Indian state recognizes 800-year-old tradition as a separate religion
Lingayat Dharma “started as a revolt and protest against Hindu orthodoxy,” said a leader in the movement advocating status as a minority faith.
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Southern California mosques welcome rising number of Latino Muslims
Groups are meeting growing interest through efforts such as Friday prayers in Spanish and #TacoTrucksatEveryMosque events to break Ramadan fasting.
Linda Brown Thompson, school desegregation pioneer, dies at age 75
The lifelong AME Church member was at the center of the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.
Pakistani court requires citizens to identify religious affiliation
A high court in majority-Muslim Pakistan recently ruled that citizens must declare their religious affiliation before joining the civil service, military, or judiciary. All birth certificates, identity cards, passports, and voting lists must also indicate the person’s faith.
The judgment, a victory for hard-line clerics pressuring the state to single out minorities, adds that all Muslim candidates for national or provincial assemblies must swear that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was the last of God’s prophets.
Cleophus Smith, a Memphis sanitation worker and minister, keeps up fight for rights
Smith is one of the surviving workers whose strike brought Martin Luther King Jr. to Tennessee in 1968.
Survey: Protestant pastors see increased church diversity
Pastors are more likely to say their churches are made up of multiple racial and ethnic groups than they were four years ago.