pewforum.org Religion News on the Web

Religion News on the Web

Selected religion-related news from around the Web
CS Monitor: In Egypt and Tunisia, Salafis move from prisons to parliaments
Mehdi Mezmi rediscovered Islam eight years ago via a website, then illegal to access in his native Tunisia, called Minbar at-Tawheed wal Jihad – “The Forum for God’s Oneness and Holy Struggle.”
Guardian: Religion spreads the word
'My reverend told me that he had prayed for me and that I had been healed," Mary Jere says, her wide eyes glazing. "So I stopped taking the HIV medication."
Wash. Post: Afghan’s Shiite minority fears a return to old ostracism
For the past week, the Afghan capital has been draped with black cloth arches and festooned with huge colored banners. Mournful, pounding chants pour from loudspeakers across the city, filling the air with slow martial intensity.
Wash. Post: As O'Malley eyes repeal, Md. death row remains at 'impasse'
Coming off some high-profile wins at the ballot box this month, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is considering another run at repealing the death penalty when lawmakers reconvene in January, aides say.
Reuters: Saudi reforms detour through Vienna faith center
The road to reform in Saudi Arabia is long and winding. In the rigidly restricted field of religion, the path is so circuitous that part of it even runs through traditionally Catholic countries like Austria and Spain.
AP: At public meetings, fights over prayer drag on
It happens every week at meetings in towns, counties and cities nationwide. A lawmaker or religious leader leads a prayer before officials begin the business of zoning changes, contract approvals and trash pickup.
AP: Syrian Islamist groups reject Western-backed opposition, declare Islamic state in key city
Syria's increasingly powerful Islamist rebel factions rejected the country's new Western-backed opposition coalition and unilaterally declared an Islamic state in the key battleground of Aleppo, a sign of the seemingly intractable splits among those fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
Journal Sentinel: Atheist group likely to get $67,000 in UW student fees
An atheist group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison seems on track to receive nearly $70,000 in student fees for staffing and programming next year, in what appears to be a first for the university and student atheist groups nationally.
AP: Top bishop: We won't give in on birth control rule
A top American bishop said Tuesday the Roman Catholic church will not comply with the Obama administration requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control.
Boston Globe: Group’s faith rule stirs clash at Tufts University
In a collision between religious freedom and nondiscrimination codes, Tufts University is considering whether an evangelical Christian student group should be stripped of its official status for requiring that its leaders adhere to the faith, saying it violates school policies against religious discrimination.
AP: New opposition head gives renewed hope to Syrians
Syria's political opposition has struggled to prove its relevance amid the civil war under a leadership largely made up of academics and exiled politicians.
LA Times: Growing ties between Egypt, Turkey may signal new regional order
Egypt and Turkey are forging an alliance that showcases two Islamist leaders maneuvering to reshape a Middle East gripped by political upheaval and passionate battles over how deeply the Koran should penetrate public life.
AP: U.S. bishops stay firm on gay marriage, birth control despite election
A subdued U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops acknowledged Monday that voters rejected the stands they took against gay marriage and birth control, but gave no sign they would change their strategy ahead.
NYT: Push expands for legalizing same-sex marriage
Elated by their first ballot victories, in four states, advocates of same-sex marriage rights plan to push legislatures in half a dozen more states toward legalization as they also press their cause in federal courts.
NYT: Angry Turkish secularists plant their flag at trial
The protesters converge each day on the village of little tents dotting the landscape here outside a sprawling prison and courthouse.
NYT: Tunisia battles over pulpits, and revolt’s legacy
On the Friday after Tunisia’s president fell, Mohamed al-Khelif mounted the pulpit of this city’s historic Grand Mosque to deliver a full-throttle attack on the country’s corrupt culture, to condemn its close ties with the West and to demand that a new constitution implement Shariah, or Islamic law.
LA Times: Focus on the Family head takes conciliatory tone after election
As the head of Focus on the Family, Jim Daly might be considered one of the nation's leading culture warriors — a title that certainly applied to his predecessor, James Dobson, who founded the organization and built it into a powerhouse of the conservative evangelical movement.
AP: Liberian Christians and Muslims campaign against gay marriage
A few hundred Liberians representing the Christian and Muslim faiths and civil society organizations gathered here Saturday to launch a campaign to press the government to ban same-sex marriage.
NYT: Christian right failed to sway voters on issues
Christian conservatives, for more than two decades a pivotal force in American politics, are grappling with Election Day results that repudiated their influence and suggested that the cultural tide — especially on gay issues — has shifted against them.
NYT: A vague role for religion in Egyptian draft constitution
After months of fierce debate over the place of Islam in government, the assembly drafting a new constitution for Egypt has settled on a compromise that opens the door to more religion in governance but mainly guarantees that the issue will continue to roil politics, the Parliament and the courts for many years to come.
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