The deadly attack on Holey bakery in July 2016 and a recent spate of crimes against minorities show that Bangladesh’s commitment to secularism and pluralism are at stake.
On September 15, 2012, a protest in Sydney by Salafi Muslims against an ‘anti-Islam’ film ended in violent confrontations with police.
Jamie Kennedy/flickr
One Nation has built on the racism of its original anti-Asian platform by linking Australia’s secular society to its Christian origins and presenting Islam as incompatible with this way of life.
An ‘us and them’ narrative pervades reporting about British Muslim attitudes, but there remains lack of understanding about what the separation of the church and state really means.
Complex issues require a greater degree of literacy.
The century since the first world war is littered with the broken promises of Muslim rulers to bring about a transition to more representative forms of government.
AAP/Asmaa Abdelatif
The rise of Islamic State and its declaration of the caliphate can be read as part of a wider story that has unfolded since the formation of modern nation states in the Muslim world.
Religion is always in the background.
Treye Rice/Photography and Web Design via flickr.com
Australia has a form of secularism where religion is allowed in the public sphere. As long as religion remains one voice and one option among many, the nation will still be secular.
Religion can be a force for peace, the goal of these Australian religious leaders, or conflict – the believer and not the religion itself bears the responsibility.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
There are religious and non-religious extremists and we should not confuse violent believers with religion itself, which has a long history of peacemaking.
Germany’s ban on teachers wearing the veil has been in and out of the courts for over a decade.
Uli Deck/EPA
Banning teachers from wearing the veil at school is incompatible with the German constitution.
The public image presented of Muslims as a religious minority is no more typical of the modern reality than are the minority of Australians who regularly attend church.
AAP/Jane Dempster
The “cultural Muslim” refers to members of the Muslim community who are non-practising but retain an attachment to elements of Islamic culture. The history of the Muslim world entails the story of numerous…
The High Court landmark decision in the school chaplaincy case is an opportunity for reform.
Flickr/petelawley
The historic majority Australian High Court ruling that the National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP) is “invalid” is a gift to the argument for secular public education. Secular statutes (for example…