In 2010, many Japanese sought to gain access to places considered as “power spots,” write Hotaka Tsukada and Toshihiro Omi in the annual Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture (No. 35, 2011). The “power spot boom” is seen as a renewal of sacred sites. Surveys reveal that television programs have played a […]

Due to continued propaganda by various Islamist groups and ulemas, mainstream Muslim perceptions of what constitutes legitimate “martyrdom operations” in war seem to have gained wider latitude, writes independent scholar Shireen Khan Burki in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence (September-October). In Muslim tradition, there had been a strong taboo against suicide in any form. […]

A growing number of Muslims in Southeast Asia are turning away from Western medical care in favor of Islamic medicine (or “medicine of the Prophet”), a loosely defined set of remedies based on the Quran and other Islamic texts, according to the Guardian newspaper (Sept. 26). The trend in Islamic treatments is often associated with […]

There is an unexpected rise in polygamy among Muslims in Britain, reports The Australian newspaper (Sept. 27). Using figures from the Islamic Sharia Council, the BBC Asian Bureau reported that for the first time, polygamy is now among the top ten reasons for divorce, as wives decide that they can no longer tolerate competing with […]

There have been increased efforts toward professionalizing Orthodox media in Russia in recent years, reports Anna Briskina-Müller (University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) in Religion und Gesellschaft im Ost und West (October). Although some media do not always manage to find a tone different from the older, Soviet-inherited style, some new projects attempt to convey a more modern […]

In the past few years, such countries as Denmark and Sweden have been viewed as laboratories demonstrating not only that secularism is alive and well, but that such societies are more prosperous and healthier than religious ones. But such a claim ignores both the changing religious situations in Sweden and Denmark and the Christian influences […]

“Faced with the prospects of losing members because of a hostile environment for intermarried couples,” Conservative Jewish synagogues are giving non-Jewish spouses membership opportunities, even if they face disapproval from denominational leadership, reports Forward (Sept. 9). Although the national Conservative leadership opposes membership rights for non-Jews, these dissenting congregations are going beyond the usual efforts […]

The effects of 9/11 on religious communities has both strengthened and weakened relations between Muslims and Christians. Up until 9/11, there were clear signs of cooperation between conservative Christians and American Muslims on moral and social issues—a coalition that has more or less broken down. A large segment of evangelicals have since become more antagonistic […]

The Tea Party movement has weak ties to evangelicals and the religious right, even though much of its rhetoric shares some commonality with religious conservatives, according to research presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Las Vegas in August, which RW attended. In a survey of 1,800 Tea Party groups, Tina […]