(NEWS ANALYSIS) At the launch on Wednesday, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed the ever-growing need to combat the increasing violence based on religion or belief, including “terrorists and violent extremists who target religious minorities, whether they are Yazidis in Iraq, Hindus in Pakistan, Christians in northeast Nigeria, or Muslims in Burma” and “the Chinese Communist Party’s hostility to all faiths.”
Read MoreFrom 2016 to 2019, Indian Christians recorded 1,774 cases of hate crimes, with 527 in 2019 alone.
Read More(NEWS ANALYSIS) The conviction in the UK of a gay serial rapist from Indonesia is fueling debates in the Muslim-majority country of whether rape is a symptom of homosexuality. While homosexuality is not a crime in Indonesia, the largest Muslim organizations have been advocating to criminalize gay sexual activities.
Read MoreAn Internet ban in Kashmir is causing job losses and hardships for students, journalists and everyday people living isolated from the rest of the country and the world. Government-provided computer terminals can only be accessed after traveling and hours of waiting in line, and all activities online are monitored.
Read MoreArrests of Hindu activists protesting India’s new citizenship bill that excludes Muslims has energized Muslims and Christians who support a pluralism over what they see as attempts to make India a Hindu nation.
Read MoreRussian TV captured a short exchange where the leaders used the biblical story of Paul the Apostle to joke about how a visit to Syria might change the American president.
Read MoreMore Kashmiris are turning to anti-depressants to ease increasing signs of anxiety, according to health experts and hospitals, as arrests of thousands and the world’s longest-running ban on internet access in a democracy continues.
Read MoreThe Raelians believe in intelligent design for atheists— that aliens created all life on earth and that there is no god but only those who come from the sky, the Elohim. We attended their recent North American conference to learn more about their beliefs and practices.
Read MoreThe Travels of Guðríður Símonardóttir tells the little-known story of an Icelandic woman in the 17th century who was captured by North African pirates. She was enslaved at a harem in Algiers until ransomed, then married Iceland’s most famous poet. His hymns, inspired by the couple’s suffering, are still sung in churches and at funerals.
Read MoreHindu nationalists are trying to stop a Catholic parish’s proposed 114-feet-high granite Jesus statue atop a hill in rural South India, sparked by a large Christmas land donation from a Hindu politician. The archbishop of Bangalore sought the state chief minister’s intervention this week to continue the $1.5 million project.
Read MoreThousands gathered in the small Muslim neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh on the outskirts of India’s capital to protest against the new citizenship law that excludes Muslim migrants and a proposed citizenship register, calling Jan. 1 a “black day” rather than a holiday.
Read More(OPINION) A series of heightened attacks in recent weeks by terror groups in West Africa – Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger Republic and even at Nigeria’s border with Cameroon – gives credence to the theory that this region is targeted as the next formidable stronghold for ISIS.
Read More(OPINION) The church in China is under attack, but the famous missionary’s work there more than a century ago endures.
Read More(REVIEW) In the new book Welcoming the Unwelcome, 83-year-old American Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön moves past her usual style of writing in poetry and strict spiritual guidance and instead into a vulnerable teaching about how to overcome the pain of the world by explaining how she was led to do exactly that.
Read MoreA new citizenship law that excludes Muslim migrants is the latest and boldest move by India’s Hindu nationalist government, igniting protests by Indians who support the country’s secular founding and worry about increasing authoritarianism in the world’s largest democracy.
Read MoreMass protests erupted in India this week condemning a law that discriminates against Muslims. Police and para-military forces have responded to several protests with violence.
Read MoreMass protests in India show a public resistance to Prime Minister Modi and his party’s vision for a Hindu nation over a long-held secularism that treats all religions equally.
Read MoreAt least 100 university students were injured by police during a protest against the newly passed Citizenship Amendment Bill, which allows Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians but not Muslims who’ve migrated to India to apply for citizenship.
Read More(REVIEW) A new book about Bishop Lesslie Newbigin’s family – by his feminist daughter – exposes the collateral damage of ministry and questions Christian duty to the church over one’s family.
Read MoreAfter a Supreme Court ruling that allows Hindus to rebuild a temple over an illegally demolished mosque, Hindu nationalists are looking to claim another Mughal-era mosque in one of Hinduism’s holiest cities.
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