- Religion News
- Christian assemblies in UK schools face axe over claims they infringe children’s human rights: According to the National Secular Society, a legal requirement for pupils to take part in a daily act of collective worship ‘of a broadly Christian character’ discriminates against young atheists and non-Christians, and infringes human rights.
- Dallas pastor accused in burglary maintains innocence: Pastor Sandy McGriff is accused of burglary and resisting arrest after she was discovered exiting the home of one of her parishioners on Christmas Eve.
- US Muslims: a new consumer niche: The worldwide market for Islamically permitted goods, called halal, has grown to more than half a billion dollars annually. Ritually slaughtered meat is a mainstay, but the halal industry is much broader, including foods and seasoning that omit alcohol, pork products and other forbidden ingredients, along with cosmetics, finance and clothing.
- Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile in U.S.: Ms. Khalifa, who was born in Egypt and raised in Texas, wears a head scarf but also juggles, comfortably, the demands of American suburbia: crowded schedule, minivan and all. She is one of a type now found in most sizable U.S. cities: vocal Muslim women wary of the predominantly male leadership of their community and increasingly weary of suspicions of non-Muslims about Islam.
- German minister warns that Scientology cult is stepping up its online propaganda See also: Understanding the German view of Scientology. The publishers of Religion News Blog consider Scientology to be a commercial enterprise that masquerades as a church and acts like a hate group
- Multi-faith chaplains to make House of Commons more inclusive: Muslim, Bahá’à and Zoroastrian chaplains are to be recruited for the House of Commons under plans by the Speaker’s office to be more inclusive of different faiths.
- In India, a struggle for moderation as a young Muslim woman quietly battles extremism: In 2002, Rubina Sandhi’s home burned down by Hindu mobs during anti-Muslim riots. Instead of turning to violence, she is one of India’s many Muslims who are fighting back against extremism.
- Hate Groups
- Christmas bomb plot: nine men remanded over plan to ‘blow up Big Ben and Westminster Abbey’: Police were said to have found a list of six sites, including the full postal address of the Stock Exchange, Boris Johnson’s London mayoral office and the US embassy.
Defendants were seen studying the tower of Big Ben, before inspecting Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and the Church of Scientology. Al-Qaeda inspired books and leaflets, including instructions on making a pipe bomb, were also uncovered during the counter-terrorism operation. - ‘Plot to bomb London Eye’: Nine in court accused of planning Christmas terror blitz on the capital’s busiest landmarks : Nine terror suspects plotted a Christmas bomb blitz in London, a court has heard. Potential targets included the London Eye tourist attraction, the Stock Exchange and Mayor Boris Johnson, it was claimed. The Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, two rabbis and the U.S. Embassy were also said to have been listed for possible attack.
- Somali Insurgents: Obama Must Convert to Islam or Attacks on U.S. Will Come: Al-Shabab has not yet launched an attack outside Africa but Western intelligence has long been worried because the group targeted young Somali-Americans for recruitment.
- Iranian government stirs up antisemitism with invented massacre: The threatened desecration of the graves of two Jewish saints is just one result of the spreading of fabricated stories
- Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
- Resist the TSA?: Observers discuss whether Christians should resist airport body scans and pat-downs.
- The Christians who felt discriminated against: Following accusations of discrimination against Christians from the Bishop of Winchester here are recent examples where Christians may have felt discriminated against.
- Law and Morality: Are ethics and law at odds? Does the law define what is ethical, or do ethical concerns have their own purchase on the law? These questions, universally applicable, have special relevance to a religious culture like Judaism, whose traditional law is embodied in the vast corpus of halakhah.
- Sarah Palin is 2010 top religion voice for many
- Also Noted
- A Doctor in Iraq, Watching a Faith Healer at Work: The mullah explained that he worked as a salaried cleric at a mosque during the week and that his healing activities were reserved for Fridays, the day of rest. The only reward he sought, he said, was in the afterlife.
- Cults: Dr. Margaret Singer Speaks at Conference Video of a lecture by cult expert Dr. Margaret Singer (1921–2003) on the subject of cults.
- Shoppers say amen to newly translated e-Bible: Less than a week ago, Bible mega-publisher Zondervan released its newest translation of the New International Version of the Bible and saw it fly up the charts to become the top seller in the Apple store under Religion/Spirituality and No. 13 seller across all categories over Christmas weekend. On Amazon, it was No. 3, at $9.99 behind older Bibles selling for $1.99. This is the first time any Bible translation has gone straight to digital. The print version goes on sale in March.
- Spiritual Bread for a New Generation: Welcome to one of the 50 weekly home-study groups that form the backbone of House of Bread, one of Sacramento’s new wave Slavic congregations. Calling itself a “church without walls,” House of Bread was formed five years ago by Alex Shevchenko and several other youth pastors who split off from Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, the nation’s largest Slavic Pentecostal congregation. “We want to invest money not in bricks but in the souls of people — home groups are more personal,” Shevchenko said.
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