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In the News

  • Christian Today: Pakistani army warns Christians of possible ISIS attacks
    September 28th, 2015
    Islamic State could soon be launching a wave of attacks on Christians in Pakistan, the country's military has warned.
     
    According to the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA), the Pakistani Army has begun warning individual Christians, churches and Christian institutions in the country that jihadists could attack imminently. The BPCA also reports that the Pakistani military has been "purging IS sympathisers from its ranks".
  • Mail: Muslim father strangled daughter, 19, to death in 'honour killing'
    September 28th, 2015
    A Muslim man has confessed to strangling his 19-year-old daughter to death with his bare hands after learning from police she had been caught shoplifting condoms to have sex with her forbidden boyfriend.
     
    Asadullah Khan and his wife Shazia then dressed dead daughter Lareeb, a dental technician, in her clothes.
     
    They then wheeled her in a wheelchair from their high-rise apartment to the family car, drove to a secluded embankment in their home city of Darmstadt in Germany, and tipped the corpse down it.
  • Church of England: Statement on CofE vision for education
    September 28th, 2015
    28 September 2015
     
    "Church schools continue to be oversubscribed and popular with parents and pupils, opting for a Christian based education whatever their own faith. Both community and church schools increasingly testify to difficulties in recruiting headteachers and our recent consultation has shown a strong desire for more support in training new leaders. Heads and teachers have told us that they want more help and better training to enable them to promote the Church of England's vision for education. To this end we are consulting about plans to better equip and support leaders and teachers across the country in a fast-moving educational environment."
     
    Rev Nigel Genders, Church of England Chief Education Officer
  • IBT: Warwick University student union ban on ex-Muslim campaigner overturned after outcry
    September 28th, 2015
    A decision to ban a secular human rights campaigner from speaking at Warwick University over concerns she would "incite hatred" against Muslims has been overturned after the decision prompted huge outcry.
     
    Maryam Namazie, equality campaigner and member of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, was blocked from talking at an event hosted by the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists' Society after the university's student union (Warwick SU) said a "number of flags had been raised" while researching the campaigner that indicated she is "highly inflammatory, and could incite hatred on campus".
     
    Namazie is an Iranian-born secularist and spokesperson for groups such as the International Committee Against Stoning. Responding to the news she had been banned form the talk, she said the union was "lacking understanding" about her intentions.
  • Guardian: Artwork showing Sylvanian Families terrorised by Isis banned from free speech exhibition
    September 28th, 2015

    Isis Threaten Sylvania is a series of seven satirical light box tableaux featuring the children’s toys Sylvanian Families. It was removed from the Passion for Freedom exhibition at the Mall galleries after police raised concerns about the “potentially inflammatory content” of the work, informing the organisers that, if they went ahead with their plans to display it, they would have to pay £36,000 for security for the six-day show.

  • Mail: You needn't be Christian to be head of Church of England school
    September 28th, 2015
    Church of England schools are struggling to find enough Christian headteachers.
     
    Primaries and secondaries are being forced instead to recruit ‘from other faiths or none at all’.
     
    Practising Christians are in short supply for all teaching posts and those taken on must show only that they are ‘on board’ with CofE values.
  • Herald Scotland (£): Churches' influence in schools under examination
    September 28th, 2015
    Humanists have unveiled a study that claims religion has an influence in schools that does not reflect its wider role in society.
     
    The Humanist Society Scotland (HSS) commissioned the research by Glasgow University to examine the place of religion in Scots law which it is hoped will stimulate debate over religious education in schools and its position in wider society.
     
    The researchers found "in general, there has been a strong drift towards the diminution of statutory support for religion and religious influence".

    "The major exception to this is education," they said. "Education is an area in which the influence of religion has changed its form, but has in many ways been increasing . . .."
  • Times (£): 'Virgin births' condemned by bishop
    September 28th, 2015
    At least 25 young women who have never been in a sexual relationship have had children after paying for fertility treatment, clinics have revealed.
     
    The phenomenon of “virgin births” drew criticism from some ethical and religious campaigners, who said they may not be in the child’s interests and undermined the principle of family life.
  • Guardian: English-speaking female jihadis in Libya issue Islamic State call to arms
    September 28th, 2015
    English-speaking female jihadis have been using social media to try to lure western Muslims to join them with Islamic State in Libya, a new front in the war on terror just 400 miles from Europe’s shores.
     
    Three native English-speaking women have been monitored for months by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a UK-based thinktank, and are believed to be British. They say they have been living in the wartorn north African country since at least the start of the summer.
     
    Using a variety of social media platforms, including Twitter and encrypted messaging apps such as Surespot and Telegram, the three have reached out to their hundreds of followers, and as routes into Syria via its 500-mile border with Turkey have become further restricted they have advertised the journey to Libya as the easiest way of joining Isis’s so-called caliphate.
  • Family Law Week: House of Commons briefing paper published on transparency in the family court
    September 27th, 2015
    The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper which considers transparency in the family court, including communication of information and media attendance, and background on recent changes in this area.
     
    This concise briefing paper considers the issue of confidentiality and openness in the family court, including:
     

    - an explanation of the new family court;

    - the current rules on transparency, including communication of information, media attendance and the publication of judgments, as well as the rules on contempt of court;

    - a history of recent changes to the transparency of the family courts,including the recent direction on the publication of judgments, and consultation on further measures to improve transparency by the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby.