(OPINION) Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, died in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, on Jan. 21, 2022. He was 95. In the 1960s, Hanh played an active role promoting peace during the years of war in Vietnam. In his mid-20s, he became active in efforts to revitalize Vietnamese Buddhism for peace efforts.
Read MoreOf the 7.6 billion people on Earth, 2.4 billion identify as Christian, 1.9 billion as Muslim, 1.2 billion as Hindu and more than 500 million as Buddhist. Those are just the four largest religions. In other words, 310 million in the U.S. do not necessarily constitute the epicenter for all religion in the world. If anything, religion in America is a unique outlier.
Read More“Autobiography of a Yogi,” published in 1946, popularized Eastern religious concepts like “cosmic consciousness” and practices like yoga and meditation in the West. Brother Jayananada, who became a monk after reading the book over 40 years ago, spoke with ReligionUnplugged.com about its 75th anniversary and its lasting impact.
Read More(OPINION) Recent years have seen a crackdown on human rights and democracy in Hong Kong. Within a few months, three pro-democracy outlets disappeared from Hong Kong. Nonetheless, Hong Kong authorities have rejected claims of a crackdown and denied targeting the media.
Read MoreHindu extremists groups are disrupting Muslim prayers in an Indian city and threatening Hindus and Sikhs who help their Muslim neighbors find worship space.
Read MoreAs the Kazakh government declares a state of emergency and bans mass meetings in some areas, legal changes increase obstacles for holding religious meetings away from state-registered places of worship. Human rights defenders have documented the country’s already severe restrictions on the rights of peaceful assembly.
Read More(OPINION) Since a military takeover in February 2021 and a severe COVID-19 outbreak, Myanmar has faced an unprecedented crisis, with 14 out of 15 regions within the critical threshold for acute malnutrition. A recent UN report suggests that 14.4 million people will need aid in some form.
Read More(OPINION) As South Africa’s first Black Anglican archbishop and Nobel prize winning human rights advocate, the Rev. Desmond Tutu tapped into India’s freedom struggle and learned organizing strategies from Mahatma Gandhi. Today, Indian church leaders are leaning from Tutu’s example to heal divisions of caste, class and religion.
Read More(OPINION) For journalists who braved the chaos, the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill offered a buffet of the bizarre — a throng of Proud Boys, QAnon prophets, former U.S. military personnel and radicalized Donald Trump supporters that crashed through security lines and, thus, into history.
Read MoreThe Indian government blocked foreign donations to Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity over the Christmas holiday, cutting off a major source of funding for the Roman Catholic organization that provides housing, food and medical care for thousands of poor, disabled and ill Indians.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As 2021 comes to a close, everyone is looking toward 2022. The news cycle over the last two years has been dominated by COVID-19, and that doesn’t seem to be subsiding given the rash of recent omicron infections. The Catholic world, meanwhile, had in 2021 one of its busiest years. Expect 2022 to be just as busy.
Read More(OPINION) Religious leaders have long involved themselves in the immigration debate, taking a variety of of pro and con positions. So does religiosity make people more welcoming, or more suspicious, of the stranger? A recent Religion News Service story tries to answer the question as it has unfolded in Europe.
Read MoreA church established by medical missionaries in Kashmir Valley in 1896 closed during the 1990s armed insurgency against Indian rule when its local staff of Indian Christians fled the region. But now, under the leadership of the tourism department three decades later, the church is being restored and reopened in time for Christmas.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Of 71 countries that criminalize blasphemy, 32 are majority Muslim. Punishment and enforcement of these laws vary. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia. Among non-Muslim-majority cases, the harshest laws are in Italy, with penalties up to three years in prison.
Read More(OPINION) On Nov. 30, a court in Frankfurt, Germany, delivered a life sentence to a former Islamic State group fighter for genocide against the Yazidi minority — the first genocide conviction of an Islamic State group fighter in the world.
Read MoreKashmiri Hindus have longed to return and remain in their Himalayan homeland since fleeing violence by separatist militants in the 1990s. The Indian government has repeatedly promised to help them move back to Kashmir. But now thousands are again fleeing India’s only Muslim-majority region after a series of targeted civilian killings.
Read MorePublisher Gökhan Talas used his training as a graphic artist, knowledge he gained from Kurtulus churches in Ankara and training at the Filipus theological school to found Miras Publishing Ministries with his wife in 2011. Miras is the only Turkish-language Christian magazine in an increasingly hostile climate and marks its 10th anniversary this month.
Read More(OPINION) This year the peaceful celebration of Durga Puja that is so cherished by Hindus in Bangladesh was fraught with violence against Hindus and their places of worship.
Read MoreA Crimean court jailed 49-year-old Jehovah's Witness Igor Schmidt for six years on extremism-related charges, to be followed by six years of restrictions, although the prosecution presented no victims of any wrongdoing in court. Schmidt is the fourth Crimean Jehovah's Witness handed a long jail term. At least 12 more face criminal cases.
Read More(OPINION) At the end of October, the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute team secured the evacuation of 79 women judges, lawyers, journalists and other human rights defenders from Afghanistan to Greece. But states must also wake up to the message sent by the Taliban and consider other ways they can help.
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