BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell finds Turks wary of the Pope’s historic visit and grapples with the religious controversy sparked by the pontiff’s speech in Bavaria. It must be a very strange visit for the Pope. In Turkey there are none of the cheering, adoring crowds he must be used to by now. The largish…
The far-right British National party was yesterday accused of deliberately ramping up racial and religious tensions by launching a leafleting campaign with anti-Muslim messages, including controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban was one of several images that sparked protests across the world earlier this…
Pope Benedict is being portrayed as a naive, shy scholar who has accidentally antagonised two major world faiths in a matter of months. In fact he is a shrewd and ruthless operator, argues Madeleine Bunting – and he’s dangerous. Only 18 months into his papacy and already Pope Benedict XVI has stirred up unprecedented controversy.
The first representative study of scarf-wearing Muslim women shows: they are pretty normal women. Muslim women seem to feel that everything has been said with regards to the headscarf. It has been eight years since the state of Baden-Wurtemburg refused to allow teaching candidate Fereshda Ludin to wear her hair-covering while acting as an official…
In France and even neighboring Germany the Muslim population has a massive presence, but after 9/11 they face the problem of massive insecurity. In France the controversy of headscarves, the Mohammed Cartoons in Denmark and the mistake of profiling many from the community in Paris has only led to more heartburn and more cause for…
