Word: secularation
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...Hamas, you have to believe that through negotiation the group can change - that it can moderate both its goals and the means it uses to achieve them. Ironically, the Israeli government once considered Hamas quite moderate. In the late 1980s, when the Israelis were primarily concerned with Arafat's secular-nationalist terrorism, they allowed Hamas to hold rallies and appear on television, even as they banned the PLO. So if Hamas, in Israel's view, was moderate once, could it moderate itself again? The group's founding charter - which brims with anti-Semitism and rules out conceding any historically Palestinian...
...locally known, became a rallying cry for the Pakistani Taliban who have declared war on the central government. It is their Alamo, and as such Aziz's return to the pulpit after two years in jail marks an ominous victory for the forces that are determined to bring the secular government of this nuclear-armed nation to its knees. "This is the second coming of the Red Mosque," says columnist and politician Ayaz Amir. "It will have an impact, like someone rising from the grave. The mosque has become a site of pilgrimage and followers are revivifying their faith...
More than 100,000 former Christians have downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" in a bid to publicly renounce the faith, according to the London-based National Secular Society...
...Back in Britain, Michael Evans, an atheist and former journalist who downloaded the de-baptism certificate in March, believes the Church of England claims more members than it actually has in order to shore up its influence in the secular world. "It claims to speak for the majority of people in Britain," he says. Official estimates are that fewer than one million Britons regularly attend Sunday services, but there are currently 26 Church of England bishops sitting in the House of Lords. "With churches, everybody checks in, but nobody checks out," says Evans, who was baptized as an infant. "There...
...Secular parties appeared to do well even in provinces like Aceh, the only part of the country to have enacted syariah law. Fears in the run-up to the election of violence in the once separatist-minded province failed to materialize although at least five were killed on the opposite end of the country in Papua on election day. Voters in the easternmost province, where separatist sentiment also runs high, went to the polls despite the violence that included attacks on a police station and the burning of a building. "We're seeing the Indonesian voter demonstrating that...