On July 6, Naz Shah — Bradford Labour MP (UK) — delivered an impassioned speech in Parliament during a discussion for the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts (PCSC) Bill . In her speech, Shah has directly compared the “emotional harm” of the cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and the destruction of status. She also asked if there is a “hierarchy of sentiments” since the British Government is planning to impose prison sentences of up to 10 years and none for drawing cartoons of Muhammad.
A new Pew Research Center face-to-face survey of around 30 thousand Indian adults conducted in 17 languages between late 2019 and early 2020 (before the COVID pandemic) takes a closer look at religious identity, nationalism, and tolerance in Indian society.
On June 28, Sergei Lavrov — the Foreign Minister of Russia — claimed that the western educational system teaches children that Jesus is bisexual and non-binary. In his essay published on The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Lavrov claimed that students are being taught that Jesus was bisexual.
On June 17, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has pushed ahead a draft in a majority vote that would deny President Joe Biden the Holy Communion because of his stance on abortion laws. Approval of this new statement will authorize individual bishops to deny Catholic politicians, who support abortion, the sacred rite of the Eucharist. Never has tensions between church divisions and the legislation been prevalent since the Trump administration. This new step has further reinstated the debate on the church's interference in politics.
Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, has made the Quran with translations a mandatory subject for all university students.
In January 2021, Republican Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody sponsored Senate Joint Resolution 55 to amend Article IX of the Constitution of Tennessee. Article IX has three sections that bar church ministers, atheists, and people who participate or aid a duel from holding any office in the civil department of the state.
A Texas federal court received a petition from Braidwood Management, Inc. to provide a religious exemption that will allow them to discriminate against LGBTQ+ staff.
For 14 years in a row, statistics for Southern Baptists, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, are still declining. In 2020, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) saw crucialcomponents falling, including membership, attendance, donations, and the total number of congregations.
