On August 3, the High Court of Kano State in Nigeria formally charged Mubarak Bala, an atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, for causing a public disturbance. The High Court's charges, which come as a highly delayed action, revolves around Bala's Facebook posts which spanned over 2020. The public disturbance charges fall under Kano State Penal Code's sections 114 and 210.
On July 30, Kent Hovind, a zealot advocate for creationism, was arrested for allegedly throwing his wife, Cindi Lincoln, to the ground. According to an arrest warrant dated July 19, 2021, Hovind's action against Lincoln caused bodily harm.
On Aug. 1, A 9-year old girl that belongs to the Dalit community, India’s lowest caste, was murdered after being gang-raped. Her body was forcibly cremated by the same men who committed the gruesome crime. The crime occurred in a Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi.
On July 26th, the U.S. Court of Appeals held the lower court’s decision to deny a web designer’s petition to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado. There have been many other court rulings in the United States deciding if a business that denies service to LGBTQ+ people is considered prejudice or exercising their right to religious freedom.
In 2005, the churches that took part in running and managing the residential schools on behalf of the Canadian government were poised to pay for reparations. The Anglican, Catholic, United, and Presbyterian Churches were all asked to pay, in amounts particular to each church, during the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of 2005.
On June 22, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in Sweden began the trial for an Iranian national. The unnamed respondent is suspected of playing a vital role in the series of killings in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s Interior Minister, in an interview with RTL radio in February 2021, commented on the proposed Anti-Separatism Bill. Darmanin describes the bill as tough but necessary, calling it “an extremely strong secular offensive.” The bill passed the lower house of the French parliament on Friday, July 23, 2021. Darmanin sponsored the bill with the support of his party, La République En Marche.
A Christian woman who is a regular debater at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner in the United Kingdom was recently stabbed by an unidentified assailant. A video that captured the incident has been circulating online. The video, published by The Daily Mail on July 25th, shows a man recording a usual Sunday morning at the Speakers’ Corner.
On July 27, a meteoric criminal trial took place in a makeshift courtroom inside the Vatican Museum. More than ten clergymen, and laypeople, went on trial for alleged corruption and massive fraud unfolding within the walls of the holy city. Amongst the indicted individuals is Cardinal Angelo Becciu. This trial is the first-ever in the church’s history, where a cardinal is investigated for financial crimes.
On July 20, the leader of the sex cult NXIVM, Keith Raniere, was ordered by the court to pay for the removal of his initials branded into his female members. The total cost of the restitution is $3.5 million for the 21 victims. The cost includes the surgery for removing the brands, mental health therapies, and unpaid labor rendered by NXIVM's members and employees.
