Religion News on the Web
Selected religion-related news from around the Web
January 12, 2012
- The Australian
Australian: Salman Rushdie brushes off call for festival 'blasphemy' ban
The vice-chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, one of India's most influential Islamic seminaries, has called on the government to deny the Indian-born writer a visa to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival over the insult caused to Muslims by his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.
January 11, 2012
- The New York Times
NYT: After losing a lawsuit, taking their appeal to God
They have tried letter-writing, petitions and a lawsuit, all to no avail. So now the Christian congregations that are weeks away from expulsion from New York City’s public schools are focusing on more-religious tools in their arsenal: prayer, fasting and repentance.
December 31, 2011
- The Economist
The Economist: In the beginning were the words
Religions invite stereotypes, holy texts even more so. Non-Muslims often see Islam as a faith followed by people who hew so closely to an unchanging set of words that they ignore awkward new facts sooner than contradict its message.
December 30, 2011
- The Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail: The surprising success of the Confession app
When they launched their first Roman Catholic mobile phone application early this year, the founders of the Indiana-based startup Little i Apps had hoped their product would reach a small, niche market of fellow Catholics.
December 27, 2011
- The Washington Post
Wash. Post: Religious limits on women spur controversy in Israel
A sign outside a row of synagogues directing women to walk on the other side of the street has turned this town near Jerusalem into a front line of a raging national debate about the imposition of strict social codes by ultra-Orthodox zealots.
December 27, 2011
- The New York Times
NYT: Israeli girl, 8, at center of tension over religious extremism
The latest battleground in Israel’s struggle over religious extremism covers little more than a square mile of this Jewish city situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and it has the unexpected public face of a blond, bespectacled second-grade girl.
December 13, 2011
- The New York Times
NYT: Archdiocese can demolish SoHo church, court rules
A nearly five-year struggle over the future of a Roman Catholic parish
in SoHo that began with a sudden padlock on the church doors ended on
Tuesday, when New York State’s highest court affirmed that the
Archdiocese of New York had the right to demolish the shuttered building
despite opposition from the former parishioners.