Bavarian state government orders that crucifixes be displayed in all public buildings

Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), conservative sister party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has governed its home state of Bavaria since 1946. The only interruption to the party’s rule was a three-year spell by a Social Democrat in the 1950s, by now long forgotten. In particular, the CSU prides itself on having been…

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New law against online hate speech causes stir in Germany as AfD politician’s twitter is suspended

On January 1, 2018, a new law went into effect in Germany with the aim of curbing ‘fake news’ and hate speech online. The Act for the Improvement of Law Enforcement on Social Networks – thankfully shortened in common parlance to the Network Enforcement Law (Netzdurchsetzungsgesetz) targets social media such as Twitter and Facebook, seen…

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Yusuf Islam: Some will associate Orlando with Islam – that's criminal

I am here to talk to Yusuf Islam, the Muslim singer and humanitarian formerly known as Sixties icon Cat Stevens, about his charity concert for child refugees at Westminster’s Central Hall tonight. But the mass shooting at Florida gay club Pulse by an alleged Islamic State terrorist has overtaken us. “This guy is demented, a…

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EEOC details employer rules as religious worker complaints rise

March 6, 2014   The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued new, detailed guidelines for employers Thursday (March 6) as the number of complaints and million-dollar settlements for cases of religious workplace discrimination neared record levels in 2013. An EEOC spokesperson, Justine Lisser, said Thursday that the 20-year trend shows “a persistent uptick in religious…

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Sympathy for the Devil Worshipers

November 6, 2013   It’s easy enough to be in favor of a “nonsectarian” prayer before a legislative session — some invocation of a higher power that theoretically doesn’t exclude anyone (besides atheists, that is) — but what exactly does such a prayer sound like? That was Justice Samuel Alito’s question during oral arguments at…

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