Latest Religion and politics News

Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard at a closed market area during a strike called by separatists in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. Kashmir’s main separatist grouping called the strike to protest new land laws that India enacted on Tuesday, allowing any of its nationals to buy land in the region. Pro-India politicians in Kashmir have also criticized the laws and accused India of putting Kashmir’s land up for sale. The move exacerbates concerns of Kashmiris and rights groups who see such measures as a settler-colonial project to change the Muslim-majority region’s demography. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmir shuts down to protest India's new land laws

Oct. 31, 2020 4:53 AM EDT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Shops and businesses were shut in several parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday as separatists challenging Indian rule called for a general strike to denounce new laws that allow any Indians to buy land in the disputed region. Government forces in riot gear patrolled streets...

A woman, wearing a mask for protection against the COVID-19 infection, is reflected in a tinted chapel window, along with a metal casing said to contain the remains of St. Dimitrie of Basarabov, the patron saint of the Romanian capital, in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020. The feast of St. Dimitrie of Basarabov, the patron saint of the Romanian capital, which usually lasted for a week and was attended by up to 100 thousand people from all over the country, was reduced in 2020 to three days due to pandemic control restrictions, which included limiting access to the celebrations to inhabitants of Bucharest, and less than a third of the usual number of worshipers attended. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

AP PHOTOS: Pandemic tempers patron saint festival in Romania

Oct. 31, 2020 4:23 AM EDT

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The feast of St. Dimitrie of Basarabov, the patron saint of Bucharest, is a show of Orthodox Christianity's strength in Romania, where a weeklong festival devoted to the former hermit typically draws up to 100,000 people from all over the country to the capital every October. ...

Young people take part in a protest against the conservative government, on the eighth straight day of angry demonstrations that were triggered by a recent tightening of the abortion law, in the Old Town, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Poland: Tens of thousands hold new protest over abortion ban

Oct. 30, 2020 5:47 PM EDT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Tens of thousands of people marched Friday through downtown Warsaw to the house of Poland's ruling party leader in what women's rights activists planned as the largest demonstration in nine days of protests against a near-total ban on abortions in Poland. There were cases of far-right...

Supporters of religious group burn a representation of a French flag during a rally against French President Emmanuel Macron and republishing of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad they deem blasphemous, in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Muslims have been calling for both protests and a boycott of French goods in response to France's stance on caricatures of Islam's most revered prophet. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

As anger rises, Muslims protest French cartoons

Oct. 30, 2020 3:51 PM EDT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tens of thousands of Muslims, from Pakistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian territories, poured out of prayer services to join anti-France protests on Friday, as the French president's vow to protect the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad continues to roil the Muslim...

Women's rights activists protest against recent tightening of Poland's restrictive abortion law, in front of the parliament building as inside, guards had to be used to shield right-wing ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski from angry opposition lawmakers, in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. Massive nationwide protests have been held ever since a top court ruled Thursday that abortions due to fetal congenital defects are unconstitutional.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Why an abortion law ruling triggered mass protests in Poland

Oct. 30, 2020 3:33 PM EDT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is a largely conservative country compared to much of Europe, a place where churches fill up on Sundays and Roman Catholicism is deeply interwoven with the national identity. So why has a court ruling restricting abortion sparked more than a week of angry protests across the...

A family lights a candle in front of the Notre Dame church in Nice, France, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. A new suspect is in custody in the investigation into a gruesome attack by a Tunisian man who killed three people in a French church. France heightened its security alert amid religious and geopolitical tensions around cartoons mocking the Muslim prophet. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

France mourns 3 killed in church attack, tightens security

Oct. 30, 2020 2:43 PM EDT

NICE, France (AP) — Mourners lit candles and prayed silently Friday to honor three people killed in a knife attack at a church, as France heightened security at potential targets at home and abroad amid outrage over its defense of the right to publish cartoons mocking the prophet of Islam. The attacker,...

Kyle Terry, 33, front left, stands at the head of the line of supporters waiting to attend a campaign rally for President Donald Trump at Lancaster Airport, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020 in Lititz, Pa. Cynthia Reidler is seen in background. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

As Trump faces uncertain future, so do his signature rallies

Oct. 30, 2020 2:34 PM EDT

LITITZ, Pennsylvania (AP) — They began to arrive more than 40 hours before President Donald Trump took the stage in this stretch of rural Pennsylvania where horse-drawn buggies remain a common sight. By 10 p.m., a small group had set up an overnight camp on lawn chairs as a cold drizzle set in. “I...

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2010 file photo, Bishop Amfilohije performs the liturgy in Belgrade's Congregational church, Serbia. Amfilohije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which led months of protests against the small Balkan state's pro-Western government, has died in hospital after contracting the coronavirus, the church said Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Head of church in Montenegro dies after COVID-19 infection

Oct. 30, 2020 12:22 PM EDT

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which led months of protests against the small Balkan state’s pro-Western government that was voted out of power in August, has died in a hospital after contracting the coronavirus, the church said Friday. The...

FILE - In this July 28, 2018 file photo, former Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., left, and other supporters during a campaign stop in Detroit. Since the 2016 elections, more “Muslims recognized that every vote that we make is a down payment on the attention that every politician will have to pay to our community in the future,” El-Sayed said in a recent interview. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

Muslim Americans aim for high turnout, new influence in 2020

Oct. 30, 2020 12:03 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the 2016 presidential election, Mohamed Abukar didn’t like his options, so he didn’t vote. This year the 26-year-old Michigan resident has already cast his ballot — and urged others to follow suit. “It’s your civic duty” to vote, Abukar said...

Supporters of Islamist parties carry an effigy of French President Emmanuel Macron during a protest after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Thousands of Muslims and activists marched through streets and rallied across Bangladesh’s capital on Friday against the French president’s support of secular laws that deem caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as protected under freedom of speech. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Tens of thousands protest in Bangladesh over French cartoons

Oct. 30, 2020 9:17 AM EDT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to protest the French president's support of secular laws allowing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, burning effigies of him and calling for a boycott of French products. Protests were also reported...

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