EVENT, 6 February 2025: Religious Freedom in America (Washington, DC, USA) (National Council for Religious Freedom)

EVENT, 6 February 2025 (1:30PM ET): Standing with the Silenced – Leveraging the Frank Wolf Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List (Washington, DC, USA) (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)

EVENT, 4-5 February 2025: IRF Summit 2025 (Washington, DC, USA)

EVENT, 3 February 2025: Global Faith Forum: Together for Peace in a Time of Outrage (Washington, DC, USA) (Multi-Faith Neighbors Network)

EVENT, 3 February 2025: IRF Summit University Partnership Program 2025 (Washington, DC, USA) (IRF Summit)

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)

EVENT, 15 January 2025 (9AM - 5PM EST): South Carolina Religious Liberty Conference (Columbia, SC, USA) (South Carolina Religious Liberty Conference)

ESSAY COMPETITION, deadline 6 January 2025: William Kessler Essay Prize (UK Undergraduate and Graduate students) (Woolf Institute)

The abuse of extremism laws in Central Asia (U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom)

Why an International Day Against Judicial Persecution by State Power is needed (Karolina Maria Kotkowska, Bitter Winter)

Iraq: Resurrection of al-Hadba: Mosul’s minaret rises again (Ismael Adnan, TRT World)

Indian cardinal slams proposal to control religious places (Michael Gonsalves, Union of Catholic Asian News)

Canada: Shopping on Sundays was illegal until this Calgary drug mart fought a $40 fine to the Supreme Court (40th Anniversary) (Joel Dryden and Allison Dempster, CBC News)

India state official announces plans to revive dormant Freedom of Religion Act (Arnav Laroia, Jurist News)

2024: The year of religious disputes and legal battles over sacred spaced in India (TwoCircles.net)

When is criticism of Israel antisemitic? A scholar of modern Jewish history explains (Joshua Shanes, The Conversation)

Japan: The global religious liberty community gathers to denounce religious liberty crisis in Japan (Bitter Winter)

Made in Japan: No FoRB for the Family Federation. 4. Weaponizing Non-Existing Crimes (Marco Respinti, Bitter Winter: A magazine on religious liberty and human rights)

The year ahead: 5 religion news trends to watch in 2025 (Clemente Lisi, Religion Unplugged)

Syria: Religion will be crucial as post-Assad Syria seeks restoration (Richard Ostling, Religion Unplugged)

Syria: Changes to Syria’s school curriculum spark online outrage (Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN)

Sudan: SAF airstrike on church in Khartoum North kills 11 including eight children (CSW: Everyone Free to Believe)

Australia: The new Federal privacy tort and religious freedom (Neil Foster, Law and Religion Australia)

Pakistan: Elders in Pakistan broker a peace deal between Sunni and Shiite tribes after deadly clashes (Riaz Khan, Associated Press)

Cuba's Santeria priests urge followers to hunker down amid crisis (Marc Frank, Reuters)

Non-delegation theory as an ethical imperative for mastering AI (Fishel Szlajen, Editora Fundação Fênix)

Islamophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes rising (BBC News)

Religious freedom ‘getting worse’ in Russia, Belarus and central Asia, says expert (Gina Christian, OSV News)

Spanish public television mocks the Sacred Heart of Jesus on New Year’s Eve (OSV News)

Spanish evangelicals: “Much remains to be done on religious freedom in Spain” (Carmen Sánchez, Evangelical Focus)

Charedi leaders step up protests against Schools Bill ahead of Commons debate (Lee Harpin, Jewish News)

Russia: Religious issues and persecution – Bimonthly Digest December 16-30 (Human Rights Without Frontiers International)

10 years after attack, Charlie Hebdo is uncowed and still provoking (AFP, Courthouse News Service)

France: When state-funded anti-cult groups think they are above the law (EN/ FR) (Human Rights Without Frontiers International)

Bulgaria: Court decision on the Orthodox Church sparks division – Patriarchate responds (Orthodox Times)

Rutgers settles federal antisemitism investigation as colleges race to close post-Oct. 7 complaints (Andrew Lapin, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Faith on the Hill: The religious composition of the 119th Congress (Jeff Diamant, Pew Research Center)

Abortion lawsuits, Ten Commandments displays and other key religious freedom developments in 2024 (Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

Menorah lit next to the Alamo, celebrating religious freedom (Texas Public Radio)

Arizona bishops, faith leaders denounce spectre of immigration raids on churches (Kimberly Heatherington, Angelus)

Politically diverse congregations are getting rarer. One aims to endure. (Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post)

On Donald Trump’s “Go to Hell” theology (Daniel Philpott, Arc of the Universe Blog)

9th Circuit: Ministerial exception bars claim by mashgiach for wages and promotion (Howard Friedman, Religion Clause)

On US-Mexico border, Catholic leaders prepare for return of Trump anti-migrant regime (Aleja Hertzler-McCain, Religion News Service)

The attack in New Orleans reveals ISIS' influence lingers, experts say (Jaclyn Diaz, NPR)

Claim against school board that refused to display "Satan Loves the First Amendment" banner can go forward (Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy)

Answering the religious liberty claim to abortion (Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism, Institute on Religion and Democracy)

Parents & Catholic school in court to stop Maine’s attack on faith-based education (Becket Law)

2nd Circuit reinstates religious groups' claim seeking freedom to hire according to faith (Alliance Defending Freedom)