Drainville, the father of the Parti Québécois (PQ) Charter of Values, now a CAQ minister, said he had been presented with at least two cases of schools in Laval where students could gather in a room to pray, ‘in violation of the spirit of the law on secularism.’

“It brings up a lot of emotions in our community,” said the president of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec, Mohamed Labidi, CBC reported.

In a joint statement issued Thursday evening, representatives from several mosques with the Table de concertation des organismes musulmans (TCOM) expressed their shock and indignation at the decision.

The authors of the statement include the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, the Islamic Association of Rimouski, the Islamic Cultural Association of the Eastern Townships, the Association of Muslims of Greater Levis, Mac-Quebec, the Socio-cultural Islamic Association Louperivoise and BelAgir-Quebec.

“We are also outraged that the minister is attacking the young people who are the future of all of us,” they continued in the statement.”

Quebec is Canada’s most-Catholic province, but there has been a big increase in Quebec’s Muslim population, who now makes up five per cent of the province’s people, two percentage points more than a decade ago.

According to 2021 census, there are 421,710 Muslims in the province, up from 243,430 a decade ago, a 73-per-cent jump.

Source: AboutIslam.net

Normally, they’d host Eid prayers at a gym in a nearby park, but the pandemic posed challenges for the mosque, which operates out of a small office space, to offer accommodations for the estimated 500 or so expected to show up Thursday (May 13) for the celebration.

The leaders sought city and private spaces to no avail…To local Islamic leaders, this marks a historic Eid, as they’ll be able to pray with each other amid a pandemic and “in the vicinity of our Christian brothers and sisters,” said Imam Qaisar Waheed Shabir. For Catholic clergy, this partnership is “in the spirit of interfaith cooperation,” Kriz said.

Shabir said it’s “an honor and a privilege” to host prayers at a Christian church, especially at a time when “Muslims have been very badly maligned.”

Source: Religion News Service (RNS)

The CRS collaborates with relevant departments and academic units at the CEU. It crosses the borders of disciplines, confessional and geo-political categorizations, and covers historical periods from ancient to modern times. With institutional contacts throughout the region and worldwide, the CRS provides an important site for academic research and communication.

The interest of the CEU in the history of religions is not only motivated by purely academic or antiquarian interests alone, but also by concerns that arise from the University’s public mission.

The CEU finds itself in a region which was at the confluence of a variety of histories, religious and otherwise, and at the intersection of Ottoman (predominantly Muslim but by no means exclusively so), Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish religious cultures. It would therefore seem appropriate to structure thinking about religious studies at the CEU from this confluence, working backwards into matters historical, and forwards into society and polity.

Institutional Structure and Profile

As an independent unit, the CRS is integrated in the History Department and works very closely with the Medieval Studies Department, with the first academic appointments made in these departments. The Center, thus, works through and supports the existing tissue of the university, while at the same time, it seeks to reach out to other institutions and organizations world-wide and to extend the present potential of CEU.

After several years of discussions and various levels of preparation, the CRS (formerly, the RSP) began operation with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation in 2005.

International Cooperation

The Center for Religious Studies engages in a growing number of exchanges and joint activities with the international academic community. CRS participates in Erasmus student and faculty exchange and welcomes affiliate guest researchers. It is currently acting as the European location of the international project on the History of the Society of Jesus and has participated in the REFO500 International Project, dedicated to fostering and coordinating the study the impact of the Reformation on European society and beyond.

Research

• Faculty Research Project: Striking from the Margins: Religion, State and Disintegration in the Middle East
• Faculty Research Project: The Māppila: Christians, Muslims, and Jews of South-West India
• Paleo-Qurʾānic Manuscript Studies: State of the Field

Contacts

• Address: Center for Religious Studies, Central European University, 1051 Budapest, Nador u. 11, Hungary
• Phone: +36 1 327-3000 extension 2170
• Email: religion@ceu.edu
• Website: https://religion.ceu.edu/

Originally from Belarus, Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev (45) was arrested by the Kurd-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) just before the New Year. He holds an Irish passport and was being closely monitored as a suspected Islamic extremist by the Garda Special Branch before he left the country in 2013 and travelled to Syria.

Roehampton University’s Prof. Michael Barnes SJ told The Irish Catholic that de-radicalization strategies that treat people such as Mr Bekmirzaev as if they are mentally ill or brainwashed are “barking up the wrong tree”, and that solutions to extremism need to be sought within Islam itself.

Trinity College lecturer and Muslim scholar, Dr Ali Salim of the Islamic Cultural Centre, said that tackling extremism is down to education. “The way we counter radical thinking is by education, we educate our community here about their religion and the spirit of peace in their religion,” he said.

Source: The Irish Catholic

Signatories included representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, Sikh, Muslim, Baha’is, Hindu, Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions.

The letter was a response to disturbing comments that Senators Harris, Hirono, Feinstein, and others directed at Catholic judicial nominees. This diverse group of religious leaders reminded Senate leadership that imposing a religious test for public office offends core American principles of civility and freedom and is a clear violation of the Constitution.

Just last month, in fact, Senators Harris and Hirono targeted Brian Buescher, a candidate for United States District Judge, over their concern about his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus. The senators raised questions about Buescher’s membership in a Catholic organization whose beliefs follow those of the Catholic Church. As the letter makes clear, such questions about suitability based on religious belief constitute a religious test.

The letter states, “From its inception, the United States Constitution expressed a commitment to religious freedom, both in the religion provisions of the First Amendment and in Article VI’s ban on religious tests for public office.”

The letter’s message to Senate leaders is straightforward, “Political rhetoric that questions the loyalty and fitness of candidates for public office based on their religious beliefs is always wrong,” on both moral and constitutional grounds.

Source: Religious Freedom Institute

We see young monks in Myanmar, the experiences of a Muslim boy in Pakistan, the blush of first love set against the backdrop of a Holi ceremony in India, and a young girl navigating her parents’ divorce through her Catholic faith in Spain. We watch the ritual of weddings from Kenya to the Netherlands to Wyoming, and the calm and clarity that comes at the end of life, yearning for forgiveness or to forgive.

“Sacred” delves into the darker places of life where faith sheds light, including American prisons and Ebola cemeteries. Belief is deeply personal, despite the theatrics of ritual, which offer a space for collective ecstasy and catharsis. A young Jewish man says that for him, “to believe is some kind of unknowing.” It’s a resonant statement that captures the courage of faith on display in this film, even when it wavers in the face of death and darkness.

The film articulates a concept of universal humanity. No matter the religion or circumstances, we all have the same desires for peace and connection throughout life.

‘Sacred’

• Part of the One Take Documentary Series.
• Duration: 87m
• Director-producer: Thomas Lennon
• Executive producers: William Baker, Julie Anderson
• Production company: WLIW
• Distributor: Argot Pictures

Source: The Los Angeles Times

Islam is the largest minority religion in the country, with the Protestant and Roman Catholic confessions being the majority religions. There are between 2.1 and 4.7 million Muslims. This lack of exactitude has to do with the fact that about half of the 4.6 million people from the Muslim World aren’t believers according a study.

The large majority of Muslims in Germany are of Turkish origin (63.2%), followed by smaller groups from Pakistan, countries of the former Yugoslavia, Arab countries, Iran and Afghanistan. Most Muslims live in Berlin and the larger cities of former West Germany. However, unlike in most other European countries, sizeable Muslim communities exist in some rural regions of Germany, especially Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and parts of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Owing to the lack of labor immigration before 1989, there are only very few Muslims in the former East Germany.

The majority of Muslims in Germany are Sunnis, at 75%. There are Shia Muslims (7%) and mostly from Iran. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community organization comprise a minority of Germany’s Muslims, numbering some 35,000 members or a little over 1% of the Muslim population, and are found in 244 communities as of 2013.

Muslims in Germany belong to several different branches of Islam (approximately data):

• Sunnis 2,640,000
• Alevis 500,000
• Twelvers Shi’as 225,500
• Alawites 70,000
• Ahmadiyya 35,000-45,000
• Sufis 10,000
• Salafis 8,350
• Ismailis 1,900
• Zaydis 800
• Ibadis 270
• Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement 60

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