Law and Religion Headlines
Wednesday, 7 February 2024
India: Authorities must immediately stop unjust targeted demolition of Muslim properties – new reports
(Amnesty International)
India: Interference in religious issues, will go to court, says AIMPLB
(The Times of India)
Is India targeting Muslims, with population growth committee as ‘camouflage’?
(Vasudevan Sridharan, South China Morning Post)
Pathways to Peace videos
(Conference of European Churches)
Colombia: Constitutional Court orders removal of Virgin Mary statue from public office
(Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter: A magazine on religious liberty and human rights)
ECHR delivers judgment in Hamzayan v. Armenia case
(Panorama.am)
Florida considers allowing volunteer chaplains in public schools
(Brendan Farrington, Associated Press)
Sweden extradites to Boston man accused of impeding anti-Jewish arson probe of his brother
(Jewish News Syndicate)
Conservative Nebraska lawmakers push bills that would intertwine religion with public education
(Margery A. Beck, Associated Press)
Satanic Temple loses challenge to Idaho abortion bans
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
A life of struggle and survival: the reality of religious oppression in Cuba
(Alberto Reyes Pias, FoRB in Full: A blog by CSW)
Indonesia’s presidential elections: How have human rights fared under Jokowi?
(FoRB in Full: A blog by CSW)
After 1,000 years, a new temple to the Norse gods rises in Iceland
(Avi Kumar, Religion News Service)
NYPD reports 31 antisemitic incidents in January as surge continues four months after Oct. 7
(Luke Tress, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Noted Muslims condemn Hamas as Israel continues to seek release of hostages
(Gil Zohar, Religion Unplugged)
Bishops of Evangelical Churches in Ukraine held a meeting with a fellow believer, - Mike Johnson, US Congress speaker
(Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU))
Philippines: Filipinos embrace unity through religious diversity
(Jerico Joshua M. Kahulugan, Religion Unplugged)
Central Florida church vandalized with swastikas, other graffiti
(David Paulsen, Episcopal News Service)
Iraq: Yazidi woman rescued from Islamic State captivity
(CSW: Everyone Free to Believe)
Defusing a brewing conflict with the constitution: Humpert and Others v Germany, procedural rationality, and the right of civil servants to strike
(Ignatius Yordan Nugraha, Strasbourg Observers)
Laos: Bible burning, church destruction dismay Lao Christians
(Union of Catholic Asian News)
Maldives: Government announces public holidays for last 10 days of Ramadan
(Mohamed Rehan, The Edition)
Churches’ support for asylum seekers shouldn’t be seen as a magic ticket
(Guli Francis-Dehqani, The Telegraph)
UK professor suffered discrimination due to anti-Zionist beliefs, tribunal rules
(The Guardian)
Anti-Zionism as a protected belief: Miller
(Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)
Parents who refuse children gender change face seven years in jail in Scotland
(Daniel Sanderson, The Telegraph)
UK Catholics launch campaign to end human trafficking in fishing industry
(Charles Collins, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)
Venezuela's leftist leader Maduro makes a play for evangelical voters
(John Otis, National Public Radio)
Rubio, Cardin, colleagues introduce bill to reauthorize U.S. Commission On International Religious Freedom
(Marco Rubio, U.S. Senate)
An attack on a satanic statue in Iowa has led to a hate crime charge
(Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)
Religious persecution impacts millions of women worldwide, advocates say at D.C. summit
(Mark A. Kellner, The Washington Times)
Victims of persecution testify at International Religious Freedom Summit
(Tyler Arnold, National Catholic Register)
A Tennessee lawmaker helped pass a strict abortion law. He's now trying to loosen it
(Katia Riddle, NPR)
Brazil: Neglected by history, Bantu heritage is a central pillar in the formation of Brazil (Portuguese)
(Laura Pereira Lima, Jornal da USP)
State secularism and banning foreign religious education: Sardar Babayev
(Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)
Republican, Democrat both warn against rise of antisemitism
(Tad Walch, Deseret News)
Transgender bathroom bills are back. Does the nation care?
(Matt Lavietes, NBC News)
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
HYBRID EVENT, 6 February 2024 (10:30 GMT+0): Roundtable: Religion and conflict in context
(Dr Afework Hailu Beyene, Dr habil. Jörg Haustein, Cambridge Interfaith Programme)
Monday, 5 February 2024
Can’t we just be civil? Jean-Jacques Rousseau and a hellish limit to toleration
(Greg Marcar, Talk About: Law and Religion - Blog of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies)
New book: Islam, Religious Liberty and Constitutionalism in Europe
(Edited by Mark Hill KC and Lina Papadopoulou, Hart Publishing)
India: Hindutva is at war with secular democracy in India
(Amit Singh, London School of Economics Religion and Global Society Blog)
The problems of banning Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain
(Richard McNeil-Willson, London School of Economics Religion and Global Society Blog)
Morocco: Covenantal pluralism and religious literacy in Morocco
(Chris PreJean, London School of Economics Religion and Global Society Blog)
Samson in Gaza: The biblical story of Samson sheds light on the current war in Gaza.
(Brian Britt, Sightings, The University of Chicago Divinity School)
Catalan mayor aims to wipe halal food for Muslims off public schools
(Daily Sabah)
The rise of public–private religious partnerships: Arguing church autonomy in the era of public funding of religion
(Nahshon Perez, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion)
The WFB participated in the forum on Transforming Mentalities
(The World Fellowship of Buddhists)
Dignity, Deference, and Discrimination: An Analysis of Religious Freedom in America’s Prisons
(Elyse Slabaugh, BYU Law Review)
Around the web - 5 February 2023
(Law and Religion Forum, St. John's Law School Center for Law & Religion)
Pope reaffirms Christians’ special relationship with Jews amid rising antisemitism, Gaza war
(Associated Press)
Articles of interest - 5 February 2024
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Why faith leaders lost the battle against online sports betting
(Bob Smietana, Religion News Service)
Free to Believe? The Intensifying Intolerance Toward Christians in the West - 2024 Edition
(Family Research Council)
Senegal: Religious leaders in Senegal concerned over presidential election postponement
(Guy Aimé Eblotié, La Croix International)
The damp squib of third party intervention in Ukraine v. Russia
(William Schabas, EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law)
Canadians call for removal of provincial minister after she called pre-occupation Palestine ‘a crappy piece of land with nothing on it’
(Middle East Monitor)
China arrests 200 Christians for ‘defying’ state body
(Union of Catholic Asian News)
UN official asks Hungary to share its experience of helping persecuted Christians
(Hungary Today)
Church in Germany concerned about rise of xenophobic parties
(Vatican News)
Indonesia: Religious affairs minister emphasizes public involvement in implementing govt programs
(Tempo)
Catching up to Europe, Greece set to legalize same-sex marriage
(Renee Maltezou, Christian Science Monitor)
Trump-focused Texas border rally blends politics and religion
(Ted Hesson and Maria Alejandra Cardona, Reuters)
In South America, African-inspired religions gain more followers
(Lucinda Elliott and Candelaria Grimberg, Reuters)
Cape Verde: 10 years of the legal agreement between the State of Cape Verde and the Holy See – What lessons? (Portuguese)
(Adilson F. Carvalho Semedo, Expresso das Ilhas)
Brazil: TRE-RJ revokes state deputy for abuse of religious power (Portuguese)
(Poder360)
Brazil: Judge invokes freedom of belief to reject lawsuit against hospital that denied IUD (Portuguese)
(Rafa Santos, Conjur)
Friday, 2 February 2024
Remarks by President Biden at the National Prayer Breakfast
(The White House)
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reaches agreement to resolve antisemitic harassment in Red Clay Consolidated School District
(U.S. Department of Education)
Blackwell Security Services will pay $70,000 to settle EEOC religious discrimination lawsuit
(U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
Ocean County man admits federal hate crimes for series of violent assaults on members of Orthodox Jewish community
(U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey, U.S. Department of Justice)
Judgment in case of Sardar Babayev v. Azerbaijan
(The European Court of Human Rights)
ICJ delivers preliminary objections judgment in the Ukraine v. Russia genocide case, Ukraine loses on the most important aspects
(Marko Milanovic, EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law)
EJIL: The Podcast! Episode 23: Unhappy New Year! Genocide in the Courtroom
(Marko Milanovic, EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law)
Erga Omnes Partes standing and procedural issues in South Africa v. Israel
(Jan-Phillip Graf, EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law)
The Mariupol Test: Analysing the briefs of third states intervening in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia
(Marko Milanovic, EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law)
Vietnamese Christian jailed for holding prayer meeting in his home
(CSW: Everyone Free to Believe)
Harmony in diversity: Exploring religious freedom worldwide on World Religion Day Brian J. Grim PhD.
(YouTube Video, South Asia Research Institute for Minorities)
Church drafting letter to MPs on same-sex marriage
(ekathimerini)
Hong Kong: It’s time to defend what’s left of Hong Kong’s religious freedoms
(Union of Catholic Asian News)
Navigating religious inclusion at work
(Theresa Agovino, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM))
Canada: Statement following attack against a Mississauga mosque
(Twitter, Justin Trudeau)
China: Religious persecution and issues – Bimonthly digest Jan. 16-31
(Human Rights Without Frontiers International)
China: Mayflower Church persecution (video)
(Twitter, IRF Summit)
Poland grapples with changes to abortion law as Catholic Church hits back
(Catholic Herald)
Eleventh Circuit clarifies RLUIPA substantial burden inquiry
(Eden (Hunter) Yerby & Evan Seeman, RLUIPA Defense Blog)
At religious freedom summit, Johnson, others condemn antisemitism
(Susan Crabtree, Real Clear Politics)
Weekend Plug-in: Religious freedom summit covers mental health, antisemitism, persecution
(Bobby Ross Jr., Religion Unplugged)
IRF Summit 2024: RFI highlights
(Religious Freedom Institute)
Recorded statements made to church leaders and pastor not privileged
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Mother sues school for socially transitioning her daughter
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Argentine bishops renounce government-funded stipends
(Eduardo Campos Lima, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)
Occupied Ukraine: "Disappeared" Greek Catholic priests in Russian Investigation Prisons?
(Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service)
Ecclesiastical court judgments – January (II)
(David Pocklington, Law & Religion UK)
Ecclesiastical Law Journal: Volume 26 - Issue 1 - January 2024
(various, Cambridge University Press)
Two MPs push for further crackdown on silent prayer despite outcry over “thought crime” arrests
(ADF UK)
Catholic groups join opposition to UK plan to deport migrants to Rwanda
(Charles Collins, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)
Threats to religious liberty in the U.K.
(Richard Turnbull, Acton Institute)
India: Couples must comply with anti-conversion law to legalise marriage even if they changed religion in past: Allahabad High Court
(Bar and Bench)
India: Hindu prayers begin inside India’s Mughal-era mosque after court order
(Al Jazeera)
COMECE on the Artificial Intelligence Act: “It does justice to the ethical foundations of the EU”
(The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE))
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