Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri lives near Ayodhya, the Indian city that witnessed violent intercommunal rioting after Hindu nationalists tore down a 16th century mosque. Jafri aims to spark conversations about history, memory and heritage-preservation through his art, which draws on his ancestral legacy of blending Hinduism and Sufism in poetry.
Read More(OPINION) The 2022 Beijing Games are surrounded by controversy. The Chinese government is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. Evidence shows the Uyghur people are held in concentration camps, forcibly sterilized and subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and sexual violence.
Read More(OPINION) A recent Pew survey found that 40% of countries and territories worldwide had blasphemy laws in 2019. But a few caveats bring a greater understanding of how blasphemy laws and hate speech laws are impacting believers and nonbelievers today.
Read MoreLast year saw the highest number of physical attacks against Indian Christians on record, with 486 attacks, a rise of 80% from 2020, according to United Christian Forum, which collects the data from a phone helpline. Meanwhile, Open Doors USA recently ranked India as the 10th most dangerous country for Christians.
Read MoreUkrainian Christians have experienced death, displacement and loss in conflicts with Russia that date back to 2014. That’s when Russia seized Crimea. And now, Russia has amassed some 127,000 troops along its western border with Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.
Read More(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.
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