Religion

Critics call it Islamophobic – but Emmanuel Macron’s ban on the abaya, the long Islamic dress, in schools has won surprising support

The gathering was a reminder that the broad secularism of north-western Europe is the exception, not the rule

The current situation is not a bug of the Swedish legal system, it's a feature

A 1988 report wrote off the relic as a medieval fake. But now the science seems to be turning. Could it have been a miracle all along?

A congregation that’s 100% anything when it comes to ethnicity hardly implies diversity, let alone multiculturalism

Britain is increasingly secular, but religion remains baked into our politics and institutions. Does that need to change?

After mourning Pope Emeritus Benedict, Catholic traditionalists are again lining up against Pope Francis

The extraordinary rituals and legends that accompany the death of a Holy Father

Even for atheists, some of what he preaches is worth considering as secular moral philosophy

A shocking outbreak of violence shows that a multicultural society is open to radical ideas from abroad

Headscarf protests by Iranian women have electrified the world. Will a similar rebellion follow in France?

Is a huge financial scandal about to engulf the Vatican?

The institution that has been a central feature of English life for centuries is increasingly sidelined and ignored. Its very survival looks uncertain

Pope Francis’s credentials as a reformer and the future of the Vatican’s finances are being laid bare as a financial crimes mega-trial unfolds in Rome

Anti-Christian sentiment in India has been on the rise since 2014 when Narendra Modi came to power – and now the attacks are turning increasingly violent

Sarfraz Manzoor on why he’s increasingly optimistic about the future of relations between Britain’s Muslims and non-Muslims.

WILL SELF on being welcomed in church and religious identity

Will Self on a Jewish ritual, and two new TV shows that perpetuate the religion's stereotypes

While ministerial sins make headlines here, ‘father of the EU’ Robert Schuman is on the path to canonisation. The founding father of the European Union may soon be getting a halo. Robert Schuman was the Luxembourg-born French statesman who founded the Council of Europe and masterminded the post-war plan for a single European steel and coal authority. It […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on what might have happened if the attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life had been successful The two bullets fired by his would-be assassin perforated Pope John Paul II’s colon and small intestine, and he lost nearly three-quarters of his blood as he was rushed to hospital. Yet, they narrowly missed his mesenteric artery and […]

When Muslim feminist SEYRAN ATES opened a liberal mosque in Berlin this summer she was met with a barrage of death threats and fatwas. But she says she is undeterred in her campaign to use enlightenment values to defeat extremism – in all forms I have been beaten up in the street, received death threats […]