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Religious Freedom

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
This Religious Freedom Day, more than any other since it was instituted over a quarter century ago, is an occasion to rededicate ourselves to its most fundamental tenets of liberty and equal dignity for all.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Enforcing lack of religious dress is intolerant in its own right, and most often happens in democracies. “Europe had the most countries where women’s head coverings were restricted by the government, with instances in 21 of 45 countries,” reports Villa.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The designation holds a special significance. According to Gayle Manchin, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Nigeria is the first secular democracy that has been named a CPC, which demonstrates that we must be vigilant that all forms of governments respect religious freedom.”
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
We need to grow up. We need to stop acting like mean girls making fun of our classmates or children fighting over a basketball.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
If you live in America you might find this hard to believe. Most people here and in Western countries are accustomed to Christians being “the norm,” with religious bigotry and scorn reserved for newer or less “mainstream” faiths. But that analysis would be missing one critical element: almost all religions are a minority somewhere.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The Pew Research Center just updated its 10-point scale Government Restrictions Index. And it’s depressing: the score has risen steadily since 2011.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It means something that freedom of religion is grouped with the freedoms of thought and conscience because, over the ages, human beings who thought about being and ethics naturally also thought about religion.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It was April 2019, the beginning of Easter celebrations in France. That’s when, to the world’s horror, the 850-year-old Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral erupted in flames. Was it just an accident, terrible timing, or did someone intend to set this fire?
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Three generations earlier the grandparents of the Germans who affirmed our right to believe had engaged in an attack on a religious minority in their country, one that would culminate in the extermination of millions of German Jews and millions more throughout Europe.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Religious intolerance is an old story in humanity, nearly as old as religion itself. But tolerance is old too: Cyrus the Great, one of the founders of the Persian Empire back in 500 BC, built his empire on religious tolerance.