The Religion and Ethics Report

Italy’s nationalist prime minister Giorgia Meloni has no trouble upsetting her liberal counterparts across Europe. But why is Pope Francis one leader she's been trying to keep onside?

Why has Italy's far-right prime minister been trying to keep the pope onside? And the underground religious movement in the Middle East.

In 2008, Brazilian journalist Adriana Carranca arrived in Afghanistan. There, she met a man named Luis, who led her to an underground religious network that resembled a spy ring during the Cold War.

Australian sociologist John Carroll has long been a zealous defender of Australia’s post-war multiculturalism. But now he’s worried that global tensions, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are creating divisions here. In an essay for the Australian Financial Review he warns we are not immune to a clash of civilisation.

We often cite the success of Australian multiculturalism -- half of us born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas, coming from 300 different ancestries. But tensions elsewhere and the toxic tone of social media threaten this project. The federal government has appointed Melbourne Labor MP Peter Khalil as the country’s first envoy for social cohesion. His job is even more important since the security service raised the threat level in Australia.

Religious tensions persist in Bangladesh as the Prime Minister flees. And the Australian government appoints a special envoy for social cohesion.

The ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh could create religious instability in a country where there’s a delicate balance between the Sunni Muslim majority and the Hindu minority. Since the prime minister fled Bangladesh, there have been attacks on temples. Just a few days ago, the government banned an Islamist party that was growing in popularity. 

Wars in Gaza and Ukraine have resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. What are the moral obligations of armies - and the politicians who send them into battle - to minimise death and destruction, even when they're fighting an enemy they consider evil?

The Paris Olympic Games are well underway, but not without religious controversy. The French national team has barred its own athletes from wearing religious items like the hijab. 

France's controversial hijab ban for its own Olympic athletes, plus a theologian and an international human rights lawyer on the moral calculus of war in Ukraine and Gaza.