(ANALYSIS) A recent report by U.N. Women revealed that female empowerment has been a top priority in Malaysia, the southeast Asian country of 35 million people. From running tech startups, costume and jewelry businesses to driving public buses, women in Muslim-dominated Malaysia are largely economically, socially and culturally independent.
Read MoreTwo Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside an event in Washington, D.C., around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to local and federal officials, by a suspect who appeared to target them in what many Jewish leaders are calling an antisemitic attack. The shooting took place following an American Jewish Committee event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Read MoreNigeria’s size, population and underdeveloped infrastructure make full and accurate data on such attacks difficult to obtain, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said at a Capitol Hill hearing on religious freedom in Nigeria, but the country is the deadliest in the world for Christians.
Read MoreAbout half of American Jews describe President Donald Trump as antisemitic, while only a minority think his campus crackdown is reducing antisemitism, according to a new survey. American Jews are also broadly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and fewer of them say they feel an attachment to Israel than before the current Israel-Hamas war.
Read MoreA newscast from Israel streamed on a large screen, and a woman speaking into a microphone translated updates into English: “Hamas announces it has released Edan Alexander.” “The Red Cross says it’s on the scene but does not yet have Alexander.” “We have confirmation that Alexander has been released.” “Alexander is officially in the hands of the IDF.” “Alexander has had a first conversation with his mother and is telling jokes.”
Read MoreIndia launched a military strike deep into Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir early on May 7, saying it targeted sites used by terror groups responsible for the April 22 attacks on civilians in the Kashmir region. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the attack a “blatant act of war,” promising that it “will not go unpunished” and claiming that a “resolute response is already underway.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) The April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, has pushed India and Pakistan into one of their most dangerous standoffs in recent years. Daily gunfire is being reported across the Line of Control and diplomatic ties have been cut off and military activity is intensifying between the majority Hindu nation and their Muslim neighbors.
Read MoreWhy was Segev Schwartz the only casualty in his battalion of 30 Israeli soldiers when a terrorist tossed a hand grenade in a cafeteria on Oct. 7, 2023? That was his mother Sara’s question. The answer she found completed a picture of Segev she and her husband shared on the eve of Israel Memorial Day, the commemoration of the fallen in Israeli wars and acts of terrorism since 1948.
Read MoreWhen Jessica Yeroshalmi started her political science degree at Baruch College in New York six years ago, she was surprised to learn that some students in her classes had no idea there were Jews with roots in the Middle East. Yeroshalmi’s parents fled from Iran to New York after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was only once Yeroshalmi went to college that she realized that her peers had an Ashkenazi-centric image of what it means to be Jewish.
Read MoreOn the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, our columnist reflects on how covering the biggest story of his life changed him.
Read More(OPINION) The international conversation about Gaza has long circled the same grim question: What would it take for the population to rise up against Hamas? We just might have the beginnings of a response: The resumption of war, after Israel broke a two-month ceasefire following 15 months of devastating conflict. The prospect of more death with no end date, all because Hamas refuses to free more hostages until Israel agrees to leave it in power as part of a more permanent truce, appears to be too much to bear.
Read MoreIn recent years, Nigeria has seen a surge in kidnappings and violent attacks. Christians living in the country’s five southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo have said violence has affected their religious lives.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the chaos, journalists have struggled to confirm statistics about fatalities, while waves of social media videos claim to show crucified Christians, Alawites and other members of religious and ethnic minority groups being beaten, militants firing machine guns into houses and committing other atrocities.
Read MorePastors have reported that they have been forced to shelter rebels inside their churches as well as within their surrounding communities. The rebels are well aware that hiding in these sanctuaries guarantees them protection, given the government’s longstanding commitment to ensuring that attacks do not target civilians, churches or hospitals.
Read MoreThe beheaded bodies of 70 Christians were found in a Protestant church in North Kivu Province in the Congo around Feb. 15, several religious freedom advocates said, blaming the extremist Allied Democratic Forces. The ADF is accused of approaching homes in Mayba, in the Lumbero territory, beginning Feb. 12 and capturing as many as 100 Christians through Feb. 15.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This past Feb. 15 marked the 10th anniversary of Daesh (the Islamic State group or ISIL) releasing the video of the murder of 21 men on a beach in Libya. The majority of them were Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians who were abducted from Sirte, Libya, between December 2014 and January 2015. One of the men was from Ghana and chose to stay with the Coptic men and face the same fate.
Read MoreAbout 50 Christians were killed, dozens kidnapped and homes destroyed since late January in several attacks spanning southern to northern Nigeria, Christian persecution watchdog groups said. At least three pastors were killed in attacks in Kaduna in north-central Nigeria and Gombe in northeastern Nigeria.
Read MoreMany of the 500-plus wards of the Center for Nutrition and Education of Children Foundation were orphaned by Boko Haram killings in northern Nigeria. Others were sent to this northeastern town by relatives to escape ongoing violence. Some came from vulnerable situations in the surrounding villages.
Read More(ANALYSIS) President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. should “take over” Gaza, displace its current population and turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East” is unsettling — in both a literal and, to Palestinians, a very personal sense.
Read MoreChristian persecution intensified in 2024 in Nicaragua, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and regions throughout Africa’s Sahel region, ICC said in a new report, citing increased government hostility in Nicaragua, Hindu nationalism and anti-conversion laws in India and terrorism and displacement in Africa.
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