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Anti-Semitism: An Ugly Hate Returns

Across France protestors recently rallied in solidarity against what appears to be a growing trend of anti-Semitism in the country and throughout Western Europe. Earlier this month, nearly 100 graves were desecrated with swastikas in a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg. This follows other incidents in the region in December, including another cemetery where tombstones and a Holocaust memorial were vandalized. …

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Nigeria Steps Forward with Historic Multi-Faith Event

The first fruits from last summer’s inaugural Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom have begun to ripen. At the close of the Ministerial, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo challenged participants to endorse the Potomac Declaration and join in the Potomac Plan of Action. The pair established a framework from which the international community could draw inspiration and a tangible blueprint to …

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China’s Shameful Abuse of Uyghurs

In China’s northwest province of Xinjiang, family members are disappearing. Arfat Aeriken is a Uyghur Muslim who lost contact with his family in 2017. While studying in the U.S., Arfat learned that his father was sentenced to a nine-year prison term and his mother was sent to a concentration camp. He does not know what has happened to his 10-year …

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A Schism for the Modern Era: Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Readers of history will recall the Great Schism of 1054 as the moment when the western Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church parted ways, a separation that punctuated the end of the Roman Empire. That split, with its religious and political undertones, rocked Christendom in the 11th century and remains a visible wound even today, never fully healed though softened …

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Tis the Season…to Pray for Persecuted Believers

For the world’s 2.3 billion Christians, the week ahead marks the culmination of one of the holiest seasons of the year — the anticipation and arrival of the Christ child. Sadly, the advent period has been marred by persecution, as global headlines make clear. In China, authorities arrested more than 100 leaders and members of the Early Rain Covenant Church …

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Coptic Christians shut out of worship

In Egypt, a law designed to open doors has served to close them instead. Dozens of Coptic Christian churches have been shut down since Law 80/2016, also known as the Church Construction Law, took effect two years ago. The reform measure, required as part of the constitution adopted following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi in 2014, was intended to …