For some time now, there has been a strong pressure on Pakistan’s religious schools (madrassas) to change their ways, since they have been widely seen as having contributed to the development of radical forms of Islam. In a major turnaround, madrassas run by Maulala Fazalur Rehman’s Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam group will be modernizing their syllabus to remove […]

The Yezidis, an ancient religion based in the Kurdish region of Iraq, are entering a period of greater freedom after years of repression and loss of their tribal lands. The Sydney Morning Herald (July 26) reports that many Yezidis were swept up in Saddam Hussein’s anti-Kurdish crackdown of the 1980s. More recently, the tribal religion lost more […]

The American hotel tradition of placing a Bible in guests’ rooms is changing as these establishments broaden their menu of religious reading material to please the new diversity of guests. USA Today (July 10) reports that the Bibles placed in hotel rooms for over a century by the Gideon International ministry has become “an unwitting brand […]

Religious themes and motifs are evident in the new wave of superhero movies, “from last year’s Spider-Man to this year’s Daredevil and, most recently, X2, the sequel to the 2000 film X-Men,” reports the National Catholic Register (July 13-19). The movie X2 features a super-strengthened “mutant” character who prays the rosary, views his suffering as a test […]

There is a growth in both visibility and presence of Judaica and Zionist books and related products in the evangelical Christian marketplace judging by the recent Christian Book Association (CBA) conference in Orlando, Fla. The e-newsletter Religion Bookline (July 22) reports that one of the most heavily trafficked exhibits was the Tent of Meeting union display. Organized […]

Pope John Paul II’s teachings on gender difference and sexuality seems to be a main attraction for the small but growing movement of  young adults drawn to conservative Catholicism. In First Things magazine (August-September), Bronwen Catherine McShea  reports that at Harvard and other Ivy League colleges, there is a phenomenon of young people converting or returning to traditional Catholic […]

Twenty five years after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lifted its prohibition against blacks serving in the priesthood, the issue of race still haunts Mormonism. In his new book All Abraham’s Children (University of Illinois Press, $36.95), sociologist Armand L. Mauss chronicles how the LDS church has long struggled between its early teachings […]