Although they garner little attention from the international community, recent cases of violence directed toward Protestants in the region, among them Adventists, intensify the need to protect the region’s tenuous religious liberty.
Following Norway attack, Adventist religious liberty director urges caution in use of ‘fundamentalist’ label
Graz also urged caution in the use of the term “fundamentalist” to describe the individual alleged to have carried out the attacks, instead proffering the term “extremist” as a more accurate description of the type of ideology and behavior that falls far outside the norms of a religious community.
“There’s a risk that ‘fundamentalism’ will become blurred in people’s minds with the idea of ‘conservative Christianity’ — a confusion that could serve to widen the gulf of misunderstanding between different religious traditions,” he said.
Atheist Group Wants to Stop World Trade Center Cross (CNN)
EXCERPT: A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit to stop the display of the World Trade Center cross at a memorial of the 9/11 terror attacks. The “government enshrinement of the cross was an impermissible mingling of church and state,” the American Atheists say in a press statement. The group says it filed the…
Suit Seeks To Invalidate New York Same-Sex Marriage Law For Procedural Irregularities (Religion Clause)
EXCERPT: Liberty Counsel announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in New York asking a state court to declare the state’s Marriage Equality Act void and to declare void any same-sex marriages that have taken place under the Act. The complain in New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms v. New York State Senate, (Livingston Co….
Article18: Uzbekistan — Recent Incidents of Violence Against Christians Alarm Religious Minorities
By Martin Surridge – The former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan occupies a precarious and oft-forgotten spot in Central Asia. Unlike other egregious religious liberty offenders such as Saudi Arabia, China, and North Korea, Uzbekistan is discussed little in the United States and is not well-known for any one thing. Unfortunately, it is often lumped in…
State and Federal Legislators Introduce Bill to Outlaw Local Criminalization of Circumcision
California Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) and Assembly member Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) have introduced a bill that would directly ban local bans on circumcision. In a press conference held in Los Angeles yesterday, July 21, 2011, Ma and Gatto said that the bill would render the San Francisco ballot measure moot.
Hermain Cain Opposes Murfreesboro Mosque Project (DNJ)
EXCERPT: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Thursday an effort by local Muslims to build a large mosque here is an attempt to “sneak” Shariah law into the fabric of the U.S. legal system. “I think it is an infringement and abuse of our freedom of religion, and I don’t agree with what’s happening here…
Five-Day Work Idea May End Up in Trash Bin (Israel National News)
EXCERPT: A proposal to put Israel on a shortened work week, with Friday a half-day and Sunday a vacation day, may be buried before it gets off the ground. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed on a Knesset committee to discuss the proposal by Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, but it quickly ran into opposition…
Israel Looking Into Making Sunday Day of Rest (Bloomberg)
EXCERPT: Israel’s government is examining a proposal to shift the weekend to the western Saturday and Sunday, a step that may benefit financial markets and retail and leisure companies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week appointed Eugene Kandel, head of the National Economic Council, to look into the implications of changing the weekend from Friday…
Speak Now – A Response to the European Sunday Alliance
In its Founding Statement, the European Sunday Alliance argues that, in the interest of synchronicity, Sunday is the appropriate day of rest for all of Europe, and makes no allowance or acknowledgment of what should be done for those whose faith requires them to rest on a day outside of Sunday. In fact, it is not hard to see how those who rest on a different day might be an annoyance or hindrance to Sunday rest, and even in the debate may be portrayed as roadblocks, troublemakers, or even anti-religious. Businesses who open on Sunday could be fined, and those who conduct their own entrepreneurial endeavors on Sunday could also find themselves operating against the law.