· June, 2010

Stories about Religion from June, 2010

Pakistan: What Is Blasphemy?

  28 June 2010

“What is Blasphemy?” This question has been drawn in numerous discussions after the the recent banning of certain websites in Pakistan. Shaista Kazmi & Azhar Aslam at Teeth Maestro has details.

Russia: Cocks and Prayers

Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog writes about a “Prayer for the President” and “a kind of re-embrace of Tsarist symbolism” that seems to be taking place in Russia. Julia Ioffe writes at True/Slant about “the Cosmic Cock of War” that was painted on one of St. Petersburg's bridges “in...

Singapore: Tax on church groups

  24 June 2010

Recognizing that many church groups are establishing various business establishments, Irreligious from Singapore asks whether it is right to exempt church groups from paying taxes.

Pakistan: Millat Facebook

  17 June 2010

Simbsi at Lawanai Sparashawe reviews Millatfacebook, Pakistan's answer to Facebook. An excerpt: “Millatfacebook was a very pathetic attempt to cash in on the anti-Facebook sentiment.”

Russia: New Websites to Promote Modernist Islam

Paul Goble writes [EN] about the launch of two websites islam-portal.ru and soyuzmusulmanok.ru, that promote modernist Islam. Two websites, Goble suggests, illustrate both attempts to seek connections with younger Muslim population, while competing with fundamentalist Islamists, and to prove Tatars as “intellectual leaders of the Muslim umma of Russia”.

Fiji: Priorities questioned for boarding school

  13 June 2010

Just a week after Fiji's Ratu Kadavulevu School was closed by the health department because its kitchen wasn't up to code, the country's largest boarding school dedicated a new chapel at the cost of about US $500,000. Wendy, writing in the blog Babasiga, asked why the school kitchen wasn't fixed...

Egypt: Scheherazade must Die

Freedom of Expression is taking a beating in Egypt. In a series of lawsuits against writers, Scheherazade of 1001 Nights is now being accused of immorality and some lawyers want her dead - in their call for banning the book!

Egypt: Should Coptic Divorcees Remarry?

The Egyptian Supreme Administrative Court has issued a ruling obliging Coptic Pope Shenouda III to allow Coptic divorcees to remarry. The pope has rejected the ruling. Supporters of the church and promoters of a secular state blogged their opinions.

Cuba: Slow Going

  9 June 2010

While the Cuban government and the Catholic Church engage in talks, Without Evasion says any developments “are absolutely insufficient and extremely slow with respect to the ultimate objective of the civic resistance of The Ladies in White and Guillermo Fariñas: their definitive liberation.”

Haiti: What Would Jean-Juste Say?

  8 June 2010

“If father Jean-Juste were alive, what he would say to the earthquake survivors? What he would say to the international and Haitian government bureaucracies?”: Wadner Pierre remembers the late Father Gerard Jean-Juste, whom he describes as “an adoptive father” to him.

Pakistan: Bloggers Reject Religious Hatred

  8 June 2010

93 innocent lives were lost when the Ahmadiyya religious community was attacked in Lahore around a week ago. Pakistani bloggers, netizens and activists have denounced the attacks in strong words.

Indian Diaspora: Going traditional in Raleigh

  8 June 2010

In Raleigh, blogger Maddy and his family, on becoming new home owners, decide to do a Ganapathy homam (a Hindu religious ceremony or puja, performed before starting any new venture) as is traditional in South India. Maddy shares with us his interesting experience of doing a traditional puja in North...