Christianity

School and Religious Symbol Cases

July 29, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7530726.stm

A teenager from south Wales has won her claim that she was discriminated against because she was not allowed to wear a religious bangle to school.

Sarika Singh was told she was breaking the uniform's 'no jewellery' policy, and had been excluded from school for nine months.

But the High Court agreed with her that it was an expression of her Sikh faith...

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Religious Groups Give New Students Support

July 28, 2008

Author: Annie Meredith

Source: The Missourian

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/07/28/religious-groups-give-new-students-support/

Settling in a new town usually calls for a search for new services and new acquaintances. In your quest for new hangouts, new friends and teachers, a new bank or a new doctor, you might discover that you no longer have a church or worship service to attend. Don't...

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Lambeth Conference: Interfaith Dialogue a New Reality in 21st Century World

July 28, 2008

Author: Marites N. Sison

Source: The Anglican Journal

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/100/article/lambeth-conference-interfaith-dialogue-a-new-reality-in-21st-century-world/

The world changed dramatically after 9-11. So, too, have the relationships between churches of the Anglican Communion and other faiths, with inter-faith dialogue now figuring in their agenda like never before. That...

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Revered by the Castros and Their Opponents

July 28, 2008

Author: Marc Lacey

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/world/americas/28cuba.html?em&ex=1217390400&en=cc3ea75cbba2e93c&ei=5087%0A

The most bizarre offering that the Rev. Jorge Alejandro has witnessed at Cuba’s most cherished shrine came from the man who bent down and began clipping his toenails. One by one, the man deposited them at the altar, among the many other...

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Yale Hosts High-Level Christian-Muslim Dialogue

July 27, 2008

Author: Tom Heneghan

Source: Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSL748164520080727

Senior Christian and Muslim scholars and leaders are meeting in the United States this week seeking common ground in their different faiths to foster better understanding between Islam and the West.

Hosted by Yale University Divinity School, the conference is the first public dialogue launched by Muslim intellectuals in the...

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Vatican Hopes Indian Bible Will Translate into Surge of Converts

July 26, 2008

Author: Jeremy Page

Source: The Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4402482.ece

Barefoot and wearing a sari, with a bindi on her forehead and a naked baby on her shoulder, the woman in the picture is unmistakably Indian. So is the man behind her, clad in a loincloth and turban.

They could be any poor family in an Indian village, or at one of the country's teeming railway stations. This, however,...

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Iraqi Christians Urged to Return

July 25, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7525860.stm

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged Christians who fled the country after the US-led invasion to return home to help rebuild the country.

Speaking after meeting Pope Benedict XVI in Italy, Mr Maliki said he asked the pontiff to encourage Christians to rejoin Iraq's social structure.

Nearly half of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians...

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Nigeria: African Leaders Condemn Violence Against Women

July 24, 2008

Author: Akor Sylvester

Source: AllAfrica.com/Daily Champion

http://allafrica.com/stories/200807240603.htmlica.com/stories/200807240603.html

African leaders have condemned in totality violence against women, saying it is unreligious and against the law of natural justice.

The leaders also concluded to form a network across national border[s] that would tackle issues, beliefs and traditions that infringe on the...

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Barack Obama Gets Indonesian Religious and Political Backing

July 24, 2008

Author: Maurice Malanes

Source: Ecumenical News International

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=2117

An Indonesian religious leader has told a visiting World Council of Churches delegation that Christians in his country are praying for the US Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

"We are praying for Obama because we feel he can help reduce the widespread stigma and misperception that Muslims in Indonesia are...

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Texas Jury Indicts US Sect Leader

July 23, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7520717.stm

Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of a US polygamist sect, has been indicted on charges of child sexual assault in the state of Texas.

Five of his followers also face charges. Jeffs was convicted last year of being an accomplice to rape and is currently in prison in Arizona.

The Changing Faiths Of The Gulf

July 19, 2008

Author: Edward Pentin

Source: Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147705

The Persian Gulf is not an obvious destination for the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet when Bahrain's King Hamad met with Pope Benedict earlier this month in Rome, he extended a personal invitation to visit. If Benedict takes him up on the offer, he'll become the first pontiff to set foot in Arabia.

What would make that trip so dramatic is the region's reputation for religious...

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Turkmen, Uzbek Faith Groups Still Under Pressure

July 18, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Institute for War & Peace Reporting

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=bca&s=b&o=345801&apc_state=henh

The state of religious freedoms in both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan remains as poor as ever, with both governments suspicious of Muslim and non-Muslim faith groups alike.

At a White House meeting on July 14 dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the United States’ International Religious Freedom Act, President...

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Pope Benedict XVI Meets Non-Christian Leaders

July 18, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Australian

[theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24039586-2702,00.html]

Leaders of non-Christian faiths have met Pope Benedict XVI, who hailed the shared moral values of the world's major religions.

About 20 religious leaders from the Jewish, Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist communities gathered to meet the Pope and the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney George Pell in the Chapter Hall at St Mary's Cathedral this morning.

The meeting came hours before the main...

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Flushing, Just Outside Manhattan, is Proud of Its Religious Diversity

July 15, 2008

Author: Paige Kollock

Source: Voice of America News

[voanews.com/archive/flushing-just-outside-manhattan-proud-its-religious-diversity]

The neighborhood of Flushing in New York City borough of Queens, just outside Manhattan, has been a model for religious freedom since the 1600s. Back then, members of The Society of Friends, or Quakers, began arriving in what was then a Dutch colony, fleeing religious persecution in England.

The colony's director-general barred the Friends from practicing...

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Pakistan Court Rules Conversion of Kidnapped Christian Girls is Legal

July 15, 2008

Author: Anto Akkara

Source: Ecumenical News International

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=2084

A Christian father in Pakistan is trying without success through the courts to gain custody of his two pre-teen daughters who were kidnapped and made to convert to Islam.

On 12 July, a judge in Pakistan's Punjab province ignored pleas that Saba Younis, aged 12, and her 10 year old sister, Anila Younis, who went missing on 26 June from the...

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