pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
NYT: Ugandan gay rights activist is beaten to death
An outspoken Ugandan gay activist whose picture recently appeared in an antigay newspaper under the headline “Hang Them” was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police said Thursday.
Business Day: Promise of rights in Muslim marriages

The draft Muslim Marriages Bill has barely come off the printing presses but is already creating a storm of debate within the Muslim community.

The Guardian: For the love of God – or good – support World Interfaith Harmony Week
All over the world there is a struggle taking place within and about religion.
AP: Religion and region at play in Nigerian election
Nigeria's ruling political party will pick its presidential candidate Thursday for the April election, a decision that delegates may make based on where the candidate is from rather than what he has to offer.
NYT: Voting is peaceful in south Sudan despite border clashes
As voters continued flooding the polls on Monday for a landmark referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, officials said more than 40 people had been killed over the weekend in intense skirmishes in a contested area along Sudan’s north-south border.
RNS: Technology unites missionaries, families around the world
Janine Winkler loves reading books to her 2-year-old grandson Judah, but instead of sitting on her lap at her home in Michigan, he's usually half a world away in Nigeria, where his father works for Wycliffe Bible Translators.
AP: Bomb blasts, church attacks show violent Christian, Muslim split in Nigeria ahead of election
Multiple explosions rocked a central Nigerian city, another bomb killed at least four at an army barracks in the capital and a radical Muslim sect burned churches in the northeast.
LA Times: As vote nears, Sudan's south anticipates independence and problems
A pistol sits next to a battered radio while Peter Bashir Bandi, a rebel turned political leader, lounges in a gold brocade chair listening to reports about what may soon be the world's newest, and most precarious, nation.
CS Monitor: In Africa, homosexuality emerging as hot-button issue
Long seen as a fringe societal taboo far from the realm of African politics, homosexuality is emerging as a hot-button issue throughout much of the continent.
LA Times: Muslim World: Poll shows majority want Islam in politics; feelings mixed on Hamas, Hezbollah
A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries' political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Guardian: Undisclosed Muslim country 'paying for anti-piracy force in Somalia'
An undisclosed "Muslim nation" is funding a 1,000-strong, privately trained military force in northern Somalia and has hired a former CIA officer and a senior official from the Bush administration to advise the Somali government on security matters, according to a report.
RNS: Blasphemy resolution passes U.N. committee
A resolution combating the "vilification of religions" was adopted Tuesday (Nov. 23) by a United Nations committee, but religious freedom advocates who oppose the measure say support for it continues to diminish.
AP: Hit by AIDS, Africa welcomes pope's condom message
From clerics to AIDS activists, Africans applauded Pope Benedict XVI's suggestion that condoms could be used in limited situations to protect partners — a shift that could make a dramatic impact in a continent that is both battling an HIV pandemic and is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic church.
WSJ: Putting a cap on bad juju conjures up a good business
This megacity's motorcycle taxis are so dangerous that local hospitals have special orthopedic wards meant just for people who have suffered accidents while riding them.
Globe and Mail: Ignoring death threats, Somali broadcaster lets the music play, defying Islamist edict
How do you create a radio network in the world’s most dangerous country, where war is raging, journalists are killed, and Islamic extremists have banned music, sports and women’s voices on the airwaves?
Globe and Mail: Support for female circumcision declining in Africa, study shows
Some experts thought it was so embedded in traditional culture that it would never change. But new evidence shows that African countries have made surprising progress in reducing the rate of female genital cutting, a controversial and often illegal practice that can cause lifelong injury and illness to girls and women.
AP: Israel welcomes last Ethiopians of Jewish descent
After years of languishing in makeshift shelters in the Horn of Africa, the final remnants of an Ethiopian community claiming Jewish descent received permission Sunday to move to Israel.
LA Times: Uganda newspaper stokes anti-gay sentiment
Stosh, a 33-year-old lesbian, lived a secret life because of a Ugandan law against homosexuality until a newspaper recently identified her as gay.
NYT: Killings in Nigeria are linked to Islamic sect
A rash of mysterious killings by gun-wielding motorcycle assassins of policemen, politicians and others in this city near the desert has led authorities to declare that a radical Islamic sect thought to have been crushed by Nigerian troops last year has been revived.
The Australian: Religious baby boom primed to send shock waves through secular world

We know about the aging of developed countries and the number of people on the move, but the figures can still startle.

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