Law and Religion Headlines
Monday, 4 August 2025
With growing urgency, more US Jews urge Israel to ensure ample food deliveries to Gaza
(David Crary and Tiffany Stanley, Associated Press)
Passport denial violated RFRA
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Cameroon bishop warns weak politics affects national stability
(Ngala Killian Chimtom, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)
Manila archbishop tells lawmakers: Ensure every law ‘is a prayer before God’
(Joseph San Mateo, Crux: Taking the Catholic Pulse)
Recognizing Palestine would deepen French Muslim-Jewish rift
(Elizabeth Bryant, Deutsche Welle)
Vatican strikes solar farm deal to become the world’s first carbon-neutral state
(Nicole Winfield, Associated Press)
Sybiha calls on Muslims worldwide to condemn Russia's attack on mosque in Kyiv
(Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU))
Russia: Old Catholic priest fined for anti-war sermons
(Victoria Arnold, Forum 18 News Service)
Ecclesiastical court judgments – July
(David Pocklington, Law & Religion UK)
Oxford college launches ‘Tikvah Scholarship’ to support Jewish and Israeli undergraduate students
(The Jewish Chronicle)
Bishop evicts sedevacantist Spanish nuns from their convent
(The Catholic Herald)
India: Inside the rightward drift of Kerala’s Syrian Christians
(Rishabh Jain, Religion Unplugged)
Faith in the fire: rethinking disaster response through religious engagement
(Marianna Richardson, G20 Interfaith Forum Blog)
Bridging interreligious tensions through education: a global imperative
(Marianna Richardson, G20 Interfaith Forum Blog)
Social media leads as main driver of anti-Muslim bias in UK, new research shows
(Arab Weekly)
Places of worship vandalised across Melbourne
(Lesa Scholl, The Melbourne Anglican)
Palestinian statehood – comment from Church of England bishops
(The Church of England)
China: Pastor formally arrested on charges of 'illegal business operations'
(CSW: Everyone Free to Believe)
Court protects Catholic healthcare clinic’s care for pregnant women in need
(Becket)
Articles of interest - 4 August 2025
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
In Delhi and New York, Hindu right wing lines up against Mamdani
(Pranav Baskar, The New York Times)
Israel minister who led prayers at a controversial holy site has a record of provocative actions
(Melanie Lidman, Associated Press)
Brazil: Banning the use of religious accessories in the workplace: Discrimination or a company right? (Portuguese)
(Renato Melquíades, Migalhas)
Around the web - 4 August 2025
(Law and Religion Forum, St. John's Law School Center for Law & Religion)
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Causation and breach of positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights
(Vladislava Stoyanova, Strasbourg Observers)
The number of Christian-majority countries fell between 2010 and 2020
(Dalia Fahmy, Pew Research Center)
Religious Hiring Beyond the Ministerial Exception
(Luke W. Goodrich, SSRN)
US military chaplaincy marks 250 years of providing spiritual support to service members
(Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service)
Churches in once Catholic-dominated Quebec get new secular roles as restaurants, gyms and theaters
(Luis Andres Henao, Associated Press)
Motion to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (freedom to worship)
(X, Jamil Jivani)
Trump’s religious rhetoric clashes with Canada’s secular politics
(Luis Andres Henao and David Crary, Associated Press)
House Chaplain Margaret Kibben on what makes military chaplaincy important
(Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service)
Looking for common ground in the Gaza war
(Rachel Mikva, Religion News Service)
UCLA agrees to permanent court order stopping campus antisemitism, pays $6M+ in damages and fees
(Becket)
Azerbaijan: large fines for religious meeting
(Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service)
Brazil withdraws from IHRA shortly after country joins South Africa's genocide case against Israel
(Mathilda Heller, The Jerusalem Post)
Reimagining peace from the ground up: KAICIID and ICAN empower women and faith leaders to lead change
(KAICIID Dialogue Centre)
Holy See, Azerbaijan sign agreement on interreligious dialogue
(Alessandro De Carolis, Vatican News)
Vatican communication office urges 2-state solution as France backs Palestinian statehood
(Kate Quiñones, Catholic News Agency)
How a Catholic nonprofit is meeting inmates’ health needs in Nigeria
(Ekpali Saint, Religion Unplugged)
OPM issues guidance to protect religious expression in the federal workplace
(U.S. Office of Personnel Management)
CAIR says new Trump Admin policy on faith in federal workplace could lead to ‘type of discrimination it purports to oppose’
(Council on American-Islamic Relations)
New Trump Administration guidelines stress workplace religious freedoms
(Eileen Sullivan, The New York Times)
Economic and financial action: a jubilee call for global equity
(Marianna Richardson, G20 Interfaith Forum Blog)
Pope Leo discusses war in Ukraine with Russian Orthodox Church official
(Reuters)
Ecumenical Patriarch addresses World Council of Religions for Peace
(World Council of Churches)
Where justice fails: How cultures of impunity lead to forced displacement in India and Mexico
(FoRB in Full: A blog by CSW)
Kerala nuns’ arrest reignites political and ecclesiastical fault lines in State ahead of polls
(The Hindu)
Pakistan: Sanitation workers facing systemic discrimination and other rights violations need better legal protection – new report
(Amnesty International)
Rep. Hurd introduces Holy Sovereignty Protection Act to safeguard citizenship for American Popes
(Jeff Hurd, U.S. House of Representatives)
Chechnya's religious policy
(Vladimir Rozanskij, Asia News)
Tackling Africa’s wildlife crimes from the religious front
(Cyril Zenda, Religion Unplugged)
Limits of registration under the Places of Worship Registration Act: R (Local Faith Ltd)
(Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)
Demand for Sikh regiment in British Army peaks, minister says open to idea
(India Today)
Defender of faith: Charles III between religion and law (Italian)
(DiReSoM (Law and Religion in Multicultural Societies))
Assessing the current moment: A roundtable discussion on U.S. capacity for strategic religious engagement in foreign affairs
(Susan Hayward and Melissa Nozell, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown University)
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
KAICIID fellows lead discussion on religion, diplomacy and multitrack peacebuilding in the Balkans
(KAICIID Dialogue Centre)
Muslim Brotherhood’s challenge to French democracy beyond the political jockeying
(Willy Fautré, Human Rights Without Frontiers International)
Italian anti-cult association sentenced to pay Euro 35,000 for defaming Soka Gakkai
(Introvigne, Bitter Winter)
Spontaneity, speech, and Strasbourg: Rethinking oral vs. written forms of online expression
(Babette De Naeyer, Strasbourg Observers)
MEP demands EU reappraisal of Moldova’s candidacy amid allegations of religious discrimination
(EU Today)
Russia’s special state security forces attempt to silence voices of truth about the war in Ukraine
(Institute for Religious Freedom, Ukraine)
Trump memo allows federal workers to persuade coworkers their religion is ‘correct’
(Alex Gangitano, The Hill)
Islamic State-backed rebels attack a Catholic church in eastern Congo, killing at least 34
(Justin Kabumba, Ope Adetayo and Jeans-Yves Kamale, Associated Press)
Oregon man sentenced to 60 months for swatting and bomb threats scheme that targeted Jewish hospitals in New York City and Long Island
(U.S. Department of Justice)
Iran country update
(U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)
Faith leaders hope bill will stop the loss of thousands of clergy from abroad serving US communities
(Giovanna Dell'Orto, Associated Press)
Cert. petition seeks overturning of Obergefell decision
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Articles of interest - 28 July 2025
(Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)
Israeli occupation continues to ban Mufti of Al-Quds from Al-Aqsa Mosque
(Yemen Press Agency)
Hundreds of rabbis demand Israel stop ‘using starvation as a weapon of war’
(Ben Sales, Times of Israel)
Fourth group of religious organizations sues US over ICE raids at churches
(Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)
The Supreme Court's radical revision of its views on religion in public schools
(Mark Silk, RNS Column: Spiritual Politics)
All-Ukrainian Council of Churches calls for worldwide prayer for Ukraine on Independence Day
(Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU))
Law and religion roundup – 27th July
(Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)
Taliban cracks down on clerical extremism to safeguard regional stability – OpEd
(Iram Sarwar, Eurasia Review)
Addressing interreligious tensions through literacy and enhancing understanding and harmony
(JoAnne Wadsworth, G20 Interfaith Forum Blog)
Global hunger, local inequities: tackling food insecurity worldwide
(Marianna Richardson, G20 Interfaith Forum Blog)
South Korean bishops oppose amendment to abortion law
(Union of Catholic Asian News)
Australia has seen 'dramatic surge' in Islamophobic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023
(Anadolu Agency)
Religious exemption claim by nonprofit providing supervised illegal drug use can go forward
(Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy)
Ghana: Catholic bishops call for rule of law over recent electoral violence and chief justice suspension
(Paschal Norbert, Catholic Information Service for Africa)
Russia jails Falun Gong practitioners, escalating Beijing-backed persecution abroad
(Falun Dafa Information Center)
Nepal: Submission to the 51st Session of the Universal Periodic Review
(CSW: Everyone Free to Believe)
Why government support for religion doesn’t necessarily make people more religious
(Brendan Szendro, The Conversation)
Evictions and expulsions of Muslims to Bangladesh precede Indian state polls
(Tora Agarwala, Reuters)
Canada: How to improve university EDI policies so they address Jewish identity and antisemitism
(Lilach Marom and Ania Switzer, The Conversation)
Monday, 28 July 2025
Opinion: Bates v. Paakseresht (rights of adoptive parents)
(Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Opinion: United States v. Safehouse (corporate entities and religion)
(Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Religion-state relations and freedom of religion
(International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Brigham Young University)
Pakistan: Widespread impunity for violence and discrimination against minorities must end, warn UN experts
(Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations)
A Blind Justice? Investigating Judicial Discourses on Legal Gender Recognition in the Middle East and North Africa
(Nora Noralla, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion)
India: Muslim bodies urge govt to ensure end of 'Israeli aggression' in Gaza
(Deccan Herald)
Village leaders ban Christian family from Indian village for refusing to convert to Hinduism
(r kenn, Ecumenical News)
Interfaith collaboration essential for Africa’s spiritual and material progress
(Bahá’í World News Service)
Coexistence and covenantal pluralism in Armenia? Politics, imperial heritage, and national identity
(Yulia Antonyan, Institute for Global Engagement)
Covenantal pluralism in Bulgaria: Factors and prospects
(Daniela Kalkandjieva, Institute for Global Engagement)
The Supreme Court’s next term will be monumental for religious freedom
(Jorge Gomez, First Liberty)
Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques
(Mariam Fam, Associated Press)
Yellowstone has been a ‘sacred wonderland’ of spiritual power and religious activity for centuries – and for different faith groups
(Thomas S. Bremer, The Conversation)
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