Category: Religion

{Declining to directly pass judgement on US President Trump, the pope condemned border walls being built.}

Pope Francis on Saturday warned against populism, saying it could lead to the election of “saviours” like Adolf Hitler.

In an hour-long interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, conducted as Donald Trump was being sworn in as US president, the pontiff also condemned the idea of using walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners, among them refugees and migrants.

“Of course, crises provoke fears and worries,” he said, but added that for him “the example of populism in the European sense of the word is Germany in 1933”.

The pope added: “Germany … was looking for a leader, someone who would give her back her identity and there was a little man named Adolf Hitler who said ‘I can do it’.”

“Hitler did not steal power,” the pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”

The Germans at that time also wanted to protect themselves with “walls and barbed wire so that others cannot take away their identity”, he said.

“The case of Germany is classic,” he said, adding that Hitler gave them a “deformed identity and we know what it produced”.

Pope Francis, however, underscored that it was too early to pass judgement on Trump.

“Let’s see. Let’s see what he does and then we will evaluate,” he said.

In February, the pontiff, in another apparent warning to Trump, said: “A person who thinks only about building walls – wherever they may be – and not building bridges, is not Christian … I’d just say that this man is not Christian, if he said it this way.”

{{Populist surge}}

Populist parties are on the rise across Europe.

Unemployment and austerity, the arrival of record numbers of refugees and migrants in France, Belgium and Germany have left voters disillusioned with conventional parties and led to a rise of Islamophobic sentiment and anti-refugee views.

In Germany, far-right leaders met at a conference amid protests a day earlier.

French far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, told several hundred supporters in the German city of Koblenz that Britain’s vote last year to leave the European Union would create a “domino effect”.

A day after Trump took office in the US, Le Pen said his inauguration speech included “accents in common” with the message of reclaiming national sovereignty by the far-right leaders.

“2016 was the year the Anglo-Saxon world woke up. I am sure 2017 will be the year the people of continental Europe wake up,” she said to loud applause.

Le Pen – head of the anti-European Union, anti-immigrant National Front (FN) and seen by pollsters as highly likely to make a two-person runoff vote for the French presidency in May – has marked out Europe as a major plank in her programme.

More than 3,000 demonstrators gathered to protest the Koblenz conference, while some staged a sit-in outside the hall.

Also in attendance was Dutch hardliner Geert Wilders, who used the platform to repeat Islamophobic rhetoric, the central theme of policies that have pushed his Party for Freedom to the front in the polls in the run-up to elections in March.

The leaders of Europe’s established parties were “promoting our Islamisation”, Wilders said in a speech.

European women were now “frightened of showing their blonde hair”, the Dutch politician said, addressing the enthusiastic audience in German.

{Son of former governor killed for supporting blasphemy law reforms threatened after solidarity messages with victims.}

A Christmas message calling for prayers for those charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws has led to death threats against the son of a provincial governor killed five years ago for criticising the same laws.

The case highlights the continuing influence in Pakistan of Muslim hardliners who praise violence in the name of defending Islam, despite a government vow to crack down on religious conservatism.

The hardliners called for mass protests if police do not charge activist Shaan Taseer with blasphemy against Islam – a crime punishable by death.

Taseer’s father, Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was gunned down by his bodyguard for championing the case of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws.

He had been advocating reforms in the blasphemy laws that are used to mostly harass minority groups.

In a video message posted on his Facebook page, Taseer, a Muslim, is seen wishing a happy holiday to Christians, and also asking for prayers for the woman and others victimised by what he called “inhumane” blasphemy laws.

Taseer said on Monday he had received “very credible death threats” from supporters of the hardline Muslim philosophy that inspired his father’s killer, bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri.

“They are sending me Mumtaz Qadri’s photos with messages that there are several Mumtaz Qadris waiting for me,” he told Reuters news agency late on Monday.

Shahbaz Taseer, the other son of Salman Taseer, was freed last year after five years in captivity.

{{Hardline groups}}

Tens of thousands people attended Qadri’s funeral last March after he was hanged for killing the governor because they considered him a hero – showing the potential for this case to become another flashpoint.

More than 200 people in Pakistan were charged under blasphemy laws in 2015 – many of them minorities such as Christians, who make up one percent of the population.

Critics say the laws are often used to settle personal scores, and pressure for convictions is often applied on police and courts from religious groups and lawyers dedicated to pushing the harshest blasphemy punishments.

At least 65 people, including lawyers, defendants and judges, have been murdered over blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to figures from the think-tank Center for Research and Security Studies and local media.

A spokesman for the hardline Sunni Tehreek group said it was demanding police in Lahore to charge Shaan Taseer with blasphemy against Islam.

Police declined to comment and a copy of the police report on the complaint did not mention Shaan Taseer by name.

The police report did reference the Christmas message and opened an investigation under the blasphemy laws’ Section 295-A, which bans hate speech against any religion.

However, Sunni Tehreek has threatened mass street protests unless the younger Taseer is charged under Section 295-C – blasphemy against Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.

Provincial Punjab government officials could not be reached for comment.

{“It is time for weapons to be still forever and actively seek negotiated solution,” Francis says in Vatican address.}

Pope Francis has urged an end to the fighting in Syria as he gave his Christmas address at the Vatican, saying “far too much blood has been spilled” in the conflict.

His traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and The World) message on Sunday was linked by a common thread of war, violence and suffering.

“It is time for weapons to be still forever, and the international community to actively seek a negotiated solution,” he told some 40,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square.

Francis, marking the fourth Christmas season since his election in 2013, also urged Palestinians and Israelis, facing renewed tension after a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements on occupied land, to have the courage to put aside hate and revenge and “write a new page of history”.

“Peace to those who have lost a person dear to them as a result of brutal acts of terrorism, which have sown fear and death into the hearts of so many countries and cities,” he said.

Security was heightened for the Christmas weekend in Italy and at the Vatican after Italian police killed the man believed to be responsible for the Berlin market lorry attack while other European cities kept forces on high alert.

“Today this message [of peace] goes out to the ends of the earth to reach all peoples, especially those scarred by war and harsh conflicts that seem stronger than the yearning for peace,” he said, speaking in Italian from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

He called for immediate assistance to the exhausted population of the city of Aleppo, which Syrian government forces recaptured last week after four years of devastating fighting with rebels.

Members of the Christian minority community gathered at St Elias Cathedral in Aleppo’s old City, as prayers were held for peace at the first Christmas Eve Mass for five years.

“The festive atmosphere is great. It’s a new birth for Jesus Christ and a new birth for the city of Aleppo,” George Bakhash, a Christian community leader, told Reuters news agency.

Francis, the first Latin American pope, also said Christmas should inspire everyone to help the less fortunate, including migrants, refugees and those swept up by social and economic upheavals.

“Peace to the people who suffer because of the economic ambitions of the few, because of the sheer greed and the idolatry of money, which leads to slavery,” he said.

At his Christmas eve Mass on Saturday, Francis said the feast had been “taken hostage” by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows.

On Sunday, he also called for an end to “fundamentalist terrorism” in Nigeria, a reference to Boko Haram, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state.

Francis further appealed for an end to tensions between the government and opposition in Venezuela, for harmony in Colombia, which recently ended a civil war with FARC guerrillas, and an end to strife on the Korean peninsula and in Myanmar.

{Faith groups are working together to care for street sleepers and other vulnerable people in the run-up to Christmas.}

Muslim and Christian groups in Britain are joining forces to help the country’s homeless and other vulnerable groups during the Christmas period.

Organisations including Muslim Aid, the Al-Khair Foundation, Streetlytes, and churches across the English capital of London are expanding their efforts by providing meals and shelter packs to rough sleepers.

Their aim is to make sure those most in need are protected from cold weather and hunger during the holidays when many shops and services are closed or operating at reduced capacity.

More than 100 homeless people attended a Christmas dinner event organised by the groups at the Church of St Stephen and St Thomas in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.

Alongside the seasonal staple of Turkey, volunteers dished out servings of South Asian dishes such as biryani.

“As Muslims, Islam teaches us that we can’t go to bed on a full stomach while our neighbour goes hungry,” said the Al-Khair Foundation’s Syed Hussain, as he managed a stall stacked with containers full of food.

“We’re working with people of all different backgrounds to show that Muslims care and we want to solve the problems facing everyone, not just our own.”

Streetlytes volunteer Chris Hatch, a Presbyterian priest, explained that while many of those working to help the homeless were religious, the project was not “inherently faith-based”.

“We’ve had Muslim and Jewish groups come help here, so it’s not limited to one particular faith, but the main aim is just to serve those in need,” Hatch said.

As volunteers rushed past with plates of food to hand out, Hatch, originally from the US city of St Louis, said the project showed how different faith groups could join hands to help those most in need.

“We can have different belief systems but we can get along together and there can be unity in the way we serve our community, especially the poor,” he said.

“Everybody needs to eat and we all need a place to sleep … so it’s important to serve, whatever your faith.”

Providing warm meals is just one way in which the groups are helping.

The charity Muslim Aid was at the event handing out shelter packs to those that needed them.

The kit includes sleeping bags, multipurpose utensils, and phone numbers on which rough sleepers can contact the charity in emergencies.

Jehangir Malik, the charity’s CEO, said he was shocked at the scale of homelessness in the UK.

“I’ve become accustomed to giving out these kits in different parts of the world and it’s a reality check that I’m having to do this in the United Kingdom,” Malik said.

“Doing the same here in London in the sixth richest country in the world, it’s touching.”

Abu Akeem, also from Muslim Aid, said that the group was handing out more than 1,000 sleeping packs during the winter period and planning to feed thousands more.

“We have nearly half a million people who don’t have proper homes in the UK and we want to work to address that vulnerability,” Akeem said.

Last week, Muslim Aid and East London Mosque – one of the country’s largest – collected more than 10 tonnes of food to hand out to vulnerable families in the run-up to Christmas.

Malik stressed the importance of working with other faith groups to tackle issues such as rough sleeping.

“One segment of the community is not going to resolve issues like poverty, homelessness, and hunger … as British citizens we have to come together,” he said.

“It’s very symbolic that we’re doing this in the run-up to Christmas. It’s a demonstration of our shared values, of our humanity, and our collective concern for the needy.”

{Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian, denies he had intended to insult the Quran in case that has drawn mass protests.}

The governor of the Indonesian capital Jakarta has denied at the start of his blasphemy trial that he intended to insult the Quran, as outside the court rival rallies were staged.

Tuesday’s protests were under heavy police guard as Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the first Christian governor of Jakarta in more than 50 years, arrived at the court flanked by lawyers and police for the first day of his trial.

About 100 Muslim protesters, calling for him to be jailed, chanted “God is great” outside the court, while supporters of the ethnic Chinese Christian sang the national anthem.

Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, bowed to the panel of five judges before being seated alone in the centre of the courtroom as proceedings began.

“It is clear what I said in the Thousand Islands was not intended to interpret the [Quran], let alone to insult Islam or the ulema,” said Purnama, who was responding after the prosecutor read out the charges.

He said that his comments were directed at rival politicians trying to get an unfair advantage in the election by saying that voters should not support a non-Muslim.

Purnama, who is running for re-election against two Muslim candidates, described a loving relationship with his adoptive Muslim parents on the remote Bangka Island.

“I am very saddened that I have been accused of insulting Islam because this accusation is the same as saying that I am insulting my adoptive parents and siblings,” he said.

During the hearing, Purnama sounded typically defiant at times.

“Hiding behind holy verses”, he said many in the country’s political elite were “cowards” who sought to divide Indonesians to gain power.

He could be jailed for up to five years if found guilty of breaking Indonesia’s tough blasphemy laws.

He ignited a storm of criticism in September when he controversially quoted a Quranic verse while campaigning in elections for the Jakarta governorship.

Purnama apologised, but his remarks angered many Muslim citizens, who marched against him in rallies larger than any seen in Indonesia in many years.

“This trial is very political,” Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta said. “It has come right in the middle of [Ahok’s] re-election campaign.”

Outside the court, dozens of protesters called for Ahok to be jailed.

Police guarded the court in heavy numbers, pledging to ensure there was no repeat of the violence seen at some protests against the governor.

The blasphemy saga has generated huge interest across Indonesia, with the proceedings being broadcast live on national television.

The Muslim-majority nation is home to 255 million people, roughly 90 percent of whom follow Islam.

{Nominees from far-flung places include 13 cardinals under 80 years old who could potentially succeed present pontiff.}

Pope Francis has promoted 17 Roman Catholic prelates from around the world to the high rank of cardinal, including 13 who are under 80 years of age and thus eligible to succeed him one day.

Francis, making the surprise announcement during his weekly address, said on Sunday that the ceremony to elevate the prelates, known as a consistory, would be held on November 19.

“Their provenance from 11 nations expresses the universality of the church that announces and is witness to the good news of the mercy of God in every corner of the world,” Francis said.

The new cardinal-electors, those under 80, come from Italy, the Central African Republic, Spain, the US, Brazil, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Belgium, Mauritius, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.

Only one of the 13 cardinal-electors will take on a Vatican job. The others would remain in their posts around the world.

Significantly, Francis said the current Vatican ambassador in Syria, Italian Archbishop Mario Zenari, would be elevated but remain in his post to show the Church’s concern for “beloved and martyred Syria” – an allusion to the devastating civil war there.

It was believed to be the first time in recent history a Vatican ambassador, known as a nuncio, would have the rank of cardinal.

Focus on mercy

Three of cardinal-electors are American moderates, including Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich and Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin, a clear signal to the conservative US church hierarchy that he values pastors focused more on mercy than morals.

The four new cardinals over 80, who get the position as a symbolic honour to thank them for long service to the Church, include Father Ernest Simoni, 88, an Albanian priest who spent many years in jail and forced labour during the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985.

In addition to Simoni, the other three cardinals over 80 come from Malaysia, Italy and Lesotho.

Cardinals, who wear red hats and are known as “princes of the Church,” are the most senior members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy after the pope and serve as his principal advisers around the world and in the Vatican.

Naming new cardinals is one of the most significant powers of the papacy, allowing a pontiff to put his stamp on the future of the 1.2-billion-member global Church.

Cardinals under 80, known as cardinal-electors, can enter a secret conclave to choose a new pope from their own ranks after Francis dies or resigns.

Francis, the former cardinal-archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected in a conclave on March 13, 2013.

With the current batch, Francis has named 44 cardinal-electors, slightly more than two-thirds of the total of 120 allowed by Church law.

It will be his third consistory since his election in 2013 as the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years and he has used each occasion to show support for the Church in far-flung places or where Catholics are suffering.

The Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Lesotho will have a cardinal for the first time, underscoring Francis’ conviction that the Church is a global institution that should become increasingly less Euro-centric.