One of the worlds last and largest communities of Zoroastrians celebrates its annual fire festival in Iran, where the government has recently been more accepting of its pre-Islamic Persian heritage. WSJ’s Bill Spindle reports.
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The Olympic rings at Bolshoy arena, Sochi, Russia, February 14, 2014 (Atos International/Flickr)
The Sochi Olympics proved to be a big success—exactly what Russia wanted. Right from the opening ceremony itself, the entire event was a megalith in terms of popularity and success. If one wanted to catch a glimpse of Russia’s glorious past as well as its vibrant art, this year’s Winter Olympics were the thing to watch!
But the Olympics at Sochi were not without their share of controversy. Take, for example, the case of the Pussy Riot protest performance.
So success on one hand and chaos on the other. A mixed bag, probably?
However, Russia’s mixed bag had one key element missing: the plight of the Muslims of Sochi.
Once the city was awarded the Winter Olympics, Sochi underwent a massive reconstruction. Roads, bridges, train stations, schools, hospitals, luxury hotels, Olympics’ villages, post offices, and a floating archipelago—yeah, Sochi got all that within the short span of the past six years.
But one particular construction was denied. Sochi’s more than 20,000 Muslims, most of whom had migrated to the city to help with the construction process, just wanted to construct a small mosque.
Nope. Disallowed.
The issue regarding the construction of a mosque in Sochi is older than the city’s Olympics, by the way. The first request to allow the construction of a mosque in the city was put forth in 1996—denied. Year after year, on and on. Same story—the answer is not affirmative.
The city’s leaders, such as the Deputy Mayor Anatoli Rykov, claim that Sochi’s Muslims do not really need a mosque anyway, because the mountain village of Tkhagapsh (roughly two and a half hours by road from downtown Sochi; no rail connectivity) has a single-room mosque.
In reality, Sochi’s bias against Muslims has a historical touch to it. The entire region was ethnically cleansed of Circassian Muslims by the Czarist regime in the 19th century.
Yet, the athletes who went to Sochi did not have a hard time praying. The organizers had ensured the presence of separate prayer rooms for various religions. But for the city’s Muslim residents, unfortunately, the story remained the same. Furthermore, the fact that Muslim athletes had prayer rooms at their service was not a sign of religious tolerance. It was, in reality, a shy effort to quell the voices against Islamophobia.
In fact, these Winter Games brought to the fore an ugly face of rampant Islamophobia in Russia. Whilst issues such as rights of the Russian LGBTQ community managed to receive the limelight, the Russian Muslims were ignored by both the local and international media.
Russia’s homophobia was severely criticized—almost every Western country decided to take a stand against it. But Russia’s Islamophobia went unquestioned. Sochi is not the only city in question; Moscow, for example, has over two million Muslims, but just four mosques (and this number does not seem likely to change anytime soon, according to the Mayor of Moscow).
The billion-dollar Olympic structures, being termed as symbols of a new Russian nation, also signify Russia’s deeply entrenched phobias.
Truth is, Sochi’s mosque-less skyline is just the tip of the iceberg. In Russia, Muslim identity in itself is a matter of suspicion. Also, Russia is not just about Islamophobia. The definitions of Russian nationalism are way too narrow for most folks to fit in. As such, xenophobia and subtle racial hatred are not alien concepts in the country. Winters are cold, after all.
On the brighter side, Sochi has shown that Russia can pull off world-class events and conduct them with success. Russia’s infrastructural investment is paying off well, and the country, against all odds, is doing better than most of its European buddies. Yet, Russia’s growth will be meaningless if xenophobia continues to dominate Russian society. Resorting to racial stereotypes and hatred is not a policy that a state should adhere to.
At the end of it all, if Russia wants its growth to be truly appreciated, it will need to shun its narrow-minded ways, because as of now, all the infrastructural advancement looks futile. Sadly, Sochi will be remembered not just for its world-class stadiums, but also for its pillars of hatred.
via WSU NEWS (Washington State University News) on FEBRUARY 18, 2014:
“Islam for Journalists: A Primer on Covering Muslim Communities in the U.S.” presents the work of top academic experts on Islam in a form accessible to working journalists. It includes essays by reporters from The New York Times, the Tennessean and other news organizations who have covered local stories involving Muslims in the U.S.
“Islam is now a story on Main Street USA, and just as they need the basics of business and politics, general assignment reporters these days also need to have a place they can quickly get up to speed on Islam if a story breaks,” said the project’s lead editor, Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent and founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.
Former Chicago Tribune Middle East correspondent Stephen Franklin was co-editor of the project, which was funded by the Social Science Research Council - an independent, not-for-profit international organization that seeks to advance social science throughout the world - and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Experts contributing to the book include Robert W. Hefner of Boston University, Carl Ernst and Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina, Karam Dana and Philip Howard of the University of Washington and other scholars, along with journalists such as Andrea Elliott of The New York Times and Shereen El Feki, formerly of The Economist.
DOWNLOAD FREE E-GUIDE: Islam for Journalists: A Primer on Covering Muslim Communities in the U.S.
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Thousands of security personnel were patrolling at the Miss World final on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali, where the event was moved following protests by Muslim hardliner groups. Despite threats from the Islamic Defenders Front to disrupt the event, police said no rallies had been staged.
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A large-scale survey shows that Islam is on the rise among British youths.
A new large-scale survey shows a dramatic decline in Christianity among young British people and an equally notable increase in the numbers adhering to Islam.
The survey of 20,062 people was commissioned by former British Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.
Titled “Small island: Public opinion and the politics of Immigration,” the poll included a question asking, “To which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?”
According to a press release on the National Secular Society website on Tuesday, some 36 percent of those surveyed across all age categories had no religion while 55 percent said they were Christian and 3 percent described themselves as Muslim.
Meanwhile, in the 18-24 age group, 46 percent said they had no religion while 33 said they were Christian and 11 percent identified themselves as Muslim.
“The large number of young people identifying as Muslims – much larger than previous generations – suggests that Islam will soon be a much more significant force in this country than it is at the moment,” said Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society.
Earlier in May, an analysis of the 2011 census suggested that Islam could overtake Christianity as the dominant religion in Britain in ten years for first time.
According to the report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of people following the Christian faith in the UK has fallen from 71.7 percent in 2001 to 59.3 percent in 2011.
SSM/HE
A large-scale survey shows that Islam is on the rise among British youths.
A new large-scale survey shows a dramatic decline in Christianity among young British people and an equally notable increase in the numbers adhering to Islam.
The survey of 20,062 people was commissioned by former British Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.
Titled “Small island: Public opinion and the politics of Immigration,” the poll included a question asking, “To which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?”
According to a press release on the National Secular Society website on Tuesday, some 36 percent of those surveyed across all age categories had no religion while 55 percent said they were Christian and 3 percent described themselves as Muslim.
Meanwhile, in the 18-24 age group, 46 percent said they had no religion while 33 said they were Christian and 11 percent identified themselves as Muslim.
“The large number of young people identifying as Muslims – much larger than previous generations – suggests that Islam will soon be a much more significant force in this country than it is at the moment,” said Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society.
Earlier in May, an analysis of the 2011 census suggested that Islam could overtake Christianity as the dominant religion in Britain in ten years for first time.
According to the report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of people following the Christian faith in the UK has fallen from 71.7 percent in 2001 to 59.3 percent in 2011.
SSM/HE
1 of 14. An Iraqi security force personnel inspects the site of a car bomb attack in Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, August 10, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Mushtaq Muhammed
BAGHDAD |
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The United States has condemned the latest bombings in Baghdad which killed dozens of people, saying attackers who targeted civilians during celebrations marking the end of Ramadan were “enemies of Islam”.
Car bombs ripped through markets, shopping streets and parks late on Saturday as Iraqis were out celebrating Eid, the end of the Muslim fasting month, killing 57 and wounding more than 150.
Eighteen months since the last U.S. troops withdrew, Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government.
The civil war in neighboring Syria has aggravated sectarian tensions further and Iraq’s Interior Ministry has said it is facing an “open war”.
“The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the cowardly attacks today in Baghdad,” the State Department said in a statement.
“The terrorists who committed these acts are enemies of Islam and a shared enemy of the United States, Iraq, and the international community,” it said.
It said the United States would work closely with the Iraqi government to confront al Qaeda and discuss this during a visit of Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari next week to Washington.
This has been one of the deadliest Ramadan months in years, with bomb attacks killing scores of people. The latest bombings were similar to attacks in Baghdad on Tuesday in which 50 died.
More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Saturday, similar explosions hit bustling streets and a mosque. The attacks targeted mainly Shi’ite districts and the renewed violence has raised fears Iraq could relapse into the severe sectarian bloodshed of 2006-2007.
“This carnage reflects the inhuman character of its perpetrators,” United Nations envoy to Iraq Gyorgy Busztin said in a statement.
“All honest Iraqis should unite to put an end to this murderous violence that aims to push the country into sectarian strife,” he said.
The State Department said Saturday’s attacks bore the signs of al Qaeda’s Iraqi (AQI) branch. It reiterated a $ 10 million reward for information leading to the killing or capture of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the AQI leader.
Last month al Qaeda claimed responsibility for simultaneous raids on two Iraqi prisons and said more than 500 inmates had escaped in the operation, one of its most brazen in Iraq.
The reward for Baghdadi is second only to information leading to Ayman al-Zawahri, the chief of al Qaeda’s network, the State Department said.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
(CNN) — A candidate in Australia’s parliamentary elections referred to Islam as a country. As a result, she’s now referred to as a former candidate.
Stephanie Banister, a 27-year-old welder running for a seat in Rankin, Queensland, unleashed a series of blunders during an interview with CNN affiliate 7 News.
“I don’t oppose Islam as a country, but I do feel that their laws should not be welcome here in Australia,” Banister said.
Then she added: “Less than 2% of Australians follow haram.” It is unclear whether she meant the Muslim holy book of Quran.
As if that’s not enough, she got her religions all mixed up.
“Jews aren’t under haram, they have their own religion which follows Jesus Christ,” she said.
Judaism is based on the old testament, which predates the birth of Jesus Christ.
Her blunders, though, were not limited to religion.
She said the Australian national disability insurance scheme was “working at the moment.” It is not set to begin until 2016, according to 7 News.
Banister was a candidate for the anti-immigration One Nation party in next month’s elections. The interview gained her worldwide notoriety — with commentators describing her as the “Australian Sarah Palin.”
Palin, a 2008 Republican candidate for president and former governor of Alaska, is known for her blunders. During the presidential campaign, she once cited Russia’s proximity to Alaska as bolstering her foreign policy credentials
It’s unclear when Banister’s interview was aired, but it went viral soon after. She accused the affiliate of editing out numerous phrases where she corrected herself and said “Islamic countries.”
“With the way Channel Seven edited my interview, I was left quite the fool,” Banister said.
On Saturday, the mother of two withdrew from the race, citing threats to her family.
Her campaign lasted a total of 48 hours.
CNN.com Recently Published/Updated
