An independent website about religions in today's world
According to her Constitution, Russia is a secular state. According to the 1992 law on education, state education is secular in nature. On 22 October 2002, however, Education Minister Vladimir Filippov sent to Russian regional education departments a 30-page prototype of a new curriculum subject – “The Foundations of Orthodox Culture“. Keston News Service – […]
An Uzbek court has handed a Jehovah’s Witness a three-year suspended sentence for “inciting religious hatred.” Freedom of conscience advocates are concerned that the conviction heralds an expansion of the Uzbek government’s crackdown on religious expression. Eurasianet – 2 December 2002 – Marat Mudarisov, 26, was convicted on November 29 of violating article 156.1 of Uzbekistan’s […]
This article was originally published by Eurasianet.
Posted on Religioscope with permission.
Website of Eurasianet: http://www.eurasianet.org/index.shtml
EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic, environmental and social developments in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia. EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute.
In their most important religious festival, North Ossetians freely mix the names of Saint George and the pagan God Uasturji – but should not drink too much vodka. IWPR – 28 November 2002 – “Uastyrji, grant us your blessing,” the Ossetian elder, or khistar, pronounces, whereupon everyone else seated around the festival table in the village […]
This article was first published on 28 November 2002 (CRS No.157) by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), London. Posted on Religioscope with permission.Articles published by the IWPR on Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus as well as other topics can be accessed on its website:
http://www.iwpr.net
IWPR supports recovery and development in crisis zones by providing professional training, financial assistance and an international platform to independent media, human rights activists and other local democratic voices. IWPR’s primary beneficiaries are local journalists who participate in its reporting, research and training programmes.
For the first time since the end of the Soviet regime, an Eastern-rite Catholic priest in Omsk region of western Siberia reports that he is being regularly questioned by an officer of the local FSB (ex-KGB). An FSB officer first contacted Fr Sergi Golovanov this spring, told Keston News Service in September, “in order to […]
Although not the first such incident in Naberezhnyye Chelny, the destruction of the Orthodox Church of St Tatyana on 1 October was “the first time the authorities took any notice,” the secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate’s local deanery has told Keston News Service. Naberezhnyye Chelny is the second largest city in the republic of Tatarstan, […]
The criminal trial of a young Jehovah’s Witness is being seen as the latest attempt by the authorities to crack down on non-traditional religious groups. Tashkent resident Marat Mudarisov is standing trial at the capital’s Akmal-Ikram district court accused of undermining the constitution and spreading ideas that offend the national and religious convictions of the […]
This article was first published on 5 November 2002 (RCA No. 158) by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), London. Posted on Religioscope with permission.Articles published by the IWPR on Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus as well as other topics can be accessed on its website:
http://www.iwpr.net
IWPR supports recovery and development in crisis zones by providing professional training, financial assistance and an international platform to independent media, human rights activists and other local democratic voices.
This week, Muslims around the world mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, the most significant Islamic holiday. Muslims believe that Ramadan — the ninth month of the Islamic year, as determined by the lunar calendar — represents the time when the Koran was sent down from heaven as “a guidance unto men, […]
This article was first published on 5 November 2002 by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty). Posted on RELIGIOSCOPE with permission. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international communications service to Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East, funded by the United States Congress. RELIGIOSCOPE highly recommends the RFE/RL website, with its informative daily newsline and various other reports: http://www.rferl.org/
Five years after first lodging an application for registration and on the fifth attempt the Christian Science community in the Latvian capital Riga finally achieved registration on 16 October 2002. Keston News Service – 30 October 2002 – “It is hard to say why the whole process took so long,” the community’s lawyer, Gatis Senkans, told […]
A 29 year-old man became the first person in southern Nigeria to be punished under Islamic law when he was given 100 lashes on Thursday for indulging in pre-marital sex. Suleiman Shittu was flogged before a crowd of hundreds in front of the main mosque in the southwestern town of Ibadan, Oyo State, which has […]
This article comes via IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks), a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
© UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002
Over the past three months, the local authorities in Isfara district of Tajikistan’s northern Sogd region have closed down 33 of the district’s 152 mosques, the chairman of the Isfara branch of the Islamic Revival Party, Abdusator Boboyev, told Keston News Service in the town of Isfara on 10 October. Keston News Service – 21 […]
Copyright © 2002-2024 Religioscope.
site by nigelparry.net