On September 18, the Aligarh police in Uttar Pradesh, India, booked fifty-eight-year-old Yati Nasinghanard for calling for the demolition of a Muslim university as well as local madrassas.
This Dasna Devi Temple priest is well known for his controversial statements. He has openly called for hate against Muslims in the past, as well as women and minorities. His social media reaches millions of right-wing followers.
According to the BBC, he calls Muslims “demons” and has threatened to eliminate them.
Litmus' 22, an annual gathering of atheists, took place in Kerala, India, on October 2. Thousands of atheists and freethinkers from across the state met up with each other at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium in Kadavanthra, Ernakulam, on the third edition of the event. The gathering of over 10,000 attendees, many of whom participated in various types of discourse, saw debates and presentations.
A Hindu woman was murdered in India by her Muslim husband for refusing to follow Islamic traditions and demanding a divorce.
The name of the accused is Iqbal Mohammad Sheikh, who is known as a 36-year-old taxi driver in Mumbai. He is charged with murdering Rupali Chandanshive, a 20-year-old Hindu woman, by slitting her throat with a sharp knife and stabbing her hands multiple times for not wearing a burqa per Islamic traditions and demanding a divorce. According to the reports, the incident happened on September 26 in the suburban Tilak Nagar area of west Chembur.
Teachers and students from multiple religious schools in Iran are challenging Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's leadership over the crimes committed by his administration.
A group of students and teachers from seminary schools in Qom, Mashhad, and Tehran said Khamenei's guardianship is no longer valid.
On September 17, a pastor and dozens from his congregation were kidnapped from a Christian church in northwest Nigeria. Less than a week before, fifty-seven Christians were kidnapped at another church in a north-central state. In fact, the last few years have shown a marked increase in attacks and abductions in the country of both Christian church members and their clergy.
Southeast Asia is home to 250 million Muslims. According to a new report, 1 in 3 consider themselves more religious than their parents.
“The New Muslim Consumer” was released on September 21 by the marketing, research, and advertising company Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. The report explores how religious observance affects consumer market trends.
Reports say at least 35 young people were killed and more than eighty wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a school in Kabul, Afghanistan. Local journalist Bilal Sarwary says the number of dead is much higher. He reported that one hundred had been counted so far.
A Muslim Member of the Greek Parliment now faces a threat of thorough surveillance for national security reasons. New Democracy deputy parliament speaker said, "If a Muslim MP might give information to [Turkey], from where migrants can enter the country, why should he not be checked [surveilled]? Here national security takes precedence."
The Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran handed down a verdict of more than three years to an Iranian women's rights activist for protesting the hijab.
Twenty-two-year-old Melika Qaragozlu has been sentenced to three years and eight months in jail and fined 8 million tomans (US$ 246.59) for protesting against the mandatory hijab rules of the country.
Egypt has decided to introduce sexual education courses into the primary education curriculum. Although on the surface, this may seem highly progressive for the middle-eastern country, its main aim is to stop the spread of "homosexuality." Homosexuality is considered "deviant" behavior and extremely frowned upon in the country.
