EVENT, 10 April 2025: 11th Annual Iowa Religious Freedom Day Celebration, "The Role of Religion in Peacemaking" (Des Moines, IA, USA) (Iowareligiousfreedomday.org)

EVENT, 20 March 2025 (11AM ET): The 26th Annual Dialogues on Nonviolence, Religion, and Peace (Notre Dame, IN, USA) (Emilce Cuda, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies)

VIRTUAL EVENT, 11 March 2025 (12:30PM ET): The Genealogy of the Death Penalty for Apostasy and Blasphemy in Islam (Islamic Law Speaker Series, Program in Islamic Law, Harvard Law School)

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS, deadline for submission 31 January 2025: Young Scholars Fellowship at Oxford (International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Brigham Young University)

CALL FOR PAPERS, abstracts due 31 January 2025: Islamic and Jewish Law in the Modern Economy (University of Villanova School of Law)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS, due 13 January 2025: Moratoriums on Islamic Criminal Punishments: Legal Debates and Current Practices (Journal of Islamic Law)

VIRTUAL EVENT, 8 January 2025 (2PM ET): The Role of Religion and Spirituality in U.S. Security Assistance (Center for Strategic & International Studies)

FoRB Podcast: Justice and accountability for the Yazidi genocide ten years on (Merilin Kiviorg, Dmytro Vovk, and Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, Talk About: Law and Religion - Blog of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies)

India: MP High Court: Denying slaughterhouse permit citing religious grounds is “wholly unacceptable” (Atul Krishna, The New Indian)

India: The politics behind India's beef bans (Shakeel Sobhan, Deutsche Welle)

India: Christian persecution on the rise in India: report (Bijay Kumar Minj, Union of Catholic Asian News)

Historic mosque in India's Sambhal faces ownership dispute amid religious tensions (Samaa)

Special issue: Materiality of Interreligious Encounters (Cambridge Interfaith Programme)

Is genocide being performed against Ahmadis in Pakistan? (Marco Respinti, Bitter Winter: A magazine on religious liberty and human rights)

Religion Watch, ‘Volume 40 No. 1’ (Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion)

UN General Assembly to close impunity gap for crimes against humanity (Ewelina U. Ochab, Forbes)

Uzbekistan: The contribution of the Bahá’ís to society (podcast) (Bahá’í World News Service)

Iran: BIC New York: Rising support at UN General Assembly resolution criticizing Iran for persecution of Bahá’ís (Bahá’í World News Service)

UN publishes new death toll for massacre of older people and Vodou religious leaders in Haiti (Associated Press)

Articles of interest - 23 December 2024 (Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Masked discrimination against Vodou and other African diaspora religions (Danielle Boaz, Canopy Forum on the Interactions of Law & Religion)

Philippines: Activists file second impeachment complaint against embattled Philippine Vice President Duterte (Jim Gomez, Associated Press)

Egypt makes steps to improve relations with Jews and Christians (Impact-se, Human Rights Without Frontiers International)

Syria: Will the West miss a secular Syria? (Jonathan Tepperman, Foreign Policy)

Muslim World League chief meets Pope Francis in Vatican City (Arab News)

Singapore: Six months’ jail for man who posted anti-Islam content online using another person’s identity (Shaffiq Alkhatib, The Straits Times)

UN Security Council adopts resolution ensuring humanitarian aid amid Daesh/ISIS sanctions (Merv Aydogan, Anadolu Agency)

Legal Journal Number 3 (20): December (Spanish) (Observatorio de Libertad Religiosa de América Latina y El Caribe)

King's Christmas message to come from former hospital chapel (Sean Coughlan, BBC)

Balancing faith, family, and medical ethics: Fatima’s case (Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)

Law and religion roundup – 22nd December (Frank Cranmer, Law & Religion UK)

Family left 'in tears' after Sikh man's beard cut (Simran Sohal, BBC News)

In a dangerous world, the UK must stand firm on religious freedom (Miles Windsor, CapX)

UK House of Lords raises concerns over systematic erasure of Tibet’s true historical status (Central Tibetan Administration)

President Ilham Aliyev: The Christian community holds a distinctive place in modern Azerbaijani society (The Azerbaijan State News Agency)

Azerbaijan National Academy of Science: Religious legislation needs to be improved (Azerbaycan24)

Aleksandr Serebryakov convicted for second time and given five-year prison sentence (Jehovah's Witnesses)

Russia: Fined for citing Vatican, Scottish Episcopal texts (Victoria Arnold, Forum 18 News Service)

Vladimir Putin accuses ‘ethnic Jews’ of tearing apart the Russian Orthodox Church (Ben Sales, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

"They imprison less, but more severely." Repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses: 2024 Overview (JW Russia)

European Islamophobia Report 2023

EPRID welcomes the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief (International Association for the Defence of Religious Liberty (AIDLR))

A bill to establish a National Day of Prayer in Ukraine was submitted to Parliament (Institute for Religious Freedom, Ukraine)

Biden commutes sentences of 37 on federal death row, three remain (Jack Jenkins and Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service)

Tree of Life murderer is one of 3 death row inmates exempted from Biden’s commutation order (Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

U.S. Bishops’ President on the commutations of federal death row sentences (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

Ninth Circuit rules for Muslim Americans illegally surveilled by FBI (ACLU of Southern California)

Can an HOA tell you to take your religious holiday decorations down? What Georgia law says (Chelsea Madden, Georgia Public Broadcasting)

Hindu nationalism poses a threat to democracy (and to Muslims) in both India and the US (Yasmine Flodin-Ali, Religon Dispatches)

Key IRF-related positions (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)

USCIRF welcomes Senator Schumer’s appointment of Ariela Dubler to U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)

Speaker Johnson, Chair Foxx, committee chairs release investigative report following House-wide effort to combat antisemitism (Committee on Education & the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives)

Yeshiva denied preliminary injunction against zoning enforcement (Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Ecclesiastical abstention doctrine requires dismissal of pastor's allegations of sham investigation to oust him (Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

Injunction halts New Jersey constitutional provision barring taxpayer funding for building or repairing houses of worship (Don Byrd, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)

Protecting religious liberty in 2025 requires all of us to work together (Don Byrd, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)

Trump nominates CatholicVote president and culture warrior as Holy See ambassador (Aleja Hertzler-McCain and Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)

Trump's cabinet selections represent an unusual slice of American religious life (Jack Jenkins, Religion News Service)

Houston-area state Reps push for nativity scene on Capitol grounds (Andrew Schneider, Houston Public Media)

Supreme Court will hear Catholic charitable group's plea to be free from Wisconsin unemployment tax (Mark Sherman, ABC News)