those who observe the Christian festival of Easter celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after he was crucified, as outlined in the New Testament. Easter has strong links with the Jewish festival of Passover, another moveable feast which is taking place this year between Friday 19 April and Saturday 27 April. The first church service that some Christians attend in celebration of Easter is held on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday and the last day of Holy Week. In addition to church services, it's also tradition for Christians to commemorate Easter with music, candles, flowers and the ringing of church bells. While Easter is a religious festival, it is also celebrated by a variety of communities of different faiths across the globe. Many mark the occasion by exchanging chocolate eggs, which are traditionally symbolic of rebirth and new life. Lots of children also take part in the festivities by participating in Easter egg hunts. On Saturday 20 April, an Easter vigil mass is due to take place at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Easter morning mass will be held the next morning at 10am in St Peter's Square, where it will then be followed by a blessing from Pope Francis.
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Sabrina Barr
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https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/easter-2019-what-date-sunday-when-changing-why-a8828186.html
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2019-03-18 15:35:00+00:00
| 1,552,937,700 | 1,567,545,772 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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757,602 |
theindependent--2019-04-22--Sri Lanka bombings carried out by Islamist group National Thowheed Jamaaposath minister says
| 2019-04-22T00:00:00 |
theindependent
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Sri Lanka bombings carried out by Islamist group National Thowheed Jama'ath, minister says
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Bombings that killed hundreds of victims at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka were carried out by a local Islamist group with help from international terrorists, the government has said. Health minister Rajitha Senaratne said seven suicide bombers who struck on Easter Sunday were Sri Lankan citizens linked to National Thowheed Jama’ath. “We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” he added. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.” National Thowheed Jama’ath was previously known for vandalising Buddhist statues and in 2016 one of its leaders was arrested for inciting racism. President Maithripala Sirisena is asking for foreign assistance to trace the bombers’ international links. “The intelligence reports [indicate] that foreign terrorist organisations are behind the local terrorists,” a spokesperson said. “Therefore, the president is to seek the assistance of the foreign countries.” There was no claim of responsibility and officials said 24 suspects were in custody for questioning. Little over a week before the attacks, National Thowheed Jama’ath was named in a police advisory to security services warning of a potential threat to Catholic churches. Telecommunications minister Harin Fernando posted images of the letter, entitled “information on an alleged plan attack” and detailing names and other details, on Twitter. He called for “serious action” on why the atrocities were not prevented and the prime minister launched an inquiry. Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed he had not personally been informed of the threat, adding: “We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken.” The targeting of churches and hotels popular with foreign tourists is a technique recently used by Isis and al-Qaeda affiliates. Amarnath Amarasingam, a senior research fellow with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, pointed out that recent new year celebrations and Buddhist religious events passed off safely. “If this were local Muslim extremist groups who wanted to retaliate against anti-Muslim attacks by Buddhists, I think the targeting would have been a bit different,” he wrote on Twitter. “The attacks targeted churches as well as major tourist hotels in the capital, which were having Easter buffets and so on. This signals some coordination and planning by foreign groups.” A total of nine bombings on Sunday killed at least 290 people and injured more than 500. Sri Lankan officials said two people were involved in the attack at the Shangri-La hotel. One bomber each attacked the Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels, and St Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, St Sebastian's church in the city of Negombo and Zion Church in the city of Batticaloa. Two bombings hours later at a guesthouse and near an overpass on the outskirts of Colombo are still under investigation. Suspects detonated explosives at a safe house near the overpass blast as police closed in, killing three officers. Sri Lankan police found 87 bomb detonators at the main bus station in the capital, Colombo, on Monday and a large bomb was defused on an access road to the international airport. Most of the victims were Sri Lankan but victims also included people from Britain, the US, Denmark, China, Japan, Portugal and Australia. The president was to declare a nationwide emergency that will go into effect at midnight on Monday, following a curfew and blocks on social media. The state of emergency will grant police and the military extensive powers to detain and interrogate without court orders, was in force at various times during the civil war that raged from 1983 to 2009. It ended with the government defeating the Tamil Tigers, who launched numerous terror attacks in a bloody campaign for an independent ethnic state. The Tamil separatists – including Hindus and Christians - had been fighting against Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese ethnic majority, who are predominantly Buddhist. There were fears the Easter Sunday bombings could spark fresh sectarian violence, with a petrol bombing on a mosque and arson attacks on Muslim-owned shops reported.
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Lizzie Dearden
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings-thowheed-thowfeek-jamaath-suicide-attack-islamist-terror-a8880861.html
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2019-04-22 09:16:00+00:00
| 1,555,938,960 | 1,567,542,132 |
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religious event
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779,277 |
theindependent--2019-12-12--Trump hosts pastor who says 'Jews are going to hell' at White House Hanukkah party
| 2019-12-12T00:00:00 |
theindependent
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Trump hosts pastor who says 'Jews are going to hell' at White House Hanukkah party
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US President Donald Trump hosted an evangelical pastor who once said Jewish people were going to hell at the White House Hanukkah reception on Wednesday. Robert Jeffress is a prominent Christian leader from Dallas and has spoken at several religious events, including the opening ceremony of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018. During the White House Hannukah reception, Mr Jeffress gave a speech calling Mr Trump “the most pro-faith president in history” and said he is “on the right side of God”. At a sermon he preached in 2008, he said: “Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism – not only do they lead people away from the true God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in hell. “Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ.” Two years later, Mr Jeffress told the Trinity Broadcasting Network that Islam and Mormonism are “heresies from the pit of hell”, adding that “you can’t be saved being a Jew.” “The three greatest Jews in the New Testament: Peter, Paul and Jesus Christ. They all said Judaism won’t do it. It’s faith in Jesus Christ,” he said. Mr Jeffress is a staunch supporter of Mr Trump, previously hailing him as a “Christian warrior”. His praise has not gone unnoticed by the president, who said: “I didn’t know him, but I watched him, and I’d watch him on different shows. I said, ‘I like that guy. Man, he really talks great about me, and I like people that talk well about me.’” Mr Trump signed an executive order at the event effectively defining Judaism under federal law as a race and nationality, as well as a religion. This invokes Civil Rights Act protections that prevent educational institutions receiving federal funding from discriminating people based on their national origin. Concerns about the order have been raised, with pro-Palestinian groups worried it may be used to silence campus campaigns calling for Israeli divestment and to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Some Jewish groups are also worried by the order. Emily Mayer, political director of the Jewish advocacy group IfNotNow, said the move “promotes the classically bigoted idea that American Jews are not American… This order is a dangerous move to silence the free speech of human rights advocates and, in particular, Palestinian and Muslim students.”
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Kate Ng
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-pastor-robert-jeffress-jews-white-house-hanukkah-a9243631.html
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Thu, 12 Dec 2019 12:15:00 GMT
| 1,576,170,900 | 1,576,154,067 |
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theindependent--2019-12-15--'Our community was dying out': Yazidis struggle to find an identity in post-Soviet Georgia
| 2019-12-15T00:00:00 |
theindependent
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'Our community was dying out': Yazidis struggle to find an identity in post-Soviet Georgian landscape
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After a lull during Soviet times, and ostracised due to Christianity’s dominance, the Yazidi faith is now attempting to re-establish itself in the fabric of Georgian life. “Back then, we didn’t need religion. Our god was Lenin,” says Sheikh Nuri Shekhnamati, a priest at the Quba Sultan Ezid, a Yazidi temple in the capital Tbilisi. “People were more humane. With today’s wild capitalism we struggle to live day by day. The time came for religion. Religion can help. Everyone needs some kind of spirituality,” he adds. The temple sits on top of a hill in the outskirts of Tbilisi, surrounded by crowded Soviet-era housing blocks on one side, and a ghostly new Chinese-built mall, the biggest one in the Caucasus, on the other. It was a typically quiet day at the temple, and Shekhnamati made us tea and offered us sweets as we sat with him in the kitchen. Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority from northern Iraq. While most of the population lives in Iraq today, there were two waves of migration to the Caucasus in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some Yazidis identify as ethnic Kurds, others as ethnic Yazidis, and this debate can be divisive. The monotheistic religion has no holy book, and its sacred texts are orally transmitted by members of their priestly castes, such as Shekhnamati, who was born into a family of priests known as sheikhs. Yazidi priests do not formally teach the religion to their followers and many sacred texts are hidden from non-Yazidis. Until recently, no temples were built outside of the Yazidi heartland in Iraq. In the Caucasus, the modernising drive of the Soviet Union caused many members of the priesthood to lose this orally transmitted knowledge. “I started learning the texts later in life, in my mid-20s. I was more interested in my professional career, but people kept asking me to learn the religion,” he recalls. “I had no right to refuse: I was the son of a sheikh.” Instead, he studied electrical mechanics for trains and subway systems, and in his last job before joining the temple, he fixed street lamps. He lives with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, in a flat in an old housing blocks not far from the temple. Social upheavals and political transitions took their toll on the survival of the Yazidi religion in Georgia. “Our community was dying out,” says Dimitri Pirbari, the temple’s spiritual leader. But mobilising a community with no book, no institutions and no centralised structure proved the biggest challenge. At the time of its launch in 2015, the Quba Sultan Ezid was the second Yazidi temple in the world outside of Iraq. With its single spire and bare-walled interiors, it is modelled on the mausoleum of Lalish, the main Yazidi pilgrimage site in northern Iraq. On the other side of the grounds, a pyramid-shaped glass building serves as a centre for Georgian and Kurdish language lessons, and a recently launched course teaching the Yazidi religion and its history to any member of the public. Hanging on the centre’s walls are archival photographs, including an image of Tbilisi’s Yazidi community at a march commemorating the anniversary of the October Revolution in 1938. It was the response from a community that had come dangerously close to losing its presence in Georgian society. “The process of assimilation is really evident in our community. We’re losing our language and our religion. We don’t have a homeland,” says Lili Safarova, a Tbilisi-based women’s and education activist who was involved in the initial stages of the temple’s creation. “We needed a space to continue our language and our traditions.” At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Yazidi community of Georgia numbered around 33,000. The rise of Georgian nationalism and ongoing civil war in the 1990s caused waves of migration to Russian cities and later to Europe. By 2002, the number of Yazidis living in Georgia had halved to around 18,000. In 2014, fewer than 12,000 remained. In religiously conservative Georgia, where the Orthodox Church’s influence plays a powerful political role, the creation of a dedicated space for the Yazidi community in Tbilisi took more than two decades from conception to reality. The idea of a temple and cultural centre was floated as early as the 1990s. The land was then acquired from the government in 2007, and permission to build a temple was granted by Patriarch Ilya II in 2010. The Yazidi religion was officially recognised as a public entity in Georgia in 2011. Political reforms after Georgia’s Rose Revolution of 2003 facilitated the process. Georgia is home to many minorities and religions, and Tbilisi has historically been a diverse and cosmopolitan hub city. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and until 2005, no religion other than the Georgian Orthodox Church could be officially registered. Amendments to the civil code in 2011 allowed minority religions to register as public entities. “We advocated the issue because it gave legal status to all our organisations. We did not have this possibility before,” says Agit Mirzoev, a Tbilisi-based public defence lawyer who is involved in the temple and spiritual council’s registration. The Soviet Union suppressed religion, but it supported the Kurdish culture and folklore of Tbilisi’s Kurdish-speaking community, who were predominantly Yazidis. In Tbilisi, a Kurdish theatre run by the community held regular performances, but it stopped operating in the early 1990s, after Georgia’s independence. “The theatre was a source of pride for us at the time. For the children of a generation that was predominantly illiterate, to be writing records of our culture and history...” recalled Vitali Nabiev, a Yazidi journalist from Tbilisi who now lives in France. With the absence of a dedicated space, Kurdish nationalist groups from the Middle East filled the vacuum. The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) had an office in Tbilisi and was active in the 1990s, transmitting extremist literature, recruiting fighters and facilitating travel to Turkey through Moscow. Leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq also supported cultural activities such as radio stations and newspapers, and made donations to the existing temple. Today, while inter-ethnic tensions have softened in Georgia since the 1990s, economic and social issues remain for the Yazidi community. “I can count on my fingers the number of Georgian Yazidis who’ve come out of poverty. Many do not pursue a higher education. Until recently, many did not have faith in the electoral system and did not participate in elections,” says Isko Daseny, a Georgian parliamentarian and member of the Yazidi community. But the biggest threat for the community is the loss of identity. Since its opening, the activity at the temple has trickled slowly into the lives of Yazidis in Tbilisi. “I come here three to four times a month with my family,” says Rafael Adjamyan, a young resident of Tbilisi. “When I was growing up we could only dream of a space like this. There are a lot of rumours about our religion. We needed a space to get accurate and reliable information.” But overall visitor figures are unclear. “It’s difficult to say how many people come,” says Shekhnamati, “On a busy day, we get up to 100 people. But yesterday nobody came, and the day before that 20 visitors.” Of the approximately 1,000 Yazidis he estimates live in the vicinity, only some 300 visit the temple. Rather, the traditions of Yazidis in the Caucasus are centred around the community’s homes and cemeteries. The religion’s strict caste system assigns the role of religious teachings to pirs, which means elder in Kurdish, or sheikhs. Every Yazidi has their own pir and sheikh, including the pirs and sheikhs themselves. Yazidis visited leaders from the priestly castes of pirs and sheikhs for weddings, funerals and other holy days. “For spiritual matters, I go to my pir,” says Emma Kalashov, a retired cleaner living in one of the vast housing units of Varkatili, a neighbourhood near the temple – “My pir is my temple.” Her visits to the physical temple, she adds, are limited. “I may go four times a year, when my family visits from abroad.” Emma’s pir, Edik Pir Drbes, lives in her building. On the door to his flat is a small sticker of Lalish’s conical spires, and large peacock-shaped ornaments line the walls and shelves of his living room. And though Yazidis do not have a book, Pir Drbes has a large peacock-emblazoned book-shaped case high on a plinth against the back wall. Pir Drbes describes the mysticism at the heart of the religion and its language. “Nobody can see God Himself. I associate God with the sun, and I pray facing the sun,” he explains. In addition, Yazidis believe in seven holy beings, headed by an archangel, Tawus Melak, who takes the form of a peacock. “Melak tawus is an angel coming from God – he has power and reigns on everything on earth,” says Pir Drbes. “After God the most respected persons in our culture are our parents.” “No religious event can happen without the presence of a pir or sheikh,” explains Pir Drbes. “We are there for weddings and funerals to recite prayers. With our own hands, we sew white clothes for the dead before they are buried.” Pir Drbes was initiated to the religion’s sacred oral traditions from a young age. “I was 10 years old. My father died young so my brother taught me what he had learnt from our grandfather. I visited families with him and learnt that way.” In his bedroom, he shows us his ster, a shrine consisting of stacked mattresses, which is found in Yazidi households in the Caucasus. Academics believe this tradition emerged out of the originally nomadic nature of Caucasian Yazidis. “When we were cut off from Iraq we created these domestic altars in our homes. When the sun is not visible, I open this shrine and pray to it,” he explains. He pulls out a plastic bag from within the mattress heap, which contains soil, cotton string and pearl-shaped clay balls gathered from his recent trips to Iraq. Pirs and sheikhs typically receive alms from their followers. But grinding poverty in the Caucasus caused many to turn away from spiritual matters. “The church charges very high fees for its services, but as Yazidi priests, we take whatever our followers can give us,” says Pir Drbes. As he drove us through the sprawl of housing blocks to the local cemetery in his 4x4 German car with leather seats, with the letters “P – IR” on his license plate, Pir Drbes explained that he does not have a job other than his spiritual role. “I prefer to serve the people.” By contrast to the informal, unwritten traditions described by Pir Drbes, the leaders at the temple pursue an active spiritual, educational and political strategy. “Our first aim is to be recognised as an institutionalised religion. Without this it’s difficult to dialogue with other religions,” explains Pirbari. The Yazidi religion has no institutional hierarchy. There is one political leader, the Mir, and important religious figures who form a spiritual council in Iraq. But when the Yazidi Spiritual Council of Georgia was registered in 2011, it appointed its own spiritual leader. Pirbari dresses in white cotton robes and headband, typical of a priest in rural Iraq. Greeting us in the reception room, he recalls his nostalgia for Dighomi, the neighbourhood which he grew up in Tbilisi. Like much of the city, it has been affected by ongoing uncontrolled construction. On the wall behind him is a painting of the mausoleum at Lalish, and on the adjacent wall hangs a northern Iraqi rug. “I want the spiritual content of the Yazidi religion to inform the daily lives of Yazidis,” explains Pirbari. As such, the temple has revived rituals which did not previously exist among Yazidis in the Caucasus. Pirbari has strong connections to the spiritual leadership in Iraq, and In June this year, the temple brought in qewwals, members of the Yazidi spiritual castes whose role is to sing sacred texts, and who only live in Lalish, Iraq. “There was a lot of admiration for them,” says Pirbari, “It is one of the ways in which we are trying to recover our traditions.” Some view the temple in Tbilisi as a contemporary expression of the religion. “They’re trying to create a ‘modern’ form of Yazidism that could be seen as more ‘systematic’ and understandable to the younger generation,” says Khanna Omarkhali, an Associate Professor at the Free University of Berlin and a member of the Yazidi priesthood. The temple extols the view that Yazidis are a distinct ethnic group. “My studies in ethnology show Yazidism is an ethnicity and a religion. We are not Kurds. We have the right to self-identify,” insists Pirbari. This is partly in response to the fact that, for decades, the Yazidi community has been caught between different parties of the Kurdish struggle in the Middle East. “We don’t want to be part of these political games,” says Mirzoev. “We have peaceful aims as citizens of Georgia.” The educational centre, named the “Theology Academy”, teaches religion, language and history, and is the first of its kind in the world. A Department of Yazidism, headed by Pirbari, will soon be created at the Tbilisi’s Ilya State University’s Institute of Oriental Studies. But given the oral nature of the religion, this educational dimension is also met with scepticism.“Yazidi priests do not learn their religion in schools. We inherit the knowledge from our parents and grandparents,” says Reza Muradyan, a young priest and shop owner from Tbilisi. “We can’t talk – at least until now – about an explicit theology among Yazidis, first of all because they do not have a sacred writ,” adds Omarkhali. The spiritual council also acts as a political engine. “We are more mobilised and self-organised than ever. We have good communications with the government and with other religions in Georgia, especially the Georgian Orthodox Church,” adds Mirzoev. “We want to be part of a process which facilitates peaceful relationships between different world religions,” says Pirbari. “We openly declare humane values of mutual respect and love.” Pirbari has facilitated meetings for the Yazidi spiritual leadership in Iraq with the Vatican and Russian patriarchate, among others. Above his desk in his office is a gold-plated, peacock-shaped relief sculpture which was a gift from the Iranian cleric Ayatollah Shahrestani. But the temple’s emphasis on the religious aspects of the Yazidi culture has attracted criticism from some quarters. In downtown Tbilisi’s House of Friendship, a Soviet-era administrative building with an elaborate modernist facade, Safarova, the women’s activist, describes her concerns: “Today the space is run by a small number of religious persons who have alienated the young in particular.” “The original idea was to have a public cultural centre and a small temple. The young would come to the cultural centre, join its educational activities, and also learn about their religion.” he says, when we met him in his office in the northern suburbs of the capital. Partly, the view that Yazidis are an ethno-religion has been divisive. “Our critics are an old guard red star intelligentsia, most of them atheists,” says Pirbari, referring to the fact that the Soviet Union supported Kurdish culture and banned religion. Nonetheless, respondents interviewed for this article of all ages identified as ethnic Yazidis, Kurds or Yazidi-Kurds. Further, many members of the community are not recognised by the temple, including Georgian Yazidis from mixed marriages. “We welcome everyone, from every religion at our temple,” says Pirbari. “But according to our religion, we cannot recognise Yazidis that come from mixed marriages as Yazidis. We will welcome them as members of another religion.” “We are fighting for survival, not radicalism,” insists Pirbari. But others disagreed. “We wanted a space that would unite us,” says Safarova, “but now we are divided.” Read the first part in the series, here: Emerging from Isis genocide, Yazidis in Armenia open religion’s biggest ever temple
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Lemma Shehadi
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/yazidis-georgia-kurdish-soviet-union-iraq-religion-tbilisi-ussr-a9239456.html
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Sun, 15 Dec 2019 19:02:49 GMT
| 1,576,454,569 | 1,576,456,363 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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780,914 |
theindependent--2019-12-25--I'm a humanist who loves Christmas – for me, it's much more than a religious event
| 2019-12-25T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
I'm a humanist who loves Christmas – for me, it's much more than a religious event
|
Although Christians are today celebrating an important religious event, the majority of us in Britain are celebrating something more timeless. Every human being so far has been born and died on earth, and its landscapes and seasons define us. In the cold midwinter of our Northern hemisphere, this is as true as anywhere else and ever since our ancestors first brought in green branches to remind themselves of the spring that would come again and lit fires to warm the darkness, this time of year has been a festival. Research last year found that (in order) the five most important things to people about Christmas are: spending time with family; giving presents to friends/family; eating Christmas food and drinking Christmas drinks; and putting up Christmas lights and decorations. These are pretty much the things that matter to me about this time of year, and what they all represent is warmth in the coldness: being with those we love and celebrating that togetherness with food and light and generosity. This is also the time of year when people give most to charity and that’s an important part of Christmas to me too – a heightened sense of empathy and compassion as we enjoy the things that so many do not have. What’s true of Christmas is also true of life. Much of our fulfilment, meaning and purpose can come from others, from our relationships with friends and family. These are the sort of relationships that are affirmed at this time of year by being together, by giving and receiving gifts, cards and good wishes. And the meaning that we find in our relationships with family and friends is not the only meaning we can find in people. If we extend our thinking and our sympathies, we can see ourselves as part of a global continuum of people; this continuum also stretches through time. The human story is millennia older than the Christmas story, which cannot hope to contain the grander narrative that history, biology, anthropology, geology and all the sciences of human ingenuity have unveiled. I also use Christmas as a time to think. At the turning of the year, we can contemplate the past and look to the future. The traditions we keep and fall into like second nature at Christmas emphasise the continuity in our lives but they also give us pause to think about change. We may think of the person who was with us last Christmas who now isn’t and won’t be again, and be grateful for the times we had for them. Or it may be the opposite: the new person enjoying their first Christmas whose future joy we anticipate. Times like Christmas structure our lives and help us make meaning out of them as their events progress. At Christmas, we remember last Christmas, and the Christmas before; such moments in the calendar that let us look back and forward order our lives as we take stock, and we weave them – as we weave all our experiences – into the narrative of our life. Our own lives are stories, after all, which we give a shape and purpose as best we can. Some religious people like to criticise non-religious people like me for celebrating at this time of year while forgetting the “real meaning” of Christmas. But for me, as for most people in the UK, this time of year has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with celebrating the life we have with the people we love. The real meaning is the meaning we make ourselves – and it’s for life, not just for Christmas. Andrew Copson is the chief executive of Humanists UK. This article was originally published on 23 December 2017.
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Andrew Copson
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https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/christmas-humanist-celebration-jesus-religion-family-a9260146.html
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Wed, 25 Dec 2019 15:53:00 GMT
| 1,577,307,180 | 1,577,320,141 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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782,444 |
theintercept--2019-09-25--The Network of Hindu Nationalists Behind Modis Diaspora Diplomacy in the US
| 2019-09-25T00:00:00 |
theintercept
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The Network of Hindu Nationalists Behind Modi’s “Diaspora Diplomacy” in the U.S.
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Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump held up their clasped hands on stage in Houston this past weekend, more than 50,000 people who had been awaiting the pair burst into a loud rumble of approval. The crowd at NRG Stadium, brandishing Indian flags and pictures of the prime minister, greeted them with chants of “Modi” and “USA.” Some attendees were dressed in their finest saris adorned with thick gold necklaces and jingling bangles, while others wore their love for Modi on their sleeves. Modi gushed profusely about Trump — the president was warm, friendly, energetic, “full of wit.” “You introduced me to your family in 2017,” Modi said, referring to his trip to the White House that summer, “and today I have the honor to introduce you to my family.” While most Indians in the U.S. identify as Democrats and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party enjoy significant popularity in the diaspora — and the joint appearance opened up the potential to confer some of that support on Trump. “You enrich our culture, you uphold our values, you uplift our communities, and you are truly proud to be American. And we are proud to have you as Americans,” Trump told the largely Indian American audience. “We thank you, we love you, and I want you to know that my administration is fighting for you each and every day.” He promised to “take care of our Indian American citizens before we take care of illegal immigrants that want to pour into our country,” but neglected to mention that about half of the nearly 4.5 million Indians in the United States are foreign-born, and a growing number of Indian migrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. With the words “Shared Dream, Bright Futures” on the large screen behind them, and American and Indian flags flanked on either side of the stage, Modi and Trump presented their twin agendas around border security and counterterrorism. “Both India and the United States understand that to keep our communities safe, we must protect our borders,” Trump said, as he promised to help India defend against “radical Islamic terrorism.” On the face of it, the blockbuster “Howdy, Modi” event was the Indian American diaspora’s extravagant welcome to the Indian prime minister for the first time since his landslide reelection victory in May — complete with flashy musical and dance numbers. But beneath the cultural gloss, it was essentially a political rally for two nationalist world leaders, organized by a nonprofit with Hindu nationalist links. For decades, a network of American groups affiliated with Hindu nationalist organizations in India has embedded itself in the diaspora by holding cultural and religious events, lobbying Congress, contributing to political campaigns, and acting as a mouthpiece for Modi and the BJP. Since the early 2000s, these groups have worked to expunge Modi’s once-tarnished reputation in the U.S., enlisting the Indian American community, about half of whom are Hindu, and U.S. lawmakers to defend his increasingly authoritarian agenda and whitewash his complicity in human rights abuses. “Howdy, Modi” corralled not just Trump and tens of thousands of Indian Americans, but also a delegation of U.S. politicians, including Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, who appeared on stage to shake hands with Modi in tacit support of his government’s Hindu nationalist agenda. Meanwhile in Houston, the prime minister fiercely praised the Indian Parliament’s action. “Article 370 had deprived people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh of development. Terrorist and separatist elements were misusing the situation. Now after abrogation, people there have got equal rights,” he said. The crowd, and even some journalists in the press box, cheered and stood to clap. “‘Howdy, Modi’ is a blatant celebration of the destruction of democracy and a complete disregard for human rights,” said Sana Qutubuddin, an organizer with the Alliance for Justice and Accountability, a coalition of progressive South Asian American groups. Behind the event was Texas India Forum, which has direct links to members of U.S.-based Hindu nationalist groups affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a fascist paramilitary organization that espouses the notion that India should be a Hindu state and its minorities second-class citizens. The nonprofit is registered to the residence of Houston employment lawyer Amit Misra, a coordinator of the Hindu Education Foundation — the education wing of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the international branch of the RSS. The Hindu Education Foundation is known for its role in lobbying against using the term “South Asia” rather than “India” to describe the modern-day region that stretches from Pakistan to Bangladesh, and for objecting to middle school textbooks that explicitly link the caste system to Hinduism. (Texas India Forum did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) The chair of the “Howdy, Modi” organizing committee, Jugal Malani, is the brother-in-law of the national vice president of the HSS and an adviser to the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA, an education nonprofit whose Indian counterpart is affiliated with an RSS offshoot. Malani’s nephew, Rishi Bhutada, was the event’s head spokesperson and is a board member of the Hindu American Foundation, known for its aggressive tactics to influence political discourse on India and Hinduism. Another spokesperson, Gitesh Desai, is president of Houston’s chapter of Sewa International, a service organization linked to the HSS. The event was also backed by more than 600 “welcome partners,” including groups with Hindu nationalist ties. Modi began fostering ties with Hindu nationalist groups in the U.S. to help build sympathy within the Indian American community after the U.S. rejected his visa application in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots, during which Hindu mobs unleashed terror on Muslims after the community was blamed for a train fire that killed Hindu pilgrims. Women were raped, homes and mosques destroyed, and up to 2,000 people were killed. Modi, who at the time was chief minister of the state, was accused of overseeing the violence. Among the thousands who demonstrated across from the venue on Sunday were progressive South Asian Americans and their allies who oppose Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda. “There’s a presence of so many religious and cultural minorities — Dalits, Indian Christians, Indian Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs — because we’re standing up for our kin who are facing great deals of oppression and atrocity at home, and we won’t be silenced in the face of that violence,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, an activist with the Alliance for Justice and Accountability. While Hindu nationalist groups in the U.S. have developed the community infrastructure and connections to organize such massive events as “Howdy, Modi,” Soundararajan explained that they represent only a sliver of the South Asian American community. “They’re a small, well-organized group that is trying to use money to show that they have power,” she told The Intercept. The Democratic Party has fractured over its position on India in recent weeks. Several progressive Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., have spoken out against Modi’s actions in Kashmir, while others in the party have been unwavering in their support. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has most pointedly criticized Hindu nationalist ideology and was denounced by Indian and Hindu groups in response. Nonetheless, there were six Democrats among the 21 lawmakers who joined Modi on stage. Even New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, who faced severe criticism in August for a letter he wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concerns over Kashmir, attended, waving and pressing the palms of his hands together when his name was called. In response to the outrage generated by his letter, Suozzi had called a community meeting of his Indian American constituents and apologized for not consulting them before sending it. Also present were Hoyer, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.; Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill.; and Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who last year attended the World Hindu Congress, an event known for giving a platform to Hindu nationalists, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green’s name was announced, but he had put out a statement the day before that he would not attend “Trump’s photo-op.” Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., was also originally scheduled to appear. Her spokesperson did not respond to a question about why she pulled out. With Modi standing behind him, Hoyer recited a quote from Mahatma Gandhi on democracy as “something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.” He said that the U.S. and India provide “an equal opportunity to dream and work hard to make that dream come true.” “I’m proud, as all of you are, that the U.S.-India relationship remains bipartisan, both Democrats and Republicans working to bring the two nations closer in pursuit of that goal and our common principles,” he said. When asked if Hoyer’s presence at the event could be seen as supportive of Hindu nationalism, his spokesperson pointed to the representative’s reference to India’s efforts to secure the vision of Gandhi and the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of the country as “a secular democracy where respect for pluralism and human rights safeguard every individual.” But under Modi, India’s founding ideals have been desecrated as far-right Hindus have become emboldened by the administration, and hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities have skyrocketed. Links to Modi and Hindu nationalism can even be found in at least three Democratic presidential campaigns. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has received large donations from individuals involved in Hindu nationalist groups, including Malani and the Bhutada family, since the start of her political career. Joe Biden’s Asian American Pacific Islander national vote director, Amit Jani, is a Modi supporter, and his father was a co-founder of the Overseas Friends of the BJP. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s policy director Sonal Shah was a former national coordinator of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, and her father was a former OFBJP vice president. Buttigieg’s campaign spokesperson said that Shah had “helped raise money for earthquake victims in 2001” with VHPA and pointed to a statement she made when she was on Barack Obama’s transition team that she “would not have associated with VHP of America” if she could have known the role its Indian counterpart would have in the Gujarat riots. Activists pointed out the tensions between Democrats appearing at a Modi event while the party as a whole decries Trump and his xenophobic immigration policies. Soundararajan questioned the conflicting political messages of liberal lawmakers who associate with Hindu nationalism. “If the Democrats are serious about being the resistance, does justice end at the border?” she asked. “Can we afford to be progressive domestically but fascist abroad?” In September, right when Congress came back in session, the Hindu American Foundation held a Senate briefing on Kashmir to push its perspective on the repeal of the constitutional articles that ensured Kashmir’s autonomy and the history of the region. “I’m not sure how many staffers attended, but [HAF was] already there to counter the narrative that’s been emerging from the media and activists, saying that everything is fine and the media is just exaggerating,” said Hafsa Kanjwal, a Kashmiri American history professor at Lafayette College. Republicans, of course, experience no such contradiction. Apart from the Texas senators, GOP lawmakers on stage included North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, and Texas Rep. Pete Olson, who wore a kurta, or traditional Indian tunic, to the event. At times, the Republican agenda has intersected with the interests of right-wing Hindu lobbyists. The Republican Hindu Coalition, founded in 2015, has recently taken up the cause of building Trump’s border wall, with founder and Modi supporter Shalli Kumar offering to raise $25 million for the project. Kumar has also named Steve Bannon as an honorary co-chair of the coalition (a title he shares with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich). Kumar reportedly accompanied the former Breitbart executive chairman, who has been involved in the construction of a private border wall, to fundraise at the U.S.-Mexico border. Houston has been a hub of Hindu nationalist activity in the U.S. since at least the late 1970s, when its HSS chapter was founded. Years before Modi was even a contender for prime minister, the Houston chapters of the HSS and the OFBJP were mobilizing from thousands of miles away to get him elected. Ramesh Bhutada, the HSS vice president, played a prominent role, organizing a 700-person phone-banking campaign for Modi, said Pieter Friedrich, a South Asia affairs analyst who has documented Gabbard’s ties with Modi and American Hindu nationalists. At “Howdy, Modi,” the Indian prime minister thanked those who participated in the 2019 elections; the OFBJP organized phone banks to call Indians and ask them to vote for Modi, and some nonresident Indians even went to their home states in India to campaign and vote in the election. Hindu nationalist organizations have historically portrayed themselves as liberal social and religious groups that denounce bigotry and uphold equality, Friedrich told The Intercept, while developing and maintaining close ties with Hindu nationalists in India who are openly hateful and violent toward minorities. In 2014, South Asia Citizens Web released a report showing how the network of Hindu nationalist groups in the U.S. had funneled millions of dollars to their counterparts in India since 2001. “Hindu nationalists in America have utilized their minority status to protect themselves while supporting a majoritarian supremacist movement in India,” Friedrich said. The Overseas Friends of the BJP was formed right before the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindu nationalist groups razed the mosque in 1992, igniting deadly intercommunal violence that killed at least 2,000 people. The OFBJP was tasked with damage control in the U.S. It has since mobilized to lobby congressional officials and campaigned abroad for Modi’s bids for prime minister. With the help of American Hindu nationalists, Modi periodically connected with the diaspora through videoconferences from 2007 to 2012, Friedrich writes in his article, while he was banned from entering the U.S. “It is in the best interest of the BJP to nurture the Indian diaspora. They are our biggest soft power,” Vijay Chauthaiwale, head of the BJP’s foreign affairs cell, told Indian news site News18 ahead of “Howdy, Modi.” “PM Modi has been interested and extremely committed to make this diaspora an informal ambassador of his development agenda. They represent the Indian local community. For the BJP, it is important to nurture them along with the local community.” Modi became prime minister in 2014 and with that, his U.S. visa was finally approved. A five-person committee connected to American Hindu nationalist groups organized a grand welcome for him at Madison Square Garden in New York City that was similar in magnitude to “Howdy, Modi.” He expressed his gratitude to an audience of about 20,000 Indian Americans, describing them as “my countrymen who, having settled here thousands of miles away from India, have increased India’s honor and pride.” Five years later in Houston, Modi remained committed to cherishing his relationship with the Indian American community, despite the many miles of land and ocean between them. “Today, you may be far away from your homeland,” he said, “but your homeland’s government is not far from you.” Correction: September 25, 2019, 4:38 p.m. A previous version of this story stated that Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., attended “Howdy, Modi.” She was originally scheduled to appear, but she was not present at the event.
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Rashmee Kumar
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https://theintercept.com/2019/09/25/howdy-modi-trump-hindu-nationalism/
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2019-09-25 15:03:34+00:00
| 1,569,438,214 | 1,570,222,282 |
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religious event
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785,788 |
theirishtimes--2019-04-02--Pupils in divested schools will not be prevented from celebrating Christmas
| 2019-04-02T00:00:00 |
theirishtimes
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Pupils in divested schools ‘will not be prevented’ from celebrating Christmas
|
The Department of Education has rejected claims that pupils in Catholic schools where there is a change in patronage will be prevented from celebrating religious events such as Christmas. It follows a row in north Dublin where the department has requested that one Catholic school out of eight in the Malahide-Portmarnock-Kinsealy area of the county divest its patronage. The move is part of a wider plan to increase access to multidenominational schools for parents on the basis that 90 per cent of primary schools remain under Catholic patronage. However, a number of Catholic schools in the north Dublin area are resisting any attempt to divest their patronage. The parents’ association of St Oliver Plunkett’s School in Malahide has warned that the loss of the school’s religious ethos could lead to the cancellation of nativity plays and carol services. Other schools in the area have reportedly also warned that events such as St Patrick’s Day and Shrove Tuesday may no longer be celebrated. A spokesman for the department, however, said “significant festivals or events which may be associated with religion can play a part in the life of a multidenominational school”. “Nondenominational schools are not required to ask pupils not to mark or celebrate or learn about religious festivals or events or times of the year and occasions that would historically have a religious connotation or connection,” the department said, in a statement. “There is clear guidance on the teaching of religion in primary schools. Multidenominational schools deliver the national primary curriculum in the same way as all schools and are subject to the same rules and regulations, regardless of patron.” Educate Together, which describes itself as an equality-based school model, said many of its schools host “inclusive celebrations” such as annual festivals of lights and winter fairs that incorporate elements of Christmas. A total of eight Catholic schools in the north Dublin area are being invited to vote on whether to change their patronage this month. They include St Helen’s junior and senior national schools in Portmarnock; Scoil an Duinnínigh, a Gaelscoil near Swords; and St Marnock’s National School in Portmarnock. Malahide-Portmarnock-Kinsealy is one of 16 areas nationwide where a lack of access to multidenominational has been identified. Surveys have been conducted among preschool parents in these areas to measure demand for education under multidenominational patron bodies. However, any change in patronage must must “reflect the wishes of parents and the school community”, according to department guidelines. Resistance to the plans among schools in north Dublin is set to raise questions over how many schools, in practice, will be prepared to divest their patronage. In the case of St Oliver Plunkett’s School, parents have been warned of the dangers of a narrow vote in favour of divestment. “To avoid another Brexit-type disaster, we implore you to attend the meeting. This is your opportunity to raise your questions/concerns,” parents were told, in messages seen by The Irish Times . A separate letter from the school’s board of management states that staff and the board were “100 per cent” in favour of remaining and warned that a change in patronage would have “huge implications”.
| null |
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/pupils-in-divested-schools-will-not-be-prevented-from-celebrating-christmas-1.3847532
|
2019-04-02 20:50:00+00:00
| 1,554,252,600 | 1,567,544,355 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
786,995 |
theirishtimes--2019-05-15--Parents leaving it to schools to prepare children for sacraments
| 2019-05-15T00:00:00 |
theirishtimes
|
Parents leaving it to schools to prepare children for sacraments
|
Ireland is unique in its dependence on schools in preparing for the sacraments. And, as any primary school teacher will tell you, preparation for Communion or Confirmation isn’t just a one-day affair. There is response learning, singing, church visits, procession practice, wardrobe fittings and photoshoots. All of this takes far more than the 30 minutes designated daily for religious education in the national curriculum. Then there’s the wider question of whether the sacraments are at risk of becoming a social rather than a religious event. Many teachers say they have noticed a deterioration in children’s religious knowledge over the years. Some talk of how they end up having to re-teach students how to receive Communion in their Confirmation year. One recalls a recent First Holy Communion ceremony where the amused congregation were unaware of when to sit, stand or kneel at any point during the Mass. It’s clear that many parents are not engaging with church practices – though they expect it of their schools. Society, generally, is also changing fast: more than a third of marriages are civil rather then religious, while census figures indicate that about a fifth of families of parenting age describe themselves as non-religious. Yet, we have a primary education system where 90 per cent of schools remain under the control of the Catholic Church. It is against this backdrop that Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin last year announced plans to consult teachers, parents and parish personnel to “improve the preparation and celebration of the sacraments”. Sacraments, he said, were not just “conveyor belts” or “social occasions” but “they are fundamentally moments of faith”. The result – based on a survey of 1,800 school principals, teachers, parents, parishioners, clergy and parish workers in the archdiocese – reveals a strong demand for parents and local parishes to play a much greater role in preparing children for sacraments. All are saying that passing on faith is primarily the responsibility of the home, with the support of the parish – as well as the school. The archdiocese says it is to hold meetings with parishes shortly to reflect on these findings. Speaking to The Irish Times earlier this year, Archbishop Martin said schools in general felt religious formation should be outside schools and “we’re working on that”. “For instance, this year everybody who wanted to be confirmed had to write, make a formal application addressed to me, again to emphasise that Confirmation isn’t a school subject, it’s a faith subject,” he said. One obvious solution is to do what many multi-denominational schools have been doing for years: establish an “opt-in” system of sacramental preparation. This can involve classes which take place outside school hours either in the school premises or in local parish facilities. While it might end up in fewer children completing the sacraments, from the church’s point of view it could result in a higher proportion of more committed Catholics. Another approach may involve parish programmes which aim to boost parental involvement by encouraging them to bring their children to Mass with them in the months leading up to Communion or Confirmation. Taking sacramental preparation out of the school day, however, is unlikely to be the end of the debate over religion in the education system. While at present up to half an hour of each primary school day is allocated to religious education, a survey by the Irish Primary Principals’ Network found that the vast majority of principals felt less time should be spent on teaching religion in the classroom and more on subjects such as maths, English and physical education. This, no doubt, will be a debate for another day.
| null |
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/parents-leaving-it-to-schools-to-prepare-children-for-sacraments-1.3892398
|
2019-05-15 02:00:00+00:00
| 1,557,900,000 | 1,567,540,606 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
976,742 |
thesun--2019-08-15--Stunning aerial shots show Muslims during prayer at Islams holiest site in Saudi Arabia as part of
| 2019-08-15T00:00:00 |
thesun
|
Stunning aerial shots show Muslims during prayer at Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia as part of annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage
|
INCREDIBLE aerial photos provide a birds-eye view of Muslims praying at Islam's holiest site in Saudi Arabia. As part of annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage, millions of hajj pilgrims have visited Mecca for final prayers at the world's largest annual gathering of Muslims. Despite heavy rainfall, officials said there had been no major incidents and the logistical, security and health plans had been successful. Pilgrims participated in a symbolic stoning of the devil, part of the hajj rituals, in Jamarat before returning to Mecca, where the Grand Mosque filled with worshippers preparing to depart. Saudi pilgrim Jasem Ali Haqawi said he was grateful to the authorities for a well-run week of rituals. He said: "Nobody comes to the hajj without things inside him that he wants to ask from God. "The sick, the indebted... such things only God can grant and so you ask God for whatever you want." Most of the 2.5million pilgrims travelled from overseas to take part in the annual five-day ritual. Several hundred thousand of the pilgrims were Saudi residents or citizens. More than 120,000 members of the security forces and more than 30,000 health workers were on hand this week to maintain safety and provide first aid. Among those attending was an awestruck Siti Haslina Yousof, a Malaysian pilgrim in Mecca, who said: "I am very happy now. It is the first time I am here in Mecca. Ali Ahmed Al-Sudani, a Yemeni pilgrim who said he was praying for unity in his war-torn country, added: "I cannot express my feelings. "The atmosphere is spiritual, still and tranquil. We hope Yemen will be united for good." What is the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia? More than 2 million pilgrims gathered in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform initial rites of the hajj. This is an Islamic pilgrimage that takes the faithful along a path traversed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago. The five-day holy pilgrimage lasted from Friday, August 9, until Wednesday, August 14. Hajj takes place from the 8th to the 12th of Dhu al-Hijja. This is the final and the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam which involves men and women making a pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah) in Saudi Arabia. Muslims are supposed to make the journey at least once in their lifetime. The pillar is obligatory for both men and women as long as they are physically fit or financially able to do so. Each year around two million Muslims from around the globe flock to the city for the religious event. Women are encouraged to go, but Islam dictates they should be accompanied by a Mahram - a close relative they would never be permitted to marry. Pilgrims participated in a symbolic stoning of the devil, part of the hajj rituals, in Jamarat before returning to Mecca, where the Grand Mosque filled with worshippers preparing to depart. The hajj in Islam is meant to be a great equalizer and unifier among Muslims, with pilgrims shedding overt displays of wealth and materialism. Women don conservative dress and headscarves, forgoing makeup, nail polish and perfume in an effort to draw closer to God and engage in intense worship for the five-day hajj. Part of the ritual involves circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, Islam's holiest site. Pilgrims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise, with their hearts tilting toward the structure that's meant to symbolise the monotheistic principle of the oneness of God in Islam. Muslims around the world pray toward the Kaaba daily, using compasses to help them pray in its direction.
|
Debbie White
|
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9730549/stunning-aerial-show-muslims-prayer-islams-holiest-site-saudi-arabia-annual-islamic-hajj-pilgrimage/
|
2019-08-15 16:23:56+00:00
| 1,565,900,636 | 1,567,534,147 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
1,000,843 |
thetelegraph--2019-02-28--St Patricks Day 2019 Shamrocks snakes and how a British slave became Irelands patron saint
| 2019-02-28T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
|
St Patrick's Day 2019: Shamrocks, snakes and how a British slave became Ireland's patron saint
|
Erin go bragh! St Patrick's Day is nearly here, with events in honour of the patron saint of Ireland set to take place across the globe next month. Recognised annually since the 1700s, the people of Ireland celebrate their heritage and culture on St Patrick's Day, with the day growing as a commercial occasion rather than a religious event in recent years. While Ireland embraces its patron saint day by holding vibrant, green parades, wearing shamrocks and flying Irish flags more than usual, celebrations also take place in other countries around the world, including the UK, United States, Egypt and Australia. Here is everything you need to know about St Patrick's Day, from the patron saint himself...
|
Hannah Daly
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/st-patricks-day-2019-shamrocks-snakes-british-slave-became-irelands/
|
2019-02-28 08:30:11+00:00
| 1,551,360,611 | 1,567,546,999 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
1,014,153 |
thetelegraph--2019-08-29--Burning Man Kumbh Mela and six more baffling temporary cities
| 2019-08-29T00:00:00 |
thetelegraph
|
Burning Man, Kumbh Mela, and six more baffling temporary cities
|
In the middle of the Nevada desert, a temporary, crescent-shaped metropolis is teeming with 70,000 people. Since Sunday, they’ve been living currency-free in the counterculture community – and impermanent civilisation – of Black Rock City, the base for Burning Man. For nine days Black Rock City serves tens of thousands of festival-goers in many of the same ways a traditional city would (minus money, as none is exchanged for its duration). It's one of the temporary places that Harvard professor Rahul Mehrotra describes in his TED talk on the architectural wonder of impermanent cities. Here, we look at the amazing feats of the cities (taking this term loosely) that spring up for religious events,...
|
Emma Featherstone
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/burning-man-kumbh-mela-incredible-temporary-cities/
|
2019-08-29 12:21:04+00:00
| 1,567,095,664 | 1,567,543,579 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
1,030,053 |
thetorontostar--2019-11-08--India’s court set to deliver verdict on temple dispute
| 2019-11-08T00:00:00 |
thetorontostar
|
India’s court set to deliver verdict on temple dispute
|
NEW DELHI - India’s security forces were on high alert ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict Saturday in a decades-old land title dispute between Muslims and Hindus over plans to build a Hindu temple on a site where Hindu hard-liners demolished a 16th century mosque in 1992, sparking deadly religious riots. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a series of tweets appealed for peace ahead of the verdict, expected around 10:30 a.m. (0500 GMT). He had earlier cautioned his council of ministers from making unnecessary statements on the issue that could stoke public sentiments. Appeals for peace have also come from Hindu and Muslim organizations and various political leaders. India’s Home Ministry has asked all states to be on alert. Authorities increased security in Ayodhya, 550 kilometres (350 miles) east of New Delhi, and deployed more than 5,000 paramilitary forces to prevent any attacks by Hindu activists on Muslims, who comprise 6% of the town’s more than 55,500 people. Earlier, authorities banned the assembly of more than four people at one placein and around Ayodhya, a town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The town looked deserted with authorities turning back thousands of Hindu pilgrims who were congregating for a religious event on Tuesday. Security forces established a strong presence around the disputed site and were not allowing anyone to visit the area, said Uttar Pradesh state government spokesman Awanish Awasthi. People travelling in cars and buses to Ayodhya were being thoroughly checked at security barriers. Commandos took up positions in bunkers across the town. Police have arrested nearly 500 people for posting provocative messages on social media in the state. Police also have detained 5,000 people with criminal backgrounds across the state to prevent them from creating trouble after the court verdict, Awasthi said. Authorities stopped the entry of people into the state through land border from Nepal. The Uttar Pradesh government ordered all the schools and colleges to remain closed until Monday. The destruction of the mosque in 1992 sparked massive Hindu-Muslim violence that left 2,000 people dead. Hindu hard-liners say they want to build a new temple to Hindu god Ram on the site, which they revere as his birthplace. They say the mosque was built after a temple dedicated to the Hindu god was destroyed by Muslim invaders. After the demolition of the mosque, Hindus and Muslims took the issue to a lower court, which in 2010 ruled that the disputed land should be divided into three parts - two for Hindus and one for Muslims. That was challenged in the Supreme Court by the two communities represented byHindu Maha Sabha, theSunni Waqf Board,and theNirmohi Akhara. The five judges started daily proceedings in August after mediation failed to find a compromise. Modi had promised to build the temple in 2014 elections that brought him to power. But he later decided to wait for the court verdict despite pressure from millions of Hindu hard-liners who asked his government to bring legislation to build the temple. Associated Press writer Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow, India contributed to this report.
|
The Associated Press
|
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/asia/2019/11/08/indias-court-set-to-deliver-verdict-on-temple-dispute.html
|
Fri, 8 Nov 2019 23:32:42 EST
| 1,573,273,962 | 1,573,301,280 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
1,045,455 |
thinkprogress--2019-08-06--Several countries warn citizens about traveling to the US amid back-to-back shootings
| 2019-08-06T00:00:00 |
thinkprogress
|
Several countries warn citizens about traveling to the US, amid back-to-back shootings
|
Two Latin American countries have issued travel warnings to its citizens regarding traveling to the United States, following the back-to-back shootings last weekend that claimed the lives of over 30 people. In a statement announcing the advisory, the foreign ministry of Uruguay cited “growing violence” fueled by “racism and discrimination,” adding that American “authorities are unable to prevent” due to “indiscriminate” gun ownership that has ultimately “taken the lives of over 250 people in the first seven months of the year.” When in the United States, Uruguay warned its citizens to avoid areas with large concentrations of people like theme parks, shopping centers, art festivals, religious events, food festivals, and any kind of cultural or sporting gathering. The foreign ministry of Venezuela — where private gun ownership is banned — similarly urged its citizens to ‘‘postpone travel’’ to the U.S. in light of ‘‘violence and indiscriminate hate crimes.’’ “These increasing acts of violence have found an echo and support in the conversations and actions impregnated by racial discrimination and hatred against migrant populations, pronounced and executed by the supremacist elite who holds political power in Washington,” the statement read. The United States has issued similar travel advisories against Uruguay and Venezuela in the past, citing violent crime rates and civil unrest. China’s Ministry of Tourism also issued a statement Monday warning that “shootings, robberies and thefts have occurred frequently in the United States. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to fully assess the risk of travel to the United States, keep abreast of information on public security, laws and regulations, and improve their awareness of safety and security.” On Sunday, immediately following the second mass shooting in less than 24 hours, the Japanese consulate in Detroit issued a warning for tourists in the United States, describing America as a “gun society.” “Japanese residents should be aware of the potential for gunfire incidents everywhere in the United States, a gun society, and continue to pay close attention to safety measures,” the statement read. Japan is often viewed by most gun control experts as a model country for eliminating gun deaths. Despite being a country of over 127 million people, yearly gun deaths average around 10 a year. To own a gun in Japan, a citizen must go through a lengthy process that includes an all-day class, a written test, and they must achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test. Both the class and exam must be retaken every three years. They then must pass a mental health evaluation conducted in a hospital, and pass a criminal background check where friends and family are interviewed. Only shotguns and air rifles can be purchased, no handguns. The deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas, in particular will likely have international implications. The Mexican government has vowed to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after eight of its citizens were among the over 20 dead. The Mexican Foreign Ministry called the attack in El Paso a “terrorist act against innocent Mexicans.” Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that seven Mexican nationals had died in the El Paso shooting over the weekend. It has been corrected to note that eight Mexican nationals were killed in the attack.
|
Rebekah Entralg
|
https://thinkprogress.org/several-countries-warn-citizens-about-traveling-to-the-us-amid-back-to-back-shootings-5bab241a62ff/
|
2019-08-06 14:12:22+00:00
| 1,565,115,142 | 1,567,534,753 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
1,063,361 |
unian--2019-07-28--Some 15000 people take part in Kyivan Rus Christianization celebration no incidents reported
| 2019-07-28T00:00:00 |
unian
|
Some 15,000 people take part in Kyivan Rus Christianization celebration, no incidents reported
|
The events in the center of Kyiv took place without violation of public order. Some 15,000 people have taken part in religious events to mark 1,031 years of the Christianization of Kyivan Rus-Ukraine in the city of Kyiv on July 28; no incidents have been reported, the police said. "About 15,000 members of [the Orthodox Church of Ukraine] have taken part in religious events on the 1031st anniversary of the Christianization of Kyivan Rus. Up to 2,000 law-enforcement officers were involved in ensuring law and order. The events in the center of the capital took place without violation of public order," the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's press service quoted First Deputy Minister of the Interior of Ukraine Serhiy Yarovy as saying. Read alsoService held at Kyiv's St Sophia Cathedral to mark 1,031 years of Christianization of Kyivan Rus-Ukraine All units of Kyiv police were involved in ensuring public order during the religious procession in the Ukrainian capital, the ministry said. In particular, explosive ordnance disposal specialists, the K9 unit, SWAT police, as well as dialogue-policing officers were on duty on that day. In addition, the Interior Ministry's Situation Center worked around the clock for coordination with other specialized services and quick response to possible threats. It was engaged in the monitoring of the situation at the locations where mass events were taking place. "In addition to ensuring public order, law-enforcement officers were accompanying members of the church to the places of their residence from where they came to the capital," the ministry added.
| null |
https://www.unian.info/society/10633413-some-15-000-people-take-part-in-kyivan-rus-christianization-celebration-no-incidents-reported-video.html
|
2019-07-28 15:25:00+00:00
| 1,564,341,900 | 1,567,535,575 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
7,052 |
ageofautism--2019-04-20--Jacobson Must Die Rockland County Jews Barred from Worshipping God Unless They Disobey God
| 2019-04-20T00:00:00 |
ageofautism
|
Jacobson Must Die: Rockland County Jews Barred from Worshipping God Unless They Disobey God
|
If even ONE Jew is barred from entering a place of worship on Passover... we have a big problem. Rockland County has told the Jewish people that they cannot obey God, and worship Him as He instructed them, unless they first inject aborted fetal cell remains and pig into themselves and their children. Which God has instructed them not to do. But unless they disobey God in his instructions in Leviticus, Rockland County will not let them obey Exodus 12: “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute..." New York has turned going to a house of worship for a regular service established thousands of years ago, into an act of civil disobedience. Rockland County tells Jews to decide how they will decide to defy the God of the Old Testament who has preserved them for thousands of years from Egyptian slavery to the Holocaust: JewishPress.com - Rockland County officials desperate to limit the spread of the measles outbreak before it becomes an outright epidemic on Tuesday banned all exposed, unvaccinated people from public gathering places, including houses of worship, for the next three weeks, AP reported. The order coincides with religious celebrations of both Passover and Easter... On Tuesday, NYC health officials ordered the residents of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is densely Jewish Orthodox, to be vaccinated for measles or face fines as high as $1,000. The same officials noted that this may be the first time in more than 100 years that such stiff measures have been used... Back in 1905, the Supreme Court upheld an order forcing smallpox vaccinations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1922 the court upheld states’ right to impose school-vaccination programs, which has since established the schools as the avenue for dispensing vaccinations... In 1905, in HENNING JACOBSON v. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, SCOTUS held that a pastor who didn't want to pay the five dollar fine for failing to get the Massachusetts government prescribed smallpox vaccine, had to pay the $5. The Massachusetts order was issued ONLY to adults, to address an epidemic of a deadly disease for which there was no treatment. And SCOTUS also said that such orders by governments could not be onerous or unreasonable. Governments then took the ruling and applied it to onerous and unreasonable orders, including orders for children to get dozens of vaccines, even for diseases that had been completely absent in their states (or country) at the cost of the price of an education ($50k and up.) Oliver Wendell Holmes even decided he could use the law upholding a FIVE DOLLAR FINE to force sterilize women, writing in the case of Buck v. Bell that: "...in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 , 25 S. Ct. 358, 3 Ann. Cas. 765. Three generations of imbeciles are enough." That demonic ruling in Buck v. Bell still stands, by the way. If the individual states did not prevent it by law, you could have your right to reproduce violently removed tomorrow in the United States, and it would be legal. So where is the line? If a five dollar fine is allowed by law, but having your reproductive organs involuntary mutilated is anathema to the American mind, where is the line? Or maybe the continued good standing of both Jacobson and Buck mean that the Jews can be put back into ghettos and camps for the protection of the public, and that I can be strapped down and cut into because I am a, "probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring." All you have to do is state the government has a "compelling interest" and shout, "GREATER GOOD!" What say you, America? How far past that little FIVE DOLLAR FINE can government go? Where is the line? Is the blatant violation of the rights of the The Jewish People to practice sacraments thousands of years old to prevent even one case of what is now a nuisance infection (treated with Vitamin A) in the US over the line? When I say that we have a big problem, I don't just mean with the First Amendment. I mean with the God who drowned the whole damn Egyptian Army when they went after His People. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. This matter must go back to the Supreme Court.
|
Age of Autism
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/svdVwnytenk/jacobson-must-die-nyc-jews-barred-from-worshipping-god-if-they-refuse-to-disobey-god-1.html
|
2019-04-20 16:11:19+00:00
| 1,555,791,079 | 1,567,542,334 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
13,455 |
aljazeera--2019-06-03--Palestinians wary of Israels checkpoint changes
| 2019-06-03T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
|
Palestinians wary of Israel's checkpoint changes
|
Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Blue and white lights - the colours of the Israeli flag - and half-crescent moon decorations adorned the Qalandia checkpoint near Ramallah last week, in recognition of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Located between the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the checkpoint is used daily by tens of thousands of permit-holding Palestinians who work in Israel. During Ramadan, Israel issued more travel permits for Palestinians to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, leading to extra foot traffic at the crossing. For years, workers would routinely spend up to three hours crossing checkpoints including Qalandia across the occupied West Bank, arriving in the pre-dawn hours in order to make it to work on time. The crowded conditions would sometimes lead to people fainting or sustaining injuries. But in recent months, Israel has renovated Qalandia and Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem, creating more lanes and introducing automatic gates in which Palestinians tap biometric entry permits to pass. Workers and analysts told Al Jazeera that despite the easing of conditions, they believe the new policies are part of an Israeli propaganda campaign aimed at enhancing its own image in the rest of the world and pacifying the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank. "Before four months, it took more than one or two hours to pass the checkpoint, but now it just takes about 10 minutes," said Rauf Akram, 55, who works in construction in Israel. "It's a new building with new facilities, so it's more comfortable for people, especially the elderly," he said, adding that Palestinian workers are able to leave their homes for work later. Nevertheless, "it's still all political," he said. "We are under a military occupation, so all these shows of respect mean nothing." Both Qalandia and Checkpoint 300 were built more than a decade ago as part of Israel's separation barrier, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004. The barrier, which is planned to run to a length of 712km upon completion, consists of electronic and barbed wire fencing, ditches and a 70km-long concrete wall, dividing families, communities, and decimating the West Bank's economy. At the walk-in entrance to Qalandia, Palestinian crossers pass through steel turnstiles, one by one, to the sound of music softly flowing from speakers. At times the songs of famous Arabic artists, like the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz, are played. A large television screen hangs from the wall near the entrance and an on-screen Israeli official directs Palestinians on each step of the journey towards Jerusalem. Ramadan decorations bedeck the walls, while a voice wishes Palestinians a blessed Ramadan over a loudspeaker. A spokesperson for Coordination of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a branch of the Israeli Defence Ministry that implements policies towards civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Al Jazeera that the renovations and technological upgrades are part of a project aimed at easing congestion and were meant to assist the Palestinian economy and enhance Israeli security. "It helps with the economic situation because the salaries that you get in Israel are much higher than what you get under the Palestinian Authority (PA)," the spokesperson said. "This is also helpful for security." Palestinian workers interviewed by Al Jazeera were aware of these policies, with one worker who did not want to be identified saying: "The main interest for Israel is to relieve some of the pressure on Palestinians. They are interested in giving us an easier life solely so that we don't explode." Mushtaq, a 35-year-old who works in construction in Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera that he believes these renovations and policies at the checkpoint are meant to "reflect a nice image to the world". "It helps the workers, but it's clear they (Israel) doesn't actually care. They just want to show a better image to the world," he said. "It's all propaganda." When asked about the Ramadan greetings and decorations, Mushtaq became agitated. "Israel is using our religious celebrations for their own political interests," he said. "Even our religion is not safe from Israeli propaganda." Saleh Abd al-Jawad, a professor of history and political science at Birzeit University, told Al Jazeera the new policies reflect Israel's "carrot and stick" approach to governing Palestinians. "If you are quiet and submissive, then you can have more. And if you resist, we will make your life more difficult," Jawad explained, highlighting Israel's differing policies in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has enforced harsh, punitive measures on the population. "In exchange for peace, you (Palestinians) must be quiet and behaved, and then we (Israel) can offer you a better economy," he added. Jawad suspects the new policies are connected to US President Donald Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century", the full details of which have not been made public. The long-awaited plan, headed by Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, is expected to include an economic component which would encourage investment from regional powers in the occupied Palestinian territories. Shir Hever, an independent researcher and journalist told Al Jazeera that "Israeli generals are afraid that the PA may collapse" and are also introducing policies that can further disconnect the experiences of Palestinians in the West Bank from those in Gaza, as part of a "divide and conquer" strategy long practised by Israel. These policies, however, are not just targeting Palestinians, but the larger Arab world, Jawad said. "It's part of this campaign of capturing the Arab mind. Today Israel is not only looking at Palestinians. The big cake is in the Arab Gulf," he said, referring to Israeli attempts to establish formal ties with some Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Oman, based on a mutual interest in containing Iranian influence. Israel's use of the Arabic language and culture to influence opinions and narratives is not new, according to Jawad. Israel's Arabic-language propaganda, which has more recently manifested itself on social media, is a continuation of decades of Israeli policies, he said. A woman, who did not want to give her name, told Al Jazeera on her way through Qalandia that "this is all about Israel forcing itself onto the Arabic world." "They (Israel) are working [through the Arabic language and Ramadan greetings] to force their image into the minds of the Arabs." "They want us to normalise the idea of Israel," she said, before quickly passing through a new and polished electronic turnstile.
| null |
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/palestinians-wary-israel-checkpoint-190602052851651.html
|
2019-06-03 23:01:14+00:00
| 1,559,617,274 | 1,567,539,261 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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34,566 |
bbc--2019-12-29--Monsey stabbing: Five people wounded at home of New York rabbi
| 2019-12-29T00:00:00 |
bbc
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Monsey stabbing: Five people wounded at home of New York rabbi
|
At least five people have been stabbed at the house of a rabbi in New York state, police say. The house in Monsey, north of New York City, was hosting a religious celebration when the attacker burst in, according to the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council (OJPAC). The suspect fled but was later taken into custody, police said. The motive was not immediately clear. One of the victims was stabbed at least six times, OJPAC said in a tweet. • New Jersey attack 'may be anti-Semitic terror' The attack came a day after New York city police said officers were stepping up patrols in heavily Jewish districts following a spate of anti-Semitic threats and attacks. A man brandishing a machete attacked a Hanukkah celebration at the rabbi's property in Monsey - an area with a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews, CBS New York reported. The incident happened at about 22:00 on Saturday (03:00 GMT Sunday). "The house had many dozens of people in there," Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of OJPAC for the Hudson Valley region, told the New York Times. Aron Kohn, 65, was in the rabbi's home at the time. He told the paper: "I was praying for my life. He started attacking people right away as soon as he came in the door. We didn't have time to react at all." Mr Kohn said that the attacker then tried to enter a synagogue next to the house, but people inside had locked the door. Reports said the attacker fled the scene in a car and some witnesses noted the number plate. Police said later they had located a matching vehicle and arrested a suspect. What reaction has there been? New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the stabbings were a "despicable and cowardly act". "Anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind are repugnant to our values of inclusion and diversity and we have absolutely zero tolerance for such acts of hate," he said in a statement. Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, said she was "deeply disturbed" by the situation. "There is zero tolerance for acts of hate of any kind and we will continue to monitor this horrific situation," she said in a Twitter post. The New York Police counter-terrorism unit said it was "closely monitoring" the reports. In Israel, President Reuven Rivlin expressed his "shock and outrage" at the attack. "The rise of anti-Semitism is not just a Jewish problem, and certainly not just the State of Israel's problem," he said in a statement. "We must work together to confront this evil, which is raising its head again and is a genuine threat around the world." The attack follows a series of anti-Semitic threats and attacks in and around New York City. On Friday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced extra police patrols in three areas of Brooklyn. Responding to the attack in Monsey, Mr de Blasio said he could not "overstate the fear people are feeling right now". "We will not allow this to become the new normal. We'll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all," he said. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah marks the victory of Judah Maccabee over the Syrian Greeks in the Second Century BC and the recapture of Jerusalem. Are anti-Semitic attacks on the rise in the US? On Friday New York city police's hate crimes unit said it was investigating eight anti-Semitic incidents reported since 13 December. They included a threat by a man who walked into an Orthodox Jewish community organisation's headquarters in Brooklyn and threatened to shoot someone. In another incident a 30-year-old woman reportedly slapped three women in the face. New York Police Department commissioner Dermot Shea has said hate crimes in New York City are up 22% this year. "You see a swastika being drawn, you see a brick being thrown through a window, you see a woman walking down the street with her kids and having her wig ripped off," he said. Earlier this month officials in New Jersey said a gun attack that killed a detective and three people in a Jewish supermarket was being investigated as "potential acts of domestic terror, fuelled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs". In April a gunman killed a female rabbi and wounded three people at a synagogue in San Diego. That attack came exactly six months after the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history, when a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. • 'I'm now more aware of being Jewish' Have you been affected by what's happened? Please get in touch by emailing [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: • Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 or +44 7624 800 100 • Please read our terms of use and privacy policy
| null |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50937186
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Sun, 29 Dec 2019 08:00:12 GMT
| 1,577,624,412 | 1,577,621,214 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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78,050 |
breitbart--2019-12-25--Merry Communism: Christmas in the World's Rogue States
| 2019-12-25T00:00:00 |
breitbart
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Merry Communism: Christmas in the World's Rogue States
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The Christmas season is celebrated all around the world, with many non-Christian countries and peoples also marking and participating in the festivities. But what is Christmas season like for those in some of the world’s rogue and authoritarian states? Breitbart takes a look at their varying approaches: In communist North Korea, Christmas is effectively a non-event. With all forms of religion banned, the large majority of North Koreans are not even aware of who Santa Claus is or the meaning behind the festival. Despite it being the world’s most dangerous place for them to live and worship, Christian communities reportedly comprise around 1.7 percent of the country’s population. One can assume that there are some families who choose to celebrate the event in secrecy, although by doing so they run a severe risk of arrest, torture, or even execution. Those at the top of Pyongyang’s hierarchy appear to be well aware of the importance of Christmas in the western world. On Monday, the regime threatened to launch a “Christmas gift” for the United States, presumably in the form of another missile test-launch as they continue to aggressively their nuclear weapons program. China’s approach to Christmas is bound up in the cynicism of the country’s communist regime. Although practicing religion is unofficially illegal, leaders in Beijing view the commercial aspect of the season as a chance to promote economic growth, while attempting to use the season as a means of reinforcing “patriotic” messaging. However, Christmas is not a public holiday in China and authorities do not celebrate it as a religious holiday, with hardline nationalists denouncing it as a Western cultural influence that waters down traditional Chinese culture. This pushback was highlighted last year when some cities banned all Christmas decorations and celebrations. The Chinese state has recently stepped up its crackdown on religious celebrations, although the sheer size of the Christian population has made this a difficult task. Last year, many churches across the country defied authorities by holding multiple services across the festive season. With a population that is over 98 percent Roman Catholic, Christmas is celebrated across Venezuela as the most important religious festival of the year. Yet sadly, the majority of Venezuelans have not felt much cheer over recent years, with the country crumbling under the pressure of the worst economic and humanitarian crisis in its history. The bleakness of reality does not stop the socialist regime from weaponizing the Christmas season to try and distract from the country’s problems, with dictator Nicolás Maduro declaring himself a committed Christian whose left-wing politics are partly inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Venezuela can probably lay claim to having the most extensive Christmas celebrations in the world, with Maduro this year announcing the start of the Christmas season at the beginning of November, meaning over 60 days of festivities. The Maduro regime has also attracted attention for its various initiatives aimed at promoting the Christmas season. Some of these include the seizure of thousands of toys from private businesses, meager “Baby Jesus” bonuses for public sector workers, and the release of socialist-themed Christmas carols featuring Maduro himself. Supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim he has allowed Russia to re-embrace its strong Christian heritage in the post-communist era. Having previously been banned under the Soviet Union, Christmas is now promoted as a public holiday, with the country enjoying its own wide array of specific traditions. However, Christmas Day is on the 7th of January as the Russian Orthodox Church follows the old ‘Julian’ calendar for religious celebration days. Ironically, in Russia, it is those Christians that do not celebrate Christmas who are seeing their liberties eroded. For reasons that are somewhat unclear, authorities have over recent years launched a crackdown against Jehovah’s Witnesses, accusing them of fostering extremism. Around 250 Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently awaiting criminal trial, with Human Rights Watch pointing to the “dozens of home searches, raids, interrogations, and other acts of harassment and persecution.” Despite being widely considered one of the world’s most brutal and murderous dictators, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has long attracted sympathy from Christians and other religious minorities for the country’s allegedly secular approach to religion. Although Assad is an Alawite Shia Muslim, he has long used Christians in public events to gain sympathy with the West. With the country largely afflicted by armed conflict, most Christmas festivities take place in the capital of Damascus, the only area largely unaffected by the near decade-long civil war. With Christians comprising of around ten percent of Syria’s population, those who typically celebrate the festival are free to do so at state-approved churches. Syria also has a range of its own Christmas traditions, which include locking the gates of one’s home as a reminder of past persecutions, a period of fasting, and a family’s recital of the nativity Gospels around a bonfire. However, the extent and sincerity of Assad’s support for Christians is a subject of debate. In September, The Washington Examiner noted allegations that Assad has secretly been behind the occupation on churches, only to later “liberate” them for propaganda purposes. The Christian Post describes Assad’s treatment of Christians as “nothing short of tyrannical,” describing them as “mere pawns in the Assad regime’s maintenance of power. They also cite statistics from the Syrian Network for Human Rights that Assad’s forces are responsible for the destruction of over 60 percent of all the churches in Syria over the course of the civil war. Unlike their Venezuelan allies, the Castro regime in Cuba remains actively hostile towards Christmas, seeing organized religion as a threat to communist ideals. Having declared Cuba an atheist state, Fidel Castro prohibited its celebration in 1969 and did not lift the ban until the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1997. The period came to be known in Cuba as “The Silent Christmases,” with Christian families solely celebrating the festival at home and away from public viewing. Although some Christmas decorations can now be seen around the island, celebrating the festival in public is highly frowned upon, and in the most overt of cases, may even lead to prosecution. As the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is not surprising that Christmas celebrations are few and far between. Perhaps surprisingly, publicly celebrating Christmas is not against Iranian law, presumably because the numerical insignificance of the country’s Christian population (330,000-370,000) is not considered a significant threat to the theocratic state. Most Christians in Iran are of Armenian descent and they observe the festival by refraining from eating meat, eggs, milk, or cheese until Christmas Day. When the day finally arrives, they celebrate by feasting on a traditional chicken stew known as harissa, or the traditional roast turkey. Although the exchanging of presents is less common, children often receive new clothes from their presents. While worship is technically allowed under the Islamic Republic’s constitution, a Muslim converting to Christianity is considered a serious crime. The state’s powerful mullahs last year ordered a crackdown on Christian leaders deemed to be exerting “foreign influence,” in what some speculate was a retaliation against the U.S. for the re-imposition of economic sanctions. Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected]
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Ben Kew
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/zy4taaggRhA/
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Wed, 25 Dec 2019 12:00:02 +0000
| 1,577,293,202 | 1,577,318,856 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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193,211 |
eveningstandard--2019-12-17--Dickens Museum: Festive exhibition explores how Charles Dickens changed the culture of Christmas
| 2019-12-17T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Dickens Museum: Festive exhibition explores how Charles Dickens changed the culture of Christmas
|
Charles Dickens didn’t invent the British Christmas as we know it but in 1843 he gave it a face and a name, that of Ebenezer Scrooge. A Christmas Carol sums up the atmosphere of the domestic festive season — that very Victorian thing — in the cheerful family gathering of the poor Cratchits, and Tiny Tim’s immortal, much-parodied toast: “God bless us, every one.” Dickens loved Christmas and wrote a great deal about it — every year, when he could — to such good effect that when he died, one observer heard a London barrow girl exclaim: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?” No wonder, then, that at the Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street, this is peak time for visitors. The building was home for the author and his wife Catherine for a couple of years from 1837. It was where he wrote The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist and where three of his 10 children were born. You can see his study, his desk, his wife’s bracelet and engagement ring next to a portrait of her wearing it, and the big kitchens with the state-of-the-art stove (Dickens was very keen on the latest technology) and, near the front door, a framed letter from the landlord referring to him as the author of The Picnic Papers (sic). But it’s at Christmas when the museum comes into its own. At this time of year drawing on his letters and writing, it tries to replicate the festivities Dickens might have enjoyed in 1838 with his young family. In the dining room, where the plates commemorate his famous dinner guests, there’s a big replica turkey (in the author’s day, the turkey — like the whopper Scrooge bought the Cratchits — was a relatively new substitute for the traditional goose), and a tree and lots of greenery. There will be several readings of A Christmas Carol, with one unabridged performance: readers include the Dickens scholar Michael Slater, who’s a big draw, and ghost stories. There’s a full day of activities on Christmas Eve. “For lots of our visitors, Christmas is the time to come,” says Dr Cindy Sughrue, the museum director. “There are several that come back every year; for them it’s part of the season.” The new special exhibition is Beautiful Books: Dickens and the Making of Christmas, which explores his contributions to the feast. He loved it even as a boy and embraced the Victorian revival of the season. His Christmas was a domestic and religious celebration — but also a commercial enterprise. His understanding of what his readership wanted meant he was ahead of the game in the newly emerging Christmas publishing industry. A Christmas Carol — for which there was terrific popular demand at his public readings — was only one of his Christmas stories, though it remained by far the most popular: it was first produced as a festive gift book with wonderful illustrations, some hand-coloured, by John Leech, price, five shillings. Even the famously curmudgeonly Thomas Carlyle was, according to his wife, moved by the book to “a perfect convulsion of hospitality”. Dr Sughrue has been director of the museum since 2015 — a time of remarkable growth in visitor numbers. The increase dates from 2012 when the venue was given a major refurbishment part-funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. “It meant we took over the house next door and could move all the administration and the gift shop in there,” says Dr Sughrue. “So the whole of 48 Doughty Street can be given over to the actual museum. It’s very unusual for a museum to be able to devote all its space to the exhibits.” Her provisional estimate for visitor numbers this year is 58,000, peaking at Christmas. It needs them; it has no state funding for its day-to-day running costs, so it relies on ticket sales, café and gift shop revenue and special events. The most important new project, funded from its own resources, is for the digitisation of the museum’s enormous archive of papers, books and correspondence. This is ongoing, but when complete (the aim is by the museum’s centenary in 2025) it should make life easier for Dickens researchers. “We’ve always had a remit for scholarly work as well as for the general public”, says Dr Sughrue. It supports two doctoral student. The archive includes artefacts; I liked the porcelain figures representing Pickwick Papers characters, each with a squashy velvet pincushion in the trouser area. The museum has an ingenious mix of Dickens’s own possessions and things that fit the context. Next to the bedroom is Dickens’s one surviving (dress) suit. Then there’s his reading stand, a velvet-coated frame that took it with him on the reading tours for which he was famous. Dickens was a thwarted actor and the readings gave his theatrical side full bent — in the archive are some of his reading copies, showing where he cut passages or emphasised them. The permanent exhibits include ceramic bottles from Warren’s Blacking Factory where Dickens went to work aged 12 when his father was in prison for debt; he only spoke of it to friends. Alongside his Carol, Dickens wrote four more Christmas books; there are lovely editions in the special exhibition. There’s also the world’s first Christmas Card, published in the same year as A Christmas Carol, which sums up its spirit: a happy family party toasts the viewer, and on either side, images show the works of mercy, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The Christian aspect was crucial for Dickens: he wrote to one clergyman, the Rev David Macrae, that his Christmas books were “absolutely impossible …. to be separated from the exemplification of the Christian virtues and the inculcation of the Christian precepts”. Yet the exhibition also suggests there were limits even to Dickens’s capacity for Christmas pieces: “I am sick of the thing,” he confided to a friend once. Fortunately, the reading public never was — and still isn’t. Beautiful Books runs at the Charles Dickens Museum, WC1, until April 19 (020 7405 2127; dickensmuseum.com)
|
Melanie Mcdonagh
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https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/charles-dickens-museum-beautiful-books-christmas-exhibition-a4315401.html
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Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:57:27 GMT
| 1,576,598,247 | 1,576,586,361 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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289,932 |
lifesitenews--2019-10-11--City abruptly cancels pro-life bridge-lighting, hit with discrimination lawsuit
| 2019-10-11T00:00:00 |
lifesitenews
|
City abruptly cancels pro-life bridge-lighting, hit with discrimination lawsuit
|
October 10, 2019 (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms) — The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF.ca) has filed a court application on behalf of the Alberta March for Life Association (AMLA) and Jerry Pasternak against the City of Edmonton over its decision to cancel a scheduled lighting of the High Level Bridge in colours chosen by AMLA. Operated by the City of Edmonton, the High Level Bridge is outfitted with 60,000 programmable lights, lit every day in the morning and evening. Through the "Light the Bridge" program, the City permits and invites members of the public and community groups to request the Bridge be lit in specific colours to reflect their event or cause. On March 6, 2019, Jerry Pasternak, Vice Chair of AMLA, submitted an application to the City for the High Level Bridge to be lit up on May 9, 2019 in the colours of pink, blue, and white to recognize the March for Life. For over 10 years, thousands of supporters have participated in the annual peaceful outdoor march, organized by AMLA to recognize the dignity of the elderly and disabled people, as well as the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. AMLA's application was approved by the City on March 7, 2019. However, on April 5, the City reneged and cancelled the scheduled lighting of the Bridge. In an email, City staff stated: "Upon further review of your application, it came to our attention that lighting the bridge for this event cannot be approved due to the polarizing nature of the subject matter." In response, Jerry Pasternak emailed City staff, stating: "I am deeply disappointed in your decision. Can you please provide evidence of this polarization?" The City of Edmonton has not responded. A nearly identical incident occurred May 7, 2017, when, on the day the Bridge was approved to be lit in the pink, blue and white colours associated with the March for Life, the City cancelled the lighting. No rationale or justification was provided by the City for the cancellation. The Bridge is regularly lit in association with various religious and political causes, awareness days, religious celebrations, political holidays and commemorations that promote the ideologies, political causes and religious beliefs of their proponents. For example, within the last three years, the Bridge has repeatedly been lit to promote sexual and gender diversity, Pride, various Islamic holidays and commemorations, Jewish religious holidays, Buddhist religious holidays, days recognizing political events in foreign countries such as Chilean Independence Day and the anniversary of the founding of Azerbaijan, and awareness days such as National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, and Wrongful Conviction Day. Ironically recognizing beliefs and causes that are similar to the Alberta March for Life Association, the Bridge has recently been lit in association with International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, and various disability awareness campaigns. As outlined in the Justice Centre's court application, the City is constitutionally prohibited from discriminating against the content of expression in spaces it has opened up to the public for expressive purposes. In twice deciding to cancel a scheduled lighting of the Bridge, exclusively because of the pro-life expression involved, the City has twice failed to explain how such expression is "polarizing", or whether it is more "polarizing" than other causes, or how the City determines which organizations or issues are sufficiently "polarizing" to warrant being denied the right to use a public space that is available to a long list of other causes. "The City of Edmonton is home to a diverse population with a wide variety of views, values and beliefs including, unsurprisingly, persons who express pro-life views. As a government that is constitutionally obligated to be neutral regarding the expression of its citizens, it is not the proper role of the City to elevate and promote the favoured ideological causes of some citizens to the exclusion of the lawful views of others," stated Justice Centre staff lawyer James Kitchen. "The City ought to cease permitting citizens to use the High Level Bridge lighting system to promote their pet causes, as the City of Prince Albert did with its community flagpole" continued Kitchen. "However, if the City chooses to continue with this practice, it must cease arbitrarily playing favourites with who can have the bridge lit up in colours representing a particular political cause, ideology, or religion." Published with permission from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
| null |
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/city-abruptly-cancels-pro-life-bridge-lighting-hit-with-discrimination-lawsuit
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2019-10-11T01:21:00+00:00
| 1,570,771,260 | 1,570,795,463 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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290,494 |
lifesitenews--2019-12-04--UK bishop allows pagan Hindu festival to be celebrated on Catholic church grounds
| 2019-12-04T00:00:00 |
lifesitenews
|
UK bishop allows pagan Hindu festival to be celebrated on Catholic church grounds
|
WIMBLEDON, UK, December 4, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A London Catholic parish allowed a Hindu group to hold a “Diwali” pagan festival in its parish hall next to the church. The local archbishop defended the decision after a parishioner complained, but has also decided to review policy after LifeSiteNews reached out for comment. On October 12, Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon hosted the “Diwali Mela” festival which was put on by a group that aims to “promote and encourage” Indian culture. Diwali, called a “festival of lights,” is the most important Hindu religious festival of the year. Key rituals generally include lighting candles and often include worshipping Hindu pagan deities including Lakshmi (goddess of prosperity) and Lord Ganesha (god of intelligence). The Hindu religion holds itself to be the universal religion for the whole world. Promotional material for the festival in the Catholic parish hall included colorful pictures of Hindu deities and children dressed up as Hindu deities to act out Hindu myths. A member of the Catholic parish contacted the archbishop of Southwark, John Wilson, one month prior to the event to express concern about the event. In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the parishioner wrote: “Ecumenism, dialogue and hospitality notwithstanding, I can’t see how hosting a pagan festival on Church property is not contrary to the First Commandment.” The first of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses in the Old Testament states: “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” The author of Psalms points out that “all the gods of the pagans are demons” (Psalm 95.5). “If we ourselves have not faith in Christ and manifest our indifference to paganism by hosting this festival, then we should expect Mass attendance to decline in our country,” the parishioner added. Archbishop Wilson, responding to the parishioner a week and a half later, indicated that he was satisfied that the event was “cultural” and not “religious” and pointed the parishioner to Church documents about “interreligious dialogue.” In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the archbishop stated: “I have contacted the Parish Priest, Canon John Clark, who offered the following response after seeking clarification from the Hall Secretary: ‘The Mela is a purely cultural event open to all who would like to come along. This is the third Mela and all have been held here without any problems. We have approached the organising committee of the Mela and they have confirmed that it is a cultural not a religious event. They have made a summary of the programme for the day and none of it has a religious element. I enclose a copy of their response for your benefit. As far as I know their Mela is not operated by a commercial company. We have a number of contacts with the Hindu community as they often hold their wedding receptions and birthday parties here.’” The archbishop continued: “Canon Clark also forwarded to me the response of the person organising the event: ‘Thank you for the call, I am attaching the poster for the event. It’s open to all and is organised for all. Mainly kids’ activities, food stalls and merchandise stalls. Kids’ activities include but not restricted to face painting, henna, and such. Food stalls for a feast of Indian food and non-alcoholic drinks. Merchandise stalls like decorative things for around the house or clothes. There’s no religious programme or activity intended. Actually an afternoon with family to enjoy with kids having fun and eating good food!’” Archbishop Wilson concluded his letter, stating: “We must always be faithful to Christ and the teaching of His Holy Catholic Church.” He added: “Alongside this, we must also pursue genuine friendship and dialogue with people of other religious traditions, in the service of the common good, as enunciated in the teaching of the Church and by St John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.” LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop Wilson asking if allowing a pagan religious festival on Church property undermines the Church’s claim that she alone offers the true religion and provides the only path to the Kingdom of God by means of her carrying on the work of Jesus. The Church is committed to proclaiming the fullness of the Catholic Faith in Christ as the Saviour of the world. If I didn’t believe this I would not belong to the Church, nor spend my life trying to be a witness to Christ so that others might also know, love and serve Him. This is not mutually exclusive with seeking to sustain good and friendly relationships with people of different cultures and religions. This sense is expressed in the annual messages for Divali [sic] by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Bishops Conference of India. Indeed, it is often with people of other religious traditions that we find common voice in defending the values of human life and the family. In this particular situation, there appears to be a disagreement between the organisers of the event, who have hired the hall for the past three years without incident, and the person who raised a complaint this year. There also seems to be a difference concerning the understanding of what is cultural and what is solely and explicitly religious. When I sought clarification from the organisers of this event, I was told: “It’s open to all and is organised for all. Mainly kids’ activities, food stalls and merchandise stalls. Kids’ activities include but not restricted to face painting, henna, and such. Food stalls for a fast of Indian food and non-alcoholic drinks Merchandise stalls like decorative things for around the house or clothes. There’s no religious programme or activity intended. Actually an afternoon with family to enjoy with kids having fun and eating good food!” It was explained that it is called a Diwali Mela, a festival in the sense of a ‘fair,’ rather than an explicit religious celebration. The church hall is available for social and community use and there was not, and should not, be any compromise of any Church property consecrated for divine worship. LifeSiteNews then asked how the Archbishop would respond to Catholics in the parish and in his diocese who are scandalized by the decision to allow this pagan festival to take place on Church property. He replied: I have received one formal complaint from a parishioner about the hire of the church hall at Sacred Heart Parish in Wimbledon for a Divali [sic] fair and I am obviously sorry if anyone feels scandalised by this. In this context, the Catholic Church has a profound witness to give in our diverse society. First, to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beauty of the Catholic Faith. Second, secure in our identity and mission, to the importance of interfaith friendship, without compromising any truths of that Faith. I want all the parishes in our Diocese to be evangelising communities. I think we do this by positively proposing the truth we hold dear in a way that is respectful and engaging. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminded us, the Church grows by ‘attraction,’ ‘just as Christ draws all to himself by the power of his love.’ We are currently reviewing the documentation used for the hire of non-consecrated Church property. The “Diwali Mela” festival, which ran on October 12 as scheduled, is hosted by a group called the “Social Spark Hub.” The group states on its website that it was founded in 2015 to “promote and encourage the Indian Culture” with the primary goal to “help children learn about different customs, religious and cultural beliefs.” This year, the group became part of the “Kailash Narain Mehrotra Foundation,” a registered UK charity. The Foundation states that its charitable object is to “advance religious harmony” specifically by “spreading Sanatan culture and Sanatan religious scriptures” and “encouraging observance and celebration of Hindu festivals.” “Sanatan” is another word for the Hindu belief system. Both "Social Spark Hub" and the “Kailash Narain Mehrotra Foundation” list the same contact phone number on the UK’s Charity Commission website. Advisor to Archbishop: Hindu deities are ‘just manifestations of the divine’ The parishioner went on to respond to the archbishop’s original email, providing evidence from social media posts by “Social Spark Hub” that the group does, in fact, include a religious dimension to the “Diwali” event, including putting on a play at a previous festival in the same location called a “Ramleela", this particular one depicting the Hindu god Ram's life. The parishioner noted that “Ramleelas” are considered by Hindus to be a religious event in the same way that Christians would consider a Nativity or Passion play to be a religious event. The parishioner wrote to the archbishop: “We should love the sinner but hate the sin. Hindus violate the First Commandment with their pagan worship, but they are not culpable, because they do not know Christ. We do know Christ, so we are without excuse. We should of course treat all Hindus with the utmost Christian Charity, but this does not mean allowing them to use the Sacred Heart Parish Hall to celebrate Diwali. It cannot be compared with holding a birthday party in the hall.” The following day, the parishioner unexpectedly received an email from Deacon Jon Dal Din, who appears to have a special role within the archdiocese as advisor on interreligious dialogue. Deacon Dal Din was listed in 2015 as “Director of Westminster’s Interfaith agency.” The email, intended for Archbishop Wilson, appears to have been accidentally sent to the parishioner. The Deacon appears to be responding to the Archbishop’s request for guidance on how to deal with the parishioner’s concerns. In an email obtained by LifeSiteNews, the deacon told the archbishop: “I think you have far more important things to do than waste time responding to these letters.” “My understanding of a [Diwali] Mela is that it is an Indian cultural event and celebration, although there may be a religious element involved, in the same way that many people celebrate Chinese New Year and people of all faiths and cultures celebrate Christmas,” the deacon wrote. “It is interesting how [the parishioner] has highlighted selected texts from the Hindu group and not others. I doubt [the parishioner] read the texts you attached. [The parishioner] quotes Pope Benedict. I fear [the parishioner] has a narrow view of mission, evangelisation, proclamation and dialogue. All must be done in a spirit of Love. Jesus’ new Commandment,” he added. Deacon Dal Din in his email went on to quote at length a talk Pope Francis gave during his September 2019 visit to Africa where he answered questions about evangelisation and proselytism. During his talk, the Pope said he felt “bitterness” when he was introduced to Catholics who had converted from other religions. Deacon Dal Din said, “[The parishioner] continues to call Hindus pagans. Well perhaps they are, from [the parishioner’s] perspective, because they are not Christians. [The parishioner] would probably feel the same if Sacred Heart were to offer Iftar to the Muslim community during Ramadan. [The parishioner] does not realise that Hindus believe in one God. Their deities are just manifestations of the divine, as indeed, all humans and creation itself are manifestations of the divine.” “Allowing Hindus to celebrate Diwali Mela in the Church Hall is part of Dialogue of Life, being a good neighbour. Jesus did not mix only with the virtuous, but with sinners and outcasts. Like Pope Francis he reached out to the poor and those on the peripheries,” he stated later in the email to the archbishop. Archbishop Wilson’s decision to allow the Hindu festival to run on Church property comes at a time when many Church leaders, including Pope Francis, have signaled that the Catholic Church may not contain the fullness of God’s revelation and may not be the only sure path established by God to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. In February of this year, the Pope claimed in a joint statement with a Grand Imam that a “pluralism and diversity” of religions is “willed by God.” Despite backlash from concerned Catholics around the world, which included criticism from priests, bishops, and cardinals, the Pope has not recanted this statement. The Pope also alarmed Catholics around the world when he participated in events surrounding the recently concluded Amazon Synod in Rome that included the worship of the pagan idol "Pachamama."
| null |
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-bishop-allows-pagan-hindu-festival-to-be-celebrated-on-catholic-church-grounds
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2019-12-04T16:20:00+00:00
| 1,575,494,400 | 1,575,504,157 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
520,385 |
sputnik--2019-01-07--Iniesta Nooooo Critics Clash Over Footballers Racist Epiphany Photo
| 2019-01-07T00:00:00 |
sputnik
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'Iniesta Nooooo': Critics Clash Over Footballer's 'Racist' Epiphany Photo
|
Many were left furious with the Spanish footballer's photograph marking the Epiphany festival, a religious celebration that commemorates the three Magi who brought gifts to Jesus Christ in Christianity. Others stood to defend the sportsman, arguing he had "absolutely 0 intent of being racist." A photograph of Andrés Iniesta posing with two people in blackface caused an animated discussion on social media, with some immediately concluding that "racism is all over European soccer." Some commentators disagreed, pointing to a longstanding tradition of celebrating the Three Kings Day in Spain, which commemorates the Biblical story of traveling kings who followed a star to the birthplace of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem and brought him gifts. Iniesta, formerly a player for Barcelona and currently with the Japanese club Vissel Kobe, is yet to respond to the criticism.
| null |
https://sputniknews.com/sport/201901071071279324-andres-iniesta-blackface-racism/
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2019-01-07 15:22:00+00:00
| 1,546,892,520 | 1,567,553,659 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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593,135 |
thedailybeast--2019-04-17--Police Stop Alleged Terrorist Plan to Attack Spains Holy Week
| 2019-04-17T00:00:00 |
thedailybeast
|
Police Stop Alleged Terrorist Plan to Attack Spain’s Holy Week
|
A 23-year-old man has been arrested in Morocco, in a joint anti-terrorist operation with Spain, over an alleged plan to attack Spain’s Holy Week festivities. The suspect’s name is Zouhair el Bouhdidi and he is a student at the University of Seville. According to police sources in Spain, the young man was preparing an imminent attack against the processions of Holy Week in Seville, one of the most important events of the Catholic calendar. According to the newspaper El Confidencial, el Bouhdidi has already confessed to the Moroccan police his plans to commit a “large-scale massacre” in the Andalusian city. The Spanish secret services had reportedly been following him for several weeks. Holy Week in Seville is a celebration declared as a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. Nearly 70 brotherhoods come out in procession with wooden sculptures depicting scenes of the Passion of Christ between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. The procession called La Madrugada—on the night of Thursday into Good Friday—brings together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, crowded through the narrow streets of Seville. El Bouhdidi allegedly intended to attempt the attack this week in Seville with a homemade explosive known as “the mother of Satan.” It is the same type of explosive that terrorists prepared in the attack on Barcelona in August of 2017, and in the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015. Spanish police are now investigating the home of the alleged jihadist. El Bouhdidi lives in Su Eminencia (‘His Eminence’), a humble neighborhood of Seville. Neighbors say that he had never caused problems, although he did not really associate with others, and that the blinds in his house used to be closed. His recent trip to Morocco has been interpreted by the police as a possible farewell visit to his family. Spain’s CNI (National Intelligence Center) is investigating whether el Bouhdidi was inspired by, or connected to, a video that the Islamic State published in recent days, in which they threatened to attack the religious celebrations of Holy Week in Spain. The video has been broadcast by several jihadist groups on Telegram and includes images of the attacks in Barcelona and crowds of people participating in the processions of Holy Week in Spain. The threats against Spain have been spread on social networks by the Muntasir Media Foundation, which is responsible for propagating jihadist messages and which had already threatened Spain last December. The recent video encouraged attacks against Holy Week in Andalusia, the region of Spain that corresponds to Al Andalus, which was Muslim territory before the Reconquest. Recovering Al Andalus is an old obsession for jihadists and often appears in many of their propaganda messages. The thwarted attack would have taken place only 11 days before the general elections in Spain. In 2004, three days before the general elections, the Madrid bombings ripped through the heart of Spain’s capital, leaving 193 dead and more than 2,000 injured. Since then, the Spanish police have doubled up on terrorism protection in the days before each major election. A suicide attack in Holy Week in Seville would have certainly claimed many victims, in addition to causing a huge international media panic. On the other hand, one of the great dangers of La Madrugada—the most famous procession—are the stampedes: In 2017, more than a hundred people were wounded after a stampede was set off by eight mischief-makers, who had been recruited through social networks for a dangerous prank. One of the issues on the table in the electoral campaign is the possibility of tightening laws and borders to prevent the entry of jihadists, potentially hiding among other immigrants, into Spain. This is one of the proposals of the far-right party VOX, which has been growing in popularity in Spain according to all the polls. The president of Spain and main socialist candidate are both against hardening the laws. In recent weeks the controversy over the entry of jihadists in Spain has been present in all media and is generating polarized positions among the Spanish.
| null |
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/articles/~3/MUo9GWfJgsY/police-stop-alleged-terrorist-plan-to-attack-spains-holy-week
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2019-04-17 19:05:54+00:00
| 1,555,542,354 | 1,567,542,631 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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698,567 |
theguardianuk--2019-04-23--The shocking rape trial that galvanised Spains feminists and the far right
| 2019-04-23T00:00:00 |
theguardianuk
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The shocking rape trial that galvanised Spain’s feminists – and the far right
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In the early hours of 7 July 2016, surrounded by throngs of revellers dancing and drinking, an 18-year-old woman suddenly found herself alone. She was standing on Plaza del Castillo, a square in the centre of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, which was hosting its annual festival, the running of the bulls. The weeklong festival combines a religious celebration of the city’s patron saint, San Fermin, with the eponymous bull run – and copious amounts of alcohol. Every morning at the stroke of 8am, the bravest festivalgoers sprint ahead of a group of bulls leading them from the pen where they’re kept to the ring where they will die later that day. Then the drinking resumes. The festival has long had a reputation for bad behaviour – exasperated locals often complain about outsiders turning their town into a lawless city – and after photos of young women being groped by groups of men went viral in 2013, the city launched an anti-sexual assault campaign whose symbol, a red hand, was plastered across billboards, walls and buses. But the festival has not lost its somewhat seedy reputation. “People come here to fuck,” a hospital receptionist told me wearily, fanning herself against the July heat, when I attended last year. The young woman, who had just finished her first year of university, had been drinking with a few people she had met that night, but after leaving them to dance, she lost sight of them. As she would later testify in court, she nudged her way past the crowds to a bench on the edge of the square to get her bearings. There, on the bench, a man struck up conversation with her. His name was José Ángel Prenda, a 26-year-old from Seville with a broad face and a paunchy stomach across which he had inked his name in large, gothic script. Prenda had come to the festival with a group of friends, four men in their mid-20s, who called themselves la manada – the wolf pack. One member of the group, a soldier named Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo, had a tattoo of a howling wolf on his foot, along with the words “The power of the wolf lies in the pack”. Another member, Jesús Escudero, a hairdresser, had a wolf paw tattoo on his ribcage. The other two members were a police officer, Antonio Manuel Guerrero, and Ángel Boza, the rookie of the group, who, like Prenda, was unemployed. The woman and Prenda compared tattoos and talked football while the other men hovered around, occasionally dipping in and out of the conversation. In the woman’s recollection, the chat was friendly but unremarkable. She was tired, and after about 10 minutes, she said she was going to head back to a friend’s car, where she would spend the night. Offering to walk her, the men accompanied her past busy terraces before turning into quieter and increasingly deserted streets. When she pointed out that they were close to the car, Prenda suddenly rushed ahead, catching up with a woman entering a nearby apartment building. Pretending to have rented a room there, Prenda held the door for the resident and then slipped into the lobby. Outside, one of the men – the woman wasn’t sure which – had begun kissing her, and she had kissed him back. Soon they were interrupted by Prenda’s hushed command from inside the lobby of the apartment building: “Let’s go, let’s go.” The man she was with took her hand and led her towards the door. Before she could register what was happening, she had been corralled into the back of the lobby and felt herself being undressed. Over the next 20 minutes, the five men would take turns repeatedly penetrating her orally, vaginally and anally. She shut her eyes and waited for it to end. At 3.27am, according to CCTV footage, the men filed out of the building. Once the woman was alone, she got dressed and looked for her phone to call a friend, but the men had stolen it. That’s when she began to cry. She left the building and eventually found a bench to slump on, sobbing inconsolably. Eventually a passing couple stopped to talk to her. When she told them what had happened, they called the police, who drove her to a local hospital where she was treated for vaginal wounds and given a morning-after pill. The men, meanwhile, had headed back into town, some to continue partying, others to sleep. At 6.50am, Prenda wrote in the WhatsApp group they shared with a few other friends back in Seville, “Good morning. The five of us fucked one girl. Hahaha.” He added: “We have video.” At 8am, the five friends ran with the bulls. They were still catching their breath when the police officers approached. By that evening, the five were behind bars. What had taken place in Pamplona would become known as the “wolf pack” case, and for the next two years, as the trial approached and more and more details seeped into the press, the story would rarely be out of the headlines. In April 2018, the verdict was finally handed down and the court acquitted all five men of rape, finding them guilty of the lesser crime of “sexual abuse”. It came down to the fine print of the law: because the men had not used violence to coerce the woman into the act, the crime could not technically be categorised as sexual assault, which includes rape. The men were sentenced to nine years instead of the 22 to 25 years the prosecution demanded. For many women across the country, even before the verdict arrived, the case had been a moment of reckoning, which laid bare a deep culture of misogyny in Spanish society. The wolf pack case “brought out the worst in our society, the worst in our judicial system, the worst in social media,” the human rights lawyer and analyst Violeta Assiego told me. But the outcome of the trial galvanised feminists in Spain like never before, turning feminism into a movement with unprecedented visibility and real political power. Immediately after the verdict, hundreds of thousands of women flooded plazas in dozens of Spanish cities to protest against the ruling, calling for Spain’s sexual assault laws to be rewritten. But it wasn’t just a transformative moment for feminists – it also became a rallying point for the far right. As more and more women took to the streets, a reactionary counter-movement of aggrieved men was forming online, while the far-right party Vox pitched itself to supporters who felt threatened by the increasing prominence of what they called “radical feminism”. This past December, Vox became the first far-right party to win multiple seats in Spain since the death of Franco. In Spain’s upcoming general election on 28 April, polls are predicting that Vox is likely to win roughly 10% of the vote – up from just 0.2% in 2016 – meaning that it could play kingmaker to a rightwing coalition government. “Vox isn’t an isolated case. It’s part of a global trend where a minority of the population can see that their privileges are in danger,” Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, told me recently. “That’s why feminism needs to show its strength.” Long before the wolf pack trial began, it seemed most Spaniards had already reached their own verdicts. For months, they had pored over the men’s WhatsApp conversations – both text and audio – which had been leaked to the press and posted online. Many predated the Pamplona festival visit, and seemed to suggest a level of premeditation. “Mate seriously, if the five of us all fucked a fat girl together at San Fermin, it would be the best thing ever. I’d rather fuck a fat girl with all of you than a hot one by myself,” one of the men had said. “Are we bringing burundanga [a date rape drug]? I got reinoles [another date rape drug] at a really good price. For the rapes,” a message read. “This trip is a baptism of fire to become a wolf,” read another. Even more damningly, a leaked video from the same WhatsApp group showed four of the five accused men groping and kissing an apparently unconscious woman in the back of a car two months before the running of the bulls, at another festival in Andalucía. A separate investigation into that incident was launched. (The men stand accused of sexually abusing the woman and are currently awaiting trial. Their defence argues the woman consented because she voluntarily stepped into the car.) On 13 November 2017, the first day of the wolf pack trial, a famous TV presenter glibly polled his followers on Twitter: “Do you think it was rape or consensual sex?” Followers had to select one option or the other. He deleted the tweet after a storm of condemnation, but not before thousands had picked and clicked their answer. It all seemed to boil down to one question: who was lying? When the plaintiff took the stand, she insisted that over the course of the 40 minutes she spent with the accused, they “never talked about sex, ever”. She described freezing in shock after the men led her into the lobby, and, because she had her eyes closed, she said she did not realise that the men had filmed her. In the wake of the alleged assault, she said she had tumbled into a spiral of self-blame, shame and guilt. She had suffered from nightmares, insomnia and difficulty concentrating. Months later, when university exams rolled around, she had been unable to sit them. By contrast, the men’s testimonies read like porn scripts. According to their accounts, they were hanging around, minding their own business, when suddenly an attractive young woman materialised and, within five minutes, declared she would go to bed with any one, two or five of them. They all claimed there was no doubt she enjoyed herself, though admitted they never asked. Most of the men boasted about frequently partaking in orgies, and insisted that it wasn’t surprising an 18-year-old stranger would agree to one given the “festival context”. Guerrero, the police officer, said he was so convinced of the gang’s innocence that when police informed him he was accused of rape, he asked to see their superior and, cop to cop, offered the video he had taken on his phone as exonerating evidence. When we spoke recently, the men’s lawyer, Agustín Martínez, called the incident “consensual sexual relations among six adults” and suggested that the plaintiff only changed her tune out of fear the men would leak videos of the act and tarnish her reputation. Martínez said that anyone who suggested the plaintiff would not have wanted to have sex with five men she had met minutes earlier was denying her her freedom to do so. Most of the trial was closed to the public and media to protect the privacy of those involved. But that hardly mattered: as well as the WhatsApps, the testimonies were continually leaked to local press and picked apart by the public like weekly soap opera instalments. To many observers, one of the most astounding elements of the trial was what was deemed admissible as evidence and what was not. While the three presiding judges – two men and one woman – ruled that the personal lives and social media activities of the accused were generally irrelevant, they took a different view when it came to the victim. During the preliminary “instruction” phase of the trial, they admitted a report compiled by a private investigator, who had been hired by the family of one of the accused to monitor the plaintiff’s behaviour in the months after the alleged assault. Without her knowledge, the investigator had trailed the plaintiff while she enjoyed a brief holiday with friends and family in September. The investigator’s report concluded that she seemed to be living “life as normal”. The investigator also delved into the plaintiff’s social media activity. The defence ultimately withdrew most of the report, but hung on to what their lawyer considered a key piece of evidence proving the plaintiff had not suffered any trauma. It was a picture that the plaintiff had posted on Instagram, two months after the incident. It showed a T-shirt emblazoned with a quote from one of the contestants on Spain’s Jersey Shore spinoff, Super Shore: “Whatever you do, take off your underwear.” When she read the news about how the Instagram post was being used as evidence against the plaintiff, Teresa Lozano, a 31-year-old actor from Madrid, felt her blood boil. “You need two things to feed feminism: one is theory, and the other is rage,” Lozano told me recently. On 15 November, two days after the trial had begun, Lozano and her collaborator Zua Mendez made a YouTube video that captured the anger many women were feeling. “First, they rape you. Then they investigate you, without your knowing. They spy on you. In the media, many men claim there isn’t enough evidence to prove it wasn’t consensual,” they said in turn, staring into the camera, their voices steady and dry. “I believe you, much more than this bullshit system, this system in which we ask, we demand that victims file reports, but when they do, we don’t believe them.” They called the video Yo te creo, “I believe you,” and hastily posted it online. By that evening, it was trending on Spanish YouTube. (It now has more than 300,000 views.) The next day, with little notice and no permit, feminist activists called a protest for the following night outside the justice ministry in Madrid, expecting a few dozen to show. By nightfall on November 17, some 3,000 crowded on to the streets around the ministry. It was just a small taste of what was to come. On 26 April 2018, the day of the verdict, the journalist Cristina Fallarás was standing in a studio in Madrid, getting ready to comment on the case. A screen behind her broadcast the exterior of the Pamplona court where hundreds of assembled women waited for the ruling. When it came out, Fallarás felt her stomach drop. “I said to myself: ‘Right now, I’m not a journalist. I’m a woman’,” she told me recently. Live, on national television, she let out her anger. “This is bullshit,” she shouted. Behind her, the screen showed the women in Pamplona break through police lines and rush the court house. For his own safety, Martínez, the accused’s lawyer, was kept inside for three hours until the crowd began to disperse. (Martínez told me that even now he would only travel to Pamplona if guaranteed police protection.) Although two of the three presiding judges in the case conceded that they believed the plaintiff had not consented to the act, the fact she had not been violently coerced prevented them from qualifying it as rape. Instead, the men were found guilty of “sexual abuse”. The third judge voted to absolve the men. In his dissenting opinion, he commented that all he could see in the videos the men had taken of the act was “an atmosphere of revelry and joy”. In a matter of hours, hundreds of thousands of women throughout Spain had stormed the streets. It was Spain’s largest spontaneous feminist uprising in living memory. That night, while women across the country banged pots and pans in so-called cacerolada protests, Fallarás logged on to Twitter. In a series of tweets to her tens of thousands of followers, she recounted some of her own own experiences of sexual violence. She signed off with the hashtag #Cuéntalo, “Tell your story.” That night, 100 women did. By the third day, it was 10,000. By the 10th day, Fallarás’ hashtag had been retweeted 3m times and spread to 70 countries, including Argentina, Mexico and the US. It was Spain’s #MeToo. “It created a collective memory that hadn’t existed,” Fallarás said. But along with the outpouring of solidarity came a backlash. One of the hubs for this anti-feminist feeling was ForoCoches, a popular Spanish web forum. The site, which is a bit like a Spanish 4Chan, was founded in 2003 as a place to talk about cars (ForoCoches literally translates as “car forum”), but it quickly became a “breeding ground for machismo,” says Gema Valencia, an expert on the Spanish manosphere. According to Alejandro Marín, the founder of ForoCoches, recent polls on the site suggest that around 60% of users support the far-right Vox party, though these polls are far from scientific. Throughout the trial, the forum had been a place where users gathered to express sympathy with the accused and disparage the plaintiff. After the verdict was released, ForoCoches users posted information identifying the victim. (They had discovered her identity because when the court sent news outlets a redacted version of the sentence, it failed to remove a security verification code that granted access to the unredacted version containing the plaintiff’s name.) The posts were reported and deleted, Marín told me, but news of the young woman’s identity still spread quickly, even making it to the US, where the Spanish-language pages of the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer also published her information. “It’s our citizen duty to spread this slut’s identity,” said the article. In one of the only public statements by any of the accused after the verdict, Guerrero, the police officer, wrote a letter that was published on a rightwing news site, in which he gave special thanks to ForoCoches members for “not following the herd”. Guerrero attacked the feminist movement and warned that what had befallen him “could happen to your brother, your father, your son, or even you”. The same site published an editorial titled, “Yo no te creo” (“I don’t believe you”) expressing support for the men. The counter-slogan caught on. One typical tweet said: “#IDon’tBelieveYou What the hell, if any girl who regrets hooking up with you the next day can report you for rape and then all the feminazis go to battle for her. Scary”. In the media, the term “wolf pack” became shorthand for any alleged group sexual assault, with numerous ongoing cases described as the wolf pack of Barcelona, Alicante or Madrid, like a modern Grimms’ fairy tale warning young women of the dangers of going out at night alone. In 2018, according to an independent website that tracks sexual assaults committed by groups, there were 59 such attacks, more than in the previous two years combined. Some journalists have worried that the wolf pack coverage triggered copycat crimes, but it is unclear whether the surge represents an actual rise, or a growing confidence among victims to report them. And then, on 21 June, two months after the verdict, there was another twist: the five men were released from jail on bail, pending an appeal against their sentences. In their decision, the judges said the men’s “loss of anonymity” through the trial made it “unthinkable” that they would attempt to flee the country or commit a similar crime. In response, hundreds of thousands of women again flooded the streets in protest. Soon after, Carmen Calvo – minister of equality in the new socialist government, which had taken office after the ruling conservative party was ousted following a corruption scandal – announced that the government would propose a new sexual assault law that eliminated the distinction between rape and sexual abuse. Other parties on the left, such as Podemos, pushed for bigger changes to resolve the kind of legal absurdities the wolf pack case had brought to light. For example, Spanish law has, since 2004, included special provisions for crimes classified as “gender violence” – but the only crimes actually classified that way are acts of violence between partners or former partners. Victims of gender violence are allowed to testify remotely, and should be assigned lawyers who have received specific training. But because the woman in the wolf pack case was abused by strangers, she was not entitled to these protections. Instead, she had to travel to Pamplona to testify (though she was spared from having to do so in front of the men who sexually abused her) and she was assigned a lawyer, Carlos Bacaicoa, who had no specific gender-violence expertise. Bacaicoa, who alternated between deep, exasperated sighs and gruff rebukes when we spoke on the phone, is a social conservative who was assigned the wolf pack case simply because he happened to be on call the night the incident took place. He described the case as “the worst experience in 37 years” of his career because of the toll it took on him, and told me he wished it had never fallen under his charge. Bacaicoa held no affection for the accused – “those animals,” he called them – and believes they should have been found guilty of rape. But although he doesn’t agree with the verdict, he respects it. “Justice is served in the tribunals, not the streets,” he told me. There was no need to reform the current sexual assault law, he said – it just needed to be applied with “common sense”. He added that it was a “disgrace” how feminist groups had exploited the case to prop up their “gender ideology”. He was far from the only person to think this. In 2013, a young conservative politician called Santiago Abascal published an open letter on his blog announcing that he was defecting from the ruling Partido Popular (PP) for “betraying its principles”. He was angry that the party had not taken a tougher line with Basque and Catalan separatists, and had failed to undo the previous socialist government’s “ideological legislation”. (It was the socialists who had passed the 2004 gender violence law.) In December 2013, he joined forces with a group of other former PP politicians and co-founded Vox. By September 2014, he was the face and president of the party. Abascal described Vox as “the party that defends what Spaniards say on WhatsApp”. Like other new far-right parties around the world, Vox scorned political correctness and touted its politicians as the only people brave enough to say what many Spaniards had grown afraid to say out loud, whether the subject was nationalism or immigration or feminism. One of Abascal’s first political recruits was Francisco Serrano, a former judge and outspoken critic of feminism, who had been suspended from the bench in 2011 for bending the law in a child-custody case. (Serrano said he was persecuted by his ideological opponents, and has complained about being “a victim of gender-based jihadism”.) Last month, I met Serrano on an unseasonably warm evening in Seville, the orange-tree scented capital of Andalucía and the wolf pack’s hometown. Serrano had invited me to a Vox youth event he would be speaking at later that night. He wore a burgundy sweater stretched taut across his round stomach, and his eyebrows sloped behind his glasses giving him a sleepy look. For more than a decade, he told me proudly, he has waged war against Spain’s anti-gender violence legislation, which he believes removes the presumption that one is innocent until proven guilty, and emboldens women to make false accusations against men. The title of Serrano’s latest book is A Practical Guide for Abused Fathers: Advice to Survive the Gender Dictatorship. In early 2015, Abascal asked Serrano to run on a Vox ticket in Andalucía’s regional elections, and he accepted. “It was a very high risk to join a party no one knew,” he told me, recalling how he and Abascal would stand on top of beer crates or benches, a loudspeaker in hand, speaking to a few dozen people. In the elections, they were trounced, winning only 0.45% of the vote. Back then, the conventional wisdom was that the far right held little appeal in a country where memories of fascist dictatorship were still fresh. But over the next few years, Vox began to win over conservative voters with their hardline positions on the most divisive issues, such as immigration and Catalonia’s push for independence. Vox voters are, for the most part, middle- and upper-middle-class men disenchanted with the PP, according to Spain’s Centre for Sociological Investigations. Although commentators have tended to focus on how Vox has won voters with its rhetoric on immigration and Spanish unity, its opposition to feminism has also been a key part of its pitch to the electorate. Vox has sought to rally voters who feel alienated or threatened by what the party likes to refer to as “radical feminism” – a phrase they use to describe any kind of feminism whatsoever. Such voters, many of them unhappy with sweeping social changes that have challenged traditional notions of family and gender roles, believe they have been abandoned by mainstream political parties. “Even the PP no longer defended their point of view, since the party had slowly accepted these changes,” Berta Bartet, a political scientist, told me. “Vox emerged to be the voice for those who haven’t accepted these changes.” According to a recent survey polling 1,116 Spaniards, 44% said the current gender violence legislation could be harmful to men, and 77% of potential Vox voters believed this – by far the highest percentage out of any political party. In late 2018, Abascal asked Serrano to run in Andalucía’s regional elections again. This time, Vox was more organised, and its message was finding a far larger audience. Chief among the party’s new 100-point programme was the dissolution of federally funded feminist organisations; the creation of a family ministry in lieu of the current gender ministry; removing sex change and abortion procedures from public health services; and – Serrano’s rallying cry – the repeal of the 2004 gender violence law. On 12 December, Vox won 12 seats – nearly 11% of the vote. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to give them real influence: the new regional government, a conservative alliance between the PP and Ciudadanos, a centre-right party formed in 2006, would need Vox’s support to be sworn in. Vox promptly declared it would only lend them its support if they pledged to deport 52,000 illegal immigrants and dismantle Andalucía’s anti-gender violence law. In now familiar scenes around the country, women returned to the streets. In Barcelona, women carried signs saying “Solidarity with our sisters in Andalucía”. Vox eventually backed down and agreed to lend the government its support anyway. On the day I visited Serrano at the Vox youth event in Seville, about 100 young men, and a sprinkling of women, had crowded into the back of a bar for the monthly Cañas por España (“Beers for Spain”) gathering. Almost all were dressed in starched white shirts, navy and pastel sweaters and shined leather shoes. The atmosphere felt like a cross between a Young Republicans convention and mass. When Serrano took the floor, the room fell silent. “Every time progressives attack us, Vox wins more votes,” he began. A few men nodded solemnly. The previous night, someone had graffitied “death to Vox” and “no to fascism” on the outside of the bar in purple spray paint, signing off with a feminist Venus symbol. Vox thrives off this kind of attack, real and fabricated. Earlier that month, an official Vox account tweeted that a “radical feminist” had assaulted three adolescent girls – one’s jaw had allegedly been broken – for refusing to wear purple ribbons to mark International Women’s Day. The story was circulated across Vox’s social media platforms, each of which have hundreds of thousands of followers, but it turned out to be a hoax. It took several hours after the story was debunked for Vox to eventually issue a statement claiming they had been duped. One attendee at the youth event, Manuel, a 26-year-old whose yellow chequered shirt and two small hoop earrings made him stand out among the legions of Oxford shirts, told me that he knew Vox were portrayed as bigots by the mainstream media, but, as a gay man, he said that he had never had a problem with the party. Like most of the attendees I spoke with, he said feminists had grown “too radical” and “aggressive”. “Spain is divided like it was before the civil war” – but this time, he said, it was “around gender”. When I asked Serrano what he thought about the wolf pack case, he launched into a short rant about how the press was all too happy to report cases involving Spaniards, but ignored those involving foreigners. On the one hand, Vox insists gender equality has been won in Spain – “we’re not Saudi Arabia,” Serrano told me – but on the other, they regularly invoke the need to protect women to justify other contentious, and often racist, policies. In late March, Abascal shared an article about an investigation into a woman’s alleged rape by a group of Moroccan boys, and tweeted: “Is it more important to protect illegal immigration than women?” Abascal has also recently suggested that “good Spaniards” be allowed to carry arms because, they couldn’t “be at peace when they’re under attack and their daughters are being raped”. Vox seeks to “shift people’s attention away from gender violence as a problem that pits men against women” and instead “frame it as a cultural problem from abroad”, Violeta Assiego, the human rights lawyer, told me. “And portraying foreigners as violent individuals who attack women reinforces the idea they want to create – that anything goes when it comes to defending our own, our women, our daughters, our land. It’s a perfect confluence.” March 8 was a cold, crisp day, but the sun shone brightly on Madrid. At noon, a sea of young women decked out in purple shirts, skirts and leggings, with Venus symbols drawn in purple lipstick on their cheeks, streamed down the capital’s major avenues. Some waved purple feather boas, others danced and carried each other on their shoulders. It looked like a Mardi Gras parade. They chanted, “Tranquila, hermana, aquí es tu manada” (“Don’t worry, sister, we are your wolf pack”). If last year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) saw record numbers of Spanish women take the streets, this year’s confirmed the fact that feminism had reached critical mass. Police estimated 350,000 people rallied in Madrid, 200,000 in Barcelona, and 50,000 in Seville and Bilbao – the biggest turnouts among hundreds of others throughout the country. Surveys indicate that nearly 65% of Spanish women under 30 consider themselves feminists today – double the number of five years ago. Describing this younger generation of feminists, Isabel Cadenas, a 36-year-old spokesperson for the group that organises the annual IWD march, said: “They know violence for what it is in a way that we didn’t. They’ve been raped, they’ve been harassed, they’ve been abused, and many became feminists that way. It’s easy for women to become feminists when they realise that their problems aren’t unique, but collective.” At the march, a group of high-school girls in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square posed for selfies. For most of them, it was their first protest. When I asked if they had followed the wolf pack case, a 15-year-old with purple lipstick and glitter smeared across her face answered quickly, “That’s why we’re here. If they touch one of us, they touch all of us,” repeating a popular slogan. In recent months, with the general election looming, politicians have seemed increasingly desperate to win over female voters, presenting the occasionally comic spectacle of male politicians fighting over who is the best feminist. (None of the major parties are fronted by women.) Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, joked in an interview that “feminist men are better in bed,” and when his party entered a coalition for the elections, they adopted the name, “Unidas Podemos” (United we can), using the feminine form of the adjective (unidas rather than unidos) in a nod at inclusive language. (Iglesias also publicly apologised for a text he had written about a female journalist a few years back – and which was leaked – in which he said that he would “whip [her] till she bled.”) Meanwhile, before IWD, Pedro Sanchez’s entire Socialist cabinet changed their Twitter profile pictures to a purple icon bearing the phrase “It’s women’s time”, and launched a hashtag that translates as “the Spain you want is feminist”. Even parties on the right joined in: Ciudadanos brought out its own “liberal feminism” manifesto, prompting many feminists to roll their eyes. “If Ciudadanos is talking about feminism, a word they used to denigrate, that’s a victory for the feminist movement,” Cadenas said. “The problem is that they’re talking about feminism a week before [IWD].” Vox, meanwhile, is banking on the backlash. Today the members of the wolf pack are all home in Seville, on bail. Four of them await trial for the other case that came out of the Pamplona investigation. Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo was expelled from the army. Antonio Manuel Guerrero retained his position in the Civil Guard police corps, but is no longer active. Jesús Escudero was laid off from his hairdressing job. Ángel Boza and José Ángel Prenda were unemployed before the case, and remain so. They all live with their parents. The victim has broken her silence only once, in a letter she sent to a local television station. She beseeched the public to report sexual crimes. “Tell a friend, a family member, the police, in a tweet, however you want, but tell your story,” she wrote. “Don’t stay silent, because if you do, you’ll let them win.” • Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, and sign up to the long read weekly email here.
|
Meaghan Beatley
|
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/23/wolf-pack-case-spain-feminism-far-right-vox
|
2019-04-23 05:00:52+00:00
| 1,556,010,052 | 1,567,542,054 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
749,249 |
theindependent--2019-02-25--Hezbollah added to UKaposs list of terrorist groups
| 2019-02-25T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
Hezbollah added to UK's list of terrorist groups
|
The British government has designated Hezbollah’s political wing a terrorist organisation, amid a US push to isolate Iran and its proxies. The UK had previously made a distinction between the Lebanese Shia group’s military and political branches, the latter of which counts 13 MPs in Lebanon’s parliament. But following a renewed campaign by Donald Trump to pressure Tehran, it has now proscribed the whole organisation as a terror group. “Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilise the fragile situation in the Middle East, and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party,” home secretary Sajid Javid said Monday. “Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety.” Hezbollah was founded in the early 1980s with the support of Iran, and spent much of its early existence fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Following Lebanon’s devastating 1975-1990 civil war, Hezbollah was the only militia in the country which didn’t fully disarm, justifying its weapons as a necessary deterrent to another Israeli invasion. Today, Hezbollah is the most powerful armed group in Lebanon, surpassing even the country’s national army. That military power has given it a significant influence over the government’s decision making. In recent years, it has played a key role in the Syrian civil war, intervening on the side of its ally, Bashar al-Assad. The group said it was motivated by a desire to stop the war spreading to Lebanon, but it also sought to protect the main delivery route for weapons from Iran, and prevent a majority Sunni opposition taking power. Policy makers in the west have watched Hezbollah’s growing strength with alarm, but the latest move appears to come in response to the group’s increasing role in Lebanon’s government. In the country’s last elections, held in May 2018, Hezbollah’s political bloc emerged as the largest in parliament. The group named three cabinet members in the current government, two of whom belong to the organisation. The Trump administration has introduced sweeping sanctions on Iran – which it characterises as the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism – and its Shia proxies in the region, Hezbollah being the largest. Key financiers and entities tied to the group have been targeted by the US Treasury in a clear effort of containment, and Mr Trump has urged other members of the UN Security Council to work with America to ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear bomb. Earlier this month, the US ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard, said Hezbollah was fighting in “at least three countries”, – referring to Syria, Iraq and Yemen. “I was also very frank with the prime minister about US concern over the growing role in the cabinet of an organisation that continues to maintain a militia that is not under the control of the government,” she told reporters after meeting Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri. Hezbollah has also become more of an issue in the UK since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour Party leader. Mr Corbyn has previously called for greater dialogue with the group. Sami Nader, director of Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, said the ban may affect ties between Lebanon and the UK government in the future. “It used to be the case that European countries would distinguish between military and political wings because it offered them a certain space to manoeuvre, so it could keep dealing with Lebanon independently from its position on Iran and Hezbollah’s behaviour,” he told The Independent. “But after the last election, Hezbollah has the upper hand in the government; it’s the number one stakeholder. The big question now is how this will impact the relationship between the UK and the Lebanese government, given that this margin of manoeuvre doesn’t exist anymore.” There may be a material impact on the group, too, according to Phillip Smyth, a fellow at the Washington Institute and a researcher on Shia armed groups. “Hezbollah has sent ‘political’ representatives to the UK before and its supporters would wave its banners at religious celebrations. That will now come to a halt. Fundraising, while less developed in the UK, will also be stopped,” he said. “Regardless, Hezbollah itself never argued it had a political or military wing. Let alone that these ‘wings’ were autonomous,” he added. The news was welcomed by Israel, Hezbollah’s greatest foe. “All who truly wish to combat terror must reject the fake distinction between ‘military’ & ‘political’ wings,” Israeli security minister Gilad Erdan tweeted. “Now is the time for the #EU to follow suit!” Hezbollah declined to comment when contacted by The Independent. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
|
Richard Hall
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hezbollah-uk-britain-terror-list-groups-lebanon-middle-east-a8795781.html
|
2019-02-25 11:54:00+00:00
| 1,551,113,640 | 1,567,547,376 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
761,626 |
theindependent--2019-06-01--Thousands of Muslims worship in Mecca for the final days of Ramadan
| 2019-06-01T00:00:00 |
theindependent
|
Thousands of Muslims worship in Mecca for the final days of Ramadan
|
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims have travelled to Mecca for the last days of the fasting month of Ramadan. An influx of worshippers have descended on the Saudi Arabian city - the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad - for the last 10 days for what believers consider the holiest month of the year. Worshippers gather around Islam's holiest shrine, the Kaaba - a black square building at the Grand Mosque in Mecca which determines the direction of prayer for Muslims around the world. The holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which is expected to fall on 4 June this year, celebrates the end of the 29 or 30 days of dawn-to-sunset fasting. Here The Independent has collated some of the best images from this years event, of worshippers who have made the journey to Mecca for the religious celebration.
|
Independent Staff
|
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ramadan-muslim-worship-grand-mosque-holy-city-mecca-photos-a8939531.html
|
2019-06-01 12:36:52+00:00
| 1,559,407,012 | 1,567,539,430 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
786,604 |
theirishtimes--2019-04-29--Patron bodies Who really controls your childs school
| 2019-04-29T00:00:00 |
theirishtimes
|
Patron bodies: Who really controls your child’s school?
|
Over the next 10 years, the Government will spend an eye-watering €8 billion on new school buildings. It will then hand over the keys – and control – to largely unaccountable patron bodies who wield significant power over what happens in the school. Patrons control the ethos and philosophy of a school, appoint the chair of the board of management and approve the membership of the board. This gives the patron huge power to decide, for instance, the religious or philosophical approach of the school, what is taught in relationship and sexuality education (RSE) and how classes are structured. The issue of patronage has been in the news following a divestment row in north County Dublin, on foot of claims that schools which lose their Catholic patronage may end up having to cancel Christmas festivities and other religious celebrations. But for some there’s an even bigger question looming on patronage: is it right that the State is handing over control of newly built schools on foot of a popular vote among preschool parents? Since 2012, parents have been surveyed about their preferred patron for new schools being built in their area. These campaigns have seen various patrons running quasi-political local campaigns to persuade parents to vote for them; because the winner is decided by a first-past-the-post vote, the successful school can – and often does – win with less than 50 per cent of votes. In principle, there is no reason why, for instance, Scientology or a radical philosophy could not win control of a local primary school if they gain enough votes. Experience is also not a barrier. Some small patron bodies which have never run schools of any kind have managed to win control of new, multimillion euro facilities in recent times. Once a patron has set up a school, the patronage or ethos cannot be changed without their permission. In addition, patrons can be awarded control based on a very small number of votes: in the most recent competition, for example, Educate Together won a 16-classroom school in Goatstown, south County Dublin, based on just 65 of 116 votes. It’s a system that has worked well for some patron bodies, but others are asking: is a beauty contest really the best way to decide school patronage? Caoimhín Ó hEaghra, Ard Rúnaí of An Foras Pátrúnachta, the Irish language school patron, has been among the most vocal critics of how patronage competitions are playing out. “Surveys show that about a quarter of parents want a gaelscoil, and yet less than 5 per cent are actually gaelscoileanna. There’s little logic to it: we got 60 votes for a Gaelscoil in Killester, north County Dublin, but no school. We got six votes in Stepaside, and we have a Gaelscoil,” he says. “Previously, we just had to show that there was enough demand for an Irish-language school in the area, but now it’s a constant competition. We all recognise the need for diversity but the Irish language has a special status and the Government has a responsibility to support it.” Áine Hyland, professor emeritus of education at UCC and one of the founding parents of the Dalkey School Project, which grew into the Educate Together network of schools, says the patronage system is not one that would be set up today. “It dates back to 1831 but, until the Dalkey School Project, the department’s attitude was that only churches could be patrons. They did finally accept that articles 42 and 44 of the Constitution meant that parents’ rights had to be respected. “I never envisaged it would develop as it has. On paper, it seems a good idea to take on the views of parents but it has led to more patrons than envisaged. Everybody thinks they can be a school patron. What is the limit?” Hyland suggests that it may be time for change. “In 1902, there was a proposal that schools in Ireland would be controlled by local education authorities, which is in line with England and most western countries. I wouldn’t be against the Education and Training Boards (ETBs) being the patron for all new schools, provided that parental rights were protected. “Greater flexibility about Irish language streams could also answer the concerns of An Foras Pátrúnachta. It may be an idea to put the issue to a citizens’ assembly and ask them: if we were to start from scratch, what might we do?” Unsurprisingly, not all school patrons agree – especially the smaller players with big visions – but everyone agrees the current patronage system isn’t working as it should. One of the most significant of these smaller patron bodies is the St Nicholas Montessori Society which, as well as running the Montessori teacher training college, is patron of a private, fee-paying primary school in Dún Laoghaire. What’s different about them? “Children are bunched into three rough age brackets: three-six, six-nine and nine to 12,” explains Nick Breakwell, chief executive of the society. “We don’t use terms like junior infants, third class or sixth class. The curriculum is similar but the environment is prepared for the age group, with materials specific to each environment.” Another newcomer to the scene is Scoil Sinéad, which is patron of two Dublin schools: Scoil Sinéad Pelletstown primary (Cabra) and Griffeen Community College (Lucan). It was founded by Sherene Powell-Ikafor, whose daughter Sinéad has autism. The school runs a special education class alongside every mainstream class, with the two sets of teachers working closely to maximise interaction. Marianne Farrelly, principal of Pelletstown, says they are multibelief schools which mark a range of religious beliefs and festivals, and that experiential learning – such as bringing children to the canal or botanic gardens for science class or the library for World Book Day – is core to their philosophy. Both Breakwell and Farrelly say their schools won their patronage by knocking on doors and working hard to persuade parents of the benefits of their patronage model. Breakwell says the system militates against smaller players but the process itself is “smooth, clear and transparent for everyone”. The Department of Education provides €500 to each competing patron, but smaller players including Scoil Sinéad have complained that larger organisations, such as multidenominational patron Educate Together or Irish language patron An Foras Pátrúnachta, have more staff resources to run campaigns. “The competitions have run over the Christmas period, which isn’t ideal, and as we don’t have the same resources to go door-to-door, we organised public meetings, but it’s understandably difficult for parents to get out to these,” says Farrelly. “Ultimately, however, it is right that the local community gets a voice and a say in the process, and parental choice does speak.” Catholic Church: It remains the dominant player in primary education, with almost 90 per cent of primary schools. Protestant denominations: They are sole patrons of just over 5 per cent of primary schools, or 165 in total. Multidenominational: Educate Together is the most familiar of the non-religious patrons with almost 3 per cent of primary schools. An Foras Patrúnacta, the Irish-language patron, controls 2 per cent of primary schools. Others include State-run Education and Training boards (ETBs) which run 12 “community national schools” on a multidenominational basis, Scoil Sinéad and Lifeways Ireland (patrons of Steiner schools). Catholic Church: It is the patron or co-patron for just under half (48 per cent) of post-primary schools. They are mostly voluntary secondary schools. Multidenominational: Almost half of secondary schools (49 per cent) have a multidenominational ethos. The bulk of these are community schools (under the direct control of State-owned Education and Training Boards) and are mostly multidenominational. Church of Ireland: It is responsible for the running of 23 post-primary schools (3 per cent).
| null |
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/patron-bodies-who-really-controls-your-child-s-school-1.3871501
|
2019-04-29 23:00:00+00:00
| 1,556,593,200 | 1,567,541,759 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
7,016 |
ageofautism--2019-04-01--Thirty Days Thirty Pieces of Silver
| 2019-04-01T00:00:00 |
ageofautism
|
Thirty Days Thirty Pieces of Silver
|
April is a month of important religious holidays for Jews and Christians. Passover marks the solemn night when parents marked their doors with red blood to save their sons from God's plague upon Egyptian first born sons. Easter mark's the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ for Christians. Judas was paid 30 piece of silver to betray his friend. Many of us feel terribly betrayed by politicians, medical personnel, schools, programs. Our children have so many serious needs and few are met. April has 30 days. March came in like a lion and snapped and clawed at medical choice. It did not leave like a lamb. April first is day of silly practical jokes. I have a friend who put her son's cereal in the freezer overnight so that the spoon was locked into the milk - much to his sleepy eyed surprise. I feel a bit like like the spoon frozen in the milk. Not exactly "Cheerio..." Let's get on with the month with a vow to continue to look out for one another. If you want to honor your loved one on the spectrum tomorrow on World Autism Day - by all means. We encourage you to do so. Many of us will not acknowledge the day. I try to stay upbeat in my writing, my thinking. And so, in keeping with the holiday theme, my mind travels far across the world to India. I have many Hindu friends here in my town and they just celebrated a beautiful festival called "Holi." It is a festival of love, hope and features bright colors painted everywhere, including the face! I will choose to enjoy all of the colors of the rainbow this month, not just blue. To celebrate the love we have for our children, some of whom are adults, like my three and whose needs are growing faster than the crocus can pop its green stem from the ground on a warm day. XOX Kim
|
Age of Autism
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/GSEhr_foLtA/thirty-days-thirty-piece-of-silver.html
|
2019-04-01 10:00:00+00:00
| 1,554,127,200 | 1,567,544,485 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
15,811 |
aljazeera--2019-09-10--Ashoura 2019 How Muslims around the world mark religious day
| 2019-09-10T00:00:00 |
aljazeera
|
Ashoura 2019: How Muslims around the world mark religious day
|
Ashoura is observed on the tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar, by all Muslims. It marks the day Nuh (Noah) left the Ark and the day Musa (Moses) was saved from the Pharaoh of Egypt by God. The Prophet Muhammad used to fast on Ashoura, a common tradition commemorated by Sunni Muslims. For Shia Muslims, Ashoura is a major religious festival to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD. The death of Hussein is considered by the Shias as a symbol of humanity's struggle against injustice, tyranny and oppression. The main rituals and observances on Ashoura consist of public expressions of mourning.
| null |
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/ashoura-2019-muslims-world-mark-religious-day-190910084436541.html
|
2019-09-10 13:45:25+00:00
| 1,568,137,525 | 1,569,330,580 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
26,321 |
bbc--2019-04-23--Why is a 2500-year-old epic dominating polls in modern India
| 2019-04-23T00:00:00 |
bbc
|
Why is a 2,500-year-old epic dominating polls in modern India?
|
With the Indian general election under way, the Ramayana, a 2,500-year-old Hindu mythological epic, is back in the spotlight. The BBC's religious affairs reporter Priyanka Pathak explains why. This year, like in previous elections, the conversation among many hardline Hindus has returned to the epic Ramayana and its protagonist, Ram. A longstanding demand to construct a temple in the northern city of Ayodhya - a key point of tension between Hindus and Muslims - which Hindus believe is Ram's birthplace, has become louder in recent months. Hardline Hindus want the temple built on the same spot where a 16th Century mosque was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992. They believe the Babri mosque was built after the destruction of a Hindu temple by a Muslim invader. The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised, once again, to reconstruct the Ram Mandir (temple) in its election manifesto. Like in previous elections, they hope that this pledge will draw in more Hindu voters. They also organised Hindu religious festivals on a grand scale in the lead-up to the polls. On 12 April, a large gathering of right-wing organisations was held at the iconic Ram Lila Maidan, a sprawling ground named after the god in the centre of the capital, Delhi, to celebrate "Ram's birthday". People dressed in saffron robes wielded swords as they chanted "Jai Shree Ram", which translates from the Hindi to "Hail Lord Ram". They shouted slogans, reiterating their promise to Ram that they would reconstruct the temple. Experts believe that the movement to build the temple, spearheaded by a powerful Hindu nationalist organisation called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has helped craft some sort of a collective Hindu identity in India. This idea is something that the RSS, the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, has cultivated since the early 20th Century. However, the movement found its zeitgeist moment only a century later. Several things happened almost concurrently during the late 1980s. First, a television show on the epic reminded 80 million viewers of the story and rekindled a love for its hero. The serial broadcast a standardised story of the Ramayana, pulled together from many versions and variants. There is no official version of this sprawling epic although historical scholars consider the version by Valmiki, a sage and Sanskrit poet, to be the most authentic. But really there are as many as 3,000 retellings of the story in around 22 languages, including some that eulogise Ravana while others say it was actually Ram's brother Lakshman who killed the demon king. But what the television show did was give India a single narrative of the Ramayana. It also gave a single religion to a country "that was diverse and plural and included many different ways to be Indian", says Arshia Sattar, a doctorate in south Asian languages, who has translated Valmiki's Ramayana from Sanskrit into English. The second big moment came in the late 1980s, when the Congress party led by Rajiv Gandhi - which has always styled itself as secular - decided to lay the foundation stone of the temple in Ayodhya with the help of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing outfit, to woo Hindu votes in a close election. The plan didn't work - instead, it paved the way for the BJP, still a young party at the time, to seize what they saw as an opportunity to galvanise Hindu voters. In September 1989, the party's then president LK Advani launched a nationwide march for the temple. Bricks began to move from around India for the construction of the temple. The campaign was successful in mobilising communal sentiments and set in motion a series of events that would result in the demolition of the mosque. This, in turn, triggered nationwide riots. But in the next elections, the BJP swept the polls. From that moment forward, the party - which was 12 years old at the time - became a national heavyweight. It took its place as either the party leading the ruling government alliance or as the leading opposition party. For the BJP, the Ayodhya issue became a way to consolidate Hindu votes - something that used to be fragmented along caste lines. This now well-known version of the epic, championing Ram, also became a convenient point for other Hindu organisations to rally around. This meant that other versions of the epic began to be stamped out. For instance, in 2011, a Hindu nationalist student union and other affiliated right-wing groups succeeded in forcing Delhi University to drop an essay by the late poet and Ramayana scholar AK Ramanujan, which questioned how many versions of the epic existed, from its history curriculum. "This may have been part of the general climate of intolerance and the battle over who had the right to tell the country's history and its myths that was part of the Indian landscape between the 1980s and the 2000s," literary critic and author Nilanjana Roy wrote of the incident in her blog in 2011. But for hardline Hindus, the cultural loss of other versions is simply collateral damage. They believe that a sort of Hindu renaissance can be built around the epic, allowing Hindus to band together and revive their religion as a way of life that they believe was lost and can be re-established. For instance, in September 2017, the Uttarakhand state minister for alternative medicine, proposed spending $3.6m (£2.8m) to find Sanjeevani - a mythical, glow-in-the-dark herb, described in the epic as having saved Ram and Lakshman from certain death. The deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has also suggested that science was so advanced during the time of the Ramayana that Sita was actually a test-tube baby. And the vice chancellor of an Indian university has claimed that Ravana, had a fleet of airplanes. A series of such examples from Indian politicians and scholars can be seen as an attempt to bolster pride in the mythological epic. But they also evoke a nostalgia for a grand past, reawakening hope for a future that repeats the great feats of distance ancestors.
| null |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47944411
|
2019-04-23 23:49:06+00:00
| 1,556,077,746 | 1,567,542,026 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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28,668 |
bbc--2019-07-04--Rath Yatra The legend behind worlds largest chariot festival
| 2019-07-04T00:00:00 |
bbc
|
Rath Yatra: The legend behind world's largest chariot festival
|
One of India's biggest religious festivals, the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra, gets under way on Thursday. The festival is unique in that three Hindu gods are taken out of their temples in a colourful procession to meet their devotees. The BBC's Priyanka Pathak explains the legend behind the festival and its significance. The biggest of these processions takes place in Puri in the eastern state of Orissa, while the other takes place in the western state of Gujarat. Believed to be the oldest Rath Yatra or chariot procession in the world, this festival marks the annual ceremonial procession of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra, from their home temple to another temple, located in what is believed to be their aunt's home. This journey is documented in undated Hindu sacred texts known as the Puranas which are believed to have been written a few thousand years ago. This is the only festival in the world where deities are taken out of temples to travel to devotees, and it is also the largest chariot procession in the world. Millions of people come to watch as a "king" sweeps the road with a golden mop and three massive 18-wheeled chariots bearing the sibling deities make their way through massive crowds. Their chariots, which are mini architectural marvels, are constructed over 42 days from over 4,000 pieces of wood by the only family that has the hereditary rights to make them. Legend says it always rains on the day of the procession. For a whole week before, the temple doors are shut and no one is allowed inside, because it is believed that the sibling deities have a fever after bathing in the sun with 108 pitchers of water. The breaking of their fever calls for a change of scene, which is why they go to their aunt's home for a few days. The size, pomp and splendour of this procession has even contributed a word to the English dictionary: Juggernaut. Unlike the ornate, carefully crafted metal idols everywhere else, these three deities are fashioned from wood, cloth and resin. They are malformed with large heads and no arms: reminders of the legend of an impatient King. The legend begins in different ways. One speaks of an arrogant Indrayumna, King of Puri in the east, who tried to steal the Hindu god Krishna's heart. It had been immersed in the legendary Dwarka sea after his cremation and had reappeared to the tribes people of the place as an idol. When Indrayumna tried to claim its possession, the idol disappeared. The repentant king sought absolution from Krishna by sanctifying him in another form. Another speaks of how Krishna's grief-stuck siblings - his elder brother Balabhadra and younger sister Subhadra- rushed into the Dwarka sea carrying his half-cremated body. At the same moment, King Indrayumna dreamed that Krishna's body had floated back up on his shores as a log. The two legends merge here: Indrayumna decided to build a temple to house the log. His next task was to find someone to craft the idols from it. Legends say that Vishwakarma, God's own architect, arrived as an old carpenter. He agreed to carve the idols, but on the condition that he was not to be disturbed. However, when he did not emerge from his workshop for weeks, going without food, water or rest, a worried and impatient King threw the door open. At the time the images were only half-finished, but the carpenter disappeared. Still, believing the idols to be made from the very body of God, the King sanctified them and and placed them in the temple. When the deities disintegrate, they are remade in the same half-done image with new wood every 12 years. They were last remade in 2015. Dwarka in Gujarat - where Krishna's half-cremated body is believed to have been immersed into the ocean - is located on the west coast of India and Puri in Orissa- where it is said to have re-emerged as a log - is located in the east. About 500 hundred years ago, a travelling Hindu saint and temple priest of a Hanuman temple in Gujarat, Shree Sarangdasji, arrived in Puri to offer prayers at the historic Jagannathan temple. While sleeping at the temple guest house, it is believed that he received visionary instruction from Lord Jagannathan to go back to Ahmedabad in Gujarat and install three idols of Jagannathan, Balbhadra and Subhadra there. Carrying out the instructions received in his dream, he founded the Ahmedabad Jagannathan Temple. By doing so, he sanctified the two locations - one where Krishna's mortal remains began their journey from the west, to their transformation as Puri's Lord Jagannathan in the east. About 142 years ago, one of the founder's disciples, Shree Narsinhdasji Maharaj, began the Ahmedabad Rath Yatra. The deities on chariots, pulled by elephants and humans, replicate their own journey in Puri, completing a set of rituals that sanctify the two places where Krishna's mortal remains are believed to have come to rest. At the end of the festival, the chariots are dismantled and their wood is used as fuel in the temple kitchens - believed to be the largest in the world that cook 56 things every day and feed anywhere between 2,000 to nearly 200,000 people. The elephants are returned to the lands managed by the temple trusts to roam free - until the procession the following year. This year's festival was, however, marred by controversy over the elephants. Following the death of some of the temple elephants in Gujarat, there was massive outcry over plans to replace them with elephants from the north-eastern state of Assam. The four elephants would have had to make a perilous train journey of more than 3,100km (1,926 miles) in heatwave conditions to participate in the festival. This decision was suspended by a wildlife official after activists went to court.
| null |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-48864239
|
2019-07-04 05:11:47+00:00
| 1,562,231,507 | 1,567,536,904 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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32,078 |
bbc--2019-10-31--Pakistan train fire: Karachi to Rawalpindi service blaze kills dozens
| 2019-10-31T00:00:00 |
bbc
|
Pakistan train fire: Karachi to Rawalpindi service blaze kills dozens
|
At least 74 passengers have died after a train travelling between the Pakistani cities of Karachi to Rawalpindi caught fire. Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the fire was caused by the explosion of a gas cylinder being used by passengers cooking breakfast. The blaze is thought to have spread to at least three carriages. According to officials cited in local media, many of the victims died as they tried to jump off the burning train. Another 40 people have been injured. Officials say the number of dead may still rise. The accident happened near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province. Many passengers were pilgrims heading to Raiwind near Lahore for one of Pakistan's largest annual religious congregations, organised by the Tablighi Jamaat Sunni Muslim missionary movement. The train was reportedly diverted to help these religious travellers. Three carriages were set alight, officials said, with 54 people in the 11th carriage and 78 each in carriages 12 and 13. Most of these passengers were en route to the religious festival. Mohammad Ramzan, who was on board, told BBC Urdu some pilgrims were making tea when their gas cylinder exploded. He jumped from the train to safety. Survivor Jamshed Pathan told BBC Urdu he was in carriage 11 when they realised there was a fire just after they had finished morning prayers. "There was chaos everywhere," he said. "It was very difficult for us to get out and save ourselves." Another man, who gave his name as Ghaffar, said he could smell something in the night, "but no one paid attention". He and his friends helped take the injured to hospital. "I have no words to explain what we saw," he said. "The rescue teams got there very late." District deputy commissioner Jamil Ahmed said some of the victims were so badly burnt they could not be identified, and DNA testing would be used to find out who had died. What was the cause? "Two cooking stoves blew up. They were cooking, they had [cooking] oil which added fuel to fire," Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Passengers bringing stoves onto trains in order to cook meals on long journeys was a common problem, the minister said. Though it is common to carry food on board, gas cylinders are banned. But other reports from the scene suggest electrical problems could have been the cause. Several survivors have reportedly said they believed a short-circuit on board may have been to blame. Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was "deeply saddened by the terrible tragedy", adding that he had ordered an "immediate inquiry". After an earlier suspension in the wake of the fire, the railways minister said services have now been restored. Train travel is one of the most popular means of transport in Pakistan, particularly among middle- and lower-income groups. Built by the British during pre-partition era, the railway tracks cover the length of the country. However, while some of the upscale trains have dedicated dining carriages, most of the country's trains are in poor condition and have barely functioning amenities. Therefore, passengers choose to bring things along with them or refresh themselves at the different railway stations where the trains stop. They also take advantage of the fact that inspection is more relaxed than at airports, bringing banned items like cooking stoves and oil canisters to keep themselves sustained during the long hours on board. This particular service - Tezgam - is one of the oldest and most popular, travelling between Karachi in the south and Rawalpindi in the north. The journey takes more than 25 hours, with each of its carriages boasting space for somewhere between 60 and 80 passengers on bunk beds. Tickets cost between 1,500 rupees ($9.60; £7.40) and 5,000 rupees ($32; £24.80), depending on the class. This is Pakistan's worst rail disaster in over a decade. The country has a history of fatal railway accidents. Casualty figures are often high because trains are packed with far greater numbers of passengers than they were designed for. In July, 11 people died in an accident, with four dying in another accident in September. In 2007, at least 56 people were killed and more than 120 injured in a crash near Mehrabpur. And in 2005, more than 130 people were killed when three trains collided in Sindh province in one of the country's worst train disasters. Are you in the area? Have you been affected by the fire? If it is safe to do so, please share your experiences by emailing [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: • Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 or +44 7624 800 100 • Please read our terms of use and privacy policy
| null |
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-50245090
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Thu, 31 Oct 2019 14:46:08 GMT
| 1,572,547,568 | 1,572,535,450 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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77,980 |
breitbart--2019-12-24--Christmas Carolers Assaulted in India by Presumed Hindu Radicals
| 2019-12-24T00:00:00 |
breitbart
|
Christmas Carolers Assaulted in India by Presumed Hindu Radicals
|
Five men attacked a group of Christmas carolers in Tamil Nadu last week, including a 17-year-old boy, as part of a spate of pre-Christmas violence against Christians. Pastor Joshua, who leads a local Christian community in Permuapalayam, Tamil Nadu, had gathered a group of the faithful to celebrate Advent in their home but they were assaulted by the militants as they began singing carols heralding Christ’s birth. The day after the episode, the Christians went to the police department to file a complaint, but were rejected, according to reports from the Rome-based Fides news agency. “Episodes of intolerance towards the Christian faith have been increasing in Tamil Nadu in recent years,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), an NGO that monitors the situation of religious minorities in India. It is “deeply worrying to see that religious holidays are distorted by those who want to plant seeds of contention and discord in India,” CSW stated. “Respecting the right to practice one’s religion is fundamental. We urge the authorities to take appropriate measures against these behaviors and to promote a culture of mutual respect.” Several days ago, International Christian Concern (ICC) released a report that Christians in India had suffered over a half dozen acts of targeted persecution in the days leading up to Christmas, and many of India’s Christians have been obliged to adjust their Christmas celebrations for fear of reprisals from Hindu radicals. “We have cancelled all our Christmas events in Banni Mardatti village, including carols, cottage meetings, and pre-Christmas events,” said Pastor Raja Bhovi of His Grace Church in India’s Karnataka State. “There is a fear of being attacked by Hindu radicals,” he added, referring to recent events. In early December, a mob of Hindu nationalists attacked and brutally beat members of Rev. Bhovi’s church community as they were clearing a plot of land for the building of a church. Afterward, they cut off the water supply for all 25 Christian families in the village, threatening to drive them out of their homes unless they renounce their faith in Christ. “We were small in number at the police station compared to the mob of Hindu radicals,” the pastor said. “All of the 25 Christian families were present at the police station to lodge a complaint; however, the police told us that Christians cannot hold any meetings in the village and that pastors from outside the village cannot visit the Christian families, even during this festive season.” According to some observers, anti-Christian persecution in India has now reached unprecedented levels, especially under the reigning prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which promotes Hindu nationalism. “The level of intolerance we are witnessing in this country today is unprecedented,” said Nehemiah Christie, a local human rights activist. “Christians cannot celebrate the holidays for fear of violence.” “The police are also complicit and do not take complaints seriously,” Christie noted. “In many cases, suffering remains unheard, violence remains unpunished and people continue to live in fear.”
|
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/UQFmeVySRRo/
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Tue, 24 Dec 2019 15:11:16 +0000
| 1,577,218,276 | 1,577,232,440 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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78,023 |
breitbart--2019-12-24--Trump Administration Investigates Ban on Christmas Decorations at HUD Complex
| 2019-12-24T00:00:00 |
breitbart
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Trump Administration Investigates Ban on Christmas Decorations at HUD Complex
|
The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the management company of a Missouri 55-and-older housing development for its ban on Christmas lights and yard displays. Non-profit litigation organization Liberty Counsel reports officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are investigating MACO Management Company’s ban on Christmas lights and décor displays at Grandview Estates, a housing development that is subsidized by HUD. According to the report, MACO Management barred residents of the complex from decorating the exterior of their duplexes with Christmas lights or other displays. “Nothing in the lease agreement or regulations supported such a ban and residents have previously displayed Christmas lights and yard decorations for many years,” states Liberty Counsel, which recently sent a demand letter to the management company on behalf of Grandview Estates’ residents. The letter notes residents were told the “rationale” for the Christmas light and decoration ban is that, because all residents are funded, in part, by government funds, the Government’s Fair Housing rules must apply. To that end, even the display of Christmas wreaths is forbidden, though the manager did hold a “Holiday Wreath contest.” Liberty Counsel reports MACO Management responded to the demand letter with its own letter, signed by Tammy Delcour, regional manager of MACO Management, who cited the company’s own rules and regulations but failed to cite any HUD or “Government Fair Housing” regulations. “We have never in the past or will in the future hamper a resident from decorating to their desire on the inside of their residence as they choose,” Delcour wrote. “We do however have rules and regulations for the outside and the structures themselves.” After Liberty Counsel sent a follow-up response requesting MACO rescind the decoration ban in order to avoid receiving a complaint with HUD for civil rights violations, MACO issued a memo to residents. The memo states that residents may decorate the interior of their homes and now “their front door and porch area with more overtly religious displays,” yet continues to ban yard displays deemed “religious:” “When decorating with yard scenes we must stay neutral within the community so no religion is offended or singled out … We as a management company look for a policy which appropriately balanced the beliefs of all while ensuring we are not perceived to favor one religion over another.” “This conflates the private speech of residents with the speech of the management company,” Liberty Counsel states, adding the company is violating the Fair Housing Act, which bans discriminating against residents on the basis of religion. “Christmas is a nationally recognized holiday, and banning individuals’ religious decorations or celebrations in a federally subsidized or managed residential facility violates the Fair Housing Act and other federal laws,” Liberty Counsel asserts. “Any federal law or funding requirement that would restrict or prohibit residents’ religious holiday decorations would violate the First Amendment rights of the residents.” Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel chairman, said he welcomes HUD’s investigation into MACO Management’s practices. “MACO’s banning Grandview Estates residents from their longstanding traditions of displaying Christmas or other religious holiday decorations constitutes discrimination based on religion,” he said. “Nothing in Federal regulations, the lease agreement or residential regulations supports such a ban. MACO Management Company must allow residents to decorate their duplexes, just like they have in the past.”
|
Dr. Susan Berry
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/e4kVXWcoUqY/
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Tue, 24 Dec 2019 04:09:28 +0000
| 1,577,178,568 | 1,577,189,269 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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120,930 |
crikey--2019-01-18--Un-Australia Day curing the nationalistic itch
| 2019-01-18T00:00:00 |
crikey
|
Un-Australia Day: curing the nationalistic itch
|
Australia Day has little do with Australia as a political construct. Do we really need this grotesque distortion of history? It’s a special time of year. The religious holidays and the celebration of the new year -- characterised by excessive spending, materialism, gluttony and drunkenness -- are behind us. We find ourselves bearing down on our so-called national holiday with its associated intractable and thus utterly pointless debate on whether it should be retained or moved. January 26 is not the anniversary of Federation. Nor is it the anniversary of the ratification of the Statute of Westminster, when the Parliament in 1942 freed itself of subservience to British legislation. It’s not any of the three anniversary dates upon which the rights of appeal to a foreign court, the Privy Council, were rolled back.
|
Meg Watson
|
https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/01/18/australia-day-nationalistic-itch/
|
2019-01-18 01:57:04+00:00
| 1,547,794,624 | 1,567,551,819 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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126,740 |
dailybeast--2019-12-29--Did Ancient Jews Change Hanukkah to One-Up the Competition?
| 2019-12-29T00:00:00 |
dailybeast
|
Did Ancient Jews Change Hanukkah to One-Up the Competition?
|
It’s the end of Hanukkah, the ‘festival of lights,’ or ‘Jewish Christmas,’ as some insensitively like to say. This holiday commemorates an event during the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C. when the candelabrum in the Jerusalem Temple miraculously burned for eight days despite only having enough oil for one. It’s for that reason, we all know, that Jews today light one additional candle of their Hanukiah (nine-armed candlestick) on each successive night of Hanukkah. Or is it? New research into the origins of Hanukkah shows that this joyful holiday developed and evolved alongside other gentile light-based festivals like Saturnalia. In the Books of the Maccabees, which describe the first celebration of Hanukkah, there is no reference to lights of the menorah, which we today see as the focal point of the holiday. The earliest sources make no reference to the miracle of the oil that lasted eight days. Instead, they concentrate on the military victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks and see the festival as a commemoration of the rededication of the Temple (which had been desecrated by the Greeks). Oddly, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, who first refers to a holiday called the “Festival of Lights,” never calls it Hanukkah or explains why it is associated with light. There are some unanswered questions, therefore, about how Hanukkah moved from being a celebration of military victory to a festival of lights. At the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature conference held in San Diego last month, Dr. Catherine Bonesho, an assistant professor in Early Judaism at UCLA, presented a paper on religious competition in the ancient world. In her research, Bonesho examined ancient traditions about Hanukkah preserved in the writings of rabbinic authors in order to see what ancient Jews thought the holiday was about. Bonesho told The Daily Beast that our traditions about Hanukkah started much later than most people know. After Josephus, “the ritual of lighting lamps does not appear in textual form until the Mishnah (200 CE), nor does the tradition of the miracle of oil appear until the Babylonian Talmud (edited between 5th-7th centuries CE),” Bonesho said. The group known as the rabbis who would eventually write and edit the Babylonian Talmud emerged in Roman Palestine after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D. They were largely located in Palestine and Sasanian Babylon and “imagined themselves as the leaders of Judaism.” Their influence grew and their writings remain foundational for many Jewish communities to this day. It’s these later traditions found in the Babylonian Talmud that provide the basis for modern celebrations of Hanukkah. But these later discussions of the purpose of Hanukkah didn’t emerge in a vacuum. As the festival of Hanukkah grew and the ritual of candle-lighting moved to the center of its celebration, it did so alongside other religious traditions that also celebrated light and fire. One important influence, which is often noted in conversations about the origins of Christmas, was the popular ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia emphasizes the importance of light during the winter solstice. One scholar, Moshe Benovitz, has argued that in the first century B.C. King Herod turned Hanukkah into a kind of solstice festival by associating it with other popular festivals of light. He even claims that in the Roman period the lighting of candles originally marked the solstice, not the oil miracle. For the authors of the Babylonian Talmud, the local Sasanian rituals of Zoroastrianism were another important influence. Drawing upon the work of Michael Shenkar, Bonesho notes how important the worship of fire was to the ancient Zoroastrian cult. What all of this means is that when the rabbis were discussing the origins of Hanukkah there were a number of competing celebrations of light that also occurred in close proximity to the solstice. In their work, the authors of the Babylonian Talmud collected together some of the traditions about Hanukkah and “reinvented” it as a festival about light and control of light and fire. According to Bonesho, they linked Hanukkah not just to the miracle during the Maccabean revolt, but also to the book of Genesis and the original creation of light. In particular, they connect Hanukkah to a story about the biblical Adam. In a story found in the Babylonian Talmud, Adam grows afraid of the growing darkness that takes place before the solstice. Understandably, Adam is afraid that the light might never return. As the days grow longer after the solstice and the sun returns, he grows increasingly joyful. In discussing the origins and purpose of Hanukkah, the rabbis don’t ignore the fact that there are other religious festivals that are interested in light and fire; instead they explain them as a kind of perversion of the original Adamic festival. Bonesho told me that they even link the Hebrew spelling of Saturnalia with light and Hanukkah. As she puts it, “The way the rabbis explain the existence of Saturnalia is by making it a perversion of Hanukkah. Interestingly the Babylonian Talmud’s origin story for the Roman festival of Saturnalia traces the festival back to the biblical Adam and his joy because of the increase in daylight after the winter solstice. According to the passage, because of his joy, Adam establishes an eight-day festival for the sake of God, which the Romans later corrupt into Saturnalia.” What these origins stories do, Bonesho said, is allow “the rabbis to claim that it is only their God who controls light and fire.” This is religious competition in action. Rather than ignoring the reality of and similarities with other contemporary non-Jewish religious practices, the rabbis seem to place those traditions into a relationship with their own festival. By integrating those non-Jewish practices into their version of Hanukkah they are able to neutralize any potential threat that these rituals posed to their own religious claims. Liane Feldman, an assistant professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU, told The Daily Beast that Bonesho’s work “helps to shed light on one of the ways in which ancient Jews relied on literary production to reconstruct their origin stories to reflect the realia of the world around them. Bonesho’s argument suggests that Jewish identity, even in a seemingly minor case such as Hanukkah, is constantly being redefined to adopt and etymologize local practices as far as possible so that the rabbis can in turn argue that the local communities adopted originally Jewish practices and rendered them idolatrous.” They say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating and in this instance that may well be true. Today there continues to be widespread (erroneous) claims that Christians ‘stole’ Saturnalia and turned it into Christmas, but there’s no popular debate about the growth and origins of Hanukkah. And that, arguably, is because the rabbis headed that accusation off at the pass.
|
Candida Moss
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/articles/~3/UiII6dkS9N4/did-ancient-jews-change-hanukkah-to-one-up-the-competition
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Sun, 29 Dec 2019 10:00:28 GMT
| 1,577,631,628 | 1,577,621,057 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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128,969 |
dailyheraldchicago--2019-09-10--Officials 31 Iraqi pilgrims die in stampede during holiday
| 2019-09-10T00:00:00 |
dailyheraldchicago
|
Officials: 31 Iraqi pilgrims die in stampede during holiday
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BAGHDAD -- A walkway collapsed and set off a stampede in the holy city of Karbala on Tuesday as thousands of Shiite Muslims marked one of the most solemn holy days of the year. At least 31 people were killed and about 100 were injured, officials said. It was the deadliest stampede in recent history during Ashoura commemorations, when hundreds of thousands of people converge on the city, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, for the occasion every year. The incident happened toward the end of the Ashoura procession, causing a panicked rush among worshippers near the gold-domed Imam Hussein shrine, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press from Karbala. The somber day of Ashoura commemorates the killing of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, the Imam Hussein, by a rival Muslim faction in Karbala in what is now Iraq, in 680 A.D. Hussein and his descendants are seen by Shiites as the rightful heirs to the prophet. Hussein's killing has been attributed with cementing the schism between Shiite and Sunni Islam. In recent years, Ashoura processions have been attacked by extremist Sunni militants. In 2004, at the height of Iraq's sectarian violence, 143 people were killed in near simultaneous suicide and other bombings at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala during the Ashoura procession. In 2005, rumors of a suicide bomber among worshippers crossing a bridge during a different religious holiday caused a massive stampede killing more than 950 people, many of whom jumped, in their panic, into the Tigris River. Tuesday's commemorations were peaceful until the walkway collapsed, triggering the chaos. The incident took place during the so-called "Tweireej" run, when tens of thousands of people run toward the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala around noon. The 2-3 kilometer (1-2 mile) run symbolizes when the maternal cousins of Imam Hussein's half-brother al-Abbas ran from the nearby village of Tweireej to rescue him, only to find out that he had been killed. Earlier in the day, hundreds of thousands of black-clad pilgrims held Ashoura processions amid beefed-up security in Karbala and in the capital, Baghdad, marching through the streets. Many of the faithful beat their chests and lashed themselves with chains in a symbolic expression of grief and regret for not being able to help Hussein before his martyrdom. On Sunday night, thousands marched toward the holy shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, which had been lit up on the eve of the celebration. This year's commemoration comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East and the crisis between Iran and the U.S. and its ally Israel in the wake of the collapsing nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Israel has recently expanded its war on Iran and its allies in the region, and is believed to have struck targets as far out as Iraq in recent weeks, drawing outrage and pledges of retaliation.
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http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20190910/news/309109944/
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2019-09-10 14:00:00+00:00
| 1,568,138,400 | 1,569,330,624 |
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141,973 |
drudgereport--2019-01-17--Mysterious naked holy men a huge draw at religious festival
| 2019-01-17T00:00:00 |
drudgereport
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Mysterious naked holy men a huge draw at religious festival...
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PRAYAGRAJ, India (Reuters) - Ash-smeared and dreadlocked Naga sadhus or Hindu ascetics, naked except for rosary beads and garlands and smoking wooden pipes, are a huge draw at the world’s largest religious festival that began this week in India. At the Kumbh Mela, or “festival of the pot”, held this year in Prayagraj in north India, organizers expect up to 150 million people to bathe at the confluence of three holy rivers: the Ganges, the Yamuna and a mythical third river, the Saraswati. The festival is one of the only opportunities to see the reclusive Naga sadhus, some of whom live in caves after taking a vow of celibacy and renouncing worldly possessions. Their charge down to the waters to bathe at the opening of the Kumbh, many armed with tridents and swords, is one of the highlights of the festival. “It is a confluence of all Naga sadhus at the meeting point of these holy rivers,” said Anandnad Saraswati, a Naga sadhu from Mathura, a holy city in north India. “They meet each other, they interact with each other and they meditate and pray here at the holy confluence. They give their message to the people and they transform people.” Most of the Nagas enter the orders in their early teens, leaving their friends and families to immerse themselves in meditation, yoga and religious rituals. It can take years to be conferred with the title of a Naga, they say. “One has to live a life of celibacy for six years. After that the person is given the title of a great man and 12 years after that he is made a Naga,” said Digambar Kedar Giri, a Naga sadhu from Jaipur. During the eight-week Kumbh, generally held every three years in one of four cities in India, the Nagas live in makeshift monasteries called Akhara erected on the eastern banks of the Ganges. They spend their days meditating, smoking cannabis and receiving a stream of visitors who come to pay their respects. “It feels surreal: all this time you have read about them. They are almost like fictional characters and then you meet them,” said a woman who gave her name as Pallavi, on a visit to the Akharas. The Kumbh Mela has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pot containing the nectar of immortality from demons. In a 12-day fight for possession, four drops fell to earth, in the cities of Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, who share the Kumbhs as a result.
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/yfwIpBoBC6A/mysterious-naked-holy-men-a-huge-draw-at-indias-kumbh-mela-idUSKCN1PB0HU
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2019-01-17 22:25:39+00:00
| 1,547,781,939 | 1,567,552,109 |
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drudgereport--2019-01-20--From pariah to demi-god Trans leader star at massive festival
| 2019-01-20T00:00:00 |
drudgereport
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From pariah to demi-god: Trans leader star at massive festival...
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PRAYAGRAJ, India (Reuters) - In a desert tent guarded by armed police and a thick-set bouncer, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is blessing a constant stream of pilgrims, who garland her with marigolds and kneel to touch her feet. Tripathi, a tattooed transgender leader and a former reality TV star, has become an unlikely icon at India’s Kumbh Mela, a huge religious festival being held on the banks of the Ganges river in the city of Prayagraj. Up to 150 million people are expected to attend by the time the festival ends in March. On Tuesday, her religious movement, called the Kinnar Akhada, became the first transgender group to bathe at the confluence of the holy Ganges and the Yamuna rivers on the first day of the ancient festival, traditionally reserved for reclusive Hindu priests, almost all of whom are men. “After centuries down the line, it was when the community finally got its due,” Tripathi told Reuters, seated on a pedestal next to her Michael Kors bag, juggling calls on an iPhone. Many at the festival cheer Tripathi for reclaiming the lost place in Hinduism for India’s “third gender”, known as the hijras, worshipped as demi-gods for thousands of years, but ridiculed and sidelined during British colonial rule. A law passed in 1871 classed the hijras as “criminals”. Little changed after independence and hijras were pariahs, living in tribes, begging or soliciting for sustenance and harassed by police. It was only in 2014 that the Supreme Court officially recognized transgender people as a third gender. Tripathi is one of the best known. But her support for building a controversial Hindu temple on the site of a demolished mosque has angered some in the LGBT community, who allege she is courting support from India’s powerful religious right to further her own influence. The place of hijras in Indian culture dates back to the Ramayana, a more-than 2,000 year-old Hindu epic poem venerated and performed across India. In the text, the god-king Ram is exiled from the holy city of Ayodhya, with the entire kingdom following him into the forest. He orders them to turn back, but returning after 14 years, finds the hijras waiting for him in the same spot. Impressed by their devotion, he grants them the power to invoke blessings and curses on people. For centuries, though their lives were far from easy, hijras held a special role in India’s royal courts, tasked with guarding harems and rising to influential positions. Today, despite their legal recognition, many still face prejudice in what is a conservative country, forced into sex work or seeking alms at weddings and births, a long-held practice among hijras. Hate crimes against them are common and HIV prevalence within the community is many times higher than the general population. “The ritual seeking of alms is now seen as begging,” said Anindya Hajra, a transgender activist at the Pratyay Gender Trust. “It criminalizes and pushes an already vulnerable community to its very brink.” Born in 1979 in Thane, a suburb of India’s financial capital Mumbai, Tripathi says she had a difficult childhood scarred with abuse by a close relative. A sickly child who was bullied at school for being feminine, she grew in confidence after learning Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance. “I chose not to remember the prejudice,” she said. “Rather I think (about) the good things that have happened to me, and be a flamboyant rainbow.” Long recognized as one of the most influential figures in the LGBT community in India, she become famous across the country when she appeared on reality TV show “Bigg Boss” in 2011. She was a petitioner in the landmark court ruling that recognized transgender people. In 2015, she founded her Akhara and began a campaign to have hijras represented at the at the first “Shahi Snan”, or royal bath, of the Kumbh Mela. “It all started to reclaim the lost position in the dharma,” Tripathi said, referring to the Hindu cosmic law underlying correct behavior and social order. “I was not very religious until 2015 – life changed.” Devout Hindus believe bathing in the waters of the Ganges absolves people of sins and doing so at the time of the Kumbh Mela, or the “festival of the pot”, brings salvation from the cycle of life and death. At the festival, 13 religious orders, or Akhara, set up camp on the banks of the Ganges. The umbrella body overseeing the Akharas initially refused to recognize the Kinnar Akhara as the 14th order. But Tripathi has forged close bonds with the largest of the other holy orders at the Kumbh Mela, the Juna Akhara. They agreed to bathe together. On the first royal bathing day on Tuesday, Tripathi rose at 4 a.m., dressed in a saffron sari and applied her makeup. She and her dozens of disciples then began the long procession to the river on a fleet of elaborately decorated trucks. At the banks of the Ganges, they waited for their turn to bathe. Tripathi met with Hari Giri, the leader of Juna Akhara. Her Kinnar Akhara “was there, is there, and will always be there”, Giri told Tripathi. Shortly after sunrise, she plunged into the waters, to the cheers of the crowds who gathered to watch. Tripathi has courted controversy with support for the building of a temple dedicated to Ram on the site of a former mosque in Ayodhya which was demolished by hardline Hindus in 1992, leading to riots in which thousands died. Many Hindus claim the mosque was built over an ancient temple that marked the birthplace of Ram, and the row is expected to be a major issue in a general election due to be held in the country by May. Many activists of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have been agitating for the construction of a temple at the site, alarming the country’s sizeable Muslim minority. “There has been an attempt by the right to co-opt trans voices to suit a certain version of history,” said Hajra, the activist. “Our apprehension is also that some are trying to further (their) own personal career moves.” A letter signed in November by hundreds of transgender people and rights groups accused Tripathi of fuelling “the right-wing politics of communal hatred”. “Where my Lord Ram was born, there the temple has to come,” she said. The Mughals “brought (the temple) down and then they enslaved us all”, she said, referring to the Muslim emperors who ruled India in the 16th and 17th century. Tripathi plans to spend the rest of the Kumbh festival at her Akhara, receiving visitors among her colorful band of followers, who have little in common with the holy men living monastic lives in the other camps. “We are not celibate,” she said. “We are demi-gods, not saints. We have our own rules.”
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/bLfNWiRCojg/from-pariah-to-demi-god-transgender-leader-a-star-at-massive-indian-festival-idUSKCN1PE04D
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2019-01-20 22:55:37+00:00
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151,347 |
drudgereport--2019-09-11--Stampede kills dozens
| 2019-09-11T00:00:00 |
drudgereport
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Stampede kills dozens...
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At least 31 people have been killed in a deadly stampede at a religious festival in Iraq. More than 100 have been injured after pilgrims were crushed during the Shia holy day of Ashura in the city of Karbala. The ceremony sees millions travel to Karbala to mark the death of Imam Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. Ashura worshippers often cut themselves as as a sign of their faith and devotion to Husayn. Reports say the pilgrims were crushed as thousands recreated a battle in the city's narrow streets. A spokesman for Karbala told the BBC that as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims ran through the streets, one person stumbled and fell other, causing others to fall and triggering the deadly stampede. Security officials have said a walkway collapsed during the crush. Authorities have warned the death toll is likely to rise. Karbala, around 62 miles south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was the site of a major battle in the year 680, which led to Husayn's death. The day is marked as a national holiday in several countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan. One of the rituals is called the "Tuwairij run" which sees pilgrims run down the streets towards the Imam Hussein Mosque. It commemorates the run from the ancient village of Tuwairij to Karbala, undertaken during the seventh century battle by the cousins of Husayn's half-brother Abbas. The event has been the target of terror attacks in the past. In 2004, more than 140 died after a number of bombs were set off at shrines in Karbala and Baghdad during Ashura. The next year, at least 965 pilgrims died in a stampede on a Bridge in Baghdad during a different Shia holy day. Panic had been sparked after rumours spread that suicide bombers were among the crowds.
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/cN7f-kNv0cA/breaking-stampede-muslim-festival-kills-19973024
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2019-09-11 06:10:36+00:00
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eveningstandard--2019-03-18--Happy Holi 2019: What is the Indian Festival of Colours? Why do Hindus celebrate it?
| 2019-03-18T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Happy Holi 2019: What is the Indian Festival of Colours? Why do Hindus celebrate it?
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Next month, Hindus will celebrate Holi, also known as “The Festival of Colours.” The religious festival is intended to welcome the arrival of spring whilst also celebrating fertility, colour and love. Celebrated mainly in India and Nepal, worshippers mark the event by throwing colourful powders at each other. Thanks to this unique festivity and its joyful atmosphere, similar Holi events take place in cities all over the world. As Holi fast approaches, here’s everything you need to know about the Hindu festival... This year, Holi begins on Monday, March 9 and ends on Tuesday, March 10. The festival celebrations start on the evening of the full moon that comes in ‘Phalguna,’ which is between the end of February and the middle of March. Over the two days, the festival is split into two events. The night before the main festivities is referred to as Holika Dahan and is when people traditionally gather around a bonfire to celebrate the victory of good over evil. The following day is known as Rangwali Holi, during which huge crowds gather and colourful powders known as gulal are thrown into the air. This is the event for which Holi is most renowned. The origins of Holi can be linked to various Hindu legends, although one in particular appears to be the most well known – the Legend of Prahlada and Holika. Holi derives from the name Holika, who in Hindu legend was a female demon and the sister of Hiranyakashipu, a demon king. Hiranyakashipu was immortal and believed himself to be the ruler of the universe. Appalled by his evil wielding of power, his son Prahlada refused to acknowledge him as his ruler and instead worshipped the Hindu god Vishnu. Aware of his deviance, Hiranyakashipu and Holika plot to kill Prahlada by burning him alive. To protect herself from the fire, Holika wore a magical shawl but as the fire burned, the shawl flies from her shoulders and onto Prahlada, resulting in her perishing in the flames. Lord Vishnu then appears as half-lion, half-man and kills Hiranyakashipu. After his death, Prahlada rules as king in his father’s place. The legend represents the triumph of good over evil and is heavily linked to the Holi festival. Another legend from which Holi draws its origins is the love story between Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. In the legend, Krishna is embarrassed by his dark blue skin and worried that his love Radha would not accept him. His mother tells him to colour Radha’s face in whatever shade he wanted and when he did the pair fell in love. The legend of Krishna and Radha still lives on during Holi and it’s traditional for lovers to paint their faces the same colour. The bonfires lit during Holika Dahan are meant to symbolise Holika’s death and sometimes worshippers mark their faces with ash to represent purification. After Holika Dahan, Hindus take to the streets to sing, dance and throw coloured powder at each other. The four main colours – red, blue, green and yellow- are all thought to be symbolic in Hinduism. Red reflects love and fertility, blue symbolises determination, green represents life and happiness whilst yellow signifies knowledge.
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Georgia Chambers
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https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/holi-festival-hindu-festival-of-colour-a4094571.html
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Mon, 18 Mar 2019 12:33:00 GMT
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eveningstandard--2019-03-23--20 stunning Greek Islands you need to visit
| 2019-03-23T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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20 stunning Greek Islands you need to visit
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The Greek Islands have a magical air to them – which is why British travellers are drawn to the isles summer after summer. From the whitewashed houses, blue-domed churches, the turquoise Aegean Sea and delicious gyros, it’s no wonder British nationals make around three million visits to Greece each year. Yet, while the mainland holds the Acropolis and evidence of an ancient civilisation, it’s the islands that really draw us in. A week or even a few days spent on a Greek island is a fantastic way to rewind, relax and refresh. Below are our pick of the most stunning Greek islands. Known for its long stretches of powdery-white beaches flaked by the kind of unbelievably blue water Greece is known for, Naxos is a sun-worshipper’s paradise. The largest of the Cyclades, Naxos is a mix of cobbled alleyways and stunning waterfront scenes in the capital of Chora and boasts a vast countryside filled with mountain villages, idyllic beaches and historic sites. A typical Cycladic island, you’ll find white villages spread across Serifos but without the usual tourist hubbub of nearby Ios and Santorini. With quiet harbours, golden beaches and a stunning landscape, the island is rugged and best explored by car. In the sunniest corner of Greece, you’ll find the group of islands collectively called the Dodecanese. Found in the south-eastern Aegean Sea, closer to the Turkish mainland than the Greek, these lesser-known islands are the ultimate antidote to the tourist-heavy Cyclades. For the spiritual, the island of Patmos is best visited at Easter when the locals hold a number of religious festivals to celebrate Holy Week. To the west of Naxos and Ios, you’ll find the fellow Cycladic island of Amorgos. The long and narrow island is mountainous with steep cliffs, narrow inlets and enchanting towns. An active holiday-lover’s dream, Amorgos is the ideal island to visit if you like hiking, diving and rock climbing. Also spelt as Astypalaia, this butterfly-shaped island is where the Dodecanese meets the Cyclades. The hilltops here are covered with historic whitewashed villages and you’ll find sun-drenched beaches all around the island. The deep blue sea surrounding Astypalea accentuates the beauty of the island colours and the capital of Chora is one of the most picturesque towns in the Aegean, with a castle and blue domed church towering over the town. A mainstay summer destination for British travellers, Corfu is one of the more urban islands. Corfu city offers a cosmopolitan element you won’t find on many other Greek islands, with a UNESCO world heritage Old Town, intertwined with historic monuments, stunning beaches and glorious natural landscape – it’s easy to see why this is a family favourite. Located just off the coast of Turkey, Symi is part of the Dodecanese group and the foreign influence is prevalent. Instead of the whitewashed villages synonymous with the Greek Islands, Symi’s main town of Ano Symi is filled with colourful buildings that descend the hill slopes to the water’s edge. The neoclassical architecture was introduced by the Italians, who ruled the island until almost a century ago. Expect secluded beaches, blue coves and crystal-clear water. Combine your trip to Symi with a trip to Turkey’s Bodrum as the twice-weekly ferry is just an hour and 45 minutes. There’s a reason why Santorini is the most revered Greek Island – and it’s largely due to the iconic pink-hued sunset. But Santorini is also home to the famous red beach, black sand beach and Akrotiri – a prehistoric village. Oia is the most aesthetically pleasing part of the island, with its blue-domed churches and white-washed cliff-perched houses. While there, make sure you rent a quad bike to make zipping around the island easy, and go cliff diving just under the cliffs of Oia. The largest of the Greek islands, Crete is known for its varied terrain which can range from rocky beaches to fine sand beaches and the Samariá Gorge which lies in the Samariá National Park. At 11.1 miles long, the gorge is the longest in Europe and well worth the hike – even to see a Cretan badger or a spiny mouse. While in Crete, make sure you visit Elafonissi – a paradise of lush beaches and hidden coves. With a buzzing food scene, gorgeous hotels and stunning villages – along with some great swimming spots – Sifnos is the little-heard-of Greek paradise you’ve been searching for. The island has 366 churches which are found on all corners of the isle. If you’re into hiking, swimming and good food – this is the island for you. Mykonos and Ios have long been dubbed the ‘party islands’ and for good reason. Their party scene reaches its peak in the summer months so if you’re into a quieter holiday, visiting Mykonos in the shoulder months will still allow you to experience its beauty without many a drunkard stumbling across the cobbled pavements come nightfall. Mykonos is famous for its windmills that line the banks of the main town – the perfect spot to sit with a gyros and watch the sunset. Ios is part of the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Another island that can become ‘party central’ during the warmer months, Ios is hilly with cliffs forming the edge of most of the island. Most of the beaches on Ios are fine sand beaches meaning days lying by the sea are a must. While there, make sure you also check out Sharkos Hill which is home to the island’s largest Bronze Age excavation site, to learn about the ancient lifestyle. Paros is another sizeable island and is best known for its beaches and traditional Greek villages. This is another island where quad bike hire is a must so you can spend a day exploring all corners of the island – often finding private beaches you’ll have all to yourself. Paros is also home to the Panagia Ekatontapiliani, a landmark Byzantine church built around 300 AD. You know that Greek beach all the Instagram travel influencers love to post pictures of? Yep, that’s Navagio beach in Zakynthos. Navagio beach is the site of a 1980 shipwreck and is surrounded by tall cliffs – only accessible by boat. Other than this beach, Zakynthos is home to some of the bluest water in Greece so whatever beach you visit, you will be guaranteed some stunning scenery. Located in the Ionian Sea, this is the largest of the Ionian Islands and just west of mainland Greece. It is made up of limestone cliffs and white sand beaches – many of which are only accessible by foot. Myrtos beach located on the northwestern coast is a must-visit and is considered one of the best beaches in the world. Just west of Santorini you’ll find the oft-forgotten Cycladic island of Milos. The rocky landscape contrasts with emerald waters to create a stunning juxtaposition. While there, make sure you visit the ancient city of Fylakopi which was among the most significant Aegean cities in prehistoric Greek times. Lefkada is connected to the Greek mainland by a causeway – yet remains one of the more idyllic Greek Islands. Here you will find a number of traditional villages, sheer cliffs and, of course, turquoise waters. If you’re an avid fan of Mamma Mia (the film) you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that Skopelos is where you’ll find the church where the wedding is held and which acts as the backdrop to Meryl Streep’s dramatic (and excellent) rendition of ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’. Other than fawning over movie sites, Skopelos is home to a number of tavernas serving fresh seafood and traditional offerings like moussaka and souvlaki. The northernmost island of the Greek Cyclades archipelago, Andros is home to a number of eateries, stunning beaches and … a Museum of Contemporary Art. MOCA, as it is known, has earned a reputation in the art work for its summer exhibitions of famous artists like Picasso and Matisse – definitely worth a visit while you’re there. Skiathos is part of the Sporades archipelago and is best known for its gorgeous beaches and buzzing nightlife. Yet, unlike Ios and Mykonos, Skiathos' nightlife is less touristy but just as ‘happening’. If clubbing isn’t your scene, there are a number of sea caves to be explored and beaches to spend a lazy day reading a good book.
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Gareth Richman, Laura Hampson
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https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/best-greek-islands-to-visit-a3869661.html
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2019-03-23 16:30:00+00:00
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eveningstandard--2019-04-10--Easter church services in London Where to celebrate Eucharist on Good Friday Easter Sunday and Eas
| 2019-04-10T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Easter church services in London: Where to celebrate Eucharist on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday
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London's spectacular churches and cathedrals are preparing to celebrate Easter weekend with a series of special services this year. Eucharist will be taking place across the city on the Sunday, which falls on April 21 this year, as well as evening services on Good Friday, Easter Monday and even Easter Tuesday in some places. The religious holiday is, of course, the apposite time to worship in some of the most impressive venues in the city, with the likes of Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral all putting on services. While every active church in the city will be celebrating Easter, these are some of our favourite places to spend time in over the weekend. Southwark Cathedral, found by Borough Market, is home to some of the most stunning ecclesiastical design and stained glass in the city. This year, the venue is hosting a Walk of Witness from 10.15am on Good Friday, heading from Christ Church, Blackfriars Road to Waterloo Station. There will also be Preaching of the Passion at noon in the cathedral on the day, as well as Good Friday Liturgy at 1.30pm and Evening Prayer at 4pm. On Saturday April 20 the venue will host Dawn Vigil and Easter liturgy at 9am, followed by Evening Prayer at 4pm. Easter Sunday will see worshipers take part in an early morning Dawn Vigil and Easter liturgy with Initiation at 5.10am, followed by breakfast. Morning Prayer follows at 8.30am, before Eucharist with Hymns at 9am, Choral Eucharist at 11am, Solemn Evensong at 3pm and Compline at 6pm. Westminster Cathedral is the second largest church building in London, behind St Paul’s Cathedral, and one of the most impressive. The Neo-Byzantine design is arguably the finest example of its kind in the city, and it makes for a beautiful space to worship this Easter. Good Friday starts with Office of Readings at 10am, before Solemn Liturgy of the Passion at 3pm and Stations of the Cross at 6.30pm. On the Saturday, there’s another Office of Readings service at 10am, before the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night service at 8.30pm. Easter Sunday services begin with mass at 8am and 9am, before Morning Prayer at 10am, Solemn mass at 10.30am, mass at 12.15pm, Solemn Vespers and Benediction at 3.30pm, mass at 5.30pm and mass at 7pm. Finally, Easter Monday schedule includes Morning Prayer at 10am, mass at 10.30am, mass at 12.30pm and mass at 5pm. One of Fleet Street’s gems, St Dunstan in the West is tucked in among the area’s pubs and old printing offices, and is a beautiful, peaceful space. It’s a great example of gothic revival architecture in London, having been designed by John Shaw in the 1830s. A series of special services are taking place here across Easter weekend. Good Friday sees the Liturgy with address, Ante-Communion and Veneration of the Cross take place from 3pm, while the church is also hosting Eucharist and Blessing of the Paschal Candle at 12.30pm on Easter Tuesday. St Paul’s Cathedral is one of the largest and grandest buildings in the capital. The London landmark was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and construction started on the magnificent building back in 1675. It was later rebuilt following bombing in World War II and it still stands as the highest point inside the City of London. As well as being the city's biggest cathedral, it's putting on one of the biggest selections of services over Bank Holiday weekend. The Easter calendar starts off with the Good Friday Liturgy with the Veneration of the Cross and Distribution of the Sacrament at 5pm on Good Friday. Saturday sees the Easter Liturgy with Baptism, Confirmation and the First Eucharist of Easter take place at 6pm, before Easter Sunday begins with Holy Communion at 8am, followed by Sung Eucharist at 11.30, Festal Evensong at 3.15pm and Eucharist at 6pm. Westminster Abbey is one of the most historic religious spaces in the country, although it's technically a Royal Peculiar due to it having no Bishop. It famously hosted the coronation of William Conqueror in 1066, and there's been a church here since the seventh century. It's opening its doors for a series of Easter celebrations this year, as it has done for over a millennia. First up, a Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter will take place at 8pm on Saturday April 20. Easter Sunday will then begin with holy communion at 8am, before sung Eucharist at 10.30am and Evensong and Procession at 3pm. The beautiful but understated St Martin in the Fields is a fabulous place to spend a little time and reflect — especially with the hustle and bustle of Trafalgar Square being right next door. The Neoclassical design is grand inside and out, with the East Window behind the altar marking one of the most unique ecclesiastical designs in the capital. The church’s packed Easter calendar begins on Good Friday with Morning Prayer at 8.30am, before a special Good Friday service at 10am and a three hour service from midday. Saturday starts with Morning Prayer at 9am, with the Easter Vigil and the First Eucharist of Easter following at 5.30am. Easter Sunday begins with Easter Eucharist at 10am, followed by a joint service in Mandarin and Cantonese at 1.30pm and Choral evensong at 5pm.
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Harry Fletcher
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https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/attractions/easter-church-services-london-a4113396.html
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2019-04-10 11:32:00+00:00
| 1,554,910,320 | 1,567,543,287 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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172,427 |
eveningstandard--2019-04-18--The Exodus story inspires us to cherish our freedoms
| 2019-04-18T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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The Exodus story inspires us to cherish our freedoms
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When Boris Johnson urged the Prime Minister to tell the “Pharaoh in Brussels — let my people go”, he was invoking one of the greatest stories in history: the Exodus. Tomorrow, Jews in London and all over the world will recount the tale as they sit down for the Passover meal — how the Jews were enslaved in Egypt 3,300 years ago, how they escaped from slavery and how they trekked to freedom under the leadership of Moses. As in most years, this year Passover coincides with Easter, a holy time for millions of Christians, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Exodus is not only a story attached to a religious festival, but it has had a significant impact on the development of our conception of freedom in the West. Back in the 18th century, as the American colonies sought their independence from Britain, many Americans identified themselves with the Jews from the account of the Exodus. Indeed in 1776, one of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, proposed that the seal of the new country should be Moses lifting his stick to divide the Red Sea. Two hundred years later in the US, the story inspired the civil rights movement of the Sixties. The battle cry of African Americans was “Let my people go”. Their talismanic leader Dr Martin Luther King used the tale in his speeches. In what turned out to be his final address in Tennessee in April 1968, the day before he was assassinated, he told the crowd that his vision was to “watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land”. In a spirit of inter-faith co-operation, a leading American Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, marched arm-in-arm with Dr King at Selma in 1965. He famously explained afterwards that he felt a religious obligation to take part, and was “praying with his feet”. Owing to their experience of persecution going back to the Exodus, many Jews strongly supported the civil rights movement and other freedom struggles, such as that against apartheid. It also served as a template for liberation movements in South America — in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero, outraged by human rights abuses in his nation’s civil war, spoke out on behalf of these victims. He was assassinated while celebrating mass in 1980. And here in Britain religious campaigners have taken the concept of liberty from the Bible and effected change, in cases from abolition of slavery to 20th-century welfare reforms. The Exodus story reminds us of the value of liberty. Around the world it is under threat. Freedom House, in its annual surveys, has shown a decline in global freedom for 13 consecutive years. In Britain freedom of religion is protected, and Christians, Jews, Muslims and all minority groups benefit. As Londoners celebrate Passover and Easter we should cherish the freedoms we have. Zaki Cooper is a trustee of the Council of Christians and Jews.
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Zaki Cooper
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https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/the-exodus-story-inspires-us-to-cherish-our-freedoms-a4121126.html
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2019-04-18 08:16:00+00:00
| 1,555,589,760 | 1,567,542,525 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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174,193 |
eveningstandard--2019-05-06--Eid 2019 UK How do Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr When does Ramadan end
| 2019-05-06T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
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Eid 2019 UK: How do Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr? When does Ramadan end?
|
When the Islamic holy month of Ramadan comes to an end, Muslims can look forward to the festival of Eid al-Fitr. The joyous occasion, which means "Festival of Breaking the Fast", is celebrated for three days as it marks the end of Ramadan and its month-long fast. One popular tradition sees Muslims enjoy a large meal following the fasting period, and along with the celebration the festival is also a time for forgiveness and making amends. During this time, well-wishers often greet each other by saying "Eid Murbarak" - which means "happy holiday". With Ramadan currently underway, here's everything you need to know about Eid al-Fitr. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, but because the Islamic calendar is lunar the date will vary depending on the moon. This year Ramadan began on the evening of Sunday May 5, which means Eid al-Fitr will is expected to begin on Tuesday, June 4. Eid-al-Fitr typically lasts for one, two or three days. The first Eid al-Fitr was celebrated by Prophet Muhammed with friends and relatives after the victory of the battle of Jang-e-Badr. To many Muslims, Eid al-Fitr is an important show of gratitude to Allah for the help and strength he gave them throughout the previous fasting month to help them practice self-control. A celebration that marks the end of Ramadan and the 30 days of fasting, Eid al-Fitr is an important religious holiday that is celebrated by Muslims worlwide. During Eid al-Fitr, most Muslims will visit a mosque and participate in prayer before sitting down with family and friends for their first daylight meal after fasting. Another Eid al-Fitr tradition is known as ‘Zakat al-Fitr,’ which is the practice of giving money to the poor so those less fortunate can join in the feast.
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Mars El Brogy, Rob Le Mare, Georgia Chambers
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https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/eid-al-fitr-2019-uk-when-does-ramadan-end-a4133896.html
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2019-05-06 06:00:00+00:00
| 1,557,136,800 | 1,567,541,028 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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185,300 |
eveningstandard--2019-09-25--Rosh Hashanah 2019 When is Jewish New Year and what is Shana Tova When is Yom Kippur
| 2019-09-25T00:00:00 |
eveningstandard
|
Rosh Hashanah 2019: When is Jewish New Year and what is Shana Tova? When is Yom Kippur?
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Jewish people all over the world are getting ready to celebrate one of the most important days in the religious calendar. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year festival commemorating the creation of the world, and it marks the beginning the High Holy Days ('Days of Awe') which end with the holiday of Yom Kippur. Lasting two days, Rosh Hashanah is celebrated with prayer services in the synagogue, candle lighting in the evening and delicious food. A special instrument made from the horn of a kosher animal - known as a shofar - is blown during synagogue services while some Jews will perform the atonement ritual of tashlikh on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Here is everything you need to know about the religious holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish celebration of the creation of the earth that marks the beginning of the year, and is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, and therefore humanity. Rosh Hashanah is also a judgement day, when Jews believe that God observes the good deeds over the last year against their bad deeds, and decides what the next year will be like for them. God will then record this judgment in the Book of Life, detailing who is going to live, who is going to die, who will have a good time and who will have a bad time in the upcoming year. The book and judgement are sealed on Yom Kippur, which marks the end of the "Days of Awe" - known as 10 days of Repentance. This is the concept behind the traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting "Be inscribed and sealed for a good year." This year, Rosh Hashanah will begin on the evening of Sunday, September 29 and end on the evening of Tuesday, October 1. The exact date varies each year as it's based on the lunar calendar, and marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the "Days of Awe." Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, begins on Tuesday October 8 and ends on the evening of Wednesday October 9. A great deal of time may also be spent in the synagogue when there are special services that emphasise God's kinship. One of the synagogue rituals is the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn. Hearing the shofar's call is a reminder for us to look inward and repent for the sins of the past year. You can wish others a Happy New Year by saying "Shana Tova", which means "good year" in Hebrew. Sometimes people say "shanah tovah u'metukah" which literally translates to "a good and sweet new year". In Hebrew, "Rosh Hashanah" translates to "the head of the year." Food is an important part of Rosh Hashanah. Sweet foods are often eaten as they are intended to symbolise hope for a sweet and happy year ahead, such as honey cakes and apples dipped in honey. Apples are dipped in honey and a sweet carrot stew called a tzimmes is often served. During Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish Challah bread comes as a round loaf rather than a plaited loaf, to symbolise the continuation of life and the year ahead. There's also often a pomegranate on the table because of a tradition that pomegranates have 613 seeds, one for each of the commandments that a Jew is obliged to keep.
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Georgia Chambers, Tom Herbert
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https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/rosh-hashanah-2019-when-is-the-jewish-new-year-how-is-it-celebrated-a4246156.html
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2019-09-25 11:18:00+00:00
| 1,569,424,680 | 1,570,222,232 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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220,846 |
freedombunker--2019-04-22--Conservative Twitter Pounces on Obama Clinton for Expressing Sympathy for Easter Worshippers Kill
| 2019-04-22T00:00:00 |
freedombunker
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Conservative Twitter Pounces on Obama, Clinton for Expressing Sympathy for ‘Easter Worshippers’ Killed in Sri Lankan Attacks
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In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that have left some 290 dead (and many more injured), a number of prominent Democratic politicians and ex-politicians have taken to Twitter to express sympathy and solidarity with the victims—many of whom were Sri Lankan Christians attending Easter church services. At first read, these statements come across as perhaps boilerplate, but nevertheless sincere expressions of grief following the horrible attacks that struck the island nation. Not for many conservatives on Twitter however, who saw in Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's use of the term "Easter worshippers" an attempt to minimize the Christian identity of many of the victims, and obfuscate the religious motivations of the recent attacks. These barbs are little more than partisan point-scoring. The reference to "Easter worshippers," while perhaps clumsy phrasing, is hard to see as anything but an attempt to highlight the religious motivations of these attacks, and the fact that they struck at Christian churchgoers as they were peacefully observing a religious holiday. What else is an Easter worshipper but a Christian? Indeed, President Donald Trump's failure to say the word "Christian" in his tweeted response to these attacks attracted notably less outrage. Silly as this is, it is nevertheless an incredibly predictable response, whereby any tragedy around the globe is quickly filtered through the lens U.S. domestic politics as a way of opportunistically attacking one's partisan opponents. Often these attacks will seize on the most innocuous words or phrases in an effort to convert someone's expressions of sympathy or sadness into dog whistles to a much more nefarious agenda. This is not an exclusively right-wing tactic. Take, for instance, the left-wing attacks on Ben Shapiro, who responded to the Notre Dame cathedral fire by bemoaning the loss of "a magnificent monument to Western civilization." This was reported as a covertly racist sentiment, meant to stir up violence against Muslims. I can't help but think that bickering over the precise phrases we need to use in the aftermath of the terroristic violence in Sri Lanka, even if it's not being done for cynical or partisan reasons, is not the best way to express sympathy for the victims or their families.
|
Ed Krayewski
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http://freedombunker.com/2019/04/22/conservative-twitter-pounces-on-obama-clinton-for-expressing-sympathy-for-easter-worshippers-killed-in-sri-lankan-attacks/
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2019-04-22 15:25:01+00:00
| 1,555,961,101 | 1,567,542,101 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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236,527 |
hitandrun--2019-10-10--EEOC: Employers Can't Require a Note from Your Rabbi …
| 2019-10-10T00:00:00 |
hitandrun
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EEOC: Employers Can't Require a Note from Your Rabbi …
|
Center One, LLC, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based call center company with operations in Pennsylvania and New York, violated federal law by refusing to provide religious accommodations for an employee's religious observance, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today. According to the EEOC's lawsuit, in October 2016, a call center employee at Center One's Beaver Falls, Pa., location, who is an adherent of Messianic Judaism, sought a reasonable accommodation of his religious beliefs and practice that he abstain from work on days of religious observance. The lawsuit states that Center One imposed disciplinary points against the Messianic Jewish employee for his absences in observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Center One required that the employee provide a certification from a religious leader or religious organization "on letterhead" as a precondition of granting him time off as a reasonable accommodation and imposed disciplinary points against the Messianic Jewish employee for his absences in observance of those religious holidays, the EEOC said. The Messianic Jewish employee was not a member of a congregation at the time of his requests, but supplied other documents supporting his need for the religious accommodation. The EEOC charged that Center One wrongfully persisted in its demand that the employee provide certification from a religious leader or organization and forbade the employee from taking any additional days off for upcoming religious holidays. The employee was compelled to resign due to Center One's refusal to accommodate his sincerely held religious beliefs, according to the suit. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious discrimination and mandates that employers provide reasonable accommodations, such as excused absences, for the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of their employees unless it would pose an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Center One, LLC, Civil Action No. 2:19-cv-01242) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, after first attempting to reach a prelitigation settlement through its conciliation process.
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Eugene Volokh
|
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/5Pl_Q2SY-9s/
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2019-10-10T21:14:35Z
| 1,570,756,475 | 1,570,748,847 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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246,197 |
humansarefree--2019-08-29--Why the British Should Apologise to India Genocide Depopulation
| 2019-08-29T00:00:00 |
humansarefree
|
Why the British Should Apologise to India (Genocide, Depopulation)
|
The centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is the right occasion for Britain to apologise for the evils of colonialism. Two years ago,... The centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is the right occasion for Britain to apologise for the evils of colonialism. Two years ago, on the UK publication of my book [Inglorious Empire: What The British Did to India](https://amzn.to/2zsKRQ4) , I took the unusual step of demanding an apology from Britain to India. I even suggested the time and place – the centenary, on April 13, 2019, of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. This single event was in many ways emblematic of the worst of the “Raj”, the [British Empire in India](http://humansarefree.com/2019/08/british-colonials- starved-to-death-60.html) . The background to the massacre lay in the British betrayal of promises to reward India for its services in the [First World War](http://humansarefree.com/2011/03/3-world-wars-planned-by- illuminati.html) . After making enormous sacrifices, and an immense contribution in men and materiel, blood and treasure, to the British war effort, Indian leaders expected to be rewarded with some measure of self-government. Those hopes were belied. When protests broke out, the British responded with force. They arrested nationalist leaders in the city of Amritsar and opened fire on protestors, killing ten. In the riot that ensued, five Englishmen were killed and an Englishwoman assaulted (though she was rescued, and carried to safety, by Indians). Brigadier General Reginald Dyer was sent to Amritsar to restore order; he forbade demonstrations or processions, or even gathering in groups of more than three. The thousands of people who had gathered in the walled garden of Jallianwala Bagh to celebrate the major religious festival of Baisakhi were unaware of this order. Dyer did not seek to find out what they were doing. **** **He took a detachment of soldiers in armoured cars, equipped with machine-guns, and without ordering the crowd to disperse or issuing so much as a warning, ordered his troops to open fire from close quarters.** **They used 1,650 rounds, killed at least 379 people (the number the British were prepared to admit to; the Indian figures are considerably higher) and wounded 1,137. Barely a bullet, Dyer noted with satisfaction, was wasted.** Dyer did not order his men to fire in the air, or at the feet of their targets. They fired, on his orders, into the chests, the faces, and the wombs of the unarmed, screaming, defenceless crowd. After it was over, he refused permission for families to tend to the dead and the dying, leaving them to rot for hours in the hot sun, and inflicted numerous other humiliations on Indians, from forcing them to crawl on their bellies on a street, where an Englishwoman had been assaulted (and beating them with rifle butts if they lifted their heads), to pettier indignities like confiscating electric fans from their homes. Dyer never showed the slightest remorse or self-doubt. This was a “rebel meeting,” he claimed, an act of defiance of his authority that had to be punished. “It was no longer a question of merely dispersing the crowd” but one of producing a ‘moral effect’ that would ensure the Indians’ submission. He noted that he had personally directed the firing towards the five narrow exits because that was where the crowd was most dense:“the targets,” he declared, “were good.” News of Dyer’s barbarism was suppressed by the British for six months, and when outrage at reports of his excesses mounted, an attempt was made to whitewash his sins by an official commission of enquiry, which only found him guilty of ‘grave error’. Finally, as details emerged of the horror, Dyer was relieved of his command and censured by the House of Commons, but promptly exonerated by the House of Lords and allowed to retire. Rudyard Kipling, the flatulent poetic voice of [British imperialism](http://humansarefree.com/2019/05/exposed-all-queens- agents-and.html) , hailed him as ‘The Man Who Saved India’. Even this did not strike his fellow Britons as adequate recompense for his glorious act of mass murder. They ran a public campaign for funds to honour his cruelty and collected the quite stupendous sum of £26,317, 1s 10d, worth over a quarter of a million pounds today. It was presented to him together with a jewelled sword of honour. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was no act of insane frenzy but a conscious, deliberate imposition of colonial will. Dyer was an efficient killer rather than a crazed maniac; his was merely the evil of the unimaginative, the brutality of the military bureaucrat. But his action that Baisakhi day came to symbolize the evil of the system on whose behalf, and in whose defence, he was acting. Everything about the incident – the betrayal of promises made to India, the cruelty of the killings, the brutality and racism that followed, the self- justification, exoneration and reward – collectively symbolized everything that was wrong about the Raj. It represented the worst that colonialism could become, and by letting it occur, the British crossed that point of no return that exists only in the minds of men – that point which, in any unequal relationship, both ruler and subject must instinctively respect if their relationship is to survive. The massacre made Indians out of millions of people who had not thought consciously of their political identity before that grim Sunday. It turned loyalists into nationalists and constitutionalists into agitators, led the Nobel Prize-winning poet [Rabindranath Tagore](https://amzn.to/2Pm0FyK) to return his knighthood and a host of Indian appointees to British offices to turn in their commissions. And above all it entrenched in Mahatma Gandhi a firm and unshakable faith in the moral righteousness of the cause of Indian independence from an empire he saw as irremediably evil, even [satanic](http://humansarefree.com/search/label/Satanism) . It is getting late for atonement, but not too late. Neither the Queen nor Theresa May were alive when the atrocity was committed, and certainly no British government of 2019 bears a shred of responsibility for that tragedy, but the nation that once allowed it to happen should atone for its past sins. That is what German Chancellor Willy Brandt did by going onto his knees in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970, even though as a Social Democrat he was himself a victim of Nazi persecution and innocent of any complicity in it. It is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised in 2016 on behalf of Canada for the actions of his country’s authorities a century earlier in denying permission for the Indian immigrants on the [Komagata Maru](https://www.dailyo.in/politics/justin-trudeau-narendra-modi- donald-trump-komagata-maru-secularism-sikhs-islamophobia-india-canada- ties/story/1/10043.html) to land in Vancouver, thereby sending many of them to their deaths. Brandt’s and Trudeau’s gracious apologies need to find their British echo. Former Prime Minister [David Cameron](http://humansarefree.com/2016/03/david-cameron-running-scared- of-david.html) ’s rather mealy-mouthed description of the massacre in 2013 as a “deeply shameful event” is hardly an apology. Nor is the ceremonial visit to the site in 1997 by [Queen Elizabeth](http://humansarefree.com/2015/05/queen-elizabeth-ii-is- direct-lineage-of.html) and the Duke of Edinburgh, who merely left their signatures in the visitors’ book, without even a redeeming comment. My call is for a British minister or a member of the Royal Family to find the heart, and the spirit, to get on his or her knees at Jallianwala Bagh in 2019 and apologise to the Indian people for the unforgivable massacre that was perpetrated at that site a century earlier. Along with such an apology, the British could start teaching unromanticized colonial history in their schools and decolonise their museums, which are full of looted artefacts from other countries. The British public is woefully ignorant of the realities of the British empire, and what it meant to its subject peoples. These [Brexit](http://humansarefree.com/2016/07/brexit-is-victory-over-rothschilds- eu.html) days have rekindled in the UK a yearning for the Raj, in gauzy romanticised television soap operas and overblown fantasies about reviving the Empire as an alternative to Europe. If British schoolchildren can learn how those dreams of the English turned out to be nightmares for their subject peoples, true atonement – of the purely moral kind, involving a serious consideration of historical responsibility rather than mere admission of guilt – might be achieved. An apology for, and at, Jallianwala Bagh would be the best place to start, and its centenary the best time to do so. _By Dr. Shashi Tharoor,[RT News](https://www.rt.com/op-ed/455406-jallianwala- bagh-massacre-apologise-britain/) Dr. Tharoor is an Indian politician, author, and former international civil servant._
|
Alexander Light ([email protected])
|
http://humansarefree.com/2019/08/why-british-should-apologise-to-india.html
|
2019-08-29 01:00:00+00:00
| 1,567,054,800 | 1,567,543,564 |
religion and belief
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religious event
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288,738 |
liberaldemocratvoice--2019-04-21--Lib Dems mark Passover and Easter
| 2019-04-21T00:00:00 |
liberaldemocratvoice
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Lib Dems mark Passover and Easter
|
This weekend sees two important religious festivals. On Friday, jewish communities marked Passover, which marks the Israelites’ freedom from slavery and bondage and today Christians celebrate one of the most important days of the year for them, Easter Sunday. On the Lib Dem website, Lib Dem Peer Monroe Palmer writes about the significance of Passover: Across the world, Jewish families will sit around the Seder table to share food and recount the tale of how Moses led the Jewish people to their emancipation and deliverance. In retelling the story of the Exodus, we are reminded that the forces of oppression, hate and tyranny are not insurmountable. The traditions we observe are symbolic reminders of both the hardships endured by the Israelites as well as the triumph of faith. let us all come together to choose unity over division, understanding over intolerance and faith over fear. Across the world, we are witnessing worrying increases in acts of terror and hate targeted at religious communities. It’s hard to believe that even in 2019 anti-Semitism is still prevalent and growing- even in the UK. However, even in the face of intensifying anti-Semitic sentiment, Jewish communities continue to persevere in challenging bigotry and prejudice. In this growing anti-Semitic climate, festivals such as Passover are timely reminders of the strength of community and power of resistance. The UK has long been a home for people of all backgrounds, and we are a shining example that different faiths, identities and ethnicities can thrive and co-exist. The history of Jewish people in the UK goes back centuries and British Jewish communities are undoubtedly an integral part of our society. At moments like this, we ought to take the opportunity to recognise the tremendous and invaluable contributions of these communities to our great country. And Lizzie Jewkes, whose idea to raise the tax threshold was one of the flagship policies during the coalition years, writes about what Easter means to her. As a Christian, I find a great deal of overlap between my faith and Liberal Democracy. In both, we are encouraged to think of others, to value everyone equally and to work for the greater good of all. Likewise, in both, people are seen as individuals. Jesus came in for a great deal of criticism during his lifetime from those who objected to the way he challenged vested interests, societal norms, privilege and injustice where ever he found them. He treated everyone as equals – women, foreigners, Roman soldiers, the disabled, divorcees, those who collaborated with the occupying forces and children, despite the mores of the age. Following his resurrection, he appeared first to women and told them to tell the men, even though the testimony of women was not considered reliable in Roman society. As Christians, we’re often asked to consider “What Would Jesus Do?” (WWJD). Well, to be honest, as well as healing people and generally doing good, he also made a whip and whipped the money changers and traders out of the temple as they were overcharging pilgrims and using the temple to do it. Christians are not called to be wishy-washy but to speak up for the voiceless and the marginalised and to challenge wrongdoing. Indeed, for many great reformers, their Christian faith was the reason they campaigned for social reform – Wilberforce, Elizabeth Fry, Dr Barnardo, Lord Shaftsbury and Florence Nightingale to name just a few. Whatever you are doing this weekend, and for many Liberal Democrats up and down the country, that will involve very sore feet and many leaflets delivered and doors knocked, the LDV team hopes that you have health, happiness and peace.
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The Voice
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https://www.libdemvoice.org/lib-dems-mark-passover-and-easter-60584.html
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2019-04-21 07:54:57+00:00
| 1,555,847,697 | 1,567,542,219 |
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333,412 |
nationalreview--2019-11-28--This Pilgrim Republic
| 2019-11-28T00:00:00 |
nationalreview
|
This Pilgrim Republic
|
If we can't see the cost of our remoteness from America's origins, it is only because we choose not to. Come out from among them, and be ye separate. — II Corinthians 6:17 The story does not begin in 1776. It does not begin with Concord, the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution. It does not really even begin in the Dutch city of Leiden, where a colony of English Christian nonconformists settled after its members decided upon the spiritual necessity of separating themselves from the Church of England and hence, the times being what they were, with the English state. From King Henry II and the martyr Thomas à Becket to King Henry VIII and the martyr Thomas More, the consistent stupidity of the English state left its enforcers unable to distinguish between disloyalty to the crown and loyalty to the kingdom that is not of this world. And so the Puritans were persecuted. That much was inevitable. They fled England and found tolerance in Holland — in fact, they found too much of it for their liking. The Dutch have been Dutch for a very long time, and they are not what you would call natural ascetics. The libertine Dutch culture (along with the notoriously difficult Dutch language) left the Puritans alienated. But it did not have the same effect on the Puritans’ children, who, to the dismay of their pious parents, began to acclimate themselves, becoming more Dutch by the day and less Puritan. Some of the refugees had made very comfortable livings for themselves in the university town of Leiden, enough to help to provide for those whose were less prepared to thrive in the university precincts. Compared with the commercial city of Amsterdam, Leiden offered relatively little opportunity to make a living by manual labor. But give the old Protestant work ethic its due. William Bradford, the colony’s unofficial historian, wrote: “They fell to such trads & imployments as they best could; valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any other riches whatsoever. And at length they came to raise a competente & comforteable living, but with hard and continuall labor.” Hard work, comfortable living. The Puritans would have recognized exactly where they were: The Land of Goshen, in which the Israelites thrived and grew complacent in spite of the heavy burden of labor laid upon them by the Egyptians. And that’s where the story really begins. The Jewish people had always remained distinct, never having been fully assimilated into any of the civilizations that exercised domination over them: the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Romans, etc. It is possible that the Jewish dietary laws, which forbid the consumption of many foods that were eaten ceremonially in adjacent cultures (the Israelites’ frequent Old Testament antagonists the Hittites, for example, seem to have consumed pork ritually) were in effect a complex code for keeping the ancient Jews from participating in pagan religious festivals and thereby assimilating into foreign cultures and forfeiting their unique national identity. (No, it wasn’t trichinosis, which wasn’t linked to undercooked pork until the 19th century.) Understanding themselves as the new Israelites, the Puritans had their laws, too, probably more of them than they really needed: The oppressive and at times bloodthirsty character of John Calvin’s experiment with totalitarianism at Geneva did not keep the theocratic project from being widely admired. And with a little bit of sympathetic historical imagination, we might understand that without condoning it. The implicit tradeoff — a measure of harsh government in this life against eternal torment in the next — must have seemed reasonable, especially to a people who had a much more communal and less individualistic understanding of Christianity than we have today. The Puritans were dedicated above all to fulfilling the mandate of Paul to the Corinthians: “Be ye separate.” Paul links this mandate to something that haunted the Puritans intensely: idolatry. Paul is in that passage echoing Exodus: “I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.” Why did God bring the Israelites out of Egypt? The Israelites were comfortable in Goshen. They became a political problem for the Egyptians precisely because they were so prosperous and numerous: They were in a position of what the Christian might understand as implicit idolatry. Pharaoh was understood to be a god on Earth, like Roman emperors, Japanese emperors, Alexander the Great, and other exemplars of sacral kingship, both historical and legendary. Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome, was descended from Aphrodite through Aeneas; Clovis was said to be of divine descent, which must have proved embarrassing after his conversion to Christianity. By Charlemagne’s time, divine ancestry had been downgraded to mere divine appointment, an idea that in Puritan political thinking would outlive monarchy per se, with mere assemblymen and administrators ruling in theory by the grace of God and with His delegated authority. What should be here kept in mind is that the belief that political relations are modeled on supernatural relations was of intense interest to the Puritans, who understood political sovereigns to be participants in God’s own sovereignty. Political disputes were necessarily religious disputes, and the tyranny of ancient Egypt was therefore not merely political: Pharaoh’s boast was not divine right but divinity itself. The god-king mode of government holds that the divine ruler is either the direct source or the sacred channel of the supernatural forces that bring happiness and prosperity to the kingdom, making the crops grow, the rains come, the livestock fecund, and the people prosperous. It is this idea — a theory of government — that God Himself attacks in the Exodus story. The plagues that descend upon Egypt under the watch of Moses and Aaron are not random torments and degradations but instead are a focused attack on the ideological infrastructure of the pharaonic system in which political, economic, and spiritual life converged, with the divine ruler himself at their nexus. The first assault is on the Nile itself, which is turned to blood, thereby ruining both agriculture and aquaculture in one swoop, a profanation with religious consequences. The annual Nile flood, the cornerstone of Egyptian prosperity, was religiously welcomed as the “return of Hapi,” the Nile god who is attended by frogs. Frogs, a fertility symbol, constituted the second plague, ironically invading the beds and private spaces of Egypt. There is a Christian tradition (I do not insist that it is beyond argument in every particular) that holds that each of the plagues mocks a particular Egyptian deity or religious principle. But note well the political and economic character of the plagues, too: Though Hapi and Heqet, the Nile fertility deities, were insulted by the first two plagues, the immediate threat from the Nile’s pollution was the eminently earthly concern of starvation; Geb, the god of earth who blessed the crops, was transmuted into a plague of lice; flies (possibly) associated with Osiris plagued the royal household and the houses of Egypt’s officials, ruining the formerly productive Egyptian land while the Israelites were left unmolested; Hathor was associated with cattle, the economic commodity wiped out in the fifth plague along with draft animals and other livestock; the healing goddess Isis was no defense against the handful of dust — taken from the brick-baking ovens over which the enslaved Israelites labored — that set an infection of boils upon the people, who were thereby made religiously unclean by their own industrial implements; the plague of hail spared the wheat but wiped out the flax, which was used to make priestly robes, and barley, which was associated with Osiris and used to make the beer that was consumed at many public festivals and sometimes used as wages; what grain survived the hail was devoured next by locusts. Those plagues were an attack on Egyptian ideology, administration, and capital, as indeed were the final two afflictions: The solar deity Ra, who was associated with the pharaohs personally, was blotted out as darkness covered the land, prefiguring the especial horror of the tenth and final plague, the death of all of the firstborn of all of the families of Egypt, including Pharaoh’s son, and the surviving livestock, too. In case the plagues did not make the point entirely clear, God explained: “I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt.” Pharaoh was one of them. Exodus keeps hammering home the same point. Upon hearing the story, Moses’s father-in-law is struck with awe: “Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.” God Himself insists: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. . . . Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold . . . make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. . . . Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. . . . Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.” No gods of silver, no gods of gold — still less gods made of such flimsy stuff as barley, rain, and flax, or something as petty and transitory as mere political power. “Put not your faith in princes” is a warning against one of the least subtle but most irresistible practices of idolatry. If the Israelites needed the spur of Pharaoh’s tyranny to shock them out of their complacency in Goshen, the Puritans had the shadow of another tyrant — the Spanish king — to awaken them to the fragility of their comfortable Dutch Goshen. The long-term problem was the seduction of the Puritans’ children by the liberal and freethinking ways of the Dutch. (Galileo’s Two New Sciences would be published at Leiden by the House of Elzevir in 1638; while that was necessary to avoid the Inquisition, consider that in a sermon on idolatry, no less a Reformation figure than John Calvin himself had condemned heliocentrism as satanic.) But the Puritans faced the specter of a more immediate political crisis as the fragile truce that had ended the Eighty Years’ War began to unravel, raising the possibility that the Netherlands would be brought back under the control of the Spanish crown, which was unshakably Catholic and not famous for its toleration of dissent. To the Puritan mind, the Catholic Church was synonymous with idolatry; it was, after all, the echoes of Roman practice in the Church of England that rendered that communion intolerable to them. There was no place left to go — not in Europe. And so the Puritans became the Pilgrims, new Israelites wandering in a new wilderness. Landing in Massachusetts in November of 1620 presented the Pilgrims with a rough and dreary Promised Land after two miserable months at sea during which one member of the crew and one of the Pilgrims had died. (One child was born during the journey and named Oceanus.) Things did not improve — they grew much worse. By March, more than half of the Pilgrims were dead, and half of the Mayflower’s crew, too. They loved their children, just like you do. Watching them die — and die horribly, hungry and in pain — do you think they thought to themselves: “Thank God we are not still in England, where the clergy wear surplices!” It must have been difficult to distinguish the love of liberty from the loathing of idolatry, courage from fanaticism, the promise of the continent before them from the terror of the sea at their backs. But they endured. That we all know. How and why they endured is a question about which we are increasingly foggy. The Pilgrims brought with them to the New World a definite religious system and a less fully articulated set of related political ideas. Their model of political life was the covenant, which is to say it was contractual and a little bit ad hoc. Their politics were utilitarian in a sense: They did not come to Massachusetts for the purpose of living life under a new kind of political settlement, but for the purpose of living a Christian life in community, a purpose to which all questions of political administration ultimately were subordinated. Government was for them a means, not an end. It was legitimate to the extent that it was in harmony with their religious doctrine and desirable to the extent that it enabled them to live the holy life they had in mind for themselves. There was an element of procedural democracy in the Mayflower compact, but the Pilgrim political mind recoiled from democracy as such in all but its most limited form. Instead, the first thing resembling a bill of rights to be enacted in New England, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641, begins: “The free fruition of such liberties Immunities and priveledges as humanitie, Civilitie, and Christianitie call for as due to every man in his place and proportion without impeachment and Infringement hath ever bene and ever will be the tranquillitie and Stabilitie of Churches and Commonwealths. And the deniall or deprivall thereof, the disturbance if not the ruine of both.” Churches and commonwealths — in that order. And, yet, even therein was contained a germ of Anglo-American liberalism: “Every man whether Inhabitant or fforreiner, free or not free shall have libertie to come to any publique Court, Councel, or Towne meeting, and either by speech or writeing to move any lawfull, seasonable, and materiall question, or to present any necessary motion, complaint, petition, Bill or information, whereof that meeting hath proper cognizance, so it be done in convenient time, due order, and respective manner.” Government, understood from this point of view, is an instrument. An instrument of what? Liberty, in the context of a Puritan polity. But liberty, too, is only an instrument: Liberty to do what? The Puritans answered that question before they set up their systems of government, and as their understanding of the Christian life evolved, so, too did their political thinking. It is worth keeping in mind that all this “wall of separation between church and state” stuff came into vogue approximately the day before yesterday; when the Constitution was ratified, most of the states still maintained established churches, and continued to do so for years after the fact, with no constitutional problem apparent to the men who wrote and ratified the document. In a remarkably short period of time, the pilgrim people of what would become the United States went from divesting themselves of absolute monarchy in favor of a limited monarchy operating on a principle of consent to liberating themselves from the idea of monarchy entirely. If that seems like a radical and unlikely political development, consider it from another point of view: They were not liberating themselves from a particular system of political organization. They were liberating themselves from idolatry. It was the Puritans’ hatred of idolatry and their disgust at idols that enabled colonial Americans to escape so heroically from the intellectual confines of their times and imagine a form of government fit for the life they desired for themselves, and this act of radical imagination spread from Puritan New England to the rest of the colonies and to American civilization at large. With the example of the Divine Covenant before them, the challenge of negotiating a temporal and administrative covenant among themselves was daunting — but possible. It was possible because they were able to think that which had been unthinkable. The view from the wilderness is not like the view from Goshen. Naturally, the American Founders, like the educated Puritans before them, were familiar with other models of government from other nations and other epochs: the Roman republic and the moral warning of its decline; the Greek democracy that John Adams so despised; the Venetian and Dutch republics; the absolute monarchies of Europe and the constrained monarchy of Great Britain; classical and more recent aristocracies; even the idea of a caliphate was not unknown to the most widely read of them. And, of course, they knew the various forms of political organization described in the Bible. (James Madison became Princeton’s first graduate student when he lingered after graduation to study Hebrew under John Witherspoon.) The American sense of identification with the Israelites only deepened from the Pilgrims’ time. Rich Lowry argues that the national idea of the Israelites in fact is the prototype of our own national idea. The contours of that idea may be found in the sermon delivered by John Winthrop before his Puritan fleet sailed to fortify the English presence in Massachusetts. Winthrop, too, saw a problem of government, but one that was subordinate to the question of what kind of life was to be lived in the New World. Consequently, he warned his congregation not to assume that “the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he doth from those among whom we have lived.” The end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ, whereof we are members, that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of his holy ordinances. The means whereby this must be effected . . . are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordinary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means. Whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. . . . Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. We have professed to enterprise these and those accounts, upon these and those ends. We have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. And what believer can read those words without holy terror? “Such failings at our hands as from those among whom we have lived”? All that and more, Reverend, beginning with me. More, more, and too much more. Cardinal Torquemada would have been ashamed of our prisons, Cardinal Richelieu scandalized by our indifference, Nero embarrassed by our luxury. And, of course, we have fallen back into the old idolatry, too: gods of silver and gold and silicon and electricity and noise and flesh. The soybean crop has failed in South Dakota — what does it mean for the president? What will he do? What must he do? He will speak about it in the State of the Union address, in the divine assembly, before the wise men in their black robes, interpreting the new scripture. Winthrop then continues with his most famous passage: Perhaps it is not the Christian alone who is able to see the prophecy in that. We feast on this day of Thanksgiving, to acknowledge the inexplicable blessings of peace and prosperity that have been poured out on this pilgrim republic and its people without any thought or possibility of our deserving it. And peace and prosperity are worthy of being celebrated. But what about purpose? Are we so remote from that wretched winter at Plymouth that we have forgotten that this nation was founded for a particular purpose, and that the government was constituted not to raise up men over us to keep us in awe but only as a convenience suited to that purpose? If we cannot see the bone under the skin in ourselves as obviously as we do in the turkey, it is only because we choose not to see. We do not want to see, because we have returned, in spite of our regenerate national greatness and our considerable skill in map-making, to the Land of Goshen, to the land of comfortable idolatry under the watchful and benevolent gaze of the god-king. We are happy in harness, pleased to be liberated from that terrible liberty and all its unreasoning demands. We do not dare raise our eyes, because we are terrified of the prayer we would then be compelled to say. But we do not need prayers! We have silver and gold, and plenty of it, and a king to perform the needful rituals to satisfy the gods, that the crops and the GDP may grow. Or else we will, come next election. Smile, Pharaoh. You will have the last laugh, if not the final word.
|
Kevin D. Williamson
|
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/thanksgiving-pilgrim-republic-americas-origins-purpose/
|
Thu, 28 Nov 2019 11:00:09 +0000
| 1,574,956,809 | 1,575,137,598 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
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338,971 |
newsbiscuit--2019-05-27--Almost everyone unsure why weve got Spring Bank Holiday
| 2019-05-27T00:00:00 |
newsbiscuit
|
Almost everyone unsure why we’ve got Spring Bank Holiday
|
Most Britons are unaware of any justification for today’s Spring Bank Holiday, a survey has revealed, but no one is mentioning it in case it’s an administrative error and by bringing it to the attention of the bankers it gets cruelly whipped away. Bank holiday fan Martin Jones pondered to himself on waking naturally without the screeching banshee of his alarm clock that the bank holiday earlier in May brings back delicious memories from school of country dancing round a maypole, holding the hands of actual girls, the Easter and Christmas bank holidays are obvious religious holidays, the August one was to allow bankers to play cricket, but this one seems to have just plonked itself down in the calendar for no particular reason. Expert in public holidays, Cecil Perkins, was consulted. “It was Whit Monday” said Cecil. “What Monday?” we asked. “Whit Monday, it’s to do with Pentecost” replied Cecil. “What’s a Pentecost?” “About a tenner, or fifteen for a really nice one.”
|
SarahTipper
|
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2019/05/27/almost-everyone-unsure-why-weve-got-spring-bank-holiday/
|
2019-05-27 11:00:48+00:00
| 1,558,969,248 | 1,567,540,147 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
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341,469 |
newsbusters--2019-03-28--Grisly Syfy Series Villain Vows to Make Easter Great Again
| 2019-03-28T00:00:00 |
newsbusters
|
Grisly Syfy Series' Villain Vows to 'Make Easter Great Again'
|
From the season premiere alone, Syfy’s Happy! is, looking to be one big violent, tasteless, abhorrent mess this year. Based on a limited-run comic series, the show is charting new territory in its second season, and by the look of things, it isn’t pretty. It even just might rival Preacher in hating Christianity. The March 27 premiere title “The War on Easter” should tell you all you need to know. Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) is a former cop and hitman who last season successfully rescued his estranged daughter Hailey (Bryce Lorenzo) with the help of her imaginary friend, an animated winged horse named Happy (Patton Oswalt). Now he attempts to better improve his life for Hailey’s sake. However, that’s quickly derailed when children’s TV entertainer and secret crime lord “Sonny Shine” (Christopher Fitzgerald) develops a new disturbing holiday-themed scheme. Considering his Christmas scheme to kidnap children, including Hailey, backfired, now he's back with an Easter one. Within the first minute alone, we’re treated to the bizarre image of nuns in suicide vests self-destructing near an Easter festival. What purpose does this violent and probably sacrilegious image serve? Apparently, it’s part of a new scheme that Sonny proposes in front of the literal Pope to, I kid you not, “Make Easter Great Again.” The scene just makes you want to vomit up a chocolate bunny. Points for the show recognizing that Easter is the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That just makes it all the worse for the garbage that follows. There’s the flamboyant bedazzled TV host attempting to “re-brand” a religious holiday. There’s him labeling Easter as the “Alzheimer’s ravaged mother-in-law of holidays,” despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people recognize it as a holy day worldwide. There’s Sonny casually throwing in a “MAGA” reference just because he’s a bad guy and that’s what they do, apparently. Worst of all, there’s the Pope actually agreeing to this at the end of the scene. With that unfortunate development, we can only expect things to get worse on this plot. In fact, these incredibly repugnant anti-Christian thoughts are shared by the series creator and original comic artist Grant Morrison. In an interview regarding the new season, Morrison describes Easter as “a kind of lame-ass holiday, the one no one cares about” that needed revitalizing for his new season. And he’s in charge of the whole show. I can’t expect too much decency from a show that seems steps away from crossing into nudity (the one thing that’s censored), but the least they could do is leave the Church out of it. It’s times like this that make me wish the only thing we had to deal with on this show was blood and unnecessary swearing. Sadly, we still get an unhealthy amount of both when Nick eventually runs into trouble in a seedy part of town. A shady group attempts to harvest a woman's organs until Nick interrupts them. After some missteps, Nick gets himself out of that mess by making a new one - literally. He stabs one guy in the gut with a forklift and watches him bleed like a geyser all over the floor. Then he flattens another man with another vehicle and hangs his last perp on a chain. When everything is done, he takes the remains of a kidney to sell on the black market. Syfy is no stranger when it comes to graphic violence, but that doesn’t make this any less unsettling. While I’m thankful this isn’t on any primetime network, the fact that Happy! exists at all is disgusting. It seems to have taken the first season as a springboard to get even worse. For the record, I am not happy, and neither should you be.
|
Lindsay Kornick
|
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/lindsay-kornick/2019/03/28/grisly-syfy-series-happy-vows-make-easter-great-again
|
2019-03-28 04:00:00+00:00
| 1,553,760,000 | 1,567,544,863 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
341,967 |
newsbusters--2019-04-21--NY Times Columnist Kristof Happy Easter Is the Virgin Birth a Bizarre Claim
| 2019-04-21T00:00:00 |
newsbusters
|
NY Times Columnist Kristof: Happy Easter! Is the Virgin Birth a ‘Bizarre Claim’?
|
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spent yet another Easter Sunday trying to see just how little one can believe of Christianity’s anchoring ideas, and still consider oneself a Christian. Kristof refers to these regular interviews with theological figures as “my occasional series of conversations about Christianity.” All have the same theme -- seeing if one can get away with calling oneself a Christian if you don’t actually buy that whole virgin birth and Resurrection mythology. Fortunately for him, this year’s interviewee was on Kristof’s wavelength. This year he talked with Serene Jones, Protestant minister and president of Union Theological Seminary for “Reverend, the Virgin Birth is ‘a Bizarre Claim’?" Kristof led off: “Happy Easter, Reverend Jones! To start, do you think of Easter as a literal flesh-and-blood resurrection? I have problems with that.” Rev. Jones actually agreed: “When you look in the Gospels, the stories are all over the place. There’s no resurrection story in Mark, just an empty tomb. Those who claim to know whether or not it happened are kidding themselves..." So theologically liberal was Jones, that Kristof was seemingly pressed into playing, um, devil’s advocate for a bit, asking: “But without a physical resurrection, isn’t there a risk that we are left with just the crucifixion?...Isn’t a Christianity without a physical resurrection less powerful and awesome?” After getting a bonus question in by bringing up the Virgin Birth, Kristof laid out his show-stopper: I’ve asked this of other interviewees in this religion series: For someone like myself who is drawn to Jesus’ teaching but doesn’t believe in the virgin birth or the physical resurrection, what am I? Am I a Christian? Jones gave him an answer he was likely pleased to hear: “Well, you sound an awful lot like me, and I’m a Christian minister.” Kristof hardly ever misses a Christmas or Easter holiday without asking, gee, do you really need to believe that Jesus returned from the dead to be a Christian? In previous years, Kristof would at least talk to more conservative Christian figures who would push back on his claims, while Jones nodded along with his theological incoherence. Here’s a recent rundown of Kristof’s religious holiday interviews: Christmas 2018: “Professor, Was Jesus Really Born to a Virgin?” Christmas 2016: “Am I a Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?” He actually asked Keller, “Since this is the Christmas season, let’s start with the virgin birth. Is that an essential belief, or can I mix and match?”
|
Clay Waters
|
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2019/04/21/ny-times-kristof-happy-easter-virgin-birth-bizarre-claim
|
2019-04-21 17:30:00+00:00
| 1,555,882,200 | 1,567,542,284 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
345,368 |
newsbusters--2019-11-12--'Empire' Proudly 'Denounces' Church and 'Christian Values'
| 2019-11-12T00:00:00 |
newsbusters
|
'Empire' Proudly 'Denounces' Church and 'Christian Values'
|
Fox’s Empire seems to really dislike religious pro-life people. Sure, plenty of shows have introduced an abortion plot recently, but Empire is the only show to continue this plot for multiple episodes. In fact, this may be the season's worst take since it seems to revel in “denouncing the church.” The November 12 episode “Heart of Stone” continues the fallout from Tiana (Serayah) revealing to the world that she is pro-life. Although she’s moved to a new recording company, Bossy Media, she’s still facing backlash for daring to think an unborn child has the right to life. Even one of her managers, Becky (Gabourey Sidibe), openly shows her distaste for Tiana’s beliefs, calling her “anti-choice” and comparing her scandal to R. Kelly’s rape allegations (“I'm sure R. Kelly didn't find anything wrong with his love of little girls either.”) Fortunately for her, Bossy Media co-founder Giselle (Nicole Ari Parker) tries a different route by appealing to a Megachurch known as Tower of Hope. The congregation is run by a black female pastor who organizes a massive Hope Festival yearly and wants Tiana to headline. Considering that they support Tiana’s pro-life beliefs and have a young black market interested in her songs, Bossy Media quickly says yes to the offer. I’m surprised Empire is willing to admit religious black conservatives even exist, but that sweet sentiment doesn’t last. Although the church supports her pro-life beliefs, the pastor encourages her to use the festival to renounce her “past mistakes” like sex out of wedlock and supporting same-sex marriage. Tiana doesn’t agree with that outlook, but Giselle and Becky tell her to stay regardless to revive her career. Suffering the religious stuff, at this point, is only a means to an end. Tiana still performs as the headliner of the Hope Festival and even appears to dress modestly for the occasion. However, she soon removes her clothing to perform a provocative song in a skintight suit in front of a church congregation. Giselle and Becky are, at first horrified, but quickly bounce back when they find Tiana trending for “denouncing the Church and its Christian values.” They celebrate that Tiana is officially “back.” Tiana: Oh ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Tell me what you mad for? ♪ ♪ Why you gotta be so particular ♪ ♪ Why you care about what I think? ♪ ♪ You might need a drink ♪ ♪ 'Cause you upset ♪ ♪ And I'm out here living my life ♪ ♪ With no regrets ♪ ♪ Reason number one ♪ ♪ I ain't trying to be told what I'm supposed to be like ♪ ♪ Two ♪ ♪ I'm gonna live the way I want ♪ ♪ 'Cause it's my life ♪ ♪ Three ♪ ♪ You can say what you want ♪ ♪ Ain't losing my focus ♪ Giselle: It all looks good. Tiana: ♪ I'm gonna make you mad in the worst way ♪ Tiana: ♪ Then I'ma act like it's my birthday ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ All about my business while you're thirsty ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪ Gonna take ♪ ♪ a lot more just to hurt me ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Coins or chips ♪ ♪ Gonna be mad ♪ Tiana: ♪ I'ma make you mad in the worst way ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ 'Cause you gonna hang on ♪ ♪ Every single word I say ♪ ♪ I don't wanna have no bad vibes ♪ Giselle: I did not plan this. Did you put her up to this? Giselle: Did you know about this? Becky: No, I'm just as surprised as you are. Even though I really love that she had the stones to pull it--oh, my God. Wait, so do her fans. She is trending like crazy, but in a good way. Giselle: They think that she is "Denouncing the church and its Christian values." Does this mean that— Tiana: ♪ 'Cause you gonna hang on every single word I say The fact that the show displays a character singing and dancing sexually at a religious festival is already a low point. That the series seems proud that she’s denouncing said religious festival’s values makes it even worse. Empire is clearly emboldened by this being its last season, but let’s pray it doesn’t get any worse than this.
|
Lindsay Kornick
|
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/lindsay-kornick/2019/11/12/empire-proudly-denounces-church-and-christian-values
|
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 22:45:00 -0500
| 1,573,616,700 | 1,573,647,305 |
religion and belief
|
religious event
|
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