A Pakistani district judge sentenced Zafar Bhatti, Pakistan’s longest-serving blasphemy convict, to death on Monday, the British Asian Christian Association reported on Tuesday.
A stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory on New Year’s Eve — allegedly sparked by “a fight between two groups of pilgrims” — killed 12 people and injured 16 others, India’s New Delhi Television (NDTV) reported on Monday.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted new Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services to restrict the spreading of religious content via the internet, Bitter Winter revealed Wednesday.
More Americans plan to attend a religious services this Christmas after attendance waned during the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The Czech village of Poniklá has produced Christmas ornaments made by hand from blown-glass beads since the early 20th century. The practice continues to thrive today after surviving decades of communism that nationalized the Czech glass-making industry from about 1948-1989
Chinese Communist Party officials locked down the entire city of Xi’an on Thursday after reportedly just 143 its 13 million residents tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus over the past two weeks, China’s official state-run press agency, Xinhua, reported.
Several residents of Al-Hamdaniya, an Iraqi Christian town, dressed up as Santa Claus to stage an uplifting Christmas parade for local children on Sunday roughly seven years after the community was invaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday.
A mob of Sikhs beat a man to death inside the Golden Temple, one of the most revered shrines in Sikhism, in Amritsar, India.
The operators of Kuwait’s largest shopping center removed a Christmas tree display from the mall this week after receiving a number of complaints from citizens who said Christian religious symbols should not be displayed in the country, which officially recognizes Sunni Islam as its state religion, the Jordanian news site Al Bawaba reported Thursday.
Police in the western Indian state of Gujurat are investigating a women’s shelter operated by a Mother Teresa-founded charity for allegedly “hurting Hindu religious sentiments and luring young girls to convert to Christianity,” the news site OpIndia reported Wednesday.
A mob of hundreds of Muslim men lynched a Sri Lankan factory manager in eastern Pakistan’s Sialkot district on Friday by beating him to death and then burning his body after a rumor emerged in Sialkot the man had allegedly committed “blasphemy” against Islam, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported this weekend.
At least 50 Christian “house churches,” or private Christian worship services held inside a person’s home, were recently forced to halt operations in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state after a local district issued an order banning the gatherings, the Christian Post, an online newspaper, reported Monday.
Pakistan’s Islamic Council of Ideology repealed an anti-rape law clause allowing chemical castration as a possible punishment for convicted rapists on Friday, just two days after the nation’s parliament enacted the law introducing the penalty, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted the Biden administration’s eagerness to invest in Africa during a weekend trip to the continent, obliquely criticizing China’s debt-fueled infrastructure projects without directly naming them and downplaying long-standing U.S. human rights criticisms of certain African governments.
Most Americans agree that the government does not have the right to force Americans to violate their religious beliefs — a topic that his risen to the spotlight as President Biden attempts to force Americans to get vaccinated for the Chinese coronavirus — a Summit/McLaughlin and Associates survey released on Tuesday found.
A group of faith leaders have sought to guilt rich nations into redistributing their wealth under the guise of climate change reparations.
Muslim mob attacks across Bangladesh have killed at least six people, including four Hindus, after sparking last Friday in response to an image posted to social media allegedly depicting the desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, during a recent Hindu festival, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Tuesday.
Makers of apps that allow users to read and listen to the Bible and Quran, including Amazon’s Audible, announced Friday they had removed such apps from China’s Apple Store citing Chinese government “permit requirements.”
A woman has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly starting a fire outside of a yeshiva in Brooklyn on October 14.
Philanthropic couple Mark and Erica Gerson have donated $18 million to Christian medical missions that work to improve health care in Africa.
Christians from nearly 30 countries – including several Muslim nations – sent a prayer for peace and blessings to Israel with a song released in Hebrew to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Former President Trump addressed thousands of people on 9/11 on the National Mall and praised them for fighting for faith and freedom.
Afghan Sikhs and Hindus attempting to flee Kabul following the Taliban’s recent takeover of the city are turning down offers to evacuate to India in favor of waiting for unguaranteed opportunities to fly to the U.S. and Canada, the Times of India reported Wednesday.
Samuel Deuth, a member of the pastoral team at Awaken Church in San Diego, California, spoke at the County Board of Supervisors meeting this week and blasted lockdowns and mandates while vowing to “never close” church doors again.
The ECHR has ruled against the family of a severely ill two-year-old Jewish girl, holding that doctors are allowed to withdraw treatment.
The Jewish founders of Ben & Jerry’s said they “unequivocally support” the ice cream maker’s move to boycott Israeli settlements in the West Bank, calling it “one of the most important decisions the company has made in its 43-year history.”
Police in Zimbabwe have arrested at least two Christians in recent days for violating the country’s Chinese coronavirus gathering ban by holding outdoor church services, the Herald, a Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper, reported Wednesday.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) added her voice to a group of Democratic lawmakers Tuesday calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to appoint a special U.S. international envoy tasked with ending “Islamophobia” wherever it is found.
The Islamist Ra’am party, which is part of Israel’s motley ruling coalition, on Sunday joined a chorus of condemnation from the Arab and Muslim world over the ascent of hundreds of Jewish pilgrims to the Temple Mount to commemorate the Jewish fast of Tisha B’av, claiming the flashpoint site – Judaism’s holiest – is the “sole property of Muslims.”
SCOTUS agreed to hear a major case next term from Maine on whether students can use state aid to attend schools that provide religious instruction.
Pope Francis urged scientists Friday to push forward their research as a way of addressing “the challenges of contemporary society.”
A coalition of Indian Sikh leaders demanded the Indian federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir enact laws against “love jihad,” or the alleged forced conversion of non-Muslim women to Islam by Muslim men, this week after unconfirmed reports emerged that Muslim men had “forced” Sikh women to convert to Islam, the Quint reported on Wednesday.
Record numbers of antisemitic incidents have been recorded in the UK since last month’s rocket attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, figures released by the Community Security Trust (CST) reveal.
Americans tend to view the role of religion as much more influential during times of chaos and uncertainty.
Indonesia’s government on Thursday announced that it has canceled plans for its citizens to participate in the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the second year in a row, citing concerns over the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
A group of prominent scholars and human rights advocates have written an open letter to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to protest state prosecutions of Christians in Finland over biblical beliefs regarding marriage.
Hindu priests in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state have erected a temple dedicated to “Corona Devi (Goddess),” a Hindu goddess created so that Hindus may pray to the Chinese coronavirus and ask it for forgiveness amid India’s punishing new wave of infections and deaths from the disease in recent weeks.
Members of ethnic minority groups in the U.S. “would be very envious” of the living conditions in China’s western Xinjiang region if they visited the area today, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Thursday.
An Indonesian teacher who calls himself the “Sharia Clown” dresses up in a clown costume every day during the month-long Islamic holiday of Ramadan to teach young children at an Indonesian orphanage how to read and recite the Quran.
Uyghur Muslims in China’s western territory of Xinjiang have largely refrained from participating in traditional religious rituals associated with the Islamic holiday of Ramadan such as dawn-to-dusk fasting and increased prayer over the past month due to the Chinese government’s crackdown on Islam in the region.
