Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:
- Utah’s Attorney General has stated that he will appeal a ruling that has essentially decriminalized polygamy.
- A state judge in Louisiana has struck down the state’s gay marriage ban – the same ban that was upheld in federal court earlier this month.
- Within the next few months, three cases with “religious overtones” will be heard by the US Supreme Court. The cases include disputes about the religious rights of the incarcerated, the legal status of Jerusalem, and an Arizona church’s right to free speech.
- Analysis: A New U.S. Human Rights Policy Towards Turkmenistan, which the State Department has labelled it as “a country of particular concern.”
- ISIS has destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor, Syria.
- More than 120 Muslim scholars have penned an open letter to ISIS. The letter refutes, point by point, the philosophy of the Islamic State using classical religious texts and scholars.
- In an address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Obama stated that the Islamic State has “perverted one of the world’s great religions.”
- Fatah and Hamas have reached an agreement to form a unity government to govern the Gaza Strip.
- Muslim groups are denouncing a series of six anti-Muslim and anti-Jihad ads that are slated to appear on New York City Buses and Subways.
- In a sign of the possible widening of the ISIS crisis, an Algerian splinter group from Al-Qaida has beheaded a French hostage in response to France’s airstrikes on ISIS.
- The French political group, National Front, is gaining support among Jews because of its strong strong stance on Arabic anti-semitism.
- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy scrapped a bill that would have made Spain one of the most difficult countries in Europe to obtain an abortion.
- In a speech at the Catholic University of Tirana, Pope Francis stated that “to kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege.” Read the full text of the Pope’s speech here.