Religion

Tibetan prayer flags in Zhong Lu village, China's Sichuan province. Credit: Mitch Moxley/IPS

RELIGION-CHINA: Buddhism Enjoys A Revival

By Mitch Moxley
Quan Zhenyuan discovered Buddhism by accident. After the owner of a vegetarian restaurant here in the Chinese capital gave her a book about the religion, she became hooked. Today, Quan is one of a growing number of urban Chinese who turn to Buddhism for spiritual fulfillment.

Egypt Rejects “Interference” in Elections

By William Fisher
Egypt's authoritarian government ramped up its crackdown on journalists and opposition politicians ahead of the Nov. 28 parliamentary elections and rebuffed a U.S. call for international observers to monitor "free and fair" balloting.

Muslim Americans Foil Terror Threats

By William Fisher
A new report on violent extremists in the United States finds that terrorism plots by non-Muslims greatly outnumber those attempted by Muslims, and that Muslim-American communities helped foil close to a third of al Qaeda-related terror plots threatening the country since Sep. 11, 2001.

INDONESIA: Minority Religions Pray For End to Discrimination

By IPS Correspondents
Clutching bibles and song leaflets, members of a Protestant church flocked into a one-storey building here, situated next to a new shopping mall on one of the busiest streets in this municipality in Indonesia’s West Java province.
The Goddess of English appears as a new deity. Credit: Chandra Bhan Prasad/IPS

INDIA: Dalits Turn to the Goddess of English

By Ranjit Devraj
India's Dalits are turning to the ''Goddess of English'' for deliverance from centuries of religiously-sanctioned caste oppression.

Torture Orders Were Part of U.S. Sectarian War Strategy

By Gareth Porter
The revelation by Wikileaks of a U.S. military order directing U.S. forces not to investigate cases of torture of detainees by Iraqis has been treated in news reports as yet another case of lack of concern by the U.S. military about detainee abuse.
"Dialogue is possible," says Gustavo Andújar, vice-president of Signis. Credit: Courtesy of Gustavo Andújar

Q&A: Cuba’s Catholic Media Multiply, But Change Is Slow

By Patricia Grogg
In the context of ongoing conciliation between the Cuban government and the Roman Catholic Church, the communications media of the latter are growing quickly on this Caribbean island where the press remains under strict state control.

Homophobia-Free Churches in Mexico

By Emilio Godoy
Alejandro González left the Catholic Church to join the gay-supportive Metropolitan Community Churches in Mexico, in search of a more open and tolerant place of worship.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/: U.S. Jews Increasingly Hawkish on Iran, Sceptical of Obama

By Jim Lobe
U.S. Jews, who, next to African Americans, have constituted the minority most supportive of Barack Obama, are growing more sceptical of his performance and increasingly hawkish on Iran, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

DEATH PENALTY: Arab Abolitionist Movements Seek Unity

By Cam McGrath
Rights activists have called for nascent abolitionist movements of the Middle East and North Africa to coordinate their efforts to press Arab regimes to end capital punishment.

Ashcroft’s Post-9/11 Roundups Spark Lawsuit

By IPS Correspondents
Hundreds of people who believe they were falsely detained and imprisoned by the Department of Justice in the wake of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks are now seeking redress through the U.S. courts.

U.S.: Sikhs Need Not Apply

By IPS Correspondents
A North Carolina man is joining a growing group of Sikhs who are looking to U.S. courts to remedy the "ignorance and intolerance" faced by practitioners of the religion, especially since the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, which they say "unleashed a torrent of discrimination".

BALKANS: Kosovo Talks Bring Hope

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
Serbia has lost all its military and legal battles over Kosovo, but there is hope that the internationally sponsored talks between Belgrade and Pristina in October may bring some normalisation in relations between Serbia and its breakaway province.

DEATH PENALTY: Arab States Pushed Towards Abolition

By Cam McGrath
Rights activists met in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria this week to discuss and adopt effective strategies to persuade Arab regimes to abolish the death penalty.

U.S.: Forget ‘Ground Zero Mosque’, It’s the Great Sharia Conspiracy

By Daniel Luban
A new report denouncing the threat to the U.S. from sharia, or Islamic law, marks the latest development in a summer filled with intensifying attacks on Islam in the United States.
Women rally in support of Park51, which describes itself as a "nonsectarian community, cultural and interfaith spiritual center". Credit: Greg Butterfield/IPS

Thousands Rally for Islamic Centre on 9/11 Anniversary

By Haider Rizvi
If you think that most citizens of the United States are racist or anti-Muslim, perhaps you have been relying too much on television news , especially the shows produced by the private networks in the United States.

US: Religious Leaders Condemn Growing Islamophobia

By Jim Lobe and Daniel Luban
Leaders of some three dozen mainstream U.S. religious denominations Tuesday condemned what many commentators have called a rising tide of Islamophobia touched off by the recent controversy over the construction of a Muslim community centre in Lower Manhattan, two blocks from the site of the twin World Trade Centre towers destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Cooking over felled trees by a demolished home in Johr al-Dik. Credit: Eva Bartlett

MIDEAST: Ramadan Goes Down Under Rubble

By Eva Bartlett
With power cuts up to 16 hours to full days, a soaring heat wave and unbearable humidity, the Israeli-led siege on Gaza is but one of many factors leaving Ramadan miserable for the majority of Palestinians in Gaza.

EGYPT: Brotherhood Struggles Against Shut Doors

By Adam Morrow
As Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood gears up to contest November parliamentary elections, some analysts note the relatively few gains made by the Brotherhood- led opposition over the last five years in an assembly dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

LEBANON: Rich Feast Through Month of Fasting

By Mona Alami
Although not a celebration in the traditional sense, Ramadan in Lebanon is a time of joy for many, during which families reconnect and share their wealth with the poor. But in this country of extremes, not everyone has the luxury of celebrating the holy month.

Thai Buddhists on a Long March to Muslim South

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Wearing a floppy cotton cap for shade, an exhausted Sarawut Kunrapang enters the compound of a mosque in the blistering afternoon sunshine. It is the latest stop for this 27-year-old Thai Buddhist in his walk for peace since mid-July from Bangkok.
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