pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
Economist: Islamists in Russia: The Boston bombs have put new focus on Russia’s Islamist republics
Hours after the Boston bombers were identified as Chechens, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, called Barack Obama to offer help with his investigations.
The Times: The book everyone talked about
On Monday St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square hosts a theological colloquium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Robinson's Honest to God and to ponder its message for today.
Times of India: In historic landmark, Sikh caucus formed in US Congress
With their distinctive, colourful turbans, their storied industry, and their expansive presence all over the world across a range of professions, Sikhs are easily India's most prominent ethnic community.
NYT: For Indonesian atheists, a community of support amid constant fear
Karina is an atheist, but her friends jokingly call her “the prophet.” That is because she is helping nurture a community for unbelievers in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, where trumpeting one’s disbelief in God can lead to abuse, ostracism and even prison.
AP: Muslims see little backlash after Boston bombing
It looked like the backlash was starting even before the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were identified as Muslim.
CS Monitor: Boston bombing: US Muslims react with fear, frustration, and new resolve
When the bombs at the Boston Marathon exploded a week ago Monday, a familiar chain of events and emotions unfolded for many in the American Muslim community: shock and grief, followed by an unspoken dread that the perpetrators could be Muslim; condemnation of the attack; fear of reprisals – and of being conflated with the acts of violence; and quietly, an inward examination of what went wrong.
AP: Culture war erupts in Israel over attempts to end preferential budgets for ultra-Orthodox
A cultural war has erupted between Israel’s rising political star and his ultra-Orthodox rivals.
NYT: Boston attack spotlights struggle half a world away
With an automatic weapon at his side and a black flag behind him, the Islamic rebel explained in a video why he had gone to war with his government. As is often the case in the broiling Muslim insurgency here in the North Caucasus, his complaints were intensely local: a police commander had announced a policy of harassing and threatening family members of suspected militants.
AP: Al-Qaida offshoot on run in Mali fights back with soft power via Twitter
Battered by a French-led military campaign in Mali, al-Qaida’s North African arm is trying something new to stay relevant: Twitter.
NYT: New threat in Nigeria as militants split off
Nearly four years into Nigeria’s bloody struggle with Islamists in its impoverished north, a new threat has emerged with deadly implications, this time for Westerners as well as Nigerians: local militants who openly claim to be inspired and trained by Al Qaeda and its affiliate in the region.
Wash. Post: In Egypt, anger at Islamists brings calls for military to reclaim power
As Egypt’s economy crumbles and its democratic transition falters, some opponents of the country’s Islamist president are pinning their hopes on unlikely saviors: the powerful generals who have been mostly sidelined since last year’s elections.
Wash. Post: No links seen between Boston suspects and foreign terrorist groups, officials say
The injured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that he and his brother were driven by hard-line Islamist views and anger over the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but had no ties to foreign militant groups, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
NYT: Search for home led suspect to land marred by strife
Tamerlan Tsarnaev had already found religion by the time he landed in Dagestan, a combustible region in the North Caucasus that has become the epicenter of a violent Islamic insurgency in Russia and a hub of jihadist recruitment. What he seemed to be yearning for was a home.
NPR: Danger in conflation: separating Islam from acts of terror
Host Jacki Lyden talks to Omid Safi, professor of religious studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Safi has blogged about the Tsarnaev brothers, the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, and what it means to the American Islamic community that the brothers are Muslim.
Washington Times: Hindu nationalist, banned from U.S., leading candidate for prime minister
A Hindu nationalist leader is his party’s top candidate to become India’s next prime minister, despite being banned from entering the U.S. because of accusations his government was involved in deadly anti-Muslim riots.
Boston Globe: Embassies, Islamic groups fear attacks against Muslims
In the jarring aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Saudi Arabian embassy and consulate prepared for the worst.
Guardian: Buddhist monk uses racism and rumours to spread hatred in Burma
His name is Wirathu, he calls himself the "Burmese Bin Laden" and he is a Buddhist monk who is stoking religious hatred across Burma.
AP: At desert monastery, Egypt's monks join new Christian assertiveness in face of Islamist power
In a cave here high in the desert mountains of eastern Egypt, the man said to be the father of monasticism took refuge from the temptations of the world some 17 centuries ago. At the foot of the mountain, the monks at the St. Anthony’s Monastery bearing his name continue the ascetic tradition.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: East St. Louis pastors and mayor in First Amendment standoff
After the Rev. Anthony Vincent, the city’s director of emergency services, delivered an opening prayer, the City Council took up some standard issues — maintenance of a traffic light, filling in a pot hole.
NYT: For Evangelicals, a shift in views on immigration
In the pews of the First Baptist Church of Orlando, where thousands of evangelical Christians gather on Sundays to worship and sing, a change of heart is happening on the once toxic issue of immigration.
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