From the category archives:

Islam

Coptic Orthodox churches turn up on website’s hitlist

January 6, 2011

A list of Coptic Orthodox churches has been unearthed on a Muslim extremist website, including the Alexandrian church that was attacked on New Year’s Day. Some of the other churches on the list have stepped up security in preparation for the Feast of the Epiphany on the 6th. In Holland several nearby Muslim communities have [...]

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Iranian videogame rating system hopes to be Muslim standard

January 4, 2011

The Iran National Foundation of Computer Game (IRCG) is an industry body that, in 2007, established a self-regulated ratings system for videogames. Unlike in Australia where the Classification Board, an arm of the Federal Attorney-General’s office, regulates media, the Iranian Entertainment Software Rating Association (ESRA) seems to follow in the footsteps of the US Enterainment [...]

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Google Earth and religion

December 31, 2010

Google Earth was in the news regarding religion twice recently. The first story concerns the discovery via satellite photo that a prominent Star of David exists on Iran Air’s main building. My first thought was that it was just a geometric symbol, and also one that is prominent in Islam as its artistic tradition praised [...]

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WikiLeaks and religion

December 29, 2010

Here are a few views on what the WikiLeaks dump means for religions the world over. Obviously they focus on diplomatic relations, so we really only see Islam and Christianity represented here. Muqtedar Khan ‘WikiLeaks exposes Muslim nations’ hypocrisy‘, Washington Post (28/11/10) Reuters ‘Scathing U.S. view of French unrest and Muslim integration in WikiLeaks‘, Faith [...]

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Round-up Deux

November 29, 2010

*deep breath* Okay, here’s the rest: ‘Muslims Target TV/Internet Evangelist for Death‘, ChristianNewsWire (14/10/10) Reuters ‘Dead Sea scrolls going digital on Internet‘, FaithWorld (19/10/10) Reuters ‘Bible.com investor sues company for lack of profit‘, FaithWorld (20/10/10) Bob Allen ‘Sheriff’s office settles lawsuit with former church member outed for blog‘, Associated Baptist Press (21/10/10) Heidi Campbell ‘New [...]

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Links round-up

November 28, 2010

Trying to clear a bottleneck of stories I haven’t posted on. Mea maxima culpa. Heidi Campbell ‘Can an online community be a church ? IRS says “No”!‘, When Religion Meets New Media (24/8/10) Joshua M. Z. Stanton ‘Cyber Dialogue: The Future of Inter-Religious Engagement‘, Patheos (6/9/10) Eli Yishai ‘Shas minister shuts down online payments on [...]

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Babri mosque ruling: everyone wins (and everyone loses).

October 4, 2010

Perhaps unsurprisingly the Allahabad High Court struck a compromise between Hindu and Muslim interests last Thursday, ruling that the site be divided between all three parties: beside Muslims and “Hindus” are the Nirmohi Akhara sect, devotees of the Hindu god Hanuman. Text of the judges’ rulings can be read here (thanks to DavidP for this), [...]

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Babri mosque update

September 28, 2010

It has been confirmed that the verdict will be handed down on the 30th of September, as I previously speculated the dating of the texting ban extension indicated. ‘Indian court to rule on Ayodhya mosque row on Thursday‘, Reuters.com (28/9/10)

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Queensland University of Technology lawyer back at work after Bible and Qur’an burning

September 24, 2010

Presumably in honour of ‘Burn a Koran Day’ on the 11th of September QUT employee Alex Stewart, who works in the university’s legal services department, posted a video to YouTube (since removed) that featured him rolling ‘joints’ with pages from the Qur’an, then the Bible. Stewart started to suspect things may have gotten out of [...]

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No bulk texting in India until Babri mosque verdict

September 23, 2010

The Indian government has banned bulk texting for three days until the publication by the High Court as to whether the Babri mosque is on Muslim or Hindu land. The poor Jains don’t even get a look-in. Built in the 16th century on land that Hindus believe to be the birthplace of Rama, antipathy about [...]

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