November 2014: 5,000 people murdered by Muslim extremists.
Also: IS barbarians stoop to a new low.
Plus: Promoting, in Burma, a bar with an image of the Buddha wearing headphones is asking for trouble. And here’s the Internet Movie Database listing that scares the destructive Scientology cult.
Chinese house church leader Samuel Lamb, persecuted for his faith, dies.
Former porn star Jenna Presley, now a Christian, joins XXXChurch. And punk rockers are speaking out against Buddhism’s neo-Nazis.
Chile seeks to extradite a leader of the notorious Colonia Dignidad cult from Germany.
Ramadan can be a lonely time for Muslim converts.
Plane crash leads to questions about Christian summer school.
Also: dangerous giant snails, and their connection to a religious cult.
Myanmar’s Buddhist 969 movement has been referred to as “neo-Nazi” — and not without reason. Four members of a Belgian sect have been found guilty in the death of a former follower.
Also: Bobby McFerrin talks about his new album, spirityouall — and you can listen to some of the songs here. Plus: members of the Westboro hate group that pretends to be a church are freaking out (more than usual).
Japan’s Koyasan Shingon sect of Buddhism invested money from followers, who were not told about the investments. The investments went sour.
A Muslim hate preacher once called “Osama bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe” again thwarts UK government efforts to send him back to Jordan, where he faces terrorism charges.
Today’s Religion News Briefs include the blessing of bicycles and a look at meditation teacher Jeff Warren.
Also: A city in Indonesia bans Muslim women from farting loudly. And there’s a split among Mormon scholars: Some argue for wider research; others keep focus on defending the faith.
The Karmapa has been questioned by the Indian police after huge amounts of cash—the equivalent of $1.6m in some reports—in various currencies, including Chinese yuan, were seized from the monastery he occupies.
One of the two main political parties of the indigenous people in Bangladesh’s southeastern hill tracts prevented Christians from celebrating Christmas, sources said.
The United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), which has demanded that Christian converts return to Buddhism, threatened tribal Christians of at least seven churches in Khagrachari district, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
Scientists and religious practitioners can learn a lot from each other and should work together to find a productive balance between spirituality and secular research, the Dalai Lama said Sunday.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s comments came at a news conference kicking off his three-day visit to Emory University in Atlanta. During his visit, he plans to teach, lecture and receive an update on the development of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.
The Dalai Lama is a presidential distinguished professor at Emory — the only university appointment he has accepted.
The Dalai Lama said he has long been interested in scientific knowledge — particularly in the areas of cosmology, neurobiology, physics and psychology, which he says are mentioned in Buddhist texts.
Buddhist extremists held eight Chakma Christians for four days to force them to return to Buddhism.
The captives were all forced to wear Buddhist robes, shave their heads, bow down before a statue of Buddha and clean the temple; they were also threatened with beatings and even death if they tried to escape.