Universal common good

Muslim extremists have sent text messages to at least 10 church leaders in Khartoum saying they are planning to target Christian leaders, buildings and institutions, Christian sources in Khartoum said.

"We want this country to be purely an Islamic state, so we must kill the infidels and destroy their churches all over Sudan," said one text message circulating in Khartoum last month. The text messages were sent in July and August. Read more »

Agenzia Fides reports that the Association of Indonesian Muslim Students (Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam, HMI) has invited Pope Benedict XVI to Indonesia to an International Conference on Dialogue and Peace to be held in Bali October 2012.

President of the HMI, Noer Fajrieansyah led a delegation to the Vatican to extend the invitation to Pope Benedict. The delegation was met by Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Read more »

Ten years after Pew Research Center carried out a study on the American Muslim community, in the United States, the results reveal how the tragic day completely transformed the thinking of five million Muslims living in the United States.

The community in question is a group that immigrated recently to the United States: 63% are still first generation immigrants and 45% in fact, came to the United States after the ‘90s, with four out of ten hailing from the Middle East or the Maghreb. Read more »

A Catholic church was attacked and devastated by vandals wearing masks in the diocese of Quilon, in South Kerala (Southern India).

This is what His Exc. Mgr. Stanley Roman (left), Bishop of Quilon tells Fides, who is "concerned that, as Christians, we are exposed to the growth of different religious extremism, especially that of Hindu but also Muslim background". Read more »

A prominent Czech church leader has welcomed an agreement that would allow churches to reclaim land and buildings seized under communist rule, but forfeit state subsidies in return.

A draft settlement was finalized in Prague on Aug. 25 that allows religious groups to retrieve assets that were confiscated after the 1948 communist takeover, while obtaining financial compensation for others. Read more »

It was almost a blitz. With a surprise move, Turkish Prime Minister, Tayip Erdogan, decided to return thousands of properties seized by the government after 1936 to the non-Muslim foundations.

The “Asianews” agency reported the breaking news explaining also that the publication of the law-decree on the restitution of properties took place yesterday, a few hours before the usual Iftar, the dinner-fest celebrated at the end of the Ramadan fasting day, organized by the non-Muslim religious foundations representative, Lakis Vingas, to celebrate the Prime Minister. Read more »

Australia's High Court dealt a heavy blow to the government on Wednesday by blocking its plans to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia, ruling they could not go to a nation lacking legal safeguards.

Australia had hoped to send up to 800 asylum-seekers to the Asian nation in exchange for resettling 4,000 of its refugees, and the decision leaves hundreds of boat people in legal limbo. Read more »

Associated Press (AP) reports that undercover New York Police Department officers were sent into minority neighborhoods to monitor bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. AP also reports that the police used informants to monitor sermons.

The report claims that the CIA was helping New York City police gather intelligence from mosques and minority neighborhoods. Read more »

The Hudson New York reports that there are more Islamic mosques being built in France than Roman Catholic churches.

It reports that there are more than 2,000 mosques in France in just the past ten years. By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church in France has built only 20 new churches during the past decade, and has formally closed more than 60 churches. Read more »

Pope Benedict presided over the World Youth Day closing Mass in Madrid’s Cuatro Vientos military airport Sunday morning, inviting the young people to be “the apostles of the twenty-first century” and to join him again for the next World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2013.

“You are now about to go back home. Your friends will want to know how you have changed after being in this lovely city with the Pope and with hundreds of thousands of other young people from around the world. What are you going to tell them? Read more »