A tribunal will decide Thursday if Rugby Australia has the right to terminate Folau’s contract over his controversial social media posts – a dispute that raises questions about free speech, religious freedom and human rights and discrimination law.
Paul Barkley/AAP
Folau has sought a full code of conduct committee hearing to decide his future with Rugby Australia. Depending on how the tribunal rules, the case could be heading to federal court next.
Members of Jehovah’s Witnesses wait in a court room in Moscow, Russia, on April 20, 2017. Russia’s Supreme Court banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses from operating in the country.
(AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group living China’s Xinjiang region. It is now estimated over one million Uyghurs have been arrested and imprisoned in China’s vast network of “re-education” camps.
Scott Morrison has promised to protect people against discrimination because of their religious faith, and says he wants to do it before the election.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison plans to create a new post of Freedom of Religion Commissioner, because he says many people of religion “feel the wheels closing in”.
Like any employer, the Québec government has an obligation of reasonable accommodation when it comes to its employees.
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As an employer, how will the Québec government’s duty to reasonably accommodate the needs of its employees conflict with its plan to ban religious symbols among some civil servants?
A federal Religious Discrimination Act would introduce important protections for Australia’s religiously diverse population.
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Australians already enjoy a relatively high level of religious freedom. However, discrimination and vilification on the basis of people’s faith still exists.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, detailing the grim fate of Protestant clerics Latimer and Ridley, is one clue as to why Baldwin hesitated before publishing his irreverent book.
Wikimedia Commons
When people feel discriminated against because of their religion, they can feel threatened, triggering feelings of social isolation that can perhaps increase prejudice toward others.
Brazil’s jailhouse preachers may not explicitly condone violence against people of other faiths, but they’ve remained largely silent as their well-armed followers wage a holy war.
Reuters/Ricardo Moraes
Robert Muggah, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
As hard-line Pentecostalism spreads across Brazil, some drug traffickers in gang-controlled areas of Rio de Janeiro are using religion as an excuse to attack nonbelievers.
Hans Eysenck’s denial that he was Jewish throws light on the psychological problems faced by refugees who belong to persecuted ethnic groups.
Women carry goods across a makeshift bridge in the Ilaje slum in Lagos. Widening inequality is fuelling tensions across Nigeria.
Reuters/Finbarr O'Reilly
Protests are raising tensions in Africa’s most populous country, with agitators and federal troops clashing on the streets. But is Nigeria on the brink of another civil war?
Stained glass window depicting a heretic in the Cathedral of Saint Rumbold in Mechelen, Belgium.
Heretic image via www.shutterstock.com
Testriono, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
In pursuit of the coveted Jakarta governorship, Anies Baswedan approached hardline Islamic groups that opposed the Chinese-Indonesian Christian incumbent.
Was persecution a consistent imperial policy, and what types of punishments were inflicted on Christians?
The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)/Wikimedia Commons
How white Republicans and white Democrats feel about Muslims is influencing their candidate choice as well as willingness to vote in the 2016 election.
The car that was set ablaze outside Perth’s Thornlie Mosque. Offensive graffiti was also scrawled on a wall nearby.
AAP
Legislating against racial and religious vilification is highly fraught, as the ongoing debate around Section 18C has demonstrated, and unlikely to become less so any time soon.