Religion

Hamas have authorized the Palestinian National Authority to negotiate on behalf of the group, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, underlining the presence of a growing relationship between Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal.

The Australian government July 30 rejected a report from church leaders describing its treatment of child asylum-seekers as “state-sanctioned abuse,” saying such claims were “offensive.”

The report by a coalition of leaders from Christian churches criticizes how unaccompanied asylum-seeker children are kept in immigration detention.

Eid Mubarak! Or, in English, may your feast be blessed. That is what we Muslims say to each other during these days, when we are celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan. We share deserts, we visit relatives, and we wish, Eid Mubarak.

Nobody listens to officials from the ruling Justice and Development (AKP), so it does not carry much meaning as to how strongly they denounce Israeli mass murders in Gaza.

Islamic community disavows terrorism, extremist organisations

Muslims increasingly perceive ISIL and Boko Haram as criminal rather than religious organisations.

Many Muslims are increasingly critical of the Islamic state -- formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) -- Boko Haram and other Islamic extremist groups, experts said.

The 2013 International Religious Freedom Report, which is conducted by the U.S. State Department, has criticized Turkey over a rise in anti-Semitism in the country and the status of the Halki seminary.

The fresh report on 2013 events quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying that some Jewish groups were behind the Gezi Park protests that shook the country last summer.

Turkey’s ambassador to Washington has written a letter to the American Jewish Congress after the organization asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to return an award he was given in 2004, saying the leader would be “glad” to return the honor.

The International Religious Freedom Report for 2013 published by the State Department says societal discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice remains widespread in the Balkans.

Victims of most abuse, including cases of physical violence and vandalizing places of worship, are usually members of smaller religious groups, it says.

Two high-profile incidents happened last week, at opposite ends of the Arab world. In northern Iraq, recently conquered by the zealots of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), who refer to themselves now as the Islamic State (IS), gave Christians in Mosul three choices: convert to Islam, pay a special tax (about $750, on this occasion), or be killed.