Erasmus

WHILE most Christians are putting away their Christmas decorations, a substantial minority of them are only now preparing to commemorate the Nativity of Jesus Christ. For some eastern Christians (those who refused to accept a calendar reform in the 1920s), the Nativity feast comes to a head today and tomorrow. Along with the churches of Georgia and Serbia and the Greek clerics of Mount Athos, Jerusalem and Sinai, the largest contingent of people celebrating this weekend will the Russians. 

THE TIMING may have been a little provocative but some of the proposals are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Britain's National Secular Society, a lobby group whose declared aim is to end religious privilege, chose the Christmas season to issue a wide-ranging report on the public role of faith. It comes with a long list of suggestions for curbing what it regards as the unfair advantages now enjoyed by organisations and office-holders devoted to religion.

RASHAD ALI is a British Sunni Muslim who devotes most of his life to combating extremism and urging young co-religionists to reject the siren voices of jihadism. At the risk of making himself unpopular with some members of his community, he actively assists the government’s efforts to counter hard-line Islamism. He works mostly in his own country but also follows the Muslim scene in many other places.

Like many others working in his field, he is convinced that recent events in Syria have made his life much, much harder.

IT MAY not quite be a schism, but it is certainly a significant event in the high politics of the Catholic church. Earlier this year, in a move that seemed to many non-Catholics like a concession to humanity and common sense, Pope Francis cautiously opened the window to the possibility of people who divorce and remarry being admitted to the Eucharist, the church’s most important rite or sacrament.

To clarify: this is a problem that arises only for those who have obtained a civil divorce, but not gone through the burdensome procedure of getting a marriage religiously annulled. In the eyes of the church, they are still wedded to their initial spouses.

ON A recent Saturday evening, dozens of residents trickled into a converted school in Salt Lake City, Utah for their weekly devotions. Many wore traditional Hindu garb but some were dressed more casually in jeans and leggings. Leaving their shoes at the door, they entered a long auditorium decorated with divine images and took their places in fold-up chairs. Soon a group of musicians on a small stage began serenading the worshippers with a familiar, hypnotic chant:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna/ Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama / Rama Rama, Hare Hare

SHADI HAMID is one of the most interesting and provocative figures on the circuit of Islam-watchers and Middle East pundits in Washington, DC. A senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, he has been raising his voice recently to make two assertions which seem, at first sight, to run in different directions. One is suggested by the title of his recently published book, “Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle over Islam is Reshaping the World”. Very broadly, it argues that Islam differs from Judaism and Christianity in having a natural propensity to shape systems of government.

WHAT exactly is Salafism? In continental Europe, the word is now used as a catchall for extreme and violent interpretations of Islam. This week for example, authorities in the German state of Hesse raided five premises including a mosque; it was the latest move in a crackdown on ultra-militant forms of Islam all over Germany which began last week. “Extremist propaganda is the foundation for Islamic radicalisation and ultimately for violence,” said the interior minister of Hesse, Peter Beuth, by way of explaining the latest raids. “The Salafist ideology is a force not to be underestimated,” he added.