Africa continues to be a region with strong commitments to religious freedom and religious pluralism. These, however, are rarely mere facts on the ground – they are legal, political, social, and theological projects that require considerable effort to realise. This volume – compiling the proceedings of the third annual conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies – focuses on various issues which vastly effect the understanding of religious pluralism in Africa. These include, amongst others, religious freedom as a human right, the importance of managing religious pluralism, and the permissibility of religious practice and observance in South African public schools.

This report was compiled by the U.S. Department of State for 2012. The study found that the government increased its targeting and surveillance of members of faith groups it deemed a "threat," including members of the country's Sunni majority. This occurred concurrently with the escalation of the civil conflict that resulted in the regime killing 35,000 civilians between the start of the uprising in 2011 and year's end. Such targeting included killing, detention, and harassment. There were credible reports that the regime targeted citizens based on religious affiliation in mixed neighborhoods in Homs and rural Aleppo. The government outlawed groups it claimed were "Muslim extremist groups," as well as Jehovah's Witnesses. It continued to monitor the activities of all religious groups and to discourage proselytizing, which it deemed a threat to relations among and within different faiths. Large Print Edition 18pt]

Are you living a lifestyle that God hates? Abominations are things that are hated by God.... Did you know that things that God hates have a smell that is not pleasing to Him? Lets dive into Abomination Anonymous....

This is the first study to bring space into conversation with religious competition, conflict and violence in the contemporary world. Lily Kong and Orlando Woods argue that because space is both a medium and an outcome of religious activity, it is integral to understanding processes of religious competition, conflict and violence. The book explores how religious groups make claims to both religious and secular spaces, and examines how such claims are managed, negotiated and contested by the state and by other secular and religious agencies. It also examines how globalisation has given rise to new forms of religious competition, and how religious groups strengthen themselves through the development of social resilience, as well as contribute to resilient societies. Throughout the book, case studies from around the world are used to examine how religious competition and conflict intersect with space. The case studies include topical issues such as competing claims to the Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif in Jerusalem, opposition to the "Ground Zero mosque" in New York City, and the regulation of religious conversion in India and Sri Lanka. By helping readers develop new perspectives on how religion works in and through space, Religion and Space: Competition, Conflict and Violence in the Contemporary World is an innovative contribution to the study of religion.

On the surface it may appear that I am quite negative about many things in my church and that I am pessimistic about the church's future. That would, however, be a wrong conclusion. I am not about to give up on my church but I try to take the long view. I believe current clouds can blow away and eventually new winds can begin to blow. The last thing I would want to do is discourage any readers by my analysis of the crisis in Christianity in general, and in Adventism in particular. I would be devastated if my book drove people away from faith and away from their church. On the contrary, I hope with all my heart that it will help at least some readers to take a new 'leap of faith' and then (re)-connect with their church. I have written this book because I deeply care for all those who have ended up 'on the margins.' I do not have the illusion that reading it will make all doubts disappear. I do hope and pray, however, that it will help those who read it to establish priorities in their faith experience and in their ties with the church, and dare to live creatively with their uncertainties and doubts.

This innovative reassessment of ritual murder accusations brings together scholars working in history, folklore, ethnography, and literature. Favoring dynamic explanations of the mechanisms, evolution, popular appeal, and responses to the blood libel, the essays rigorously engage with the larger social and cultural worlds that made these phenomena possible. In doing so, the book helps to explain why blood libel accusations continued to spread in Europe even after modernization seemingly made them obsolete. Drawing on untapped and unconventional historical sources, the collection explores a range of intriguing topics: popular belief and scientific knowledge; the connections between antisemitism, prejudice, and violence; the rule of law versus the power of rumors; the politics of memory; and humanitarian intervention on a global scale.

This innovative reassessment of ritual murder accusations brings together scholars working in history, folklore, ethnography, and literature. Favoring dynamic explanations of the mechanisms, evolution, popular appeal, and responses to the blood libel, the essays rigorously engage with the larger social and cultural worlds that made these phenomena possible. In doing so, the book helps to explain why blood libel accusations continued to spread in Europe even after modernization seemingly made them obsolete. Drawing on untapped and unconventional historical sources, the collection explores a range of intriguing topics: popular belief and scientific knowledge; the connections between antisemitism, prejudice, and violence; the rule of law versus the power of rumors; the politics of memory; and humanitarian intervention on a global scale.

I was told to come alone. I was not to carry any identification, and would have to leave my cell phone, audio recorder, watch, and purse at my hotel ...For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for the Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing - Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighbourhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalised and the Iraqi neighbourhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner 'Jihadi John', and then in France, Belgium and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilisation. Mekhennet's background has given her unique access to some of the world's most wanted men, who generally refuse to speak to Western journalists. She is not afraid to face personal danger to reach out to individuals in the inner circles of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and their affiliates; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines, as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.

WINTERING ON THE BAYOU SALADE- This is a true story of a man who after a lifetime of being physically, emotionally, financially and psychologically abused for not adhering to the oppressive radical teachings and beliefs of the LDS (Mormon) Church, took it upon himself to escape and relocate from behind Utah's Zion Curtain in spite of the long reach and influence of the vile and violent history of this powerful religious sect of the American west. In the process of these endeavors he literally meets the woman of his visions and together they successfully build the life they want together in the primitive high-country of the central Colorado Rockies. Successful in every way but for the continued duress and inescapable heavy-handed harassment and vandalism by members of the dangerous zealots he thought he had left behind. Never off his back are the Danites; the Mormon secret society of Avenging or Destroying Angels that was created to not only lurk under the dark cloak of night to harass those they consider an enemy of the church, but murder through their doctrine of Blood Atonement those who apostate or appose their beliefs. Attached is the 1834 edition of E. D. Howe's Mormonism Unvailed. The first documentary on Mormonism ever published.

"Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung" is the first phrase North Korean parents are instructed to teach to their children. From cradle to grave, North Korean citizens are surrounded by the all-encompassing presence of the "Great Leader" and his son, the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. The Kim dynasty is much more than an authoritarian government; it also holds itself out as the ultimate source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom, and truth for the North Korean people. Heterodoxy and dissent are repressed, quickly and efficiently, with punishments meted out to successive generations of the dissident's family. The study that follows was commissioned by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan U.S. government agency that monitors freedom of religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, and that provides independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress. Forty former North Koreans were interviewed extensively regarding conditions of freedom of religion or belief in the DPRK.