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French nationals and companies in Pakistan have been advised by their embassy to leave temporarily after violent anti-France protests brought large parts of the country to a standstill.Anti-French sentiment has been simmering for months in Pakistan since Emmanuel Macron expressed support for a satirical magazine’s r...

The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which started this week, is the biggest period of giving for UK Muslims.According to research by the Muslim Charities Forum, in 2018 the UK’s estimated 3.5 million Muslims donated more than £120m to global charitable causes during Ramadan, at a rate of £46 every second.This year...

Muslims have begun fasting on the first day of Ramadan, as mosques in England prepare to welcome worshippers in smaller groups due to Covid restrictions.Much like last year, Ramadan will be drastically different from usual for Muslims, with many customs and practices changed due to the restrictions.In 2020, Ramadan ...

Ahmed Shah had always dreamed of bigger things. Though just 17, the high school pupil had taken a job in the coalmines of Balochistan, Pakistan’s south-western province, one of the harshest, most dangerous working environments in the world. Shah was determined to earn enough to educate himself, so he could escape th...

China’s response to criticisms of horrifying human rights violations in Xinjiang is clear and calculated. Its aims are threefold. First, the sanctions imposed upon individuals and institutions in the EU and UK are direct retaliation for those imposed upon China over its treatment of Uighurs. That does not mean they ...

Camps for refugees are growing as old rivalries between Fulani herders and Dogon farmers are exacerbated in Mali’s war on Islamist militantsMopti used to be a stopover for tourists on their way to the fabled Timbuktu, or to see the homes of the Dogon people cut into the yellow cliffs of Bandiagara. The Malian city, which is known for its grand mosque and rock-salt...

Minister cites national security for decision, saying garments are ‘sign of religious extremism’Sri Lanka has announced plans to ban the wearing of burqas and said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security.The minister of public security, Sarath Weerasekara, said he had signed a paper on Friday seeking the approval of the cabinet of ministers to ban burkas...

Muslim groups criticise move, which they say will further stigmatise and marginalise their communitySwitzerland will follow France, Belgium and Austria after narrowly voting in a referendum to ban women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public spaces.Just over 51% of Swiss voters cast their ballots in favour of the initiative to ban people from covering their face completely on the street, in shops...

A fatwa pronounces both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines as halal for MuslimsWhenever imam Alaa Alzokum comes across conspiracy theories – whether in person or online – he bridles at their poor sourcing.“It[’s] always from people who say ‘people say this, people say that’, but never from an actual expert,” he says. Continue reading...

Catholic and Shia leaders strengthen dialogue between their faiths on first ever papal visit to the countryTwo of the most influential faith leaders in the world reached across a religious divide on Saturday to promote peace and unity in a historic meeting.Pope Francis, 84, the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, 90, the spiritual leader of most...

Unanimous decision by highest court hailed a step towards acceptance of LGBT+ peopleA Malaysian man has won a landmark court challenge against an Islamic ban on sex “against the order of nature”, raising hopes for greater acceptance of gay rights in the mostly Muslim country.In a unanimous decision, Malaysia’s top court ruled on Thursday that the Islamic provision used against the man was unconstitutional...

Fleeing to Kyrgyzstan in the 1960s, communities established mosques and villages but the local leaders, or dzhigit-beshchis, are a dying breedDzhigit-beshchi is the name Uighur people in Kyrgyzstan give to the leader they elect for their mahallah – or community. Usually it’s a respected person, mostly an elderly man.Pushed out of China during the repressions of the 1960s, tens of thousands of Uighurs went...

Mayor of Paris suburb labelled an extremist centre says stoking division will not help his townThe HairCoiffure salon on Rue Jean Jaurès, a short walk from Trappes station, is offering a cut-and-blow-dry for women at €18 (£15.50) and €15 for men, a banal observation at the centre of the latest battle in France’s toxic debate over religious extremism.Hairdressers and their clients hit the headlines...

€47m building will feature a church, a mosque and a synagogue all linked to a central meeting spaceOn the site of a church torn down by East Germany’s communist rulers, a new place of worship is set to rise that will bring Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof – and it has already been dubbed a “churmosquagogue”.The foundation stone of the House of...

Dazzling geometric motifs dating from Almohad caliphate discovered during renovation of city’s barA magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville.Last summer, the owners of the Cervercería Giralda...

Rollback in women’s rights could spark backlash as Palestinians plan elections later in the yearA Hamas-run Islamic court in the Gaza Strip has ruled that women require the permission of a male guardian to travel, further restricting movement in and out of the territory that has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since the militant group seized power.The rollback in women’s rights could spark...

Muslim Council of Great Britain brings case against policy preventing burials on unproven health groundsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA group of Muslim families are launching a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) about Sri Lanka’s policy of enforced cremation of all those confirmed or suspected to have died with Covid, saying it breaches their religious rights and is causing...

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey and Labour MP Chris Bryant urge officials and athletes to protest against oppression of Uighur communitiesSenior political figures have called for British athletes to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing in response to widespread human rights abuses in China.Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Labour MP Chris Bryant, a member of the foreign affairs select...