More governments, as they pursue violators on the Internet, are newly enforcing blasphemy laws. Voice of America (Jan. 13) reports that many of these governments are most notably majority Muslim nations and are turning to anti-blasphemy laws to punish transgressions against Islam that move beyond targeting public offenses to ones expressed over the Internet. The […]

In the religiously divided society of Northern Ireland, an unprecedented coalition of conservative religious groups—ranging from Catholic to Protestant to Muslim—is taking shape on moral and social issues and targeting rising secularism, reports The Economist (Dec. 11). The movement toward a “pan-religious ‘moral majority’” developed out of recent controversies over religious objections to gay rights, […]

It came as a surprise when the heads of Orthodox churches, at their March 2014 gathering, announced that the long awaited “Holy and Great Council” would finally convene in 2016 in Istanbul. Early initiatives toward the convocation of such a Council go back to the early 20th century, but turmoil affecting Orthodox countries throughout the […]

Conversions and reconversions, whether to Christianity or back to Hinduism, are becoming an increasingly contested political issue in India and other South Asian countries, according to several reports. Stating that his party is “against forceful conversions and re-conversions”, president of nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amit Shah, has asked secular Indian political parties to support […]