Imam who sponsored dialogue between Christians and Muslims but was accused of terrorism by the president of Turkey

In 1962, a 21-year-old imam, Fethullah Gülen, arrived in the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun to finish his military service. He also gave sermons in the town’s main mosque. This was the heyday of secular Turkey, and he quickly ran into difficulties from a secularist commanding officer who, seeing his sermons as a threat to the republic, ordered that he should be detained for two weeks.

Another officer, however, had a different approach. Spotting that the young soldier was highly intelligent and well-read in Islamic religious texts, but with almost no formal education inside the conventional school system, he recommended that Gülen should start reading western literary classics as well. The young recruit began to read, and enjoy, Dante, Camus and Dostoevsky, eventually developing a taste even for the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Danish politician Rasmus Paludan sentenced to four months for incitement against ethnic group

A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

This forensic account of the 10-month-long trial of those involved in the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed, treads a fine line between empathy and moral judgments while shining a light on survivors’ memories

“V13” was the code name used by those who attended the monumental court proceedings that followed the 2015 Paris terror attacks in which 130 people died and 350 were injured. V13 (vendredi 13) stands for Friday the 13th (of November). The date is engraved on our collective memory: on an unusually balmy autumn evening, carefree youth out celebrating the weekend ahead were massacred in a series of coordinated shootings claimed by Islamic State. The target, it has often been said, was a way of life, the insouciance of terrasse culture and rock concerts, just as the Charlie Hebdo massacre months earlier had been an attack on a way of thinking, on freedom of expression.

Amid the vast cultural production line that the deadly attacks spawned – memoirs, testimonies, documentaries, fiction, film, not to mention the new Museum and Memorial of Terrorism, scheduled to open in 2027 – Emmanuel Carrère’s V13 holds a special place. It chronicles the high-security trial that was unique in its scope and length. Opening on 8 September 2021, it unfolded over 10 months in a room within Paris’s Palais de Justice that was purpose-built to accommodate some 2,380 plaintiffs, 350 or so lawyers, and the media. An author, screenwriter and film-maker, Carrère sat on the uncomfortable press benches to cover it for French magazine L’Obs, and was one of the few who had the dedication and stamina to witness all sessions.

Eight charged in connection with murder of Samuel Paty in Paris suburbs in 2020

It was a killing that started with started with a lie. In October 2020, an Islamist terrorist tracked down and decapitated professor Samuel Paty as he left school on the last day before half-term holidays.

In the days preceding his murder, Paty, 47, who taught geography and history, had been the subject of an intense campaign of online harassment sparked when a 13-year-old student claimed he had discriminated against his Muslim pupils during a class on moral and civic education.

Dr Gillian Hughes, Dr Charlotte Burck, Dr Julia Nelki and Julia Granville the on the Uyghur Tribunal and David Lammy’s visit to China

We were deeply disturbed to read your report about David Lammy’s visit to China that highlighted how our Labour government – headed by a human rights lawyer – has decided to backtrack on plans for formal recognition of acts of genocide in order to facilitate trade deals with China (Labour backtracks on push for genocide ruling on China’s treatment of Uyghurs, 17 October).

For six days in 2021 we attended the Uyghur Tribunal, during which numerous shocking testimonies were presented. We had been asked to provide psychological support to those giving evidence, in recognition of the emotional demands of participation. The courage of those who took part was breathtaking – many spoke of the risk to their lives and to their family members’ lives in participating. We heard accounts of forcible sterilisation, imprisonment and sadistic torture.

Exclusive: Awareness of contribution of black and Asian soldiers could help tackle racism, say leading minority ethnic voices

Politicians and community leaders are calling for the history of black and Asian soldiers who fought for Britain in the world wars to be taught more widely in schools to help tackle ignorance, racism and anti-Muslim prejudice.

Speaking on the 110th anniversary of the first Muslim to be awarded the Victoria Cross, leading minority ethnic voices have said that raising awareness of black and Asian service men and women could help tackle racism and anti-Muslim prejudice after this summer’s riots.

‘Dehumanising rhetoric’ blamed as almost half of respondents say they recently suffered discrimination

Muslims across Europe are grappling with a “worrying surge” of racism that is being fuelled in part by “dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric”, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey in which nearly half of the Muslim respondents said they had recently experienced discrimination.

Published on Thursday by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 9,600 Muslims across 13 member states found that racism and discrimination threads through most aspects of their lives.

MP for nearby Spen Valley’s bill to propose change in law is creating disquiet in a community already concerned about health provision after Covid

On the streets of Bradford, where customers are inspecting colourful stacks of fruit and vegetables piled high outside the shops that sit in the shadow of tall minarets, assisted dying is not the hot topic of conversation.

Many here do not know that a debate on the issue is playing out in parliament, after Kim Leadbeater, the MP for nearby Spen Valley, put forward a private member’s bill proposing a change in the law.

Preacher who built powerful Islamic movement was one-time ally of Erdoğan before they fell out spectacularly

The US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkey and beyond but spent his later years mired in accusations of orchestrating an attempted coup against the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has died. He was 83.

Herkul, a website that publishes Gülen’s sermons, posted on X that Gülen had died on Sunday evening in the US hospital where he was being treated.

Almost £3m issued to mosques and associated sites under places of worship security scheme in year to April 2023

A record amount of security funding has been issued to mosques in the UK via a government scheme to protect places of worship from hate crime.

According to figures obtained by the Guardian via freedom of information requests, almost £3m was issued to mosques and associated sites under the places of worship security scheme from April 2022 to April 2023, a significant increase from the just over £73,000 issued between 2016 and 2017.

Exclusive: George Carey’s position in stark contrast to that of current head of C of E and that of Islam and the Catholic church

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George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has urged Church of England bishops in the House of Lords to back a parliamentary bill on assisted dying, saying that in the past “church leaders have often shamefully resisted change”.

The 26 bishops should “be on the side of those who … want a dignified, compassionate end to their lives”, Lord Carey told the Guardian.

Hamtramck, population 28,000, has new Trump campaign office weeks from election in hopes of gains in swing state

That the Trump campaign would open an office in Hamtramck, a tiny city of around 28,000 people north of downtown Detroit, less than a month before the election, speaks to a particular curiosity of the 2024 presidential race.

About 40% of Hamtramck’s residents are of Middle Eastern or north African descent, 60% are believed to be Muslim Americans, and the city has an all-Muslim city council.

Hate crimes against Jewish people more than doubled while there was a 13% rise in hate crimes against Muslims

Religious hate crimes in England and Wales have soared by 25% to record levels, coinciding with the Israel-Hamas conflict, government statistics show.

The increase, from 8,370 to 10,484 offences reported to police forces in the year to March, was driven by a rise in offences against Jewish people and to a lesser extent Muslims, the Home Office said. The overall number of hate crimes dropped.

As Americans grapple with tensions within and beyond their communities, intimate relationships are strained: ‘Differences feel much bigger now’

Earlier this year, Anna, a Jewish woman in her mid-30s, put a single watermelon emoji in a prompt on her Hinge profile – a symbolic indicator of solidarity with the Palestinian people. Not long after, a man she assumed was also Jewish matched with her and asked what the watermelon meant. “When I responded, he immediately unmatched me,” she said. The only thing she could think to do was laugh.

The war in Gaza, which is stretching into its second year and has killed more than 43,000 people, has influenced every aspect of American life – from college campuses to workplaces, family dinners to the conversation at synagogues and mosques. In the US, where the conflict pulls on deep-rooted allegiances and senses of identity, diverging views have put an undeniable strain on intimate relationships – including even the most nascent of romantic connections.

Shared humanity unifies us, write leading UK figures from Islam, Christianity and Judaism

It has been a year since the brutal Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, and the start of this devastating war in Gaza and beyond. The scale of human suffering has been horrific. As people of faith from Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK, while we may hold different views about aspects of the conflict, we stand united in our grief and in our belief that our shared humanity must bring us together. Our faiths and our humanity teach us that we should mourn for all the innocent people who have lost their lives.

We must also reject those who seek to divide us. Anti-Jewish hate and anti-Muslim hate have no place in the UK today. We must stand together against prejudice and hatred in all its forms. The UK has long been a model of different communities and religions getting along with each other. We commit to upholding and nurturing this proud tradition.
Imam Qari Muhammad Asim, chair, Mosques and Imams national advisory board; the most reverend Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury; chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis; Julie Siddiqui; Dilwar Hussain, chair, New Horizons in British Islam; imam Asim Hafiz; imam Monawar Hussain, founder, The Oxford Foundation; rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg; rabbi Charley Baginsky and rabbi Josh Levy, co-leads of Progressive Judaism; rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch, chair, Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue

Sydney Shias reel at what they see as an invasion of their ancestral home as Sunnis decry the Australian political response

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Every single member of Panse Saleh’s extended family in Lebanon has been displaced from their home – some are sleeping in cars, others on the street or in temporary housing.

Some could have to move again as Israel continues to bombard parts of Lebanon. Sydney-based Saleh fears elderly members of her family could die – whether they stay or attempt to leave Lebanon’s south.

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Featuring peacock-shaped padlocks and a holographic Sufi master, a new museum explores the religion’s influence on Western culture – and leaves visitors wondering how the giant begging bowls were installed

Among the most emblematic paraphernalia of the Sufis is their “begging bowl”, known as the kashkul. That’s why nearly a dozen are at the centre of a new museum dedicated to Sufi culture and art, the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, which has just opened in Chatou, a quiet Parisian suburb on the banks of the Seine.

The kashkul is traditionally made from the nutshell of the coco de mer palm, the tree that produces the world’s biggest seed, and what makes it all the more remarkable is that it’s a fruit from Seychelles that historically washed up 4,000km away on Iran’s southern shores. The journey through the ocean made the shells extremely polished, which Sufis took as a symbol of the inner journey and cleansing the soul of all earthly desires. Forget the irony that coco de mer shells are expensive commodities these days, mainly due to their suggestive shape.

Albanese government names envoy three months after appointing special envoy to combat rising levels of hatred against Jewish community

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The Albanese government has announced British Australian academic Aftab Malik as the special envoy to combat Islamophobia in Australia after months of delays.

Anthony Albanese said in early July that two envoys would be established: one to tackle antisemitism and another to look at Islamophobia during the war in Gaza.

Lawyer Jillian Segal was announced as the antisemitism envoy shortly afterwards but Labor delayed announcing the Islamophobia envoy amid reports people had turned down the role.

But on Monday, the government announced Malik would be taking up the role, which they say will serve to listen to and engage the Muslim community, religious discrimination experts and all levels of government on how to combat Islamophobia.

Earlier on Monday sources confirmed to Guardian Australia that Malik was to be appointed, with the news announced at a Muslim community event later in the evening.

Malik has been working in the New South Wales Premier’s Department for almost a decade. He has previously held roles at the Lebanese Muslim Association.

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My friend and mentor Ayatollah Sayyid al-Milani, who has died aged 80, belonged to that rare breed, a traditionally trained Muslim cleric who was also a trailblazer in the advancement of inter-religious understanding.

Milani’s open-mindedness, forward thinking and widely recognised status as the spiritual leader of the UK’s 100,000-plus Shia community allowed him to provide guidance to British Muslims in difficult times, notably after 9/11, at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq and during the rise of Islamic State.

Prosecutors say Iranians hacked SMS operator to send thousands of texts whose ‘aim was to create division’

Swedish prosecutors have accused Iran’s intelligence service of hacking an SMS operator in 2023 to send messages encouraging people to take revenge on protesters who had burned copies of the Qur’an.

Sweden’s prosecution authority said on Tuesday that 15,000 messages “calling for revenge” were sent in the summer of 2023 after a slew of protests involving desecrations of the Qur’an. “The aim was to create division in Swedish society,” the authority said.