September 19, 2014 - LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Posted on September 19, 2014 by

Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

Saudi Arabia’s senior clerical leadership issued a new fatwa, or legal ruling, declaring terrorism a “heinous crime” under sharia law.
Several Imams were among the fifteen people detained in Kosovo in an operation reportedly aimed at attacking recruitment of fighters for Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
Nuns on the Bus, a group of Catholic nuns who travel to different cities speaking and advocating for particular issues, began its bus tour in Iowa. The tour, entitled “We the People. We the Voters,” seeks to “highlight the evils of ‘dark money’ in politics and encourage disenfranchised people to register to vote and show up on election day.”
Jewish leaders who met with Pope Francis to mark Rosh Hashanah, the upcoming Jewish New Year, report that the Pope told them that Christians are suffering the same “savage attacks” once suffered by Jews.
An increasingly vocal body of British legislators from both Houses of Parliament stated that the aim of the All Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom is to campaign for liberty of conscience in general, stressing the need protect all belief systems including atheism.
The U.S. Air Force has allowed an atheist airman to re-enlist after initially refusing to process his paperwork, because the airman refused to sign an oath that contained the phrase “so help me God.”
A group of scientists argue that engaging religious leaders, rather than relying on politicians, could hold the key to mobilizing billions of people around the world to change aspects of their lifestyles to help prevent catastrophic climate change. They single out Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.
A recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights stressed that Turkey’s compulsory religion courses violate the freedom of religion and conscience as well as the right to education. The ruling is expected to be appealed. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu compared the situation of atheists taking a religion course to that of non-Marxists taking a course on Marx.
According to a study conducted by the Rabbinical Center of Europe and the European Jewish Association, about forty percent of European Jews hide their Jewish identity.

Posted on September 19, 2014 by

Panel Discussion: “Pope Francis: The First Year” (Fordham University School of Law, Oct. 14)

The Institute for Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University School of Law is hosting an inaugural lecture on its new series, “Pope Francis: the First Year.” The panel discussion will be held at Fordham Law School on October 14 and RSVPs are required by October 10:

The papacy of Pope Francis has captivated the world. According to Time Magazine’s Nancy Gibbs, “Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly—young and old, faithful and cynical—as has Pope Francis. He has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.”
Fordham Law School’s Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work is introducing a new series on Pope Francis and his contribution to religious, policy, and legal conversations. On Oct 14, 2014, the inaugural program in the series will focus on Pope Francis’s first year as leader of the Catholics in the world.

Details can be found here.

Posted on September 19, 2014 by

“Legal Cases, New Religious Movements, and Minority Faiths” (Richardson & Bellanger eds.)

This October, Ashgate Publishing will release “Legal Cases, New Religious Movements, and Minority Faiths,” edited by James T. Richardson (University of Nevada) and François Bellanger (University of Geneva, Switzerland). The publisher’s description follows:

New religious movements (NRMs) and other minority faiths have regularly been the focus of legal cases around the world in recent decades. This is the first book to focus on important aspects of the relationship of smaller faiths to the societies in which they function by using specific legal cases to examine social control efforts. The legal cases involve group leaders, a groups’ practices or alleged abuses against members and children in the group, legal actions brought by former members or third parties, attacks against such groups by outsiders including even governments, and libel and slander actions brought by religious groups as they seek to defend themselves. These cases are sometimes milestones in the relation between state authorities and religious groups.

Exploring cases in different parts of the world, and assessing the events causing such cases and their consequences, this book offers a practical insight for understanding the relations of NRMs and other minority religions and the law from the perspective of legal cases. Chapters focus on legal, political, and social implications. Including contributions from scholars, legal practitioners, actual or former members, and authorities involved in such cases from various jurisdictions, this book presents an objective approach to understanding why so many legal actions have involved NRMs and other minority faiths in recent years in western societies, and the consequences of those actions for the society and the religious group as well.

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“Religion, Nation and Democracy in the South Caucasus” (Agadjanian et al., eds.)

This October, Routledge Press will release “Religion, Nation and Democracy in the South Caucasus” edited by Alexander Agadjanian (Russian State University), Ansgar Jödicke (University of Fribour, Switzerland), and Evert van der Zweerde (Radbout University of Nijmegen, Netherlands). The publisher’s description follows:

This book explores developments in the three major societies of the South Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – focusing especially on religion, historical traditions, national consciousness, and political culture, and on how these factors interact. It outlines how, despite close geographical interlacement, common historical memories and inherited structures, the three countries have deep differences; and it discusses how development in all three nations has differed significantly from the countries’ declared commitments to democratic orientation and European norms and values. The book also considers how external factors and international relations continue to impact on the three countries.