EXCERPT: Hundreds of Christians and Muslims are hurling stones at each other in downtown Cairo hours after mobs set fire to a church in violence that killed 12 people and injured more than 200. Christian activist Bishoy Tamri says Muslim youths attacked a large crowd of Coptic Christian protesters marching from the headquarters of the…
Category: Current Events
Muslim Leaders Say U.S. Pilot Refused to Fly With Them Onboard (FOX News)
EXCERPT: Two Muslim religious leaders say they were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. Masudur Rahman, who is also an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, said by phone from the terminal at Memphis…
Article18: India — Christian Pastor Bludgeoned in Front of His Children; Government Blames “Predatory” Evangelistic Efforts
By Martin Surridge – The Indian subcontinent has a rich and religiously diverse history. In addition to Hinduism, often called the world’s oldest religion, India is also the ancestral home to Buddhism, Sikhism, home to millions of Muslims, and countless indigenous belief systems. With these and other introduced faiths, religious tension has often dominated the…
Chinese Authorities Block Easter Service in Beijing (CNN)
EXCERPT: The site of a planned outdoor Easter service at one of China’s largest independent “house” churches was eerily silent Sunday as police blocked more than 500 worshippers from leaving their homes and detained more than 36 for attempting to attend religious services in Beijing, church officials said. The gathering place for worshippers was empty…
San Francisco Mulls Circumcision Ban (CBS News)
EXCERPT: Has the time come to cut out circumcision? Pro-foreskin forces say so, and some in San Francisco say they’ve collected enough signatures to put a proposal to ban circumcision before voters. The proposal would make it a misdemeanor to perform circumcision on a male under the age of 18 within the city. Anyone who…
Article18: Afghanistan — Quran Burning Protest Leaves Dozens Dead; Freed Christian Convert Flees Country
By Martin Surridge – Few countries around the globe can outdo Afghanistan when it comes to suffering and misery. Just in the last ten years alone, Afghanistan has been the permanent home for the Taliban, the temporary home for Al-Qaeda, the central battlefield for the Global War on Terror and graveyard for thousands of soldiers…
Virginia Board Votes Against Proposed Same-Sex Adoption Rules (Washington Post)
EXCERPT: The Virgina State Board of Social Services has voted overwhelmingly against new adoption rules that some say would allow same-sex couples to adopt in the state for the first time. In a 7-2 vote Wednesday afternoon, the board opted against the new rules, first proposed by former governor Tim Kaine. In Virginia, only married…
Lifting The Veil: Muslim Women Explain Their Choice (NPR)
EXCERPT: For centuries, Islamic scholars have said that Muslim women must cover their hair. But many Muslim women don’t. There are about 1 million Muslim women in America; 43 percent of them wear headscarves all the time, according to the Pew Research Center. About 48 percent – or half a million women – don’t cover…
Article18: France — Controversial Veil Ban for Muslim Women Continues to Divide Nation
By Martin Surridge – France can’t seem to stay out of global headline news at the moment. In a two week period, Sarkozy’s government managed to team up with the U.N. to lead the charge against Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast, play an important military role in the ongoing efforts in Libya against Gaddafi’s forces,…
Obama’s Olive Branch Doctrine (PART II) Interfaith Tolerance & the Reshaping of U.S. Foreign Policy
President Obama’s middle-ground approach to the credible and well-established “Clash of Civilizations” theme – when formulating international religious freedom policy – is best understood when placed on a scale between tolerance and international consensus (an interfaith, “soft-power” approach), and America’s constitutional ideal of religious freedom and human rights (an Evangelical and “exacting” approach). Yet both policy methods delimit religious freedom, threatening it altogether.