Only a week earlier, the same Constitutional Court, under pressure from the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, rejected the appeal made by a group of law students for the amendment of the law prohibiting mixed marriages between spouses of different religions.

 

In the nearby sultanate of Brunei—the magazine of the Consolata Missionaries reports—since 1 May 2014, increasing numbers of rules and regulations of the sharia are being introduced in a radical reform of the Criminal Code, with very harsh punishment for abortion, adultery and theft.

 

Agenzia Fides has published updated information about Christian minorities in the Middle East. Thousands of Christian families have fled the city of Hassaké, Syria, because of the advance of the Islamic State (Da'esh). Among the first to flee, are nearly 4 thousand Christian families of various Churches (Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syrian Catholics and Syrian Orthodox) who have mainly taken refuge in the nearby urban area of Qamishli. Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo, head of the Syrian Catholic Archeparchy of Hassaké-Nisibi, left Hassaké with his community of faithful and has found shelter in Qamishli.

 

Lastly, an article by an Arab and Muslim journalist, Abdullah Hamidaddin, explains why a Muslim should read the Pope's encyclical " Laudato Si'."