In every country, gender-based violence is a tragic reality. This violence is frequently hidden, and victims are often silent, fearing stigma and further violence.

We all have a responsibility to speak out against violence, to ensure that women and men, boys and girls, are safe from rape and violence in homes, schools, work, streets – in all places in our societies.
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It would help if we had a single, clear story we could believe about violence – it’s getting worse because of this or that factor in our world, so we know whom to blame; it’s getting better as we all become more educated and secular, so we don’t have to worry in the long term. But the evidence is profoundly confusing.

Richard Bessel begins his lucid and well-documented book with a round-up of contemporary views, from those who think first of the astronomical statistics of humanly devised injury and death in the 20th century to those (like Steven Pinker in a much-discussed recent book) for whom what matters is the gradual change in sensibility that has made us simply more sensitive to the suffering of others – as well as the relative absence of major international conflict in the past half-century or so. As Bessel observes, Pinker’s statistics will seem a little academic if you happen to live in South Sudan or Syria (or Baltimore or Johannesburg).

The paradox of our era in the modern North Atlantic world is that while we are probably objectively more secure against the casual daily risk of violence than our ancestors, we are more anxious and more outraged by the prospect as well as the reality of violence, and more prone to extend its meaning to forms of offensive or menacing speech and action that would not have registered for those ancestors. We are, in a word, more preoccupied with violence; hence the subtitle, A Modern Obsession.
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Four French Imams, who’ve been part of a Catholic-Muslim delegation visiting the Vatican this week, have expressed their shock and condemnation of the attack on the satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’. Wednesday’s attack by masked gunmen in Paris left 12 people dead, with several others in critical condition.

In a statement at the end of their 3 day visit to Rome, the delegation, which includes Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, urges all believers to combat hatred and all forms of violence which destroy life, violate the dignity of the human person and undermine peaceful coexistence between peoples.

Pope Francis, who met with the delegation just as the attack was taking place, denounced the killings and offered prayers for the victims and their families. Also taking part in the delegation was Bishop Michel Dubost, who heads the French bishops’ council for interfaith relations. Philippa Hitchen talked to him about the Muslim leaders’ reactions to the attack and about the difficulty of promoting interreligious dialogue in France today…
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The World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed publication of an open letter by a group of 126 Muslim scholars to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (IS) and his followers.

The letter, issued on 24 September, condemns actions of the IS from an Islamic religious perspective.

“The meticulous, detailed and scholarly rebuttal of the claims of the IS to represent authentic Islam offered by this letter will be an important resource for Muslim leaders who seek to enable people of all religions to live together with dignity, respecting our common humanity.”

“I am especially concerned at present for the safety and flourishing of Christian communities in the Middle East, as well as in other continents. This document is a significant contribution to how we together as people and leaders from our faith perspective and address threats to our one humanity,” Tveit said.

“We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our key Muslim friends and partners, a number of whom are signatories of this letter, to work together with them for peace and justice throughout the Middle East and in other parts of the world,” Tveit concluded.

• Full text of the letter from the Muslim scholars

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The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, based in New York, U.S.A., yesterday published a declaration of principles, signed by the foreign ministers of Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain, as well as by Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in his role as Holy See Observer, to help build a united front to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and the north of Iraq, as well as in other regions of the world. The declaration was approved unanimously by the multireligious Board of Directors of KAICIID, who represent the major world religions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
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Ahead of a new season, U.S. Christians are debating the wisdom of being fans of the country’s most popular sport because of the violence inherent in American football. On one side of the debate are believers like Rev. Rick McDaniel, who in an op-ed for Fox News Saturday said that football is biblical. “There is much in the Bible that supports the qualities needed for playing football,” he said. McDaniel cited godly character traits such as hard work and self-sacrifice as coming from playing football. In addition, he noted that players learn how to win or lose gracefully. On the other hand, there are those who disagree with the pastor. These Christians say that the game is far too brutal and should not be endorsed by a follower of Jesus.
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In his final Thought for the Day this morning on BBC Radio 4, the Archbishop of Canterbury talks about the recent killings in Connecticut and discounts the argument often put forward that “it’s not guns that kill, it’s people” saying: “People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action.”
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“Pourquoi une destruction si épouvantable?” C’est la question que les membres d’une délégation pastorale œcuménique n’ont cessé d’entendre à propos des attaques israéliennes contre le Liban.

Chargée par le Conseil œcuménique des Eglises (COE), la Conférence des Eglises européennes (KEK), la Fédération luthérienne mondiale (FLM) et l’Alliance réformée mondiale (ARM) d’exprimer la solidarité du monde œcuménique envers les Eglises et les populations touchées par le conflit au Moyen Orient, la délégation est rentrée avec pour mandat de transmettre à la famille œcuménique internationale les espoirs et les attentes des Eglises du Liban, de Palestine et d’Israël.
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“Why such awful destruction?” was the question heard over and over again by members of an ecumenical pastoral delegation in relation to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

Entrusted by the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) with the mission of expressing global ecumenical solidarity with churches and people affected by the conflict in the Middle East, the delegation returned with the task of transmitting the hopes and expectations of the churches in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel to the international ecumenical family.
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Dozens of religious leaders from a broad array of faiths have signed a declaration calling violence against women “morally, spiritually and universally intolerable.” “While as people of faith we hold divergent opinions on a wide range of issues, today we proclaim with one voice that violence against women exists in all our communities and is
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