http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:15:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23533/europe-islamic-revolt-fears-fade http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23533/europe-islamic-revolt-fears-fade#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:28:15 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23533 Five years ago bombings and riots fuelled anxiety that Europe's Muslims were on the verge of mass radicalisation. Those predictions have not been borne out, The Observer writes.

Polls have found that Muslim communities are profoundly influenced by their countries of residence. French Muslims have absorbed the values of France, and are more secular than their German counterparts, for example.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23533/europe-islamic-revolt-fears-fade/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23477/cults-france http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23477/cults-france#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 16:17:03 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23477 A government report warns that religious sects are on the increase in France, tripling in the last 15 years to reach at least 600 different movements across the country.

The report also denounces a huge increase in unqualified therapists, warning that sects are using the personality coaching and self-help trends to target impressionable people.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23477/cults-france/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23085/mosque-fire-lyon-france http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23085/mosque-fire-lyon-france#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:05:04 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23085 French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined Muslim groups Sunday in condemning attackers who set fire to a mosque in a Lyon suburb, and hundreds gathered outside the building to protest against racism and Islamophobia.

The fire at the mosque in the Lyon suburb of Saint-Priest was started early Saturday before morning prayers and caused damage to the entrance, walls and religious books before being put out.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23085/mosque-fire-lyon-france/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23019/france-headscarves http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23019/france-headscarves#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:16:29 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23019 Europe's human rights court has thrown out a complaint by two French Muslim girls who were expelled from their school for refusing to remove their headscarves during sports lessons.

France, which takes secularism in state schools very seriously, passed a law in 2004 banning pupils from wearing conspicuous signs of their religion at school after a decade of bitter debate about Muslim girls wearing headscarves in class.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23019/france-headscarves/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22654/islam-in-france http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22654/islam-in-france#comments Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:12:52 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=22654 Extraordinarily for secular France, in the Alsace-Moselle region the state not only helps to finance the construction of places of worship but also approves the appointments of clergy members and even pays their salaries. But not for Islam.

Plus: France has only four Muslim schools. So the 8,847 Roman Catholic schools have become a refuge for Muslims seeking what an overburdened, secularist public sector often lacks: spirituality, an environment in which good manners count alongside mathematics and higher academic standards.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/22654/islam-in-france/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21890/france-muslim-women http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21890/france-muslim-women#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:39:39 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=21890 A series of highly publicized incidents involving Muslim women has reinforced popular perceptions that an intolerant, sexist brand of Islam is on the march in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population.

Yet religion experts, and many Muslims, caution against easy stereotypes. Far from submissive, they say, Muslim women are looking for a fit between their faith and the highly secularized society around them.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21890/france-muslim-women/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21780/burqa-prison http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21780/burqa-prison#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:36:27 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=21780 A Muslim member of the French government has backed a court's decision to deny citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears the burqa.

Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara said she hoped last month's ruling would "dissuade certain fanatics from imposing the burqa on their wives".

She told the newspaper, Le Parisien, the head-to-toe garment was a "prison".]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21780/burqa-prison/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21747/faiza-mabchour-france-burqa http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21747/faiza-mabchour-france-burqa#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:55:06 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=21747 France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa on the grounds that her "radical" practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

The case yesterday reopened the debate about Islam in France, and how the secular republic reconciles itself with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the French constitution.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21747/faiza-mabchour-france-burqa/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21300/france-muslims-prison http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21300/france-muslims-prison#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:40:25 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=21300 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21300/france-muslims-prison/feed 0