Religious Freedom Lately: love jihad in India, an anti-Semitic town and more
California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom has become a symbol of unfair treatment of religious worship services during the pandemic. Creative Commons photo.
This week’s Religious Freedom Lately is not exactly uplifting. This week, we round up four recent issues revolving around the government making worship exceedingly difficult.
Jews are fed up with being told where they can worship and what they can build, and the Department of Justice has swept in to have their back. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is having a rare moment of bipartisan unity begging other countries to stop persecuting religious minorities.
In India, fears of “love jihad” (in which Muslim men marry Hindu women) have fueled a new anti-conversion law in the country’s most populous state, appeasing Hindu nationalists.
Finally, California churches have locked in a win against the governor after their lawsuit demanding equal treatment as businesses was kicked back to a lower court. It’s expected to go the way of New York -- church doors wide open.
US House Of Representatives Would Really Like Other Countries To Stop Killing Religious Minorities
The House passed a resolution Dec. 8 calling for an international effort to end blasphemy laws worldwide.
The resolution calls on the President and Secretary of State to prioritize the repeal of blasphemy, apostasy and heresy laws in international relations.
Citing the persecution of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and other religious minorities in turbulent countries, the House voted in favor of the resolution, claiming that governing bodies did not have the right to dictate religious truth.
The resolution states that “blasphemy, heresy and apostasy laws inappropriately position governments as arbiters of religious truth and empower officials to impose religious dogma on individuals or minorities through the power of the government or through violence sanctioned by the government.”
Authors of the resolution listed explicit examples of foreign religious laws, including Indonesia, Pakistan, North Korea, Russia, China and more.
The House “calls on the President and the Secretary of State to make the repeal of blasphemy, heresy and apostasy laws a priority in the bilateral relationships of the United States with all countries that have such laws, through direct interventions in bilateral and multilateral fora.”
Fear of Love Jihad Fuels Bold New Law
India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has finally decided to pass an anti-conversion law Hindu nationalists have campaigned for over many years. The new law prohibits conversion from one religion to another by “misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement or marriage,” and specifically states its aim to prevent interfaith marriages that change a woman’s religion. This is in addition to other states’ existing anti-conversion laws criticized by religious freedom experts and in the context of rising fears about so-called “love jihad,” in which a Hindu woman marries a Muslim man, despite scant evidence of this being a widespread practice.
Nonetheless, a 21-year-old Muslim man by the name of Uwais Ahmed was arrested Dec. 2 for allegedly attempting to convert a Hindu woman.
“I have been arrested under the love jihad law,” Ahmed told The Print, an Indian news outlet. “I have no link with the woman, she got married a year back. I am innocent.”
The state of 200 million people is known in India for a certain level of lawlessness and anti-Muslim police brutality and mob violence.
Synagogues Need Not Apply In This New York Town
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint against the village of Airmont, New York, stating that the village has unreasonably and unjustifiably used zoning regulation to disenfranchise members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
The village is accused of actively trying to combat an influx of Orthodox Jews from other areas and denying the rights of residents to build synagogues on their property and build religious schools.
"From its inception as an independent municipality three decades ago, the Village of Airmont [...] has been tainted by discriminatory animus against Orthodox Jews,” the DOJ writes. “As found by jury and affirmed by the Second Circuit, Airmont's incorporation in 1991 was motivated by the desire of certain leaders to impose unlawful zoning restrictions in order to thwart the ability of their Orthodox Jewish neighbors to worship at home in accordance with their religious beliefs."
Jewish residents were prohibited from building sukkah in their yard on Yom Kippur, for example. Amendments to the zoning code also began requiring approval for the construction of residential places of worship.
A candidate for Village Trustee is quoted as having written about the influx of Orthodox Jews, "This is our problem. It's not enough that these communities choose to make certain lifestyle choices... they will not live side by side with others."
Supreme Court Tells Gavin Newsom To Say His Prayers
The Supreme Court sided with a California church in its lawsuit against the state over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restrictions on places of worship.
An extremely brief note with no dissenting opinions was published by the court on Dec. 3, officially overturning the decision of a lower court. The Supreme Court tossed the issue back to a federal court for consideration in light of other recent Supreme Court decisions for similar matters in New York.
Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministries had pushed the lawsuit against the state in response to severe crackdowns against religious worship in California. Worship services and faith congregations were specifically targeted by the governor as “hotspots” for the pandemic. Critics pointed to lesser restrictions placed on businesses as evidence of an unnecessary and unconstitutional burden on religious worship.
"For the governor, COVID-19 restrictions are apparently optional and penalty free. But for Churches or anyone worshipping in their own home with someone who does not live there, COVID-19 restrictions are mandatory and enforced via criminal penalties," Harvest Rock’s lawyers wrote in their request to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom was spotted flouting his own COVID-19 rules by dining maskless indoors at an upscale party with at least 12 guests, also maskless.
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer and editor from northeastern Pennsylvania. He covers religious issues with a focus on the Catholic Church and Japanese society and culture.
Meagan Clark contributed reporting.