A private adoption agency refused a couple of adoption services in Alabama for their lack of religion. A 30-year-old librarian, Alaina Browning, and her husband were devastated to hear the news.
Family Adoption Services, a private adoption agency run by Richard and Susan Wyatt, sent the message to Browning.
“It hurt,” Browning said, crying while reading the message on her phone.
On April 14, the high court of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, India, rejected the plea of a same-sex couple to have their marriage recognized. The court ruled that the couple's marriage violates the Hindu Marriage Act of 1995.
The plea was submitted to Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav on April 7.
A Polish conservative party proposed a three-year jail sentence for anyone who insults the church or religious sentiments. The proposed law will strengthen Poland’s current blasphemy laws, increasing its scope to anyone who “publicly insults the church or interrupts mass.”
On Monday, April 18, Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced six men to death, while nine people were handed life imprisonment sentences. The court also gave a 5-year imprisonment sentence to one individual, while 72 individuals were given a 2-year jail sentence.
On April 6, a Christian Youtuber in Indonesia was sentenced to ten years in prison for allegedly posting offensive videos. According to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), prosecutors insisted on the 10-year jail sentence.
The 56-year-old Muhammad Kace, a former Muslim cleric who converted to Christianity, has uploaded at least 450 videos on his Youtube channel. AS of the writing of this article, Kace’s videos are still available.
A woman who sued a police officer for allegedly forcing her to be baptized was found dead in her home on April 13. The 42-year-old Shandele Marie Riley's body was discovered in her home in Log Cabin Lane in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.
According to Hamilton County Police, Riley's cause of death is still unknown. The police are waiting for the medical examiner's autopsy reports to check for any foul play involved.
On March 22, a high school teacher in Bangladesh was arrested by authorities for allegedly hurting religious sentiment. Hriday Chandra Mondal, a teacher at the Binodpur Ram Kumar High School in Munshiganj district, was arrested for telling students that "religion is a matter of faith."
Mondal followed up on his statement by comparing religion to science. "Science looks at the evidence," he said.
Eight men, including a journalist and a prominent theater artist in Madhya Pradesh, were arrested, stripped, and photographed by local police. One of the victims also said they were beaten and abused before being stripped.
On April 6, Spain’s Senate approved landmark legislation that criminalizes the harassment of women who are undergoing abortions.
The new legislation was approved by 154 versus 105 votes, ushering in a change to Spain’s penal code. The law is expected to come into effect as soon as it gets published in its official gazette.
On April 3, the Taliban announced that they would ban the cultivation of opium poppies. A spokesman from the Taliban warned that farmers might be “jailed and their crops burned if they harvested poppy,” DW reported.
