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Religious Liberty in China: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
People crowd Wangfujing snack street during National Day holiday on October 4, 2013 in Beijing, China – iStockPhoto By Doug Bandow Cato Institute, August 27, 2014 Reposted with Permission of the Author BEIJING- Today China’s big…
RUSSIA: “We still cry when we remember the burned books” (Forum 18)
A Tatarstan court had to reject the prosecutor’s suit to have a further 18 books by or about the Turkish Islamic theologian Said Nursi declared “extremist” as police had already burned them. According to a police letter seen by Forum 18 News Service, police claim not to have received a court decision ordering their return to the owner, Nakiya Sharifullina, who had controversially been convicted for “extremist” activity. “We still cry when we remember the burned books,” a local Muslim told Forum 18, adding that they “asked God that these people repent for their actions, since in these books were verses of the Holy Koran”. Four further Nursi titles, plus more Jehovah’s Witness publications, have been declared “extremist” and banned. Websites or pages that host religious materials controversially banned as “extremist” have similarly been banned and added to Russia’s Register of Banned Sites.
Trend-Watch: Is a second Hobby Lobby Case in the works?
Is a second Hobby Lobby case in the works? Meggan Sommerville is a sixteen-year Hobby Lobby employee in Aurora, Illinois who has been denied access to the store’s restroom because she is transgendered. Sommerville underwent legal gender transition in 2010 but has not yet had gender-reassignment surgery.
ASI 2014: Dr. Eric Walsh on Persecution and the Refiner’s Fire
On August 9, 2014, Dr. Eric Walsh presented the closing address at the Adventist Services and Industries convention at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan entitled “Facing Fire.”
Rabbi David Sapperstein Nominated as State Department Religious Freedom Ambassador (ANN)
July 28, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | ANN staff eventh-day Adventist leaders said they applauded the announcement of a nominee for a religious freedom advocacy position at the U.S. Department of State, a post that has been vacant since October. The White House today announced that Rabbi David Nathan Saperstein would be…