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PARIS ATTACKS

RELIGION

Pope slams ‘deviant forms of religion’

UPDATED: Pope Francis on Monday slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week which left 17 people dead.

Pope slams 'deviant forms of religion'
Pope Francis slammed "deviant forms of religion" following the attacks in France last week which left 17 people dead. Photo: Andrew Medichini/AFP

"Losing their freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power, money, or even deviant forms of religion," he said, laying the blame on "a culture of rejection" which leads to "the breakdown of society and spawning violence and death."

"We see painful evidence of this in the events reported daily in the news, not least the tragic slayings which took place in Paris a few days ago," he said in his yearly speech to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.

The 78-year-old was speaking after France's bloodiest attacks in half a century, which began with a massacre at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and ended with the deaths of four Jews in a kosher supermarket.

He pointed to "chilling repercussions" from conflicts in the Middle East and "the spread of fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and Iraq."

"This phenomenon is a consequence of the throwaway culture being applied to God.

"Religious fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere ideological pretext," he said.

Not for the first time, Francis called for "a unanimous response… within the framework of international law… to end the spread of acts of violence," and also urged the Muslim community to "condemn all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion."

As Europe began a period of self-reflection on the roots and rise of home-grown terrorism, Francis touched on some of the possible social and cultural issues which may be driving the continent's disillusioned young to jihadism.

He pointed to "a model of globalization which levels out differences and even discards cultures, cutting them off from those factors which shape each people's identity and constitute a legacy essential to their sound social development."

"In a drab, anonymous world, it is easy to understand the difficulties and the discouragement felt by many people who have literally lost the sense of being alive," he said, with the economic crisis only serving to foster pessimism and social conflict.

RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

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