If Catholics visit Lourdes and Muslims make pilgrimage to Mecca, then football fans must go see Messi, writes Tommy Martin.

Planning permission has been granted for a new cultural centre, including prayer rooms, for Muslims living in Clonmel, Co Tipperary despite strong opposition from a large group of local residents.

The present political leaders on the sub-continent have decisively repudiated the legacy of Gandhi and Nehru, inaugurating what could be a dark new chapter in the history of the region, writes Ramachandra Guha.

The US has banned the Chinese company on the basis that it will use its hardware to spy, so it should do the same to the American social media giants, says Ngaire Woods.

A typical Christmas isn’t available to some, and isn’t suitable for others. Joyce Fegan chats to people who won’t be celebrating the usual way — but are united in making the best of this most wonderful time of the year.

The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country’s most contentious issues.

The brutal ‘reign’ of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS, self-proclaimed caliph, and the world’s most wanted man, has ended, write Ahmed Rasheed and Ahmed Aboulenein.

All over the world, historians are dusting off a phrase that regularly has a sharp, if fleeting, relevance: Pre-revolutionary conditions.

There are many reasons why even the oldest democracies, such as the US and Britain, are increasingly riven by tribal hatreds. But when political leaders deliberately exploit these rifts and whip up hostile emotions even further, they do immense harm to the institutions that guarantee people’s freedom and safety, writes Ian Buruma

Is Ireland tolerant? The week just past, and a few preceding it, provide mixed results.

The United Nations has marked today as the first day of observation to commemorate those who suffer religious persecution.

A Muslim lecturer in UCC has said he will not be intimidated after receiving a threatening voicemail labelling him a “terrorist” and calling for him to be “executed”.

A fringe messaging board was taken down after the El Paso mass shooting, but if the internet is the modern public square, should everyone have their say, asks Dave McGinn

A suspected gunman accused of an attempted terrorist attack on a mosque in Norway and separately killing his teenage stepsister “will use his right not to explain himself for now” in a detention hearing, his defence lawyer has said.

There is hardly a more politically-charged fulcrum of international affairs in the world than the Straits of Hormuz in the Middle East.

The current Trump administration is the most hostile to immigrants in recent US history, writes Dr Piaras Mac Éinrí.

Kieran Read precariously sat upon his team-mates’ shoulders holding the Super Rugby trophy aloft on Saturday, satisfied he had ended his career with the Canterbury Crusaders with one final title.

A “generous gift” from a foundation closely linked to the royal family of Dubai and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates is to fund four new professorships at Trinity College Dublin.

The meaning of words, so the etymologists tell us, can be changed through the centuries by fashion, foreign influences, and carelessness. English is especially vulnerable to mutations that can enrich the vocabulary and sometimes infuriate. To flirt in the 1600s was to make an unexpected sharp movement. Nice began as a negative description of an idiot, stance described an ungainly position.

Sinead O’Connor has said that she is feeling "really really good" and is looking forward to getting back to work.

The apparent triumph of Nigel Farage in the British political sphere has cast a huge shadow over a nation struggling to find its identity, writes Gordon Brown.

The sacking of rugby star Israel Folau for expressing his religious beliefs could end up in the Supreme Court and could have wide-ranging implications, writes TP O’Mahony.

Izz Alkarajeh emerged from direct provision to open one of Cork’s most exciting new restaurants – Izz Cafe. Joe McNamee on our new migrant chefs, their respective cuisines and the impact on our native dishes

Parents at a non-denominational school in Dublin have staged a protest over the use of a Catholic agency to deliver sex education classes to pupils.

I was very interested in your editorial ‘Fundamentalist excluded — Ban on hate preacher is appropriate’ (Irish Examiner, May 14).

The family of slain 18-year-old Azzam Raguragui said they are “resting” their faith in the Irish justice system to hold the perpetrator of the attack to account.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán visits the White House today, but Donald Trump will try to cut an arms deal with him, not promote democracy, say Anne-Marie Slaughter and Melissa Hooper.

For the journalist Gauri Lankesh, railing against India’s right-wing nationalism was a birthright and a calling. In an increasingly intolerant country, it was also a death sentence, writes Rollo Romig.

The principle of religious tolerance or liberty has only been acknowledged by the Catholic Church since 1965. It is not even an aspiration outside the West, says TP O’Mahony

The move prevents Muslim women from veiling their faces.

Sri Lankan soldiers have exchanged gunfire with suspects after attempting to raid a building in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province as part of the ongoing investigation into the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah has been named as one of TIME magazines 100 most influential people.

President Xi’s repression of Muslim minorities is redolent of the Soviet Union’s gulag and will foster a new generation of Islamist domestic terrorists, says Brahma Chellaney

All the main parties in Israel’s election are playing a game of hawkish one-upmanship that spells trouble for any hope for a peace in the divided country says Daoud Kuttab.

An Australian senator has been censured by his colleagues for seeking to blame the victims of last month's mosque shootings and vilify Muslims.

For 23 years the name Crusaders was a source of nothing but pride in Christchurch, the uncontroversial identity of a franchise that claims, with some justification, to be the most successful non-national professional rugby team in the world.

Brunei Darussalam will bring into effect a new law next week which will punish homosexual intercourse and adultery with death by stoning.

The sports editor has an interesting habit of framing questions to me in the context of ‘marks out of 10’. So, when he texted me to ask ‘accuracy marks out of 10 for that L’Equipe story’, I gave it a three.

A new student group is organising an event at Dublin’s Spire this Saturday to highlight Islamophobia and far-right extremism in the wake of the recent terror attacks in New Zealand.

One wonders will the world’s political leaders assemble in Christchurch, New Zealand, in solidarity with the victims of the horrific mosque killings last Friday as they did in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris in January 2015?

New Zealanders didn’t think they were a target, either. Our gun control is better.

A new student group is organising an event at Dublin’s Spire this Saturday to highlight Islamophobia and far-right extremism in the wake of the terror attacks in New Zealand.

A short story I read a few months ago postulated the trains are still running to Auschwitz. Fantasy, of course, but does anyone believe that genocidal racism died with the Third Reich?

The arrival of a woman at the mosque bearing flowers was a “beautiful gesture”, one that meant a lot to the Muslim community, a senior member of the mosque said.