Yesterday the ceremony of laying the first stone, presided over by the leader of the Sunni Muslim Endowment movement. UN and EU delegates and citizens present. UNESCO representative: "A journey of physical reconstruction" begins. Planned open spaces, a garden, a memorial and a museum.
Saudi arms race threatens the Middle East
| SAUDI ARABIA – MIDDLE EASTThai Islamic Council bans child marriage following scandals
| THAILAND – ISLAMQaisar and Amoon Ayub have been in Jhelum Jail since 2015. The sentence was read in prison for security reasons. Their lawyer, this could be another Asia Bibi case.
Voting will take place on 30 December. Hundreds of protesters from both sides have been hurt; at least a thousand opposition sympathisers have been arrested. Opinion polls give the ruling party a 66 per cent lead. Soldiers will be deployed at polling station as of 24 December.
Prayers, meetings and confessions are scheduled for Advent. The Bahrain cathedral is essential to meet the needs of Catholics in Saudi Arabia as well. Social and confessional relations are developing slowly. Pope Francis's visit is a source of "encouragement" for the region’s Christians despite some issues.
Vahid Sayadi Nasiri was jailed on charges of insulting supreme leader Ali Khameni and propaganda against the state. He had already spent two and a half years in prison and had been the subject of abuse and harassment. He had not eaten for 60 days to protest against the lack of legal protection and against the prison regime.
In the telegram sent to the Archbishop of Strasbourg, Pope Francis condemns violence and expresses compassion "to the families affected " and to the "French people". Imam Drouiche, vice president of the imams of France: "Islam is going through a profound crisis at a global level". "My religion is hostage in the hands of ignorant and hateful people".
Some six million students attend Quranic schools, both private and government-sponsored. Educating orphans is one positive aspect of madrasas. However, the "sanctification of the Quran” without “real theological explanations” is a risk. Graduates tend to become wives who are "docile” and “conservative in how they live their beliefs."
Sister Marie Melhem, 81, participated in person at the beatification ceremony of Msgr. Pierre Claverie. The bishop of Oran was a frequent visitor to the Land of the Cedars. The meeting with the religious and the Lebanese model of Islamic-Christian coexistence. The pain for involvement of Christians in the slaughter of Sabra and Chatila.
The young 29 year old of North African descent, but born in the French city, fired at a Christmas market. He later collided with the security forces. He is wounded. Six injured are in serious condition.
The first ever beatification ceremony in an Islamic country, in the presence of government representatives, family members of the martyrs, the main imams of the country and representatives of the religious congregations to which the new blessed belonged. The Pope: "this celebration helps to heal the wounds of the past and to create a new dynamic of encounter and coexistence".
