Entries from Byline Portal tagged with 'Religion'
In Egypt, Religious Violence Casts Pall Over Easter
by Shahira Amin, RIA Novosti, Russia - Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on May 5, and crowds thronged the streets near the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassiya district. Traditionally, Easter is a time of celebration and joy here, as Coptic...
What Happens When an American Asks Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem Their wishes?
by Ilene Prusher, Jerusalem Vivendi, Israel - “The air over Jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams,” poet Yehuda Amichai wrote, “like the air over industrial cities. It’s hard to breathe.” But somehow, when a young American named Joseph Shamash...
South Korean Anti-Discrimination Law Faces Conservative Pushback
by Lee Yoo Eun, Global Voices, Netherlands - South Korean conservative groups are mounting a fierce resistance to a proposed anti-discrimination law in South Korea that would prohibit discrimination based on based on religion, political ideology, or sexual orientation....
The Kerfuffle over Wearing Foreign Clothing
by Sabria S. Jawhar, Arab News, Saudi Arabia - Last week President Barack Obama visited Israel’s Hall of Remembrance while on his Middle East tour. During his visit he wore the Jewish kippa on his head as a sign of...
Myanmar: Who is Plotting the Meikhtila Riot?
by Chan Myae Khine, Global Voices, Netherlands - Netizens are actively discussing the issue. Some are spreading hate comments on Facebook while others are expressing their frustration over religious clashes....
Benedict’s Painful Legacy
by Elizabeth Drescher, Religion Dispatches, USA - Catholics on the margins reflect on the past eight years....
The Battle of Ideas
by Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn, Pakistan - What secularists need to realise is that if they want to strengthen their hand they will have to muster popular support for their ideas by mobilising the masses. People have to be told what...
European Court Sets Limits on Religious Liberty
by Naomi Conrad, Deutsche Welt, Germany - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that religious freedom applies in the workplace, so long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others. But the member states have been left...
Why Malawi Can’t Just Legalise Homosexuality
by Sitinga Kachipande, Pambazuka, Kenya - The debate about decriminalising homosexuality must be strategically taken to Malawian people. One cannot simply change the law on such a sensitive issue without first addressing attendant social and religious concerns....
End of the World
by Rafia Zakaria, Dawn, Pakistan - There are only nine days left. According to the ancient Mayan and Hopi Native American calendars, the world is supposed to end on Dec 21, 2012....
To Hell with the Dictatorship of the Majority
by Hanin Ghaddar, Now, Lebanon - Do we really think that we have achieved democracy by toppling some dictators here and there? I realized that moment that we still have a long way to go before we understand the real...
The Bin Laden Conglomerate “Wants to Turn Mecca into Las Vegas”
by Hatoon Al Fassi, The Observers, France - The sacred mosque is a holy site that does not belong to the Saudi state. This cultural heritage belongs to all Muslims, who have the right to request the conservation of such...
Sindhi Women in Politics
by Bina Shah, Dawn, Pakistan - The climate for women in Pakistan is grim, as countless studies have shown, but unless women make it to the ranks of political parties and enter the assemblies, where they will have lawmaking power,...
What Would Jesus Do?
by Rihannon A., The Vagenda, UK - I reckon there’s a bit of clearing up to do where the actual Bible’s position on women is concerned. Because there are a huge amount of passages in this context which are misread,...
Pussy Prophets & Nuns on Buses: Will Feminist Politics Get More Holy & Foolish?
by Beatrice Marovich, Religion Dispatches, USA - To the extent that Pussy Riot continues to infect, inflect, or influence feminist politics, I think it’s worth pointing out how novel and unprecedented this strange hybrid blend of feminism and religion really...
Belfast's First Abortion Clinic Reignites Bitter Divide
by Leila Jacinto, France 24, France - The opening of the first private abortion clinic in Northern Ireland, set for October 18, has unleashed a flurry of campaigns on both sides of the abortion divide and exposed the murky status...
Punishing Blasphemers: New Calls on an Old Issue
by Leela Jacinto, France 24, France - An Islamist wave in North Africa followed by the recent violence over an incendiary anti-Islam video clip and new Prophet Mohammad cartoons have revived an old call for an international law that criminalises...
Tunisia’s Ban on Criticizing Religion Could Bring Social Repression
by Monica Marks, The Daily Star, Lebanon - While every country sets ultimate limits on its citizens’ rights and liberties, Tunisia’s broadly defined efforts to ban criticism of religion in Article 3 are worrisome. The article in its current, murkily...
Israeli Women Fight Orthodox Curbs
by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, IPS, Italy - After filing the first-ever class-action lawsuit on the issue of gender segregation in Israel, a local religious women’s rights group says it hopes to protect the rights of women in the public sphere of...
Masculinity and Mass Violence
by Elizabeth Drescher, Religion Dispatches, USA - Given the centrality of men, masculinity, and masculinist ideologies in most world religions, it is surprising that the influence of such factors on religious and racial violence should be so difficult to engage....
Clashes Expose India's Communal Divide as Elections Loom
by Nita Bhalla, Altertnet, UK - The grisly scenes unfolding in the far-flung northeast may fan communal politics in a country where simmering tensions between Hindus and Muslims have often been exploited for electoral gain....
Why I Help Addicts Shoot Up
by Meera Bai with John Stackhouse, Christian Week, USA - Constant humiliation makes the people I work with especially vulnerable, and vulnerable in almost every way: to violence, to exploitation, to false hope and finally to despair. When allowed into...
A New Low
by Huma Yusuf, Dawn, Pakistan - In present-day Pakistan, Hindus find that their faith earns no respect, their businesses are looted or boycotted and many have complained that their daughters are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam through marriage....
Pussy Riot Are a Reminder that Revolution Always Begins in Culture
by Suzanne Moore, Guardian, UK - Pussy Riot exist to draw attention to precisely what is so disturbing, a totalitarian nation where the church and state are become one. Some have warned that Russia is becoming a new entity, a...
Moderates No More
by Claire Bigg, Alsu Kurmasheva, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - A crackdown on religious groups, deadly attacks on Muslim leaders, and a raid on a "catacomb" Islamic sect have turned the spotlight on what authorities say is the alarming...
Paradise Adopts a Dress Code
by Neeta Lal, Asia Times, Hong Kong - Just when the strife-ravaged Kashmir Valley - immortalized by 13th century Urdu poet Amir Khusrau in his works as a "paradise on Earth" - was regaining its lost mojo as a tourist...
Sharing Religious Identity Can Help Build Greater Amity
by Beth Katz, Daily Star, Lebanon - What if we could give more people the chance to define and share their religious or spiritual identity in their own words, and confront the misconceptions they face because of it?...
Is Change Possible? Shifting the Ex-Gay Question
by Lynne Gerber, Religion Dispatches, USA - The idea that gays and lesbians could be "cured" meant, for evangelical anti-gay activists, that gay people's rights didn't need protection. The game appears to be changing....
Gay Pride Is Kosher in Ra’anana, as Long as It Stays ‘Modest'?
by Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz, Israel - Try as one might to freeze time, the winds of change will blow anyway and some circumstances force a politician to stand up and show us what they are made of....
Anti-Contraception Activists React to SCOTUS Ruling
by Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches, USA - The new strategy by anti-choice groups, though, is to try to portray Obamacare advocates as waging a war on women, attempting to turn the war on women frame on its head....
Muslims and Jews Outraged by Circumcision Ruling
by Barbara Hans, Der Spiegel, Germany - Leaders of Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities have criticized a court ruling they fear could make circumcision a punishable offense in the country. Only 10 percent of German boys are circumcised, but the...
Nuns Speak Truth to Power
by Jennifer Granholm, Current TV, USA - “Nuns have, thoughout history, gently cared for the poor, the sick, the homeless. But today, these sisters are pocketing their rosaries – for the moment – and pulling on their boxing gloves.”...
Chechen Leaders Slam Proposed Creation Of Shari'a Courts
by Liz Fuller, Caucasus Report, Czech Republic - Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov and Chechen mufti Sultan-hadji Mirzayev have both harshly criticized the proposal by Chechen legal scholar Dagir Khasavov to establish Shari'a courts in Russia for the benefit of...
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Catholic ‘Liberal’ Hails Return of Anti-Semitic Group
by Anthea Butler, Religious Dispatches, USA - Put another way, conservative anti-Semites are more valued and welcomed in the Catholic Church than women religious who engage the world through their faith....
It Gets Better: Mormon Edition
by Joanna Brooks, Religion Dispatches, USA - Please watch. Please share. And welcome to the Mormon twenty-first century....
Shutting the School Doors on the Muslim Child
by Hem Borker, The Hindu, India - The increasing communalisation of social spaces is limiting the educational choices of Muslim students....
Awakening, Counter-Awakening, and the End of Church
by Candace Chellew-Hodge, Religion Dispatches, USA - The United States is currently in the throes of a spiritual awakening, says Diana Butler Bass. In her new book, Christianity After Religion, the author argues that we are at a crossroads in...
The Honour Problem
by Rafia Zakaria, Dawn, Pakistan - With laws and workshops, activists assume, the pestilence of honour killings, of people being killed needlessly for the crime of choice, can be eliminated. In the meantime, honour killings continue not secretly or surreptitiously...
Khamenei Reigns Supreme in Parliamentary Polls
by Golnaz Esfandiari, Persian Letters, Czech Republic - In a test of where loyalties within Iran's conservative establishment lie, it appears tradition has won the day....
What Iran Wants from Female Religious Authority: Piety - Yes, Expertise in Fiqh - No
by Mirjam Künkler, Open Democracy, UK- More than a hundred women's seminaries have been set up by the Iranian state since the 1979 revolution. Yet the number of women candidates standing in next month's parliamentary election is the lowest for...
Israel's 'Black Widows'
by Irit Rosenblum, Haaretz, Israel - Though in all likelihood, the "fatal wife" will be absolved of suspicions against her and will be allowed to wed again, the fact that the Rabbinate has the sole discretion to arbitrarily deny people...
Lebanon: Could a New Civil Law Unify a Divided Society?
by Mona Alami, IPS, Italy - Lebanese personal laws also stifle basic freedoms, such as the right to decide how to dispose of a deceased loved one’s remains. Lebanese Muslim and Orthodox communities, for example, do not allow cremation, even...
Universities Are the First Test for Tunisian Secularism
by Omezzine Khelifa, The Daily Star, Lebanon - In Tunisian universities, equality is assured; all students have access to universities regardless of their religion or how they practice it. Currently young women have the right to wear the niqab in...
Catholic Priests, Celibacy, and the Marriage Loophole
by Sara Ritchey, Religion Dispatches, USA - The growth in number of married Catholic priests in the U.S. stems from the increasing animosity of conservative Episcopalians who disagree primarily with the Anglican Communion’s ordination and promotion to the episcopacy of...
The Growing Influence of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel
by Juliane von Mittelstaedt, Der Spiegel, Germany - Veiled women, radical rabbis and gender segregation: Israel is facing a rise in the influence of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Their efforts to impose a strictly conservative worldview have led to growing tensions with...
It’s the Year of the Protester: Would Santa Occupy? How About Mother Teresa?
by Sarah Morice-Brubaker, Religion Dispatches, USA - In a spirit of nerdy parlor-game fun more than serious analysis, I’ve compiled my own hypotheses, sticking within my own tradition of Christianity since it’s the one I know best and since I...
Rent-Free Religion in New York’s Public Schools
by Katherine Stewart, Religion Dispatches, USA - Church-planting in public schools is just one of the dozens of religiously-driven initiatives made possible largely through judicial activism on the right: a combination of a surge in self-identified Christian law firms, along...
Benetton Tears Down Pope-Kissing Ads after Vatican Legal Threat
by Riazat Butt, Guardian, UK - Clothing company says sorry and hastily withdraws Unhate poster featuring Pope Benedict XVI kissing Egyptian imam....
Where Have All the Women Gone in Jerusalem?
by Tamar Rotem, Ha'aretz, Israel - Advertisers fold to ultra-Orthodox pressure against 'obscene' poster campaigns....
The Burden of Bans
by Rafia Zakaria, Dawn, Pakistan - France was thus inducted into the dubious fellowship of the afraid, which include — amongst others — the Saudi state that sends men with sticks after ‘inadequately’ covered women and the Chinese state that...
Hindus in U.S. Raise Awareness of Diwali
by Lauren Markoe, ENInews, Switzerland - The holiday of Diwali is celebrated this week by Hindus all over the world, including an estimated two million in the United States. Many Hindus in the U.S. say Americans don't know what Diwali...
Church Fire Fires up Copts
by Reem Leila, Al-Ahram, Egypt - Dozens of angry Copts protested in front of the National Radio and Television building against the torching of the Marinab Church....
Iran's War on Fun
by Golnaz Esfandiari, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic, made clear that in his eyes fun was not compatible with Islam. Authorities have since worked hard to banish laughter, playfulness, or...
The Fight Is on for Religious Freedom
by Julia Feuer, Jerusalem Post, Israel - Brit Milah ceremonies could become a thing of the past if Jewish communities don’t wake up....
Martial Arts and the Journey to Islam
by Daliah Merzaban, Huffington Post, USA - "Martial arts teach us awareness," said Imran. "The more we train, the more aware we become. The more aware we become, the less likely we would get involved in a situation of conflict....
Risky Business: The Pitfalls at the Corner of Church & Wall Street
by Elizabeth Drescher, Religion Dispatches, USA - What role should churches play in economic change?...
Rupture With Vatican Reveals a Changed Ireland
by Sarah Lyall, New York Times, USA - Even as it remains preoccupied with its struggling economy, Ireland is in the midst of a profound transformation, as rapid as it is revolutionary: it is recalibrating its relationship to the Roman...
Pope Lands in Madrid amid Protests
by Helen Percival, France 24, France - Pope Benedict XVI landed in Madrid on Thursday for World Youth Day, hours after clashes broke out between police and demonstrators angered by the cost of hosting the lavish event at a time...
Kashmiryat: Religion Or Class?
by Inshah Malik, Countercurrents, India - In laymen terms as it demands recognition, to consider oneself belonging to a particular region or simply being Kashmiri. But discourse presents to us rather not so simple picture of belongingness. In Kashmir secularism...
Dispatch From Angola: Faith-Based Slavery in a Louisiana Prison
by Liliana Segura, Colorlines, USA - “Unique” is one way Warden Burl Cain likes to describe his prison, and it would be impossible to argue otherwise....
Church-State Dispute In Tbilisi Exposes Anti-Armenian Undertones
by Molly Corso, Eurasia Review, USA - The Georgian Orthodox Church, though, functions as more than just a religious institution; its privileged position and growing popularity has made it a “political actor,” said Marine Chitashvili, the director of Tbilisi State...
Russian Pro-Lifers to Launch Women's Health Clinics that Don't Provide Abortions
by Sophia Kishkovsky, ENI News, Switzerland - The Life-Family Medical Centers Network will be run on a franchise basis under the auspices of "Za Zhizn" ("For Life"), an anti-abortion organization led by two Russian Orthodox priests....
In Netherlands, Animals Rights Vs. Religious Freedom
by Farangis Najibullah, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Should animal rights trump religious freedom? Muslim and Jewish religious communities in the Netherlands are about to find out....
Debt Crisis Puts Pressure on Wealthy Orthodox Church
by Alexia Kefalas, France 24, France - The wealthy Greek Orthodox Church is under pressure to do more to help the country while it struggles through a debilitating financial crisis....
France's "Battle of the Veil"
by Marie Gilbert, openDemocracy, UK - Feminists who openly criticise any stand against the niqab seem to forget that the niqab, beyond its religious dimension, is also, very clearly, a sign of women's inequality and inferiority....
Egypt's Copts Vie for Bigger Role
by Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera, Qatar - As Egypt tries to forge a new political future, Coptic Christians aim to move out of the political shadows....
Ritual Slaughter: Animal Suffering or Religious Freedom?
by Margo de Haas, Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - The Dutch Lower House wants to introduce a ban on unanaesthetised ritual slaughter. A majority supports the proposal of the Animal Rights Party, which would make kosher and halal slaughter things of...
Chechnya, Where Stability Comes at the Price of Secularism
by Christina Nagel, Deutsche Welle, Germany - In the Russian republic of Chechnya, the clock is being turned back as Islamic law creeps into public life. The state's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, is pursuing policies that promote polygamy and headscarves for...
Veil Ban to Take Effect in France
by Mildrade Cherfils, GlobalPost, USA - With a law banning face-covering veils in public places set to take effect April 11, the French government has scheduled a national debate on religion and secularism. "Why now? Perhaps if this was happening...
Full-face Veils Outlawed as France Spells Out Controversial Niqab Ban
by Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, UK - France's bitterly divisive debate on Muslim women's clothing took a new turn when the legal details of the controversial "burqa ban" were published in a decree by the prime minister. From 11 April...
Feminism and the Soul of Secularism
by Rahila Gupta, OpenDemocracy, UK - Secularism, as a concept, appears to be in danger from both the left and the right. Among feminists, it tends to be only some minority women scrambling for the soul of secularism. It is...
‘Wanted’ on International Aguna Day
by Rachel Levmore, Jerusalem Post, Israel - Rabbinic courts have several tools at their disposal to force a recalcitrant husband to divorce his wife. So why is the problem still so rampant?...
Ankara - A Role Model for Tunis and Cairo?
by Assia Shihab & Cenk Baklan, France 24, France - Turkey is a largely Muslim country run by a government with Islamist roots. Yet it is secular, pro-Western and has pinned its hopes on joining the EU. Can Ankara be...
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: Its Agenda
by Cecily Hilleary, Voice of America, USA - The Society of Muslim Brothers is Egypt’s largest and most well-organized group. Its activities are divided between social services, political advocacy and religious reform. The Society is admired by some, feared by...
The Vatican and New Media
by Claudia Costa, European Journalism Centre, Netherlands - Beyond the purely humanistic benefits the Internet can bring to mankind, the Vatican may have found a new, powerful tool to carry out a modern “crusade”, or evangelization mission, as the Catholic...
The Forgotten Prayers of a People
by Sadef A. Kully, Dawn, Pakistan - In the past few years, kidnappings have increased among the Hindus, for ransom and women, who are kidnapped and then convert to Islam, have been reported but with no real legal repercussions from...
The Arab World Must Face its Demons
by Lamis Andoni, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Attacks on Christians are a wake-up call for fragmented Arab societies where disenfranchisement breeds bigotry....
Cambodia Remembers Its Fallen Muslims
by Julie Masis, Asia Times, Hong Kong - The persecution of Muslims remains an understudied aspect of Cambodia's genocide experience - where as many as two million people perished - but the extent of that suffering is now coming to...
The Path of Silence
by Rafia Zakaria, Dawn, Pakistan - While the rest of the world was engaged in revelry, activity in the streets and stores of Pakistan ground to a halt as religious parties called a strike over the possibility of amending the...
Arab Christians, America's New Victims
by May Akl, Daily Star, Lebanon - Political alliances sought by Western states and, most importantly, by the United States leverage existential threats against the remaining Christian minorities in the Middle East. Rescue is not high on the agenda....
Schoolgirls v. the State
by Arife Kazimova & Nushabe Fatullayeva, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Azerbaijan says girls can't wear the hijab to school. So many girls are staying home. Will secular Baku lose its battle with the growing ranks of religious Muslims?...
Tajik Youth Look To Mosque For Outlet
by Farangis Najibullah, Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic - Islam is rapidly on the rise in Tajikistan, and observers note that Tajikistan's younger generation is far more religious than their parents, who were brought up during the Soviet era. Some...
Condoms and Common Sense
by Frances Kissling, Religion Dispatches, USA - Last week marked a rare moment in the Catholic Church. Common sense and a modest amount of compassion trumped authority and fear-based moral teaching about sexuality....
The 'Lebanonisation' of Iraq
by Lamis Andoni, Al Jazeera, Qatar - With a sectarian power-sharing agreement and interfering neighbours, Iraq is looking a lot like Lebanon....
The Power of Prayer
by Kesha West, Radio Australia News, Australia - Instead of heading to the city's clubs and bars, Filipino crowds are instead going to the grounds of El Shaddai, where a celebration of the holy kind is in full swing....
Public Fine with Headscarves, Politicians Need to Take Action
by Fatma Disli Zibak, Today's Zaman, Turkey - Survey results have once again shown that an overwhelming majority of the public do not have any problem with the use of headscarves, so politicians should listen to the public’s voice and...
A Sip of Water
by Rafia Zakaria, Dawn, Pakistan - The repeated persecution of religious minorities, whether it is the targeting of Ahmadi places of worship or rampaging mobs burning down the houses of Christians or Hindus, is becoming common. The past several years...
The Suffering of Iraq's Christians
by Hadani Ditmars, Globe and Mail, Canada - Recent attacks against Christians are a sad testament to Iraq’s shift from secular to sectarian, one that has cost the lives of thousands....
End Genocide amongst the Baha'i
by Liva Sreedharan, Malaysiakini, Malaysia - Men, women and children alike have been persecuted in Iran for their religious beliefs. Courts in Iran have denied the Baha'is the right to redress or to be protected against assault, killing, injury or...
Yezidis Flock to Lalish for Their Own 'Hajj'
by Jantine van Herwijnen, Kurdish Globe, Iraq - For the first time since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of Yezidis largely celebrate their most important festival in Lalish, a small mountain village near Duhok and the holy...
Child Marriage Reignites Debate in Saudi Arabia
by Caryle Murphy, National, UAE - The marriage of a government official to a 12-year-old girl creates furore over Saudi Arabia's failure to curb the practice....
Gay Black Church: Radically Inclusive and Spirit-Filled
by Lisa Webster, Religion Dispatches, USA - "If we’re going to really have a conversation about civil rights, and marriage rights, and equal rights for same gender loving and transgender people, we have to go back further in history and...
Chechnya: Choked by Headscarves
by Tanya Lokshina, openDemocracy Russia, UK - In Chechnya there is official support for attacks on women when they are considered to have ‘flouted’ Islamic rules by not wearing a headscarf or covering up enough. Tanya Lokshina listened to some...
This 9/11, Let’s All Take Responsibility for Ending a Summer of Hate
by Rinku Sen, Fekkak Mamdouh, Color Lines, USA - As the nine years since 9/11 have passed, Americans have forgotten an essential fact: Extremists can use any religion to justify murder, and the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists sacrifices both...
The Amish and the Myth of the Simple Life
by Elizabeth Drescher, Religion Dispatches, USA - Or, why "living simple" is so hard....
Bid for Sharia Court in St. Petersburg Fails
by Galina Stolyarova, Moscow Times, Russia - Sharia courts were created in Chechnya in 1995, when the republic became a de facto independent republic, and the secular judicial system was only restored after the start of the second Chechen war...
Salvaging Sudan?
by Gamal Nkrumah, Al-Ahram, Egypt - Khartoum's refusal to placate the southern Sudanese by separating the state from religion has strengthened the hand of separatist forces in the run-up to next year's referendum....
Unfinished Business
by Daniela Estrada, Inter Press Service, Italy - The controversial proposal to pardon some convicts in Chile for humanitarian reasons, which was put forward by the Catholic Church and partially taken up by President Sebastián Piñera, has revived the debate...
French Jewish Leaders Tackle Anti-Semitism, Burqa Ban
by Gil Shefler, Jerusalem Post, Israel - What’s the single most important issue affecting the Jews of France, Europe’s biggest Jewish community and the third largest in the world?...
Spirit, Hope, Money and a Dose of Patriarchy
by Jessica Horn and Jenny Morgan, Open Democracy, UK - A growing movement of African Christians are making waves at home and abroad with their ultra conservative interpretations of scripture. Far from a naïve embrace of conventional norms or a...
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