Strasbourg officials are within their right to allow public funds to be used to build what may be the largest mosque in Europe. But that hasn’t stopped the backlash
Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have bolstered the conservative wing of the Supreme Court.
Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images
Conservative justices are redefining religious freedom to mean the protection of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit, argues a constitutional law expert.
Being counted – secular voters are a growing force.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Nonreligious voters overwhelmingly backed Biden in the November presidential race. They also may have been key in several down-ballot state measures, says a scholar of US secularism.
Amy Coney Barrett testifies before the Senate.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds Pool/Getty Images
If successful, Barrett would become the seventh current Supreme Court justice to be raised a Catholic, but more importantly the sixth conservative Christian.
Above it, only skies? In it, only believers? Imagine that!
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Despite growing numbers of non-religious Americans, self-declared atheists are few and far between in the halls of power – putting the US at odds with other global democracies.
Children evacuated from U.K. cities in WWII were taught in churches.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The history of education in the West is closely associated with Christian religious spaces – from the first cathedral schools to the use of churches to teach children in WWII.
With the number of declared ‘non-believers’ growing worldwide, researchers sought to discover what beliefs the irreligious turn to when times are tough.
Québec Premier François Legault responds to the Opposition during question period, Feb. 7, 2020, at the legislature in Québec City.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Ontario and New Brunswick francophones have spoken out against Québec abolishing English school boards, fearing this could set a negative precedent for French language education rights across Canada.
In this 2013 photo, Bangladeshi mourners carry the coffin containing the body of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider for funeral.
AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File
Anders C. Hardig, American University School of International Service
In recent years Bangladesh has seen an increase in attacks on religious minorities. A scholar explains how certain extreme views on how Islam is to be followed are taking center stage in the country.
Lebanese protesters formed a 105-mile human chain connecting geographically and religiously diverse cities across the country, Oct. 27. 2019.
AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
Lebanon’s 1989 peace deal ended a civil war by sharing political power between religious factions. That created a society profoundly divided by religion – something today’s protesters hope to change.
Bloc Québecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet greets his supporters during a celebration on election night in Montréal.
Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
The Bloc Québécois was written off as politically dead before it aligned itself with the CAQ government’s law on secularism. Now it’s moved into third place in Parliament in a stunning comeback.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster may seem to be a joke, but it highlights some real contradictions in secular societies.
The Supreme Court ruled that baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, could refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs.
AP/David Zalubowski)
Neither French nor American, Senegalese secularism stands midway between these two models
Quebec Premier François Legault stands in front of the crucifix in the provincial legislature where he announced the religious symbol will be removed. Québec is both the most homogeneous province from a religious point of view and the most detached from its religious culture.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
Many Canadians are puzzled by Québec’s law banning some civil servants from wearing religious symbols. A Québec sociologist explains the law is rooted in the province’s troubled history with religion.