Here is a look at some law and religion news stories from around the web this week:
- On Martin Luther King Day, an article from Relevant Magazine reflected on the “Spiritual Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.”
- Fears of increased surveillance on Muslim communities have been raised after the Council of Islamic Relations reportedly received about 100 reports of FBI agents questioning Muslims before the election.
- Among both American Catholics and non-Catholics, Pope Francis continues to be viewed favorably.
- In Washington, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Congress to preserve health care coverage for Americans.
- In New Jersey, a Muslim jail employee fired for wearing a headscarf lost her appeal in a state appellate court.
- Throughout Europe, there has been an increase in the number of Jews leaving for Israel though the numbers fall short of an “exodus,” according to a new study.
- Indianapolis Recorder: A look at how interfaith conflict in Holy Land has prevented peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
- Australia’s government controversially revoked a tax exemption for a church politically affiliated with a conservative Christian political party.
- Despite persecution by ISIS, some Syrians are still converting to Christianity.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Jews and Jewishness in British Film, Television, and Popular Culture is the first collection of its kind on this subject. The volume brings together a range of original essays that address different aspects of the role and presence of Jews and Jewishness in British film and television from the interwar period to the present. It constructs a historical overview of the Jewish contribution to British film and television, which has not always been sufficiently acknowledged. Each chapter presents a case study reflective of the specific Jewish experience as well as its particularly British context, with cultural representations of how Jews responded to events from the 1930s and ’40s, including World War II, the Holocaust, and a legacy of antisemitism, through to the new millennium.
Islam in the Post-Secular Society: Religion, Secularity and the Antagonism of Recalcitrant Faith critically examines the unique challenges facing Muslims in Europe and North America. From the philosophical perspective of the Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory, this book attempts not only to diagnose the current problems stemming from a marginalization of Islam in the secular West, but also to offer a proposal for a Habermasian discourse between the religious and the secular.