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New amendments to the Religion Law in Azerbaijan are being added at top secret levels, and will not be published until after they are approved by the parliament. |
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Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Malaysia have been barred from prayer in the main mosque of the State of Selangor by the Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (MAIS), the second highest religious authority in the country after the Sultan. |
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Since the Interior Ministry issued a “Plan to Prevent the Spread of Religious Extremism”, police in Azerbaijan have raided a meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses and a Baptist congregation. |
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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was forced to call off a fact-finding visit to Cuba after many staff visa applications were not approved. |
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The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit alleging widespread discrimination within the U.S. armed forces and called on the Army to court martial it’s chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver. |
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On April 1, the Grace Sunmin Protestant Church in Dushanbe was notified that it must vacate the church property in 10 days by order of the city’s Economic Court. |
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President Rakhmon signed a new law which empowers the government to enforce strict control of religious groups in the former Soviet republic, which borders Afghanistan. |
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The state recently shut down a Christian-run rehabilitation center and continues to persecute Baptists by confiscating property and levying fines for unregistered worship services. |
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Malaysian Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has received the award for her work advancing human rights, the status of women, and religious tolerance. |
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After the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed legislation to ban head coverings in driver’s license photos, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)is working to ensure that the legislation will include a religious exemption. |
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The Economist reports on recent clashes between Shia pilgrims and Saudi police in Medina which have brought accusations of religious persecution against the state. |
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A report from the UN Special Rapporteur released at the end of January evaluates the state of religious freedom for religious minorities in India. The report calls for recognition of the individual religions, and sees a risk of further mob violence in the future. |
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The water charity Thirst No More has been thrown out North Darfur in Sudan after 3,400 Arabic-language Bibles were found in their office, violating Sudan’s Voluntary Work Act, which requires aid groups to provide details of their activities to the government. |
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Authorities have taken measures to ban the Salifiyya school of Islamic thought in Tajikistan and implement punishments for those who continue to teach Salafi theology. Both the government and the courts have stated that Salafis pose a potential threat to the country by causing conflicts and disrupting public order. |
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A land dispute in Turkey has jeopardized the ancient Mor Gabriel monastery located near the Iraq and Syria borders. Monks claim local mayors are “instigating anti-Christian feelings by accusing [the monastery] of being against Islam.” The clash, which is headed to court, comes in the midst of Turkey’s improvements in hopes of joining the European Union. |
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Of more than 400 Catholic priests currently working in Belarus nearly 160 are foreign citizens. Beginning this January four priests and three nuns, all foreign born, have had their work statuses revoked by the government, effectively banning their mission for social justice. |
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The first mosque in what was formerly East Germany opened in Berlin last Monday amid protests against the “Islamization of Europe.” The city has around 220,000 Muslim residents. |
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Long silent, Buddhist monks and clerics of South Korea have been awakened to political activism due to President Lee Myung Bak’s discrimination against the nation’s largest religious bloc. |
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The Jews for Jesus' local radio advertisement was pulled after listeners in Galilee and the northern valleys called in voicing their anger at the "aggressive and blatantly missionary" content. |
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Religious freedom violations continue in Belarus, when a joint Catholic-Orthodox-Protestant Christian music festival was banned just 10 minutes before it began. |
