Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:
- The Israeli Attorney General’s Office wrote to the supervisor of the Western Wall and the Holy Places to underscore the importance of including women in official state ceremonies, including the Hanukka candle lighting ceremonies that take place every night of the holiday on the men’s section of the plaza.
- Authorities in northern Iraq announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of more than 120 Yazidis.
- Belfast’s High Court ruled that Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws are in breach of human rights by failing to provide exceptions in the case of fatal fetal abnormality and sexual crime.
- Over one thousand people in Iceland have registered as Zuist, a relatively new religion allegedly based on ancient Sumerian beliefs but whose principal aim is to abolish state funding for religious groups.
- An Indiana judge ruled that a high school student and his father, who have filed a federal lawsuit protesting the son’s school’s live Nativity scene, may remain anonymous.
- A Maryland federal judge denied the American Humanist Association’s bid to have a forty-foot cross torn down or modified on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment, finding that the cross, a war memorial, has a secular purpose.
- Some faith-based agencies that resettle refugees in America may make significant revenues if the U.S. accepts a proposed 10,000 Syrian refugees next year.
- In celebration of the Greek Orthodox feast day of St. Andrew, the issue of religious freedom was highlighted at events such as the St. Andrew’s Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.
- South Africa’s Jewish community has announced that it will begin regulating the practice of circumcision by implementing a special system of accreditation and licensing.
- Tibetans fear that China, which claims the right to decide the Dalai Lama’s succession, will use the issue to split Tibetan Buddhism, with one new Dalai Lama named by exiles and one by the government after his death.
- The UN issued a warning that ISIL is exploiting the political instability in Libya to expand its influence there.
address. He believed the United States had a role to play in the battle against Nazi and fascist aggression already underway in Europe, yet his rallying cry to the nation was about more than just national security or why Americans should care about a fight still far overseas. He instead identified how Americans defined themselves as a people, with words that resonated and defined the parameters of American politics and foreign policy for generations. Roosevelt framed America’s role in the conflict, and ultimately its role in forging the post-war world to come, as a fight for freedom. Four freedoms, to be exact: freedom of speech, freedom from want, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear.
the region’s primary identity. In opposition are nationalists, secularists, royal families, military establishments, and others who view Islamism as a serious threat to national security, historical identity, and a cohesive society.