Jakarta (UCAN): The city government of Jakarta is working with Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organisation, to train and educate up to 1,000 Islamic preachers to spread messages of unity and peace in a bid to combat a rise in extremism and religious intolerance. The programme is scheduled to begin in November.
 
Jakarta’s new governor, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, said authorities want to educate preachers “to preach proper Islamic teachings … and a tolerant Islam.”
 

PARIS (AsiaNews): A group of around 60 Muslim imams came together in Paris on July 10 at the Champs-Elysées where a policeman, Xavier Jugelé, was killed in April this year, before setting out on a Muslim March Against Terror which included stops in European cities that have been the victims of terrorism.
 
They boarded a bus bound for Berlin and then moved onto Brussels, where they were welcomed by representatives of the Belgium government.
 

CASABLANCA (SE): The High Religious Committee, which is in charge of issuing fatwas (Islamic rulings) in Morocco, released a book in 2012 which articulates its position that apostasy should be punished by death.

Drawing on a widespread jurisprudence tradition, the 2012 book argues that a Muslim who changes his or her religion should be punished with death.

VATICAN (SE): “It is not right to identify Islam with violence. It is not right and it is not true,” Pope Francis told reporters during his return flight from World Youth Day in Poland on July 31.

The pope also stressed that he would not identify Islam with terrorism, because that would be unfair and not true.