briefing november 2020 religion

Faith and politics

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© picture -alliance / dpa

Church and mosque standing side by side in Cairo, Egypt.
Our view
– by Hans Dembowski

Common ground

World religions share important principles, including peace, justice and charity
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Political influence
– by Carlos Albuquerque

Playing with religious identity

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro won the election thanks to the votes of conservative Christians
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Religion and development
– by Berthold Weig

Ambitious mission

Germany’s development policymakers want religious actors on board as partners for sustainable development
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Community media
– by Geraldine Fobang, Rosaline Akah Obah, et al.

Carefully chosen words

Church maintains network for peace- and conflict-sensitive journalism in Cameroon
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Middle East
– by Maysam Behravesh

The sectarian dimension

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are instrumentalising religious doctrines for political purposes
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Sustainable Development Goals
– by Ulrich Nitschke, Hans Dembowski

The ambivalence of religions

Why religion can be abused for identity politics, but may also help to achieve SDGs
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Identity politics
– by Arfa Khanum Sherwani

Increasingly aggressive

In spite of India’s constitution, Modi government is adopting aggressive anti-Muslim policies
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Ethno-religious identities
– by Anupama Ranawana-Collie, Arjuna Ranawana

Tinged with racism

The brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s former president, wants to be elected head of state and is wooing a radicalised Buddhist base
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Blog
– by Hans Dembowski

A heartfelt sermon

Ed Husain’s book “The house of Islam” contains important insights, but it is not the “global history” the subtitle promises
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Blog
– by Hans Dembowski

Self-pitying majority

K.S. Komireddi argues stringently that India's current government is driven by a dangerous Hindu-supremacist ideology
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Church-state relations
– by Hans Dembowski

Prophetic speech and witness

25 years after the end of apartheid, South African church leaders are considering what role to play in politics
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