Myanmar’s reform program is being challenged by continuing anti-Muslim rioting, which has left 43 dead and hundreds injured in the past two weeks. The rioting has now extended beyond Rakhine State across central Myanmar (formerly Burma), with “well-organised” anti-Muslim riots in 11 Burmese cities and towns, including its second city of Mandalay, where a state […]
Tag Archives: religion
As the cultural fabric of Australian society becomes increasingly varied, Centre of Citizenship and Globalisation Research Fellow, Dr. Anna Halafoff, examines why education about diverse religions and spiritual beliefs in Australia’s state schools is lagging far behind other nations. Due to processes of globalisation, societies such as Australia have become increasingly culturally and […]
Last month, a Victorian tribunal found that the state department of education did not discriminate against children opting out of Special Religious Instruction (SRI) classes. The plaintiffs – parents who chose to opt their children out of the classes – argued the students were treated differently, on religious grounds, and were not being offered proper […]
During last week’s Q & A debate between Cardinal George Pell and Richard Dawkins, it was interesting that both men had perspectives on Nazism that were at once opposed and yet entirely congruent. Pell argued that Nazism and Stalinism were the "two great atheist movements of the last century." Dawkins responded that while Stalin was […]
Religious indoctrination in schools The decision of the Victorian government to provide an extra $200,000 a year to Access Ministries to further religious instruction in schools, and of the federal government to increase funding by $222 million for schools chaplaincy services should be revised in the light of recent revelations of the real proselytizing agenda […]