France
French soccer federation limits support for players’ Ramadan observance. Critics see discrimination
By Samuel Petrequin — March 29, 2024
(AP) – Ahead of training camps which took place in March, the federation made clear it would not change the schedule for meals and practices to accommodate players who want to fully observe the religious ritual.
French police hunt an assailant who attacked a man leaving a Paris synagogue
By Associated Press — March 5, 2024
PARIS (AP) — A sharp rise in antisemitic acts in France has been reported in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Notre Dame spire to be crowned with new rooster, symbolizing cathedral’s resurgence
By Thomas Adamson — December 18, 2023
PARIS (AP) — The rooster, a French emblem of vigilance and Christ’s resurrection, will house sacred relics inside it.
More than 180,000 people across France march against soaring antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war
By Barbara Surk and Sylvie Corbet — November 13, 2023
PARIS (AP) — France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but given its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, antisemitic acts today open old scars.
French schools’ ban on abayas and headscarves is supposedly about secularism − but it sends a powerful message about who ‘belongs’ in French culture
By Carol Ferrara — September 29, 2023
(The Conversation) — Catholicism, ‘Frenchness’ and secularism are often conflated in French culture, a scholar writes, while non-Christian traditions are viewed with suspicion.
What is an abaya − and why does it cause such controversy in France? A scholar of European studies explains
By Armin Langer — September 27, 2023
(The Conversation) — In some conservative countries, the abaya is part of expected dress. But in countries where Muslims are in the minority, the abaya can be a way for women to connect with their religious identity.
Pope decries indifference toward migrants, as he prays for the dead in the French port of Marseille
By Sylvie Corbet and Nicole Winfield — September 22, 2023
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis' two-day visit to Marseille is aimed at sending a message well beyond the Catholic faithful to Europe, North Africa and beyond.
France’s laicité in the name of secularism is really only supremacist legacy of colonialism
By Omar Suleiman — September 6, 2023
(RNS) — What is it that makes a schoolgirl’s choice to wear the abaya a form of religious proselytism?
As oil activities encroach on sacred natural sites, a small Ugandan community feels besieged
By Rodney Muhumuza — August 23, 2023
BULIISA, Uganda (AP) — As TotalEnergies invests billions into oilfield development and acquires more and more land, Wakitinti and other Bagungu people who practice traditional beliefs worry the spiritual power of at least 32 sacred natural sites in Buliisa keeps deteriorating.
Former Paris archbishop target of sexual assault probe
By Associated Press — January 4, 2023
PARIS (AP) — Michel Aupetit, who unexpectedly resigned in December 2021 after admitting to an “ambiguous” relationship with a woman in 2012, denies any wrongdoing, his lawyer said.
Qatar offers World Cup visitors an introduction to Islam
By Luis Andres Henao — December 19, 2022
(RNS) — Hundreds of thousands of visitors have come to Qatar during the World Cup. For many it's their first visit to a Muslim country.
French Catholic leaders mired in sexual abuse scandals dig themselves deeper
By Tom Heneghan — November 15, 2022
(RNS) — French Catholic leaders initially played down clerical abuse, but the issue has now gone far beyond the ‘few bad apples’ stage.
Cannabis prohibition in France over the past 50 years has disproportionately punished its Muslim minority
By David A Guba — July 13, 2022
(The Conversation) — France may be getting closer to legalizing cannabis. Still, arrests are rising quickly and often target Arab Muslim men.
France rules against burkini swimwear for religious reasons
By Associated Press — June 21, 2022
PARIS (AP) — While worn by only a small number of primarily Muslim women in France, the burkini draws intense political debate in the country.
Camino pilgrims help rural Spain’s emptying villages survive
By Giovanna Dell'orto — June 21, 2022
TERRADILLOS DE LOS TEMPLARIOS, Spain (AP) — Terradillos de los Templarios, and dozens of villages like it, were built to host medieval pilgrims. Today’s Camino travelers are saving them from disappearing.
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