Source: Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese authorities have torn down “two or three” crosses adorning Christian churches in one county because they were “illegally built”, state media quoted an official as saying on Tuesday. The officially atheist ruling Communist Party has tightened restrictions and oversight of religious practice in China […]
Source: Reuters BY Nita Bhalla NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rapists in Somaliland face up to 20 years in jail after the break-away conservative Islamic region passed its first law against rape in a drive to combat gender violence, a senior official said on Monday. The bill, which passed parliament’s […]
Source: The New Yorker By Vinson Cunningham Illustration by Javier Jaén; photograph from iStock / Getty https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/thenewyorker/#file=https://downloads.newyorker.com/mp3/180416cr_critics_cunningham_audm.mp3 Audio: Listen to this story. To hear more feature stories, download the Audm app for your iPhone. For the better part of the past two years, Catholics around the world have been fighting over a footnote. In […]
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune By Peggy Fletcher Stack On an otherwise unremarkable June day nearly four decades ago, the LDS Church made a momentous declaration: It was opening its priesthood to “all worthy males,” ending a centurylong ban on black men and boys being ordained, and on black women […]
Source: myAJC By Rosalind Bentley and Ernie Suggs – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Martin Luther King III, center, holding hands with his daughter Yolanda Renee King, leads the March for Humanity Monday commemorating the funeral procession for his father. Rosalind Bentley / rbentley@ajc.com Updated: 4:16 p.m. Monday, April 09, 2018 | Posted: 3:18 p.m. Monday, April […]
Source: BuzzFeed News BY Hannah Allam and Talal Ansari BuzzFeed News Reporter A BuzzFeed News analysis found that Republican officials in 49 states have openly attacked Muslims with words and proposed legislation since 2015, and few have faced repercussions. A state lawmaker in Oklahoma refused to meet with Muslim constituents unless they replied […]
Source: Time By LINDSAY WHITEHURST / AP (SALT LAKE CITY) — After Utah passed the country’s first law legalizing so-called free-range parenting, groups in states from New York to Texas are pushing for similar steps to bolster the idea that supporters say is an antidote for anxiety-plagued parents and overscheduled kids. […]
Source: The New York Times By MARIA ABI-HABIB and SUHASINI RAJAPRIL 10, 2018 The Supreme Court ruled that Hadiya, center, had a right to choose her spouse and convert to another religion. CreditSivaram V/Reuters India’s Supreme Court has upheld the right of citizens to choose their spouse and convert to another religion, a landmark […]
Source: The New York Times Kidnapped as Schoolgirls by Boko Haram: Here They Are Now The New York Times met and photographed dozens of the students abducted by Boko Haram. Now at a university, they say they are the lucky ones. But their celebrity has a price. By Dionne Searcey […]
Source: The Guardian By Australian Associated Press Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson has declared under oath that two former altar boys never told him they had been sexually abused by a fellow priest. […]
Source: Associated Press By JULHAS ALAM DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A Myanmar Cabinet minister on Wednesday visited a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who described the violence that forced them to flee Myanmar and presented a list of demands for their repatriation. Social Welfare Minister Win Myat […]
Source: The Guardian BY Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome Mexican priest who is teaching the ancient rite in Rome says it still has a place in the modern Catholic church Father Cesar Truqui. […]
Source: Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is urging Buddhists to work with Christians to combat corruption, saying corrupt political, business and religious leaders put lives at risk, damage the environment and threaten governance. The Vatican’s interreligious dialogue office issued a message to Buddhists to mark the holiday […]
Source: Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany has appointed a career diplomat as its commissioner to coordinate government activities against anti-Semitism, a new job that reflects rising concerns over the issue. The government said Wednesday that Felix Klein, the foreign ministry’s coordinator for relations with Jewish organizations since 2014, will […]
Source: Reuters Reuters Staff PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron has blurred a line that has kept French government free of religious intervention for generations, critics said on Tuesday, after he […]
Source: The Guardian Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent A placard at a protest outside parliament in London on 26 March. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Feelings of insecurity are widespread among European Jews as a result of the resurgence of the extreme right, a heated anti-Zionist discourse on the left and radical Islam, according […]
Source: Associated Press By ARON HELLER KFAR SABA, Israel (AP) — While most of his fellow Jews were being killed or brutalized in Nazi death camps and ghettos, Baruch Shub and his friends were hiding in the forests of the former Soviet Union, trying to undermine the Nazis by derailing […]
Source: The Washington Post Mary Klein, center, speaks at a news conference to urge city officials to educate doctors about the city’s “Death with Dignity” law and to ease barriers […]
Source: The Atlantic Low-caste Indians are leaving Hinduism en masse—partly to stick it to their prime minister. A conversion ceremony in Shirasgaon, India, in 2018Krithika Varagur BY KRITHIKA VARAGUR SHIRASGAON, India—More than 500 low-caste Hindus filled the Veera Maidan, an open field at the edge of a dusty Maharashtra village, […]
Babur Gardens, the original setting where a lot of Mughal art originated. (Wikimedia Commons) “King Babur’s Kabul: Cradle of the Mughal Empire” displays a selection of high quality reproductions […]