Tag - religion

 
 

RELIGION

WORLD
Aug 26, 2015
First man from Ghana joins IS, family says
A 25-year-old Muslim from Ghana has traveled to an Islamic State training camp, becoming the first known recruit from the West African nation to join the militant group, his family said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 22, 2015
White supremacist convicted for targeting Obama in New York 'death ray' case
A New York white supremacist was convicted by a federal jury on Friday of plotting to use a remote-controlled radiation device he called "Hiroshima on a light switch" to harm Muslims and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 21, 2015
Don't take my life, please, as Pakistan's comics roast nation's woes, try not to bomb, blaspheme
The crowd exploded into laughter as Pakistani comedian Shehzad Ghias Shaikh threw them his final punchline, gripping the microphone as he roasted the dating app Tindr and traditional South Asian family matchmaking.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Aug 15, 2015
The fraught debate over science and divinity
Truth is a sordid business. It brings nations down to earth, cuts people down to size. Why honor it, therefore? Why esteem it above myth, which does the opposite, raising nations to the gods and turning ordinary, unremarkable people into subjects of divine rulers?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Aug 12, 2015
Surai Sasai: a Buddhist monk battling the caste dragon
Japan-born monk's lifelong mission to convert millions of India's Dalits has won him legions of followers, but also led to threats to his life.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 11, 2015
Al-Qaida in Syria leaves area where Turkey seeks buffer
The al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front says it has quit frontline positions against the Islamic State group north of Aleppo and ceded them to other rebels, leaving an area of northern Syria where Turkey wants to set up a buffer zone.
WORLD
Aug 10, 2015
Protesters in Syria's Latakia seek punishment for Assad relative: human rights watchdog
Dozens of Syrians staged a rare protest in the coastal city of Latakia, bastion of President Bashar Assad, calling for the punishment of a member of his family they accuse of killing an army officer over a traffic dispute, monitors said.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 9, 2015
Beijing seeks hearts and minds with Tibetan resettlements
Nineteen-year-old Longsel Tsondre sees nothing romantic about the itinerant life his Tibetan herder family left behind when the government in his remote corner of southwestern China offered to resettle them a few years ago.
WORLD
Aug 8, 2015
Islamic State executed 2,000 in Nineveh, Iraq says
More than 2,000 Iraqis in the northern province of Nineveh have been executed by Islamic State militants controlling the area, the defense minister said on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 7, 2015
China removes cross from church after lengthy rooftop protest
Chinese authorities removed a cross from a church Friday after Christian protesters ended a month-long sit-in on the building's roof in a bid to protect the cross from what they said was its unfair removal, witnesses said.
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 2, 2015
Turkey takes in Uighur refugees; angers China
The folded piece of paper with a photo of a 4-month-old baby tells a story that likely loomed over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Chinese hosts during his visit to Beijing last week.
WORLD
Aug 2, 2015
Extraordinary measures used to fight militant Islam in 'stans'
Authorities in Central Asia's former Soviet "stans" are taking draconian measures to stamp out militant Islam, but their harsh methods and the absence of democratic politics risk provoking a backlash that could bring even greater instability.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 27, 2015
Satanic group unveils controversial Baphomet sculpture to cheers of 'Hail Satan'
A Satanic organization unveiled a controversial bronze Baphomet sculpture in Detroit just before midnight Saturday, after trying in vain to have it installed near a 10 Commandments monument in Oklahoma.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 26, 2015
China jails 14 members of banned cult
A court in the central Chinese province of Hubei has jailed nine members of a banned religious cult for up to three years, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday, a day after five others were sentenced in a northeastern province.
WORLD
Jul 26, 2015
Assad announces amnesty for estimated 70,000 draft dodgers at home, overseas
To help bolster the ranks of an army severely depleted by four years of battling armed insurgents, Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday announced an amnesty for men at home and abroad who have dodged conscription.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 22, 2015
U.S. general touts putting air controllers with Iraqi troops, giving Ukraine 'lethal equipment'
Putting U.S. air controllers with Iraqi forces closer to combat areas so they can identify and direct bombing would improve airstrikes on Islamic State rebel targets and should be "seriously considered," a top U.S. general told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 22, 2015
Islamic State-linked suicide attack unlikely to change Turkish stance on intervention in Syria
A suspected Islamic State suicide bombing that killed 32 people in a Turkish border town is unlikely to push Ankara to strike against the group in Syria, where it still sees Kurdish separatism and President Bashar Assad as the major threats.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 22, 2015
Syrian Islamists, courting West, say they will protect minorities
A conservative Islamist rebel group said on Tuesday it would protect Syria's minorities, pressing a campaign in Western media to address concerns about one of the most powerful insurgent forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
WORLD
Jul 21, 2015
Islamic State cracks down on Internet use in Syrian stronghold: monitor
Islamic State militants raided Internet cafes in their Syrian stronghold city of Raqqa after ordering a ban on wireless networks that can be used by private homes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Monday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jul 19, 2015
Before Tennessee rampage, gunman texted friend link to Islamic verse
Hours before the Tennessee shooting that killed five U.S. servicemen, the suspected gunman texted a close friend a link to an Islamic verse that included the line: "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him."

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo