As Hindu nationalism continues to rise in India, the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, find it more challenging to keep up with their lives due to increasing sectarian violence and tensions between Hindus and other religious communities.
With the persistent spread of hate crimes against Muslims in India, since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party assumed power in 2014, a small town in the northern state of Uttarakhand has recently become a new focal point in continuing tensions between Muslims and Hindus in India.
While countries such as the United States are seeing a decline in religiosity and certainty about belief in God, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is seeing a significant resurgence in religiosity, particularly among the country’s youth.
That’s according to the new results of the Arab Barometer’s seventh wave of surveys, conducted between 2021 and 2022. These surveys by the nonprofit research network aimed to get a view of rates of religious observance among those living in the Arab world.
A new survey discovered that only half of all Americans are sure of the existence of God, revealing the dynamic and changing religious landscape in the United States.
A Canadian imam delivered a speech describing disbelievers as “living like animals” and claimed Allah commands Muslims to hate them.
The imam, Younus Kathrada, made these remarks during a sermon he delivered at the Muslim Youth Victoria Islamic Center on May 26, 2023. The video of him saying these comments was transcribed and shared by the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI.
A temple entry issue raged in the village of Melpathi in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where some members of upper-caste Hindus blocked a local temple and even threatened to immolate themselves to stop Dalits from entering.
Three men in Iran accused of killing three members of the country’s security forces were executed by the Islamic Republic on May 19th, sparking massive protests across the country and drawing condemnation from various governments and human rights organizations.
The Tasnim news agency and the website of Iran’s judiciary confirmed the executions of 30-year-old Majid Kazemi, 36-year-old Saleh Mirhashemi, and 37-year-old Saeed Yaqoubi on the dawn of May 19th at the Dastgerd prison in the city of Isfahan, located in central Iran.
A new global religion survey by Ipsos discovered that 8 out of 10 urban Indians believe in the existence of God and claim to be comfortable around different faiths amidst rising Hindu nationalism and sectarian violence in the country.
Iranian authorities announced that two men accused of blasphemy were hanged amidst a rising number of executions since the protests that rocked the country following the death of Mahsa Amini under police custody in September 2022.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense caused a stir among Indian netizens after tweeting a photo portraying the Indian goddess Kali morphed over a blast fume on April 30th, deeming it “Hinduphobic” and “disrespectful.”
The official Twitter account of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense posted the image showing Kali superimposed over the fumes. The picture depicted the Hindu goddess of war and destruction posing awkwardly with her tongue sticking out and having a Marilyn Monroe-like upskirt moment, with a wreath of skulls around her neck.
Texas lawmakers continue to push religion into schools as proposals to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms mandatorily. They will also require educational establishments to grant time for prayer and Bible reading to gain more support.
