Habemus papam: Catholic Church’s new pope could be one of these cardinals

When the Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to choose a successor to Pope Francis, they will be looking above all for a holy man who can guide the Catholic Church. (AP)
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Updated 30 April 2025
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Habemus papam: Catholic Church’s new pope could be one of these cardinals

  • There are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered ‘papabile’ or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope

Wanted: A holy man.
Job description: Leading the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church.
Location: Vatican City.
There are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered “papabile,” or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope. After St. John Paul II broke the centuries-long Italian hold on the papacy in 1978, the field of contenders has broadened considerably.
When the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to choose a successor to Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, they will be looking above all for a holy man who can guide the Catholic Church. Beyond that, they will weigh his administrative and pastoral experience and consider what the church needs today.
Here is a selection of possible contenders, in no particular order. The list will be updated as cardinals continue their closed-door, pre-conclave discussions.




Cardinal Pietro Parolin. (AP)

Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Date of Birth: Jan. 17, 1955
Nationality: Italian
Position: Vatican secretary of state under Francis
Experience: Veteran Vatican diplomat
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 70-year-old veteran diplomat was Francis’ secretary of state, essentially the Holy See’s prime minister.
Though associated closely with Francis’ pontificate, Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a course correction.
Parolin oversaw the Holy See’s controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved – but not charged – in the Vatican’s botched investment in a London real estate venture that led to a 2021 trial of another cardinal and nine others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the Latin American church well and played a key role in the 2014 US-Cuba detente, which the Vatican helped facilitate.
If he were elected, he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).
But Parolin has very little pastoral experience: He entered the seminary at age 14, four years after his father was killed in a car accident. After his 1980 ordination, he spent two years as a parish priest near his hometown in northern Italy, but then went to Rome to study and entered the Vatican diplomatic service, where he has remained ever since. He has served at Vatican embassies in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela.
He is widely respected for his diplomatic finesse on some of the thorniest dossiers facing the Catholic Church. He has long been involved in the China file, and he played a hands-on role in the Holy See’s diplomatic rapprochement with Vietnam that resulted in an agreement to establish a resident Vatican representative in the country.
Parolin was also the Vatican’s point-person in its frustrated efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He has tried to make the church’s voice heard as the Trump administration began working to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Let’s hope we can arrive at a peace that, in order to be solid, lasting, must be a just peace, must involve all the actors who are at stake and take into account the principles of international law and the UN declarations,” he said.
Parolin might find the geopolitical reality ushered in by the Trump administration somewhat unreceptive to the Holy See’s soft power.




Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. (AP)

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Date of Birth: June 21, 1957
Nationality: Filipino
Position: Pro-Prefect, Dicastery for Evangelization under Francis
Experience: Former archbishop of Manila, Philippines
Made a cardinal by: Benedict
Tagle, 67, is on many bookmakers’ lists to be the first Asian pope, a choice that would acknowledge a part of the world where the church is growing.
Francis brought the popular archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, which serves the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa. His role took on greater weight when Francis reformed the Vatican bureaucracy. Tagle often cites his Chinese heritage – his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family that moved to the Philippines.
Though he has pastoral, Vatican and management experience – he headed the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity groups before coming to Rome permanently – Tagle would be on the young side to be elected pope, with cardinals perhaps preferring an older candidate whose papacy would be more limited.
Tagle is known as a good communicator and teacher – key attributes for a pope.
“The pope will have to do a lot of teaching, we’ll have to face the cameras all the time so if there will be a communicator pope, that’s very desirable,” said Leo Ocampo, a theology professor at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
That said, Tagle’s tenure at Caritas was not without controversy and some have questioned his management skills.
In 2022, Francis ousted the Caritas management, including demoting Tagle. The Holy See said an outside investigation had found “real deficiencies” in management that had affected staff morale at the Caritas secretariat in Rome.




Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu. (AP)

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
Date of Birth: Jan. 24, 1960
Nationality: Congolese
Position: Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo
Experience: President of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 65-year-old Ambongo is one of Africa’s most outspoken Catholic leaders, heading the archdiocese that has the largest number of Catholics on the continent that seen as the future of the church.
He has been archbishop of Congo’s capital since 2018 and a cardinal since in 2019. Francis also appointed him to a group of advisers that was helping reorganize the Vatican bureaucracy.
In Congo and across Africa, Ambongo has been deeply committed to the Catholic orthodoxy and is seen as conservative.
In 2024, he signed a statement on behalf of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar refusing to follow Francis’ declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples in what amounted to continent-wide dissent from a papal teaching. The rebuke crystalized both the African church’s line on LGBTQ+ outreach and Ambongo’s stature within the African hierarchy.
He has received praise from some in Congo for promoting interfaith tolerance, especially on a continent where religious divisions between Christians and Muslims are common.
“He is for the openness of the church to different cultures,” said Monsignor Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, who has long worked with Ambongo.
An outspoken government critic, the cardinal is also known for his unwavering advocacy for social justice.
In a country with high poverty and hunger levels despite being rich in minerals, and where fighting by rebel groups has killed thousands and displaced millions in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, he frequently criticizes both government corruption and inaction, as well as the exploitation of the country’s natural resources by foreign powers.
“Congo is the plate from which everyone eats, except for our people,” he said last year during a speech at the Pontifical Antonianum University.
Ambongo’s criticism of authorities has drawn both public admiration and legal scrutiny. Last year, prosecutors ordered a judicial investigation of him after accusing him of “seditious behavior” over his criticism of the government’s handling of the conflict in eastern Congo.




Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. (AP)

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
Date of Birth: Oct. 11, 1955
Nationality: Italian
Current position: Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, president of the Italian bishops conference
Previous position: Auxiliary bishop of Rome
Made a cardinal by: Francis
Zuppi, 69, came up as a street priest in the image of Francis, who promoted him quickly: first to archbishop of the wealthy archdiocese of Bologna in northern Italy in 2015, before bestowing the title of cardinal in 2019.
He is closely closely affiliated with the Sant’Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was part of Sant’Egidio’s team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique’s civil war in the 1990s and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He traveled to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the Holy See for help in winning the release of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and brought to Russia during the war. The mission also took him to China and the United States.
After making him a cardinal, Francis made clear he wanted him in charge of Italy’s bishops, a sign of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a “street priest” – someone who prioritizes ministering to poor and homeless people and refugees.
Zuppi would be a candidate in Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy.
In a sign of his progressive leanings, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building a Bridge,” by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.
Zuppi wrote that building bridges with the community was a “difficult process, still unfolding.” He recognized that “doing nothing, on the other hand, risks causing a great deal of suffering, makes people feel lonely, and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme.”
Zuppi’s family also has strong institutional ties: His father worked for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s.




Cardinal Peter Erdo. (AP)

Cardinal Peter Erdo
Date of Birth: June 25, 1952
Nationality: Hungarian
Position: Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary
Past experience: Twice elected head of the umbrella group of European bishops conferences
Made a cardinal by: John Paul
Known by his peers as a serious theologian, scholar and educator, Erdo, 72, is a leading contender among conservatives. He has served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was made a cardinal by John Paul the following year. He has participated in two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Benedict and Francis.
Holding doctorates in theology and canon law, Erdo, speaks six languages, is a proponent of doctrinal orthodoxy, and champions the church’s positions on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.
Erdo opposes same-sex unions, and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce be able to receive communion. He stated in 2015 that divorced Catholics should only be permitted communion if they remain sexually abstinent in their new marriage.
An advocate for traditional family structures, he helped organize Francis’ 2014 and 2015 Vatican meetings on the family.
From 2006 to 2016, Erdo served as president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, helping to foster collaboration among Catholic bishops across Europe and to address contemporary issues facing the church on the continent.
While careful to avoid taking part in Hungary’s often tumultuous political life, Erdo has maintained a close relationship with the country’s rightist populist government, which provides generous subsidies to Christian churches.
He has been reluctant to take positions on several of the government’s policies that divided society in Hungary such as public campaigns that villainized migrants and refugees and laws that eroded the rights of LGBTQ+ communities.
When hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers entered Europe in 2015 fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa, Erdo emphasized that the church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, but stopped short of the full-throated advocacy for migrants that was one of Francis’ top priorities.


France wildfire shuts down Marseille airport, halts trains

Updated 7 sec ago
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France wildfire shuts down Marseille airport, halts trains

  • Several forest fires have raged in recent days in southern France, fanning out at speed due to wind and parched vegetation after a heatwave
  • The fire started in a vehicle in the area of Pennes-Mirabeau to the north of Marseille, on the road to the airport

MARSEILLE: A wildfire in southern France on Tuesday forced Marseille airport to close and interrupted train traffic as the blaze spread rapidly to the edges of the city.
Several forest fires have raged in recent days in southern France, fanning out at speed due to wind and parched vegetation after a heatwave.
Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing the intensity, length and frequency of extreme heat that fuels forest fires.
The fire started in a vehicle in the area of Pennes-Mirabeau to the north of Marseille, on the road to the airport, roaring across 700 hectares (1,700 acres) by the evening, firefighters said.
It sent plumes of acrid smoke billowing into the sky, causing the airport to close its runways shortly after midday (1000 GMT), a spokesman for the Marseille Provence airport said.
The spokesman later said that the airport would partially reopen at around 9:30 p.m. and that 54 flights had been canceled and another 14 redirected.
The website of the SNCF national rail operator showed more than a dozen train trips had been canceled in and out of the city.
It said rail travel to and from Marseille would remain “highly affected” on Wednesday.
Marseille mayor Benoit Payan on X warned residents the fire was now “at the doors of Marseille,” urging inhabitants in the north of the city to refrain from taking to the roads to leave way for rescue services.
The mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau said two housing estates had been evacuated and firefighters had positioned themselves outside a retirement home to fight off approaching flames.
The Marseille Provence airport is the country’s fourth after Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly outside Paris, and Nice.
The fire near Marseille is just the latest to hit France in recent days.
To the west along the Mediterranean coast, near the city of Narbonne, more than 1,000 firefighters from around the country were seeking to contain another blaze.
It had crept across 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of trees since starting on the property of a winery on Monday afternoon, emergency services said.
In the village of Prat-de-Cest on Tuesday morning, trees were blackened or still on fire.
As she watched fire trucks drive to and fro, retiree Martine Bou recounted fleeing her home with her cats, tortoises and dog on Monday afternoon before returning.
But her husband, Frederic, stayed all night to hose down the great pines on the other side of the road so the fire would not engulf their home.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I have never lived next to such an enormous fire,” he told AFP, reporting flames dozens of meters (more than a hundred feet) high.
The fire near Narbonne caused authorities to close the A9 motorway to Spain, but on Tuesday morning they said they were progressively reopening it to traffic.


Macron urges new era of Anglo-French unity in address to UK parliament

Updated 08 July 2025
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Macron urges new era of Anglo-French unity in address to UK parliament

  • The french president visit to the UK is the first by an EU head of state since Brexit in 2020
  • He insisted European countries will ‘never abandon Ukraine’ in its war with Russia while demanding an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza

WINDSOR: President Emmanuel Macron argued Tuesday that France and Britain must work together to defend the post-World War II “international order,” as he addressed parliament on the first day of his UK state visit.
The first such visit by an EU head of state since Brexit, Macron said in a wide-ranging speech that the two countries must renew their century-old alliance to face down an array of threats.
“As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, deeply committed to multilateralism, the United Kingdom and France must once again show the world that our alliance can make all the difference,” he told British lawmakers, speaking in English.
“Clearly, we have to work together... to protect the international order as we fought (for) it after the Second World War,” Macron added.
Touching on various thorny issues, from global conflicts to irregular cross-Channel migration, he insisted European countries will “never abandon Ukraine” in its war with Russia while demanding an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.
Hours earlier, the French president and his wife Brigitte had received a warm, pomp-filled welcome from King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Windsor as the three-day visit got underway.
They had been greeted off the presidential plane at an air base northwest of London by heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales.
After a 41-gun salute sounded from Windsor’s Home Park and a royal carriage procession through the town, which was decked out in French Tricolores and British Union flags, the group entered its castle for lunch.
First visit since 2008
The first state visit by an EU head of state since the UK’s acrimonious 2020 departure from the European Union, it is also the first by a French president since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.
Touching on Brexit in his speech in parliament, which follows in the footsteps of predecessors Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand, Macron said it was “deeply regrettable” but the result of its 2016 referendum was respected.
Macron will hold several meetings with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer starting Wednesday.
After taking power in 2024, the British leader has been making good on his pledge to reset relations with European capitals following years of Brexit-fueled tensions.
Their discussions are expected to focus on aid to war-torn Ukraine and bolstering defense spending, as well as joint efforts to stop migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats — a potent political issue in Britain.
Starmer is under intense pressure to curb the cross-Channel arrivals, as Euroskeptic Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party uses the issue to fuel its rise.
London has for years pressed Paris to do more to halt the boats leaving from northern French beaches, welcoming footage last Friday showing French police stopping one such boat from departing.
In his parliamentary address Macron called it “a burden for our two countries,” stressing the need for better “cooperation” to “fix” it.
Later Tuesday, Britain’s Francophile king, who is believed to enjoy a warm rapport with Macron, will host a lavish banquet in his honor in the vast medieval St. George’s Hall.
Charles is set to laud the vital partnership between France and the UK amid a “multitude of complex threats.”
“As friends and as allies, we face them together,” he will say, according to Buckingham Palace.
Trade and business ties
The visit also aims to boost trade and business ties, with Paris and London announcing Tuesday that French energy giant EDF will have a 12.5-stake in new British nuclear power plant Sizewell C.
There is also a cultural dimension, with another announcement that France will loan the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum for 10 months from September 2026.
The loan of the embroidery depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England will be made in exchange for ancient “treasures” mainly from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo site, one of England’s most important archaeological sites.
Wednesday will see Macron have lunch with Starmer ahead of the two leaders on Thursday co-hosting the 37th Franco-British Summit, where they are set to discuss opportunities to strengthen defense ties.
Britain and France are spearheading talks among a 30-nation coalition on how to support a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, including potentially deploying peacekeeping forces.
The two leaders will dial in to a meeting of the coalition on Thursday “to discuss stepping up support for Ukraine and further increasing pressure on Russia,” Starmer’s office confirmed on Monday.
They will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to the French presidency.


Organizers of Expo 2020 Dubai open World Fair US

Updated 08 July 2025
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Organizers of Expo 2020 Dubai open World Fair US

  • The weeks-long event in Chicago will be the first in a nationwide series
  • ‘Every pavilion tells a story, and every guest becomes part of it,’ organizer tells Arab News

CHICAGO: The organizers of Expo 2020 Dubai launched a three-week World Fair US in Chicago this week, saying it offers the same high-level experience of culture, food, entertainment and traditions from around the world.

Omar Al-Taha, CEO of ElectroMed Group — which supervised the construction of Expo 2020 Dubai — told Arab News that the fair in Chicago will be the first in a series of events planned for cities across the US.

He said the opening on Monday, at the SeatGeek Stadium and Fairgrounds in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, Illinois, was “well attended,” and the fair will continue until July 28.

“We’re featuring six pavilions representing the cultures, food and entertainment from countries in … Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America,” he added.

“The vendors have been selected for their authenticity, quality, and their passion for sharing their culture through cuisine.”

Al-Taha said he used the same criteria in Bridgeview as for Expo 2020 Dubai, adding: “World Fair US is about more than just a celebration — it’s about connections and experience. We wanted to create a space where people of every background can come together, learn from each other, and just enjoy the beauty of being human.

“In the Middle East pavilion, for example, participants will be able to not only enjoy Arab food and entertainment, but also products and crafts presented by dozens of vendors.”

SeatGeek Stadium, which can accommodate 28,000 visitors, hosts professional sports competitions, concert performances and fairs.

“We believe we can use this event to create an even larger ongoing event. We want to do this in different states around the country,” Al-Taha said.

“Chicago was our first choice … because it’s the land of many cultures. We didn’t need to bring vendors from outside ... Chicago has so many cultures and great diversity. This is the right place to start this.”

The World Fair US food court features local chefs and small businesses offering traditional dishes from across the globe, Al-Taha said.

“Every pavilion tells a story, and every guest becomes part of it. Whether you’re eating something new for the first time, dancing to a rhythm you’ve never heard, or just watching your kids’ eyes light up — we built this for you,” he added.

There is a fireworks display every Friday and Saturday night.


ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

The ICC on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity.
Updated 08 July 2025
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ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

  • Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, ICC judges said

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls.

Judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.

“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement.

The Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.

“In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court said the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least January 20, 2025.

The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It has no police force of its own and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants — with mixed results.

In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.

After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid.”

Edicts handed down by Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar, have squeezed women and girls from public life.

The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.

Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs — or being paid to stay home.

Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as traveling long distances without a male chaperone.

A “vice and virtue” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.

When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan said Afghan women and girls were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”

“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” he added.

Khan warned at the time he would soon be seeking additional warrants for other Taliban officials.


Muslims overlooked with faith ‘ignored’ in UK care system, warns new report

Updated 08 July 2025
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Muslims overlooked with faith ‘ignored’ in UK care system, warns new report

  • Think tank Equi calls for child welfare reform to recognize faith identity and unlock support from British Muslim communities

LONDON: A new report from leading think tank Equi is warning that a crucial factor in the conversation around child welfare in the UK is being systematically overlooked: the role of faith.

The UK’s care system is facing a deepening crisis, with over 107,000 children currently in care and the number of available foster carers and adopters falling sharply.

In a landmark publication titled “Faith, Family and the Care System: A Missed Connection?”, Equi has argued that while ethnicity and culture are often factored into decisions about care placements, faith continues to be neglected, with damaging consequences for children’s emotional stability and sense of identity.

Drawing on polling conducted in partnership with Savanta, as well as interviews and case studies from across the UK, the report set out the urgent need for faith-literate reform of the child welfare system.

“Faith isn’t just a personal belief for many children, it’s a source of identity, resilience and stability. Our care system needs to reflect that,” said Prof. Javed Khan, one of the leading voices behind the report.

The research highlighted the experiences of British Muslim communities, showing that faith can play a powerful role in supporting vulnerable children, both by helping to prevent family breakdown and by fostering strong networks of informal and kinship-based care.

Despite making up 10 percent of under-18s in England, Muslim children account for less than 5 percent of those in care. It is a disparity Equi said reflected both strong community-based care and the challenges Muslim families face in engaging with the formal care system.

According to the findings, British Muslims are 66 percent more likely than the general public to provide informal care or financial support to children at risk of entering care.

Over 5,500 Muslim heritage children are currently in formal kinship care arrangements, with thousands more supported informally, a contribution estimated to save the state more than £220 million ($298 million) each year.

This strong culture of kinship care, rooted in Islamic teachings around the responsibility to care for orphaned children (“yateem”), is seen by the report authors as an underappreciated asset within the national care framework.

However, Equi said British Muslims who want to contribute more formally to the care system face significant barriers.

While members of the community are 63 percent more likely than the general population to consider fostering or adoption, nearly 60 percent report fears of discrimination.

Many point to cultural misunderstandings, bias in assessment processes and a lack of faith-sensitive placements as major deterrents.

Faith is also closely tied to children’s sense of self and well-being, the report argues.

More than 70 percent of British Muslims — and 40 percent of the wider public — said faith played a key role in shaping their identity during childhood.

Yet current government policy fails to take religious background into account during care placements, following the removal of faith matching guidance in 2014.

Equi links this omission to increased identity conflict, emotional distress and instability in care arrangements.

Young people from faith backgrounds leaving care are also highlighted as being especially vulnerable to isolation. The report calls for faith-based mentoring schemes and transitional housing to support care leavers as they navigate adulthood and reconnect with their communities.

In response to the findings, Equi called on the government to embed faith literacy throughout the care system.

Among its recommendations are recording children’s faith heritage in care records, incorporating religious identity into placement decisions, offering culturally sensitive therapeutic care, and working in partnership with faith-based charities to recruit and support carers.

The report also urges local authorities to expand fostering capacity, particularly for sibling groups and multigenerational households, and to ensure clear legal and financial guidance is provided to kinship carers.

“This report isn’t just about British Muslims, it’s about the 40 percent of children for whom faith is part of who they are,” said Khan.

“It’s not about bringing faith into policymaking in an ideological sense. But, rather, it’s a wake-up call that ignoring faith ignores people’s lived realities. It harms vulnerable children’s sense of belonging and increases instability in care placements. The system must become more inclusive, fair and ultimately more effective.”

With rising pressure on the UK’s care system and a shrinking pool of carers, Equi’s report presented a timely and compelling case for unlocking underused community resources and building a more resilient, culturally competent and cost-effective model of care, it said.