Author: Staff Writer

Source: One News Now

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=178632

Authorities in West Papua, Indonesia, must move fast to prevent tension between Christian and Muslim communities escalating into a Malukan-style conflict, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group (ICG). The neighboring Maluku islands erupted into bitter sectarian warfare between 1999 and 2002, leaving thousands dead, injured...

Author: Father John Flynn, LC

Source: Zenit.org

http://www.zenit.org/article-23190?l=english

The small Christian community in Algeria has undergone a rough period in the last few months. Two converts to Christianity were recently convicted of promoting their faith and given suspended sentences and fines, the Associated Press reported July 2.

Rachid Mohammed Seghir and Jammal Dahmani were sentenced for the crime of “distributing documents...

Author: Tim Johnson

Source: Burlington Free Press

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080711/NEWS02/807110310/1007/NEWS02

For a tour showcasing "religious pluralism" in the Burlington area, the first stop was appropriate enough: the First Unitarian Universalist Society, which not only embraces a diversity of faiths, but displays their symbols on the walls of its sanctuary....

Author: Louise Brown

Source: The Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/living/Religion/article/458352

There is nowhere for Muslims to pray at McGill; the Montreal university shut the prayer room three years ago, arguing religious space has no place on a secular campus.

But at the University of Toronto, Muslims and anyone else who wants to pray between class can choose from among more than eight prayer rooms, including four at the airy new...

Author: Andrea Shea

Source: WBUR

http://www.wbur.org/news/2008/78529_20080709.asp

Eighteen antique bells that rang from a tower at Harvard for the past 78 years are on their way home to a monastery in Russia. WBUR's Andrea Shea has the story behind their long-awaited return.

SHEA: As tradition has it the ornate bells in the belfry at Lowell House, a dorm at Harvard, chime each Sunday for about 15 minutes. Grad student Ben Rappaport is the Head...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Hankyoreh

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/297616.html

Ten civic organizations, including the Lawyers for Democratic Society and Citizens’ Solidarity for Human Rights, held a press conference to announce that they support a lawsuit filed by Kang Ui-seok against his high school in front of the Seoul Appellate Court on July 7. In the foreground, an activist with...

Author: Ethan Cole

Source: The Christian Post

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080708/egypt-s-christian-muslim-gap-growing-bigger.htm

The divide between Egypt’s Coptic Christian community and the Muslim majority is growing bigger as an increasing number of Christians are cutting ties with Muslim neighbors and turning to the Church for all their social needs.

Many Christians in Egypt are...

Author: Anto Akkara

Source: Ecumenical News International

[eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=2064]

A joint forum of Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities in Bangladesh is lobbying quietly for the restoration of a secular constitution that was abolished 20 years ago making Islam the state religion in the Muslim-majority nation.

"We are trying our best to make our voices heard," Nirmal Rozario, organizing secretary of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, told Ecumenical News...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Hankyoreh

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/297004.html

Buddhist groups, which have complained that the government of President Lee Myung-bak is more partial to his Christian religion, have decided to take action.

In a meeting with some 20 groups held at Jogyesa, the main temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, in Seoul’s Gyeonji-dong on July 3, they...

Author: Jack Spillane

Source: The Standard-Times

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NEWS/806300304/-1/news

On a cold Friday night on Dec. 20, a small procession made its way down the ice-clogged sidewalks of New Bedford's North End.

The temperature was well below freezing and the wind-chill far below that. But it didn't seem to bother the Central American marchers, most...

Author: James Varghese

Source: Journal Chretien

http://journalchretien.net/breve13658.html

Hindu radicals assaulted an elderly pastor recently. The alleged perpetrators were members of Sangha Parivar (also called Vishwa Hindu Parishad). They attacked 65-year-old Pastor Murugan of the Gospel Church in Karnataka on the evening of June 24.

According to a report on www.persecution.in, Murugan and some other church members went to conduct a prayer...

Author: Magdi Abdelhadi

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7477108.stm

The week that Saudi Arabia held its first ever conference on interfaith dialogue, Morocco was hosting its 14th festival of World Sacred Music.

Artists from all over the world converged on its ancient city of Fez, to the east of the capital Rabat. While the Saudi gathering was made up of only Muslim clerics discussing a framework for future dialogue...

Author: Anuj Chopra

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Iranian-Christians-forced-to-worship-in-secret-3206843.php

Illyas, 20,...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Union of Catholic Asian News

http://www.ucanews.com/2008/06/27/catholic-priest-carries-olympic-torch-in-taiyuan/

Catholics from the Shanxi provincial capital have mixed feelings about a priest carrying the Olympic torch along its relay route here on June 26.

Father Paul Meng Ningyou, vicar general of Taiyuan diocese and pastor of Immaculate Conception Cathedral, was the 122nd of...

Author: Kalpit Parajuli

Source: Asia News

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=12627&size=A

Confessional schools will be recognised by the state and receive public funds but must in return adapt to a national curriculum. This change does not pose any problem to Catholic schools, which are among the best in the country, but not so for all confessional schools which must implement major changes.

“Small amounts of money have been...