YANGON (Reuters) Myanmar's Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion has pushed through four laws that critics say effectively legalize discrimination against women and the country's minority Muslims ahead of the country's first free vote in 25 years.

Source: Anti-Muslim Buddhist group moves toward Myanmar's mainstream - Religion News Service

It wants videos with "reasonable messages, better messages" to drown out extremism, and is recruiting Muslims to make them. But will it work?

Source: YouTube's Battle Against ISIS

Teesta Setalvad, who seeks to hold the Indian prime minister responsible for deadly riots in 2002, has been overwhelmed by attacks emanating from entities controlled by him or his allies.

Source: Longtime Critic of Modi Is Now a Target

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A group of Islamic experts urged the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims on Tuesday to do more to fight global warming, in a new example of religious efforts to galvanize action before a U.N. climate summit in Paris in December.In June, the world’s most important Christian leader, Pope Francis, urged world leaders to hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” in an encyclical on the environment for the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.Unlike Roman Catholicism, Islam is a highly decentralized religion with no single recognized authority. But Muslim experts...

Rukmini Callimachi discusses how she worked to tell the stories of Yazidi women and girls held as sex slaves by the Islamic State.

Source: Kidnapping and Sex Slavery: Covering ISIS’ Religious Justification for Rape - The New York Times

Mona Eltahawy says as a female in Saudi Arabia you have two options: "To lose your mind or become a feminist." Rafia Zakaria says it's crucial to reclaim the identity of the modern Muslim woman.

Source: Muslim Feminists Rewrite Boundaries On The Street And At Home : NPR

An online culture that blends youthful rebellion with radical religiosity helped draw popular, high-achieving friends to Syria.

Source: Jihad and Girl Power: How ISIS Lured 3 London Teenagers - The New York Times

An appellate court had secretly commuted the death sentences of four men, dropped charges against some and reduced sentences against many others.

Source: Afghan Panel to Call for Retrial in Death of Farkhunda, a Female Scholar - The New York Times

A journalist from The Forward, an American Jewish pro-Israel publication, described a “dynamic push-and-pull’’ between Iran’s theocratic government and its people.

Source: Reporting From Iran, Jewish Paper Sees No Plot to Destroy Israel - The New York Times

Youth seen as more open-minded; Islam and Christianity are China's fastest growing faiths

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/world/europe/britain-is-losing-against-isis-recruitment-tactics.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss