The growth of orthodox—and in some cases militant—forms of Islam is leading to a belated attempt to manage the new religious pluralism in Kazakhstan. A special section on religion in Kazakhstan in the the journal Central Asia and the Caucasus (Volume 12, Number 3) reports that the delicate balancing act maintained by the Kazakh leaders […]

Muslim–Coptic Christian tensions are at their height in Egypt after security forces killed 27 Copt civilians demonstrating peacefully. The October massacre at Maspero—a Cairo neighborhood—is the latest of several cases of violence and repression against Egypt’s Christian minority. The democratic revolution in Tahir Square was marked by a religious consensus, but since last spring, this […]

A posture of openess on the part of the current Turkish government toward the Alevis is taking place at the same time that this quasi-Muslim group is experiencing internal divisions regarding their identity in relation to Islam, write Bayram Ali Soner (Izmir University) and Şule Toktaş (Kadir Has University, Istanbul) in the September issue of […]

Despite the Netherlands’ reputation as a bastion of secularism, a “Bible Belt” of conservative Protestantism has maintained itself in the small nation, which includes a political wing feeling new pressure from the secular right, writes Phillip Jenkins in the Christian Century (October 4). The Dutch Bible Belt runs from the northeast to the southwest of […]

A special section in the British Catholic magazine The Tablet (October 29) reports on the signifiant decline of the “northern Catholic heartlands,” marked by parish closings and mergers, as well as declining membership. The heartlands, with its two largest dioceses in Liverpool and Lancaster, served a thriving Catholic population that was part Irish and part […]

The disestablishment of the Church of Sweden in 2000 has led to a weakening of the national church and, somewhat surprisingly, greater interference in church matters by politicians, according to Thomas Girmalm of Umea University. In presenting a paper at the SSSR conference, Girmalm noted that the Church of Sweden (COS) had been “too bound […]

Rising government concern about pluralism, social cohesion, and the role of Islam in Europe and Canada has led to the establishment of several large and unprecedented research programs on religion in these nations. When speaking of this trend at the SSSR meeting, sociologist Grace Davie noted that these national programs have “generated enormous activity and […]

A pan-ethnic identity is developing among Roma people, often with the help of evangelical and especially Pentecostal churches. Our recent study of a Spanish neighborhood with a high percentage of native Spanish Gitanos and Roma immigrants from Eastern Europe found how everyday interactions and involvement in Pentecostal churches give rise to a common identity. Previous […]