Posts in Asia
Politics trump religious freedom for Russia's Jehovah's Witnesses and China's Uighur Muslims

(COMMENTARY) Russian Jehovah's Witnesses and Uighur Muslims in China are persecuted by their governments, in part because they’re seen as insufficiently loyal, and in part because the global community prioritizes good trade relations.

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A Royal Pickle: Jordanian Evangelicals and American ‘Help’

(NEWS ANALYSIS) Jordan’s King Abdullah II received the Templeton Prize for religious tolerance in November. Does he deserve it? Abdullah has invited prominent American Evangelicals to visit, including pro-Israel advisors to Trump, while one critical report says the government has shut down their churches and barred visas for foreign Christians.

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Filipino Catholics Oppose Lowering the Age of Criminal Liability to 12

The country is grappling with a deadly drug war, where criminal gangs recruit children to work for them.

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Modi's bill to grant citizenship to undocumented Hindus causes stir in India

India’s ruling party is pushing for a controversial immigration bill to pass ahead of the general election that excludes Muslim migrants.

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Religious persecution: Why not cover all groups feeling Beijing's wrath, not just Protestants?

(COMMENTARY) China is also quashing the religious freedom of Tibetan Buddhists, Muslims and Roman Catholics.

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Film marks the 20th anniversary of missionary Graham Staines’ killing in India

(COMMENTARY) An American film releasing Feb. 1 marks 20 years after the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. An anti-Christian Hindu fanatic murdered the trio by burning them alive while they were asleep in their station wagon in the early hours of Jan. 23, 1999.

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For the first time, Indian transgender gurus bless followers at mass Hindu pilgrimage

The transgender community in India is pushing for inclusion in sacred spaces at one of the world’s largest religious gatherings.

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The Religion of Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method of Tidying

The popular Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo has many influences from Shintoism, the native religion of Japan.

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China’s war on terror

One million people of China’s Uighur population have been incarcerated in a growing number of “political re-education” camps. The thirty-one camps encompass more than 2 million square meters and function as prisons in what’s described as “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.”

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A Journey to Eradicate Menstrual Exile

In western parts of Nepal, menstruating girls and women are sent to cow sheds or huts despite a law banning the practice. The Nepalis in Myanmar also treat the practice as an integral part of their culture. Nandar Gyawalli is calling for the abolition of this tradition which recently claimed the lives of a mother and two sons in Nepal.

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In India, a battle for gender equality, religious freedom and votes

There’s a massive face-off in India over a Supreme Court order that allows women to enter a popular Hindu temple despite devotees’ belief that their eternally celibate god will be compromised.

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A Hindu story of garlic and onions, and what it means for our "tribal" religious divisions in 2019

(COMMENTARY) Without making an effort to understand how all these small differences expressed in eating habits add up to create the chasms that divide us, we have no hope of overcoming them.

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Indian fishermen granted bail after ferrying American missionary to restricted island

Police are also investigating two more Americans who may have helped John Allen Chau illegally visit the remote Sentinelese tribe.

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Surprise – The crucial religion story of 2018 is the specter of 'designer babies'

(COMMENTARY) He Jiankui, a U.S.-trained biological researcher in China, claims he has successfully altered the genes of newly born twins, with a third such birth expected soon.

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India’s Hindu Nationalists want to build a temple over a mosque

(COMMENTARY) Twenty-six years ago, Hindu nationalists destroyed a 16th century mosque. Today, the right wing’s campaign issue is how to build a temple on that site.

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As the Dalai Lama ages, Tibetan exiles turn to secular unity over sacred

The leaders of Tibet’s exile community have been shifting their stance from sacred to secular as His Holiness ages, preparing to carry on the world’s longest-running non-violent resistance movement— with or without a spiritual leader. 

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