2011-04-03: Newstalk host Dil opens heart about her ‘child sex-abuse hell’

By John K. on April 3, 2011

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/newstalk-host-dil-opens-heart-about-her-child-sexabuse-hell-2607515.html

By JEROME REILLY

Sunday April 03 2011

As host of Newstalk’s groundbreaking show Global Village, Dil Wickremasinghe fearlessly tackles a variety of thorny topics including racial discrimination, sex trafficking and institutional abuse.

But she says coming to Ireland from Sri Lanka led her to confront for the first time her own terrible secret of childhood sexual abuse that she had suppressed for years. Continue reading »

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2011-04-02: Religious instruction ‘wastes’ class time (Ruairi Quinn)

By John K. on April 2, 2011

http://www.thejournal.ie/religious-instruction-wastes-class-time-quinn-114531-May2011/?utm_source=shortlink

THE EDUCATION MINISTER Ruairi Quinn has said that schools should use the time spent on religious instruction for better purposes – such as improving reading and maths skills.

Quinn said that a recent decline in academic standards, particularly in relation to mathematics and reading, needed to be tackled, reports the Irish Independent. ”Quite frankly, we have overloaded the curriculum”, he told the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools (ACCS). Continue reading »

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2011-02-12: France, Sarkozy denounces multiculturalism as ‘a failure’, in order to catch up with the extreme-right agenda

By Noel on February 13, 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0212/1224289636274.html?via=mr

The LGBT lobbying group Act-up and the 9th Collective of the undocumented (people) have plastered that poster to highligfght the fact that in Sarkozy’s vision of the wolrd, an undocumented migrant does not qualify as “people”.

RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC in Paris 

FRENCH PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy has declared multiculturalism a failure and has taken issue with Muslims praying on the streets of French cities.

In a televised exchange with selected voters, aimed at setting out his plans for the year ahead, Mr Sarkozy echoed the recent critiques of multiculturalism by British prime minister David Cameron and German chancellor Angela Merkel.

“It’s a failure,” he said. “The truth is that in all our democracies, we’ve been too concerned about the identity of the new arrivals and not enough about the identity of the country receiving them. This raises the issue of Islam and our Muslim compatriots.

“Our Muslim compatriots should be able to live and practise their religion like anyone else . . . but it can only be a French Islam and not just an Islam in France.”

Mr Sarkozy’s public approval ratings have held constant at about 30 per cent for the past year and cracks have begun to appear in the centre-right coalition that ensured his victory in 2007.

With a presidential election due next year, his UMP party has been unsettled by the improved standing of the far-right National Front under its new leader, Marine Le Pen. Continue reading »

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2011-02-12: The future of Islam in Ireland

By John K. on February 12, 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0212/1224289614194.html

MARY FITZGERALD 

Ireland’s Muslim population has grown tenfold in 20 years and is still expanding. But official Ireland is failing to engage with the increasing number of ethnic and political groups

‘DOWN A ROAD on an industrial estate in Togher, a suburb two kilometres south of Cork city centre, stands a nondescript former engineering premises whose future will mark a significant chapter in the story of Islam in Ireland. Within a year the hulking concrete building will be transformed into a mosque complex capable of accommodating 1,000 or so worshippers. Design plans show a crescent-topped glass tower overlooking gleaming white arches and domes. The one-acre site will be the second-biggest such complex in the country, after the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), in Clonskeagh in Dublin, and the second purpose-built Sunni mosque outside the capital. It is yet another sign of the deep roots Islam has laid in Ireland. Continue reading »

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2010-11-16: Row over teaching of religion in primary schools’ experiment

By Noel on November 16, 2010

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/row-over-teaching-of-religion-in-primary-schools-experiment-2421874.html

By John Walshe Education Editor

Tuesday November 16 2010

A ROW has broken out over the preparation of pupils for religious ceremonies such as First Communion in five experimental primary schools.

The five pilot Community National Schools use a multi-belief programme called “Goodness Me, Goodness You” that introduces pupils to all major religious and non-religious beliefs. Continue reading »

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2010-11-08: Pope attacks gay marriage in face of mass kiss protest

By John K. on November 8, 2010

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/magdalene-laundries-inquiry-ordered-2413318.html

By Nigel Davies in Barcelona

Monday November 08 2010

Pope Benedict XVI attacked abortion and gay marriage in a Mass to consecrate Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia church in another pointed criticism of what he called Spain’s “aggressive secularism”. Continue reading »

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2010-10-06: Vatican continues to attack Nobel over IVF award

By John K. on October 6, 2010

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/kfmhcwgbidkf/

For the second day, it kept up its public criticism of the choice of Edwards, whose success in fertilising a human egg outside of the womb led to “test tube babies” and innovations such as embryonic stem cell research and surrogate motherhood.

The Vatican ratcheted up its negative opinion as several leading Italian newspapers criticised it for its attack on Edwards.

A statement by the Vatican-based International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), said it was “dismayed” at the choice.

“Although IVF has brought happiness to the many couples who have conceived through this process, it has done so at enormous cost,” the federation said in a statement issued on Vatican letter head.

“Many millions of embryos have been created and discarded during the IVF process,” it said, adding that embryos were being used as “animals destined for destruction”. Continue reading »

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2010-09-05: Allah Akbar gargoyle on the Lyon Cathedral

By Noel on September 5, 2010

What connection with pink adoptions? You may ask.

Well, it is a sign of a very intelligent way of living religion, and can be a good model for an internationally adopted child who may be struggling with a birth religion that is too often demonized.

http://www.leprogres.fr/fr/article/3653388/Ahmed-nouvelle-gargouille-de-la-cathedrale-Saint-Jean.html

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2010/08/lyon-allah-akbar-gargoyle-on-lyon.html

A new gargoyle was put up on the Lyon cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon, in honor of Benzizine Ahmed, the Muslim foreman who led the restoration work on the cathedral tower. The gargoyle stands over a sign saying “Allah Akbar” (God is greatest) in both Arabic and French.

” ‘Allah Akbar’, everybody agrees with that! It’s not as if we wrote that Mohammed is our prophet…” says one of the diocese people. Father Cacaud, rector of the cathedral, wouldn’t confirm that agreement was given by the archbishop. The diocese spokespeople said that the builders sometimes take certain liberties outside the sacred area.

Repellin Didier, head architect for historical monuments, says the stonemasons and sculptures of the cathedral have a tradition to portray the people they esteem. Ahmed, who worked for 30 years on the cathedral, is competent and very humble. A quiet man who is appreciated. It’s a beautiful human gesture, says Didier. Continue reading »

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