· February, 2012

Stories about Religion from February, 2012

Russia: Great Lent Has Begun

RuNet Echo  29 February 2012

Citizen media outlets have captured the multidimensional essence of the Russian Orthodox Lenten season, which began on Monday, including issues such the religiosity of post-USSR Russia, the liturgical calendar, the peculiarities of the Orthodox traditions and fasting rituals compared to those observed in the West, and the public statements made by prominent church officials.

France : Who is French and who is not?

  28 February 2012

Abdellali Hajjat, author of the book The Boundires of National Identity: The Injunction to Assimilation in France and its Territories, explains in an interview [fr] on the blog Contretemps the ideological seeds of Islamophobia and the institutional logic that reinforces it. “Racism needs a crutch to provide the principle of...

Cuba: More Sunday Detentions

  27 February 2012

Uncommon Sense blogs about yet another Sunday of repression as members of Las Damas de Blanco were again detained by authorities.

Haiti: Prayers & Priorities

  24 February 2012

The Millikan Daily meets a “beach head for incoming Methodists to Haiti” and is less than impressed with her “mission”, saying: “I for one, am touched that there are people so kind and devout in their servitude to God that they would drink his blood all night on Ash Wednesday...

Afghanistan: Do not kill each other

  23 February 2012

Goftman Roshnayi says[fa] “burning Quran has become another pretext to kill each other in Afghanistan…When Talibans explode bombs, kill people and burn Qurans, nobody cares.” Five killed as protests over Quran burning rage in Afghanistan.

Egypt: Contemplating religion after sectarian clashes

  18 February 2012

Writing on the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund's Tumblr, Rena Effendi comments on her conversations with Christians in Egypt who suffered from recent sectarian violence. The acclaimed photojournalist from Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim country, says faith is a personal issue and more about “relief from suffering than a path to forgiveness.”

Jamaica: Engaging on Twitter

  13 February 2012

“Twitter is a very interesting space once you engage”: Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac finds himself empowered by the microblogging service.

Tunisia: Spoiling the Revolution

  11 February 2012

Jolanare is weary of where the Tunisian revolution is heading to in terms of women's rights [fr]. She writes:  “A young man verbally attacked me because I was wearing red lipstick. He shouted at me : “these are the so-called women of the democracy.”  I replied that it is thanks...

Trinidad & Tobago: Cocoyea Craftiness

  9 February 2012

The cocoyea (pronounced Ko-ki-ye) is “the mid rib of the coconut leaf that is stripped with a knife” and has many uses, from bird-catching to kite-flying; in this post, Simply Trini Cooking explains how to make a broom out of it, which he calls “an integral part of our culture.”

Cuba: Bloggers Say Pope Should Postpone Trip

  8 February 2012

Cuban bloggers have been making their feelings known about the impending papal visit to Cuba, their main concern being that the Vatican is putting its stamp of approval on the Castro government despite regular reports of human rights violations coming out of the island.

France: The first Muslim public cemetery

  8 February 2012

Hanan Ben Rhouma of Saphir News reports [fr] that: “The first Muslim public cemetery in France was open in Strasbourg on Monday, February 6. In a sense, it is a unique cemetery of that kind because it is the first to be managed by local public authorities based on the  Alsace-Moselle Accord...