Tag Archives: Global: Religious Freedom

PR Web: More than 800 people from 60 countries and six continents will gather in Dominican Republic April 24-26 to explore the impact of ‘radical secularism’ and other forces that are eroding religious freedom protection around the world.

BBC: Several lawsuits had demanded Cairo’s Administrative Court block the decision to form the panel as it did not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society.

Catholic Culture: A report on Irish schools has called for reconsideration of existing policy that allows church-affiliated schools to make religion the key element in their educational policies.

Washington Post: The British government has fast-tracked a move to restore the rights of towns and cities to hold prayers as part of their official business, effectively overriding a High Court order to stop the practice.

AP: The U.S. human rights envoy for North Korea says conditions in communist country’s “brutal” prison camps are worse than in the Soviet Union’s gulag during the Cold War.

OnIslam.net: Muslim lawyers are planning to sue the state government of Nigeria’s largest state of Lagos to reverse a ban on the wearing of hijab at schools.

CBN: The so-called Arab Spring has given a big boost to radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood. For Christians, it’s been a much different story. Believers in Jesus are suffering major persecution throughout the Middle East and North Africa. But there is one place left in the region where they don’t have to fear: Israel.

Legal-Project.org: On April 13, 2012, Lars Hedegaard — a journalist, historian, and president of the Danish Free Press Society – takes the appeal of his conviction under Article 266(b) to the Danish Supreme Court. Readers may recall that back in January of 2011, Hedegaard was tried and acquitted for remarks he made during a 2009 interview concerning sexual abuse within Muslim communities.

Religion Clause Blog: Gulf Times reports that a court in the Indian state of Gujarat yesterday convicted 23 people in connection with the Ode village massacre that took place in 2002 as part of broader Hindu-Muslim religious riots set off after a train carrying 60 Hindu pilgrims was set on fire by a mob

Telegraph: A town council banned by the High Court from holding prayers before official meetings is refusing to reinstate them because of concerns that new government powers to protect the historic practice are not strong enough.

Telegraph: Church leaders are today calling on Christians to wear the cross to show pride in their faith in the face of attempts to “sideline” Christianity in public life.

Christian Concern: Christian Concern has launched a new campaign this Easter, urging Prime Minister David Cameron to back up his recent words of support for the Christian faith with some ‘solid action’.

The Guardian: Contrasting the “hysteria” of “aggressive polemic against religious faith” with an increasing recognition among “serious and liberal-minded commentators”, he said faith was no longer seen as “a brainless and oppressive enemy” but recognised as a potential ally against a greedy and individualistic way of life that feels “increasingly insane”.

Piero A. Tozzi at the Christian Post: In a major foreign policy address last December in Geneva before United Nations delegates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton identified “deeply-held … religious beliefs” as among “the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] people.” Criticizing those who “cite religious or cultural values” to oppose “LGBT” rights, she then made a doctrinal point: if properly understood, “religious traditions” actually support the progressive march of “human rights” and sanction homosexual behavior.

Kens5.com: France’s interior ministry says an arsonist has partially destroyed a Muslim prayer room in the Mediterranean island of Corsica’s capital city.

Washington Times: Turkey’s top imam blasted the Saudi grand mufti’s call to “destroy all the churches” in the Gulf region, saying that the announcement is in total contradiction to the peaceful teachings of the Muslim religion.

AP: A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives Sunday morning on a busy road after apparently turning away from attacking Nigerian churches holding Easter services . . .

YNetNews.com: El-Shater stressed that Shariah is his top and final goal and that he would work on forming a group of religious scholars to help parliament achieve this goal,” the statement read.

CBS: Mali’s crisis deepened Wednesday, as officials in the fabled northern city of Timbuktu confirmed that the Islamic rebel faction that seized control of the town over the weekend has announced it will impose sharia law.

ResPublica: Writing for ResPublica’s essay collection on Lords Reform “Our House: Reflections on Representation and Reform in the House of Lords”, the Bishop of Leicester, the Convenor of the Lords Spiritual, has argued that they are representative of the regions, with church parishes across the nation. In a Parliament that is very focused on London, they bring a regional and localist perspective that should be welcomed; surely this is an example of localism embedded into the constitution. The bishops are more representative of the whole of Britain than MPs and peers. The argument made by some, such as Theos, that more specialised, political Lords Spiritual, less focused on the diocese, would diminish that “rootedness” in the regions.

LifeSiteNew: Catholic schools will no longer be allowed to teach the Catechism’s doctrine that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” says a cabinet minister in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government.

AP: Nigeria is facing a “high risk” of a terrorist attack over the Easter holiday, the United Kingdom warned its citizens Thursday . . .

ChristianConcern.com: Prime Minister David Cameron told Christian leaders this week that he wants their biblical values to guide the nation, despite his strong support for same-sex ‘marriage’.

Christian Today: Compass Direct News is reporting that an 8-year-old boy died on Tuesday from injuries after suspected Islamic extremists threw a grenade into a Christian revival meeting near Kenya’s coastal town of Mombasa.

Newsmax: Speaking out against religious extremism takes courage in today’s Egypt, especially when extremists make up an absolute majority in Parliament

The Telegraph: An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a 17-year-old Christian boy to three years in jail for publishing cartoons on his Facebook page that mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad, actions that sparked sectarian violence.

LifeSiteNews: If Premier Dalton McGuinty pushes forward his controversial anti-bullying bill, known as Bill 13, without amendments to respect the “religious and conscience rights of many parents” Ontario will face years of expensive lawsuits, warn the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in a new open letter to McGuinty.

AP: Trying to unite divided Islamists behind him, the presidential hopeful of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has promised to give religious clerics power to review legislation to ensure it is in line with Islamic law . . .

AP: Egypt’s constitutional panel is meeting to try to resolve a crisis after liberals, Christians and others walked out . . .

Christian Concern: Jeffrey Ventrella, the senior vice president of the Alliance Defense Fund, gave a series of talks on the role of the advocate in society entitled “Law, Lordship & Liberty”.

Catholic Culture: Two weeks after a military coup toppled the government of Mali President Amadou Toumani Touré, Tuareg rebels, working with a separate Islamist rebel group . . .

Christian Post: As the violent conflict between rebels and the Syrian government continues putting the lives of civilians at risk, many Christians are reportedly considering fleeing the country, once considered a safe haven for Christians in the Middle East.

LifeSiteNews (includes video): Last Thursday’s high-charged rally against the Ontario government’s Bill 13, imposing the province’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (EIE) on all public and private schools, revealed many parents are dismayed over this attempt to remove parental rights.

Sacramento Bee: After two papal visits, support is growing for the Roman Catholic Church among long-suffering Cubans. Yet support from the Communist Party that rules the island nation . . .

Benjamin Bull at Townhall: A gut-wrenching example of the lengths to which men will go to silence the voices of conscience recently played out in an Ontario Court of Justice. There, Judge S. Ford Clements sentenced pro-life advocate Mary Wagner to 92 more days in jail, on top of the 88 days she’d already spent behind bars, all because she has been walking into the waiting rooms in Canadian abortion clinics and sharing hope with the women who are waiting to have their babies killed. And the story gets worse. Clements was so outraged by Wagner’s passion for life that he lashed out at her in front of the court . . . .

News.va: Allegations of conversions and then violent beatings: is what the Hindu extremists of the movement RSS (“Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”, “National Volunteer Organization”) did against the Christian Protestant Pastor Mallikarjun Sangalada, 37, and other four Christians of his community.

Christian Institute: The High Court has deferred a decision on whether a watchdog was right to ban an advert that asked Christians to report experiences of workplace marginalisation.

PostZambia.com: “That is why for me and the Catholic Church, the proclamation of Zambia as a Christian nation is a non-event. It’s a useless proclamation because not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of God. How Christian are we? Just take a look at what happens when we have a simple by-election. Corruption, intimidation, fighting, thieving…is that Christianity?” Archbishop Mpundu asked.

LifeSiteNews: A crowd of an estimated 2000 or so concerned parents from a wide range of ethnic and faith communities demonstrated outside Ontario’s legislature Thursday demanding the defeat of the Liberal government’s “anti-bullying” Bill 13.

Religion Clause Blog: Reuters reports that Turkey’s ruling AK Party on Friday pushed a controversial school reform bill through Parliament that critics say furthers an Islamic agenda and lowers education standards.

FoxCharlotte.com: France says it has expelled an Algerian Islamist extremist and a radical Muslim preache from Mali, and that it is in the process of deporting a Saudi Muslim prayer leader

Washington Times: Danish police arrested 80 protesters Sunday in a rally against the growing Muslim threat of turning Europe into part of an Islamic empire.

AP: Egypt’s official news agency says the country’s Coptic Church is withdrawing from a committee to draft the nation’s new constitution.

Christian Science Monitor: Islamist parties now dominate the constitution-writing process in post-revolution Egypt and Tunisia. If they can make Islam compatible with democracy, they will give hope to others in the Middle East still struggling in the unfinished Arab Spring.

This is Staffordshire: TRADITIONAL prayers said at the opening of city council meetings are to be moved to avoid offending atheists and non-Christians.

Religion Clause Blog: AP reports that Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday, by a vote of 72-35, approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow religious events to be celebrated in public as long as they do not involve electoral politics.

AP: The U.N. human rights office is urging Chile to pass new laws against hate crimes and discrimination after the killing of a young gay man . . .

Christian Concern: An attempt to stop the issue of abortion being freely discussed at University College London (UCL) has failed after a coalition of students objected to what they considered to be a serious attack on free speech.

AP: France has barred a group of Muslim clerics, including one of the most prominent voices in Sunni Islam . . .

Catholic Culture: Rinkel Kumari, who is a Hindu, begged the court not to return her to an Islamic school where she has been detained. “Kill me here, now, in court. But do not send me back,” she pleaded.

Catholic Culture: “However, as Cuba transitions, the Pope and the Church want a transition that is worthy of the Cuban’s aspirations, a transition worthy of man,” the archbishop quickly added. “To go from the ideological materialism of Marxism to a practical materialism such as that of many Western societies would not be worthy of man.”

Reuters: The Brotherhood, the oldest and most established contemporary Islamist movement, could find itself at the center of a Sunni arc of influence from the Atlantic to the eastern Mediterranean.

Family Security Matters: The Sudanese regime is on its way to becoming the next Iran, regardless of whether President Omar Bashir remains in power or not. The country is moving towards becoming a full-blown Sharia state, comparable to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan under the Taliban. Towards that end, 500-700,000 Christians have been told to pack up and leave by April 8 or they’ll be treated as foreigners.

Christian Concern: A Christian doctor is suing his employers for unfair dismissal after being sacked following his sending of a motivational prayer e-mail to colleagues and a Christmas text message to one individual.

LifeSiteNews: An Ontario Court of Justice judge erupted in a lengthy, angry tirade against pro-life activist Mary Wagner – and ejected a spectator from the public gallery – in a downtown Toronto courtroom Wednesday. The judge then sent Wagner to jail for an additional 92 days, added to 88 days already served . . .

Reuters: China’s best known rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, whose case is a sore point in Sino-U.S. relations, was allowed a visit from his family last weekend, the first time he has been seen for nearly two years, his wife said on Wednesday.

AP: The case has prompted a national debate in Chile over hate crimes . . .

AP: Pope Benedict XVI demanded greater freedom for the Catholic Church in Cuba during an unusually politicized Mass before hundreds of thousands of people Wednesday . . .

Europe News: The Swiss Federal Court has dismissed an action by a Muslim family who wanted to keep their daughters out of religious reasons, from swimming lessons. The supreme court affirmed the country to a landmark ruling from the year 2008

Reuters: Thousands of Turkish opposition supporters demonstrated in the capital Ankara on Tuesday against a government attempt . . . to promote Islamic schooling.

NY Times: Hours later, she resurfaced 12 miles away, at the home of a prominent Muslim cleric who phoned her parents with news that distressed them: Their daughter wished to convert to Islam, he said.

Christian Concern: Three Christian MPs have written to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in an attempt to overturn its ban on claiming that ‘God can heal’.

LifeSiteNews: A protest rally against Bill 13, the McGuinty government’s controversial gay-focused anti-bullying legislation, will be held Thursday March 29, 2012 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm at Queens Park, Toronto.

AP: A court in central Vietnam sentenced the pastor of an outlawed Mennonite church to 11 years in prison for sowing division

AP: It was barely 4 a.m. when 19-year-old Rinkal Kumari disappeared from her home in a small village in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Christian Institute: Ministers are preparing to change the law to ensure that halal meat has to be clearly identified as such when sold to the public.

Christian Institute: A secular bias in the public sector means faith groups don’t have equal access to public funding for community projects, academics say.

Catholic Culture: Chinese government officials have detained a bishop and his chancellor and are compelling them to attend “learning classes.

Religion Clause Blog: According to The Hindu, earlier this week a Russian court for a second time rejected attempts by prosecutors to ban the Russian translation of the book, Bhagavad Gita As It Is . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted two resolutions on religious liberty.

AP report.

AP: The panel selected over the weekend includes nearly 60 Islamists and only six women and six Christians.

AsiaNews.it: The Christian community in Iraqis once more the target of Islamic extremism: Yesterday morning in Mosul in the north, security forces found the corpse of a man riddled with bullets.

Pope Benedict said on Friday communism no longer works in Cuba and that the Roman Catholic Church was ready to help the island find new ways of moving forward without “trauma.”

Christian Concern: A Judge has ruled that a Christian who was demoted for posting private comments on his Facebook page criticising the introduction of “gay marriage” in churches cannot rely on his human rights to defend himself.