3+ week, 3+ day ago (1056+ words) Mirriam Francis gave evidence to the inquiry on Wednesday about her childhood in Scientology. (ABC News: Jonathon Kendall) A Victorian parliament probe into the impacts of cults and organised fringe groups has heard lived experience testimony from two women who grew up in high-control religious groups. Their evidence has added to calls for a greater focus on the safety of children in religious groups. At eight years old, Mirriam Francis remembers locking herself in the bathroom to avoid "auditing" " a series of intense interviews in which she was asked intrusive and sexual questions. Fighting back tears, she recounted these sessions and her experiences within the Church of Scientology at a parliamentary inquiry this week. "I lied and said I needed to pee. I ran the water in the sink while she knocked," she said. "I lied and said I was…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (451+ words) Anna Halafoff, Juewei Shi and Sue Smith Both crabs and the colour red are associated with luck, success and prosperity for the local Chinese-Australian Christmas Island community, who have lived and worked on the Island since the 1890s. The annual red crab migration on Christmas Island. (James D Morgan / Getty Images) Most Australians know little of the island's natural beauty, or its rich cultural and religious heritage, given it is largely associated with the 2001 Tampa affair and the detention centre established there in the early 2000s as part of Prime Minister John Howard's "Pacific Solution. Due to its geographical isolation and harsh conditions, the island was uninhabited until the late nineteenth century. Phosphate was discovered and mining operations began in 1899, largely undertaken by indentured labourers from Guangdong, China. These men brought their religious traditions with them, and established predominantly Taoist temples according…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (474+ words) Mamdani's moral clarity echoes the Islamic prophetic tradition of the faith (Deen), rooted in mercy (rahmah), justice (ad'lah) and care for the'mustadaf'n (the oppressed). Transitioning is not a sin, as a'former Grand Mufti of Egypt affirmed. It becomes framed as one only when religious authorities conflate gender transition with moral transgression, claiming it violates divine order, despite the fact that the'Qur'n contains no such prohibition and that related'Hadith have been reinterpreted to serve anti-trans agendas. The denial of trans rights ties into a broader pattern of the'adoption of colonial gender binaries, the replication of settler hierarchies and the exclusion of "othered" bodies in the name of tradition or religious purity. These Muslims speak of'decolonisation, but practice the Victorian gender binary imported through British colonialism and later reinforced by'Wahhabi literalism. Before colonisation, the'Muslim world knew gender diversity " from the'mukhannathun of Medina…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (665+ words) When'Justice Paul Brereton's report on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan was released in 2020, it sent shock waves across Australia and around the world. It confronted and confirmed uncomfortable truths: that within Australia's most elite military units, a small number of personnel had likely engaged in unlawful killings, and that a culture of silence had allowed those acts to persist. In the aftermath of the Brereton inquiry, a great deal has been written about war crimes and command responsibility. But one important element has largely been overlooked " something that was signalled on the'opening pages of the report (paragraph 28): The report then introduces a qualification: However, in judging the reasonableness of conduct at the time, it needs to be borne in mind that few would have imagined some of our elite soldiers would engage in the conduct that has been described;…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago (589+ words) Responding to an audience question put to him'during a recent Turning Point USA event, US Vice-President JD Vance expressed his hope that his wife, Usha, who was raised in a Hindu family, would convert to Christianity. After explaining what drew him to the Catholic Church,'Vance said: It was a surprisingly candid remark in an age of secular pluralism " and surprisingly, it provoked two kinds of responses. Meanwhile, in the face of the social media outcry, Vance'doubled down on his remarks: For now, Vance has managed to shut down the controversy, projecting a populist religious message aimed at reassuring his Christian nationalist base in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination. This episode serves as a stark reminder that the politicisation of religion " Catholicism and Hinduism in this case " is intensifying in the age of social media, making our world an…...

16+ hour, 34+ min ago (737+ words) Pope Leo visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, during his four-day visit to T'rkiye. He did not appear to pray during the tour, saying he preferred to just visit the mosque. After T'rkiye Pope Leo will visit Lebanon, on his first overseas trip as pontiff. Pope Leo visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque on Saturday, in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship, during his four-day visit to T'rkiye. The Blue Mosque is officially named for Sultan Ahmed I, leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617, who oversaw its construction." Leo smiled during the 20-minute visit and joked with one of his guides, the mosque's lead muezzin " the official who leads the daily calls to prayer. The Vatican appeared surprised that Leo had not stopped to pray during the visit and that he had…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (870+ words) With these descriptions has come a marked rise in self-diagnosis. Across classrooms, clinics and social media feeds, the language of self has become densely diagnostic, especially among younger, highly online generations. This change is often met with scepticism and derision. Self-diagnosis is dismissed as fashion, attention seeking or a form of moral evasion. Such reactions relieve pent-up frustration, but they do little to illuminate the phenomenon. They treat a cultural development as if it were simply a failure of individual character. A more serious response begins from a different premise: that diagnostic criteria are not passive mirrors of pre-existing conditions " once they circulate widely, they start to shape the very experiences they claim to describe. Several forces make the rise of self-diagnosis unsurprising, even without resorting to cynicism about people's motives. Third, digital platforms strongly favour recognisable categories. Content that…...