Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

Hindu Nationalism’s gentler face finds recognition in Britain

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A new variant of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, is finding mainstream recognition in Britain, writes Edward Anderson in the journal Contemporary South Asia (Vol. 23, No.1). What Anderson calls “neo-Hindutva” is different from “orthodox” Hindu nationalism, represented by the Rashtiya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in that the former is less tied to Hindu majoritarian politics and […]

Atheism coming out of the closet in Arab societies

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Although numbers are in dispute in their own societies, atheism among ex-Muslims is becoming increasingly organized and political, reports Ahmed Benchemsi in The New Republic magazine (April 23). In recent months there have been publicized cases of atheists facing stiff punishments for publicly espousing atheism in such Muslim countries as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Palestine […]

Central Asia feeling impact of Indian Islamic revival movement

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Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has become fertile ground for Middle Eastern Islamic influences, but Muslim movements from the Indian subcontinent are also gaining inroads in this region, likely carrying its own geopolitical impact, writes Bayam Balci in the journal Religion, State and Society (Vol. 43, No. 1). For the past […]

Hindus, Sikhs feeling discrimination, consider exiting Afghanistan

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Many Hindus and Sikhs have left or are considering leaving Afghanistan due to increasing discrimination by the country’s religious majority, reports Hinduism Today (April/May/June). Hindu and Muslim residents estimate that the population has declined to about 7,000 from the approximately 200,000 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan before 1992. One issue in contention is the Hindu […]

Findings & Footnotes: May 2015

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01: There are a growing number of Muslim chaplains in the military in Western nations and, like their counterparts in the prison chaplaincy [see March RW], they tend to operate along the lines established by Christian churches in such ministries, writes Kristina Stoeckl and Olivier Roy in the current issue of the journal Religion, State, […]

On/File: May 2015

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A Continuing Survey of New Groups, Movements, Events and People Impacting Religion The Practice is an “experimental gathering” that began last year and takes place within Willow Creek, one of the premier megachurches in the U.S. Although Willow Creek was influential in the spread of seeker-sensitive services and “entertainment evangelism,” the new service, which is […]

Featured Story: Messianic Judaism attracting more gentile believers

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While the Messianic movement started as organizations for Jewish converts, Messianic congregations attract today on average a majority of Christian-born seekers, reports Hillary Kaell (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec) in the current issue of the journal Religion (January). Since the mid-1990s, not only has the interest of U.S. Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians in Messianic Judaism grown, […]

A global Catholic moment for Africa—or is it Latin America?

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While African Catholics have been viewed as the future of the church by their sheer numbers, there are also signs that the African church is in a position to become a moral voice on its continent as well as in global Catholicism, writes John L. Allen on the Catholic website Crux (March 24). Allen notes […]

Blasphemy laws common yet put to different uses

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The shared concern about the need to limit rights to maintain public order and public morals is interpreted differently from one country to another, with resulting disagreements on what constitutes a legitimate limit on speech and religion, writes Asma Uddin, guest editor of the most recent issue of The Review of Faith and International Affairs […]

Current Research: April 2015

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01: There is a small but potentially significant increase in the strengthening of Catholic affiliation and a stabilization of the retention rate in the church, according to an analysis of the 2014 General Social Survey. In a post on the blog of Center for Research on the Apostolate (CARA), Mark Gray finds that when asked […]