Saudi-financed Belgian mosques teach hatred of Jews, gays: report

Yahoo – AFP, May 11, 2018

Texts used in mosques including the Brussels Grand Mosque call for gays to be
stoned to death or thrown off buildings and describe Jews as "evil", the report by
the OCAM national terrorism monitoring centre said (AFP Photo/PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

Brussels (AFP) - Teaching manuals in Gulf Arab-financed mosques in Belgium promote anti-semitic stereotypes of Jews and call for the persecution of homosexuals, according to a leaked Belgian intelligence report.

The texts used in mosques including the Brussels Grand Mosque call for gays to be stoned to death or thrown off buildings and describe Jews as "evil", the report by the OCAM national terrorism monitoring centre said.

The writings, which are used to train preachers and theology professors, were "inspired mainly by classical Islamic law from the Middle Ages," OCAM said in a copy of the report obtained by AFP on Friday.

They have "problematic content in terms of radicalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism," the OCAM report said.

Belgian lawmakers say they will discuss the report next week.

The report singled out Arabic-language religious training manuals in the Grand Mosque, which is near EU headquarters in Brussels.

The Belgian government said in March that it would terminate Saudi Arabia's half-century old lease of the Grand Mosque over concerns it was promoting radicalism. It had been run by the Muslim World League.

The manuals call Jews a "corrupt, evil and treacherous people" and call for "war" on all people who do not follow Sunni Islam.

They also recommend "stoning" and "fire" as methods of killing gays, along with throwing them off "the highest building in the village".

One manual says "the most important principle of jihad is to fight unbelievers and aggressors," according to the report. "Armed jihad becomes an individual duty for every Muslim."

OCAM said such manuals are widely available "thanks to the unlimited financial and technological means of the proselytising apparatus of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states."

The manuals, it added, were found not only in Belgium but also in neighbouring countries, both in hard copy and online.

The report comes from the work of the Belgian parliamentary committee investigating the suicide bombings that killed 32 people at Brussels airport and a metro station in March 2016, which were claimed by the Islamic State group.

OCAM director Paul Van Tigchelt will next Wednesday discuss the report with committee members behind closed doors, members of parliament told AFP.

"There is an urgency to be firmer and much clearer and close this scholarly institution," centrist opposition lawmaker Georges Dallemagne said, referring to the Grand Mosque.

Taboo-breaking liberal mosque opens in Berlin

Yahoo – AFP, Yannick PASQUET, June 17, 2017

Lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates opened the
Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque with words of welcome before Christian and
Jewish guests and a large media contingent (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

Berlin (AFP) - With a mission to spread a liberal form of Islam, a mosque where men and women pray side by side has opened its doors in Berlin, complete with female imams.

The Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar" ('God is greatest') resonated through the crowded Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque Friday as US-Malaysian Ani Zonneveld, one of the world's few female imams, launched the call to prayer.

Then one of the founders of the new place of worship, lawyer and women's rights activist Seyran Ates, opened the event with words of welcome before Christian and Jewish guests and a large media contingent.

"We want to send a signal against Islamic terror and the misuse of our religion," said Turkish-born Ates, 54, dressed in a long white robe. "We want to practise our religion together."

Ates -- no stranger to breaking taboos, having called for a "sexual revolution" in the Muslim world -- vowed she would not allow ultra-conservatives "to rob me of my right to be Muslim".

Kneeling on green carpets, the faithful -- men and women, side by side -- bowed to Mecca for the traditional prayer as the imam spoke in German.

Some of the women wore veils or head coverings, others did not.

'Depoliticise' Islam

The new mosque, the 88th in the German capital, is located in a rented room on the third floor of the Protestant Johanniskirche (St. John's Church) building.

Founded by Seyran Ates, the mosque aims to establish a humanistic, 

secular and liberal reading of Islam (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

All Muslims -- Sunni or Shia, Alawite or Sufi -- are welcome in the mosque named after one of Germany's greatest writers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and 12th century Islamic scholar Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes.

The seven founding members said they want to open their prayer hall to all groups, including gays and lesbians.

"This mosque allows Muslims to define themselves in a new way," said co-founder and German Islam scholar Abdel-Hakim Ourghi.

He added that "we will try to depoliticise Islam", as the religion was being torn by rival political movements. "Because religion is a private matter."

Police stood guard outside the entrance of the building.

The founders said they had not received any threats or insults, but that they fully expected not everyone would be happy.

Time for change

Germany, with some four million Muslims, has been the target of jihadist attacks, the deadliest last December when a truck tore through a Berlin Christmas market crowd killing 12 people.

Seyran Ates -- who has campaigned against forced marriages,
domestic violence and so-called "honour killings" among Muslim
migrants -- said the project was eight years in the making (AFP
Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

The arrival of more than one million refugees, most from mainly Muslim countries, since 2015 has worsened the fears of some Germans.

Ates -- who has campaigned against forced marriages, domestic violence and so-called "honour killings" among Muslim migrants -- said the project was eight years in the making.

"Many left along the way," she said. "They told us it was dangerous, that they were afraid."

Elham Manea, a Swiss political scientist of Yemeni background, said the time had come for change, with other so-called liberal mosques having also opened in the United States, Britain and Switzerland.

The Berlin mosque, financed by private donations, is located in the Berlin district of Moabit, which has a large immigrant population.

It was in this neighbourhood that Tunisian Anis Amri, the Christmas market attacker, frequented a radical mosque that has since been closed.

Pakistani human rights activist Mukhtar Mai (C) receives a standing ovation
as she takes the stage following performance of the opera 'Thumbprint', at
the Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theater (REDCAT) in Los Angeles, on
June 16, 2017 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

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Denmark's feminist mosque founder challenges norms

Woman mosque leader seeks new Muslim in Europe

Yassmine el Ksaihi poses in the prayer hall of the Polder Mosque in Amsterdam, 

Netherlands, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. Uniquely in the Netherlands, men and 

women pray together in her mosque, albeit segregated, with the women praying

 in the back of the prayer hall. Devotions and sermons are conducted mostly in

 Dutch rather than Arabic. And non-Muslims are welcome. Across Europe Muslims

 are seeking a formula that lets them be an inseparable part of their country while

 maintaining their loyalty to their faith and origin. (AP Photo/ Evert Elzinga)

Denmark's feminist mosque founder challenges norms

Yahoo – AFP, Sören Billing, October 26, 2016

Sherin Khankan is one of five female imams-in- training at the Mariam
Mosque in Copenhagen (AFP Photo/Betina Garcia)

Copenhagen (AFP) - The founder of Scandinavia's first female-led mosque is a soft-spoken "imama" who has riled conservatives with her views on marriage but others say her project is not progressive enough.

The Mariam Mosque opened in March and held its first Friday prayer in August, when Danish-born imam Saliha Marie Fetteh spoke to around 60 women -- just over half of them Muslim -- about female scholars in Islam and women's rights.

"It was fantastic and very moving," said Ozlem Cekic, a Turkey-born Danish commentator and former lawmaker, who attended the sermon.

"I believe it will strengthen Islam."

Christian and Jewish community leaders also attended the prayer.

"Talking about women's rights is not a Western phenomenon, it's an Islamic ideal," Sherin Khankan -- one of the five female imams-in-training -- told AFP in a sparsely furnished room where the weekly prayers are held.

Arabic calligraphy and Islamic literature adorn its white walls, but the sounds of a bustling Copenhagen street permeate into the apartment.

An "anonymous donor" is paying the lease of the mosque, located in a building in an area that is one of the most expensive in Copenhagen.

The 42-year-old mother of four was born in Denmark. She describes her father, a Syrian political refugee who married a Finnish woman, as "a feminist icon".

Her Christian mother would fast during Ramadan with the rest of the family, while Muslim family members would join her in church on special occasions.

Inter-faith dialogue has always been vital to Khankan who earlier this year publicly met with French female rabbi Delphine Horvilleur in Copenhagen.

In 2001 she founded "Critical Muslims", a group promoting "a democratic and pluralistic approach to Islam."

One month later, the 9/11 attacks in New York had a dramatic impact on how Muslims were viewed around the world, and she found herself spending more time defending Islam.

The role of Islam in Denmark came under renewed focus last year after a Danish-Palestinian gunman killed a filmmaker and a Jewish security guard in twin attacks in Copenhagen.

Changing power balance

Not everyone is a fan. Khankan said she had received threats from right-wing extremists on social media.

Public reaction from conservative Muslims has been muted, possibly because of the fear of wading into Denmark's high-pitched debate on Muslim immigration, which has often dominated political debate over the past 15 years.

"When you are changing structures in religious institutions, you are changing the power balance. You are challenging men's monopoly," Khankan said.

"Of course you will meet resistance, that's obvious and we were aware of that. But I think the opposition we have met has been quite moderate," she added.

Representatives from some of Copenhagen's major mosques did not respond to requests for comment.

After the opening of the Mariam Mosque, Waseem Hussein, an imam from one of the city's biggest mosques, suggested there was no need for it.

"Should we also make a mosque only for men? Then there would certainly be an outcry among the Danish population," he told the Politiken daily.

"According to the Koran, men and women are equal spiritual partners," said Khankan, wearing a long, white skirt and a long-sleeved top but no veil, which she said she only wears while praying.

"We are re-reading the Koran according to our times and our society," she added.

The mosque is inspired by Sufism, a mystic form of Islam, and mostly caters to Sunni Muslims, although "everyone is welcome".

Female imams have existed in China since the 19th century, and are currently active in a handful of countries including Germany, Belgium, Canada and the United States, where The Women's Mosque of America opened in Los Angeles last year.

Denmark is home to around 284,000 Muslims, according to an estimate by Brian Arly Jacobsen, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen specialising in religion.

Islamic feminism

Islamic feminism is at the heart of the Copenhagen project, and a concrete example of that was the mosque's marriage contract, Khankan said.

The marriage agreement states that women have the right to divorce, polygamy is prohibited, men and women have equal rights to their children in case of a divorce, and that the marriage is annulled in the event of mental or physical violence.

Five couples have been married at the mosque, of which two were inter-faith unions. Another three ceremonies are in the pipeline.

Khankan admits that she had to compromise on some of her initial plans to avoid "burning bridges" with the rest of the Muslim community.

Both men and women are allowed to take part in the mosque's activities, but Friday prayers have been reserved for women, as having a mixed audience would have been more controversial.

"Burning bridges" would only "create chaos," she said.

Syria-born Danish lawmaker Naser Khader told Danish media that in a country like Denmark, with its high level of gender equality, barring women from preaching to a mixed crowd was simply not "good enough".

But Khankan said the mosque will appeal to "a new generation of young Muslims who feel homeless and who do not feel at home in the existing traditional mosque communities."

Related Article:

Woman mosque leader seeks new Muslim in Europe

Yassmine el Ksaihi poses in the prayer hall of the Polder Mosque in Amsterdam, 

Netherlands, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. Uniquely in the Netherlands, men and women

 pray together in her mosque, albeit segregated, with the women praying in the back

 of the prayer hall. Devotions and sermons are conducted mostly in Dutch rather 

than Arabic. And non-Muslims are welcome. Across Europe Muslims are seeking a f

ormula that lets them be an inseparable part of their country while maintaining their 

loyalty to their faith and origin. (AP Photo/ Evert Elzinga)

Putin denounces 'IS' during reopening of Moscow mosque

Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a speech at the opening of the country's largest mosque. He sought to promote the positive values of Islam, but also to codemn extremist violence.

Deutsche Welle, 23 Sep 2015

Putin oversees opening of new mosque

Vladimir Putin, concerned about the growing number of Russian-speaking citizens joining the ranks of the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist group fighting in Syria and Iraq, on Wednesday painted jihadism as a distortion of Islamic values and the opening of the new mosque as a positive outlet for Russian Muslims.

"We see what is happening in the Middle East where terrorists from the so-called Islamic State group are compromising a great world religion, compromising Islam, in order to sow hate," he said at the site of the newly reopened Moscow Cathedral Mosque.

The speech, which was delivered just a day before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, also emphasized the mosque's role as a spiritual center for Russians. "It will be a source for education, spreading humanist ideas and the true values of Islam," Putin said.

Among those in attendance were Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was set to meet with Putin later that day to discuss the conflict in the Middle East and specifically in Syria. Concern has grown among world leaders regarding Russia's role in war-torn Syria, with the United States recently accusing Putin of sending troops and military equipment to his embattled ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey, meanwhile, has been highly critical Assad during the country's civil war.

In addition to the estimated 2,000 Russian speakers who have traveled to the Middle East to fight alongside IS, Moscow has also been fighting an Islamic insurgency in the restless Caucusus region in the south.

The Moscow mosque was originally built in the early 1900s, and then demolished in 2011. The reconstruction, which cost $170 million (152 million euros), drew controversy after another mosque was demolished in order to make room for it. One of the largest mosques in Europe, it will be able to accomodate an estimated 10,000 people.

bc/msh (dpa, AFP, AP)

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German state lifts headscarf ban for public school teachers

Deutsche Welle, 9 Sep 2015

Lower Saxony has lifted a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves while teaching in public schools. The move follows a high court ruling that such a ban is against principles of religious freedom.

From now on, public school teachers in the German state of Lower Saxony will be permitted to wear a headscarf while at work. The state's Ministry of Education made the announcement in Hanover on Monday following a decision by Germany's high court that the ban violates religious freedom.

Before the change, teachers were only allowed to wear headscarves if they were religious education instructors giving lessons on the Islamic faith. From now on, all teachers in all subjects may wear a headscarf if they wish, unless it 'provokes dangerous conflict' or 'disturbs the peace' - in which case each incident will be reviewed by the ministry on an individual basis.

But this is unlikely to lead to any major constitutional changes in Germany, as the court's decision was vague enough not to demand that the other eight states that have bans on head scarves for public school teachers - among them Berlin, Bavaria, and Germany's most populous state, North Rhine Westphalia - change their statues.

According to Lower Saxony's Ministry of Education, only one of its 17 female Islamic religious education teachers chose to wear a head scarf last year, and no one had ever brought the ban to their attention as a problem. Allegedly the head scarf ban was a sticking point with a deal the state hopes to make with Islamic associations this coming fall.

es/jr (epd, KNA)

Muslim women wearing various type of Islamic veils (closewise from top left):

a hijab; a niqab; a burqa and a tchador (AFP Photo)

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Iceland MPs vote to abolish blasphemy laws

Iceland's parliament has abolished its 75-year-old laws against blasphemy, approving a bill introduced by the country's minority Pirate Party. The group says it is a step forward for freedom of expression.

Deutsche Welle, 4 July 2015

 

A photo taken on 27 October 2013 shows an exterior view of the Icelandic
Parliament building in the country's capital Reykjavik.

Parliamentarians in the Nordic country overwhelmingly passed the bill on Thursday, with 43 yes votes to just one no. Speaking to DW, Helgi Hrafn, a member of the party which proposed the bill, said it was a law he had been wanting to put forward for a long time.

"The Pirate Party in Iceland wishes to defend and expand freedom of expression. This particular article is the most glaring fault in the general criminal code, which is why we proposed it," he said. Legal protections from hate speech and incitement remain in place.

On its website the Pirate Party states its core policies are the protection of civil rights, freedom of information, transparency and direct democracy. The group brought up the legislation in January of this year, shortly after the extremist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Hrafn acknowledged that although there was "a connection with the timing" between the two, blasphemy being against the law is a "profoundly barbaric and backwards idea."

"We're not going to be scared of freedom of expression because somebody does something bad. We can't allow that," he told DW.

"Freedom of expression is not going to bow down to threats."

The group's ratings have surged since it won three parliamentary seats in 2013, with one recent opinion poll making the Pirates Iceland's most popular party.

OSCE media freedom representative (.@OSCE_RFoM) welcomes decriminalization of blasphemy in Iceland http://t.co/Vl2t0JKwAT

— OSCE (@OSCE) July 3, 2015

A dangerous precedent

Under the previous code, accused blasphemers could face prison time if found guilty. Hrafn argued the criticism that the law was rarely or never applied was untrue, and cited a 1997 case against an Icelandic comedy group as an example of it being used to silence people. "Because of pressure from the clergy the police questioned them, and for a few months they had to wonder if they would be prosecuted," he said.

Several countries have become notorious for their hardline stance on crimes such as blasphemy. In Pakistan on Friday, a Muslim cleric was arrested for supposedly leading a mob against a Christian couple accused of desecrating the Koran. It followed death sentences for a man with a history of mental illness and a Christian woman last year. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, France has cracked down on anyone it sees as supporting terrorism, leading to comedian Dieudonne being convicted for Facebook comments he posted in the days after the attack.

Germany too has seen calls for its blasphemy laws to be scrapped, with a member of the country's Protestant church ealier this year saying that while it may be distasteful, legally it was "an exercise of fundamental rights." Those who break the country's 144-year-old law could be handed prison terms of up to three years, at least in theory. Yet Germany has been a vocal opponent of Saudi Arabia's jailing and flogging of blogger Raif Badawi for "insulting Islam."

Freedom of speech again became a 

hotly-debated topic following the Charlie

Hebdo attack

'Practice what we preach'

Hrafn says it was "obnoxious" laws like these that undermine complaints over other nations' curbs on free speech. "If we are to honor freedom of expression it's not enough for us to point at somebody else and brag about how Western culture is supposedly much better at freedom of speech, we have to practice what we preach," he told DW. "We have to allow speech that goes no further than to offend the occasional person.

"People do not have a right to never be offended."

The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association described Thursday's decision as sending "a vital message to the rest of the world."

"Nations which maintain blasphemy laws with serious consequences should not be able to point to Iceland and say that it has the same kind of law," a statement read.

Despite the law's abolishment, Hrafn insists that Iceland is far from perfect. "Iceland is by no means any sort of a role model when it comes to freedom of expression - not on the legal books," he said. "There are many problems here, and this is the most silly one, but there are more to be fixed."

Top Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz says will no longer draw Mohammed

Yahoo – AFP, 29 April 2015

Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz says drawing the Prophet 

Mohammed 'no longer interests me' (AFP Photo/Alexander Klein)

Paris (AFP) - Cartoonist Luz, who drew Charlie Hebdo's front cover picture of Mohammed following the massacre of the satirical weekly's editorial team by jihadists in January, has told a French magazine he will no longer draw the prophet.

"I will no longer draw the figure of Mohammed. It no longer interests me," he told Les Inrockuptibles magazine in an interview published on Wednesday.

"I'm not going to spend my life drawing (cartoons of Mohammed)."

Luz's cover image in January portrayed Mohammed with a sign saying "Je Suis Charlie" under the words "All is forgiven".

The issue came out a week after the attack by jihadists on the magazine's office left 12 dead. It had a print run of eight million -- a record for the French press.

"The terrorists did not win," Luz told Les Inrockuptibles.

"They will have won if the whole of France continues to be scared," he added, accusing the far-right National Front of trying to stir up fear in the wake of the attacks.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Pope calls WWI slaughter of Armenians 'genocide'

Yahoo – AFP, Ella Ide, 12 April 2015

Pope Francis (centre) leaves after a mass of First Vespers in St Peter 

Basilica at the Vatican on April 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Andreas Solaro)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis uttered the word "genocide" on Sunday to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago in a move likely to anger Turkey.

"In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies," he said during a solemn mass in Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman killings of Armenians.

"The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the 20th century', struck your own Armenian people," he said, quoting a statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001.

Children visit the genocide memorial, 

which commemorates the 1915 mass

 killing of Armenians in the Ottoman

 Empire, in Yerevan on April 10, 2015

(AFP Photo/Karen Minasyan)

Many historians describe the slaughter as the 20th century's first genocide, but Turkey hotly denies the accusation.

While Francis did not use his own words to describe the murders as genocide, it was the first time the term was spoken aloud in connection with Armenia by a head of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Peter's Basilica.

"It was a very courageous act to repeat clearly that it was a genocide," Vatican expert Marco Tosatti told AFP.

"By quoting John Paul II he strengthened the Church's position, making it clear where it stands on the issue," he added.

'Immense and senseless slaughter'

The Argentine pope described the "immense and senseless slaughter" and spoke of the duty to "honour their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester."

The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been under pressure to use the term "genocide" publicly to describe the slaughter, despite the risk of alienating an important ally in the fight against radical Islam.

Before becoming pope, Jorge Bergoglio used the word several times in events marking the mass murders, calling on Turkey to recognise the killings as such, according to religious news agency I.Media.

As pope, Francis is said to have used it once during a private audience in 2013 -- but even that sparked an outraged reaction from Turkey.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise the killings as genocide.

Vatican expert John Allen said ahead of the mass that the "truly bold" thing for Francis to do was "show restraint" -- something the pope may feel he has achieved by uttering the word "genocide" but only while quoting his Polish predecessor.

When Francis visited Turkey in November, President Recep Erdogan offered the pontiff a pact under which he would defend Christians in the Middle East in exchange for the Church tackling Islamophobia in the West, Allen said -- describing it as "a potential game-changer."

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey to the pope's words.

'Shedding of innocent blood'

In 2014, Erdogan, then premier, offered condolences for the mass killings for the first time, but the country still blames unrest and famine for many of the deaths.

In 2014, Turkey's President Recep 

Tayyip Erdogan, then premier, offered 

condolences for the mass killings for

 the first time, but the country still 

blames unrest and famine for many

 of the deaths (AFP Photo/Jure Makovec)

Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were "perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism", before pointing to more recent mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.

"It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent blood," he said.

The pope pointed to Armenia's particular importance as "the first Christian nation", being the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion in 301 AD.

Those murdered a century ago were mainly Christian and although the killings were not openly driven by religious motives, the pontiff drew comparisons with modern Christian refugees fleeing Islamic militants.

He referred once again to the modern day as "a time of war, a third world war which is being fought piecemeal", and evoked the "muffled and forgotten cry" of those "decapitated, crucified, burned alive, or forced to leave their homeland."

"Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general and collective indifference," he said.

Pope Francis and the head of Armenia’s Orthodox church, Karekin II, greet each other

during an Armenian-rite mass in St Peter’s Basilica. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lashes out at Pope Francis for

 "inappropriate" and "one-sided" comments after he used the word "genocide" 

to describe the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World

War I (AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Germany says Muslim teachers can wear headscarf unless disruptive

Yahoo – AFP, 13 March 2015

Picture taken on September 24, 2003 in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, shows

 Muslim teacher Fereshta Ludin and lawyers of the German Constitutional Court 

after a verdict was spoken on wearing a headscarf in class (AFP Photo/Uli Deck)

Berlin (AFP) - Germany's top court said Friday that Muslim teachers can wear the Islamic headscarf in class as long as it doesn't disrupt school activities, in a ruling likely to revive emotional debate.

The Constitutional Court said Muslim teachers in state schools could no longer face a blanket ban on the headscarf, effectively revising its 2003 decision that left the door open to it being barred.

Judges at the Karlsruhe-based court in southwest Germany said a ban could only be justified if the wearing of the Islamic headscarf led to a "sufficiently concrete danger" of disruption in the school, or of "state neutrality".

The ruling is likely to relaunch a longstanding debate in a country with around four million Muslims amid recent divisive protests against the supposed "Islamisation" of Europe.

Since 2003 several of Germany's 16 regional states, which are responsible for education, have banned teachers wearing the Muslim headscarf following the top court's initial ruling.

The Constitutional Court had said it was up to each state to write its own laws on the issue.

But in their decision published Friday following a complaint by two Muslim women, the judges ruled that an outright ban fell foul of the basic right to religious freedom in Germany.

The judges also said that Christian values and traditions should not be given preference, as is the case in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

The two plaintiffs, a teacher and a school social worker, from western NRW state had lodged the complaint against the ban.

Nurhan Soykan, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, welcomed the ruling, saying that even if it did not amount to a "general permit" for the headscarf, it sent a "positive message".

Germany saw weekly protests begin late last year by the populist PEGIDA movement, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident, but the marches in the eastern city of Dresden have waned recently.

The country, home to the biggest Turkish community outside of Turkey, has heatedly debated the headscarf issue since neighbouring France passed a law in 2004 banning the wearing of headscarves or any other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools.

Top French court OKs Franco-Moroccan same-sex marriage

Yahoo – AFP, 28 Jan 2015

The Cour de Cassation, France's highest appeals court, on Wednesday gave the

go-ahead for a French-Moroccan gay couple to marry (AFP Photo/Martin Bureau)

Paris (AFP) - France's highest appeals court on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for a French-Moroccan gay couple to marry, going against a ruling that homosexuals from Morocco and 10 other nations cannot tie the knot in the country.

France legalised same-sex marriage in 2013 after months of intense and sometimes violent protests, and the couple -- Dominique and Mohammed -- immediately got to work planning their official union.

But just two days before the wedding, prosecutors in the southeastern city of Chambery ruled it could not go ahead.

They cited a government circular stating that nationals from countries as diverse as Morocco, Poland and Laos were not allowed to marry people of the same sex in France.

They are among 11 nations that ban gay marriage and had signed agreements with France under which a citizen in a binational couple must obey his or her own nation's marriage law.

Since their failed attempt to tie the knot, two separate courts had ruled that Dominique and Mohammed -- who have asked for their last names not to be published -- could marry.

So prosecutors took the case to the Cour de Cassation, France's highest appeals court.

On Wednesday, the court said that a clause in the agreement signed between France and Morocco on the issue stipulated that the law of one of the countries could be discarded when it was "obviously incompatible with public order".

Public order is a set of rules that help organise a nation, its economy, health system, security, and also includes the rights and freedoms deemed necessary for each citizen.

The court ruled that freedom to marry was a fundamental right in France, and going against it would therefore be incompatible with public order.

The decision could create a precedent and allow gay citizens from the 11 countries concerned to tie the knot in France.

Socialist President Francois Hollande, who had pledged to legalise gay marriage after taking office, faced a huge backlash from the opposition right and the powerful Catholic Church.

The first gay wedding in France was held in May 2013 in the southern city of Montpellier, which has a gay-friendly reputation.

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