Religion

FILE - Flores sit on a fence outside the Christ the Good Shepherd church in suburban Wakely in western Sydney, Australia, on April 16, 2024. Detectives and secret service agents investigating the stabbing of a bishop in the Sydney church last week executed search warrants in the city on Wednesday, April 24, as part of a major operation, officials said. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

Australian police arrest 7 alleged teen extremists linked to stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church

Australian police say they have arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids around Sydney to protect the community from a potential attack.
 
FILE - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center, and Reverend Cecil Williams, right, meet some of the church members at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, March 28, 2010. Williams, who with his late wife turned Glide Church in San Francisco into a world-renowned haven for poor, homeless, and marginalized people, died Monday, April 22, 2024, at his home in San Francisco. He was 94. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar,File)

The Rev. Cecil Williams, who turned San Francisco’s Glide Church into a refuge for many, has died

 
FILE - A woman prays at the San Ramon Nonato church after an Easter Holy Week procession was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, April 9, 2020. Spain has approved a plan aimed at making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuses committed by people connected to the Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

Spain approves plan to compensate victims of Catholic Church sex abuse. Church will be asked to pay

 
The Rev. Tracy Cox of First United Methodist Church and members of her congregation pray for Tracy Merrick, who will attend the United Methodist General Conference as a delegate representing Western Pennsylvania, as well as Anais Hussian and Joshua Popson who will also be in attendance, Sunday, April 14, 2024, in Pittsburgh. Hussian is a reserve delegate and Popson will be advocating for LGBTQ inclusion with the Love Your Neighbor Coalition. Many, including Rev. Cox, hope that this is the year they change longstanding bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

United Methodists open first top-level conference since breakup over LGBTQ inclusion

 
FILE- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi listens to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda speak during an event organized to release their party's manifesto for the upcoming national parliamentary elections in New Delhi, India, April 14, 2024. India's main opposition party is accusing Modi of hate speech after he called Muslims “infiltrators" and used some of his most incendiary rhetoric to date about the minority faith.(AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

Modi is accused of using hate speech for calling Muslims ‘infiltrators’ at an Indian election rally

 

More religion news
FILE - Students protest a canceled commencement speech by its 2024 valedictorian who has publicly supported Palestinians on the campus of University of Southern California on Thursday, April 18, 2024. U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

With graduation near, colleges seek to balance safety and students’ right to protest Gaza war

U.S. colleges and universities are preparing for end-of-year commencement ceremonies with a unique challenge: providing safety for graduates while honoring the free speech rights of students involved in protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
 

Man charged with hate crime for vandalizing Islamic center at Rutgers, prosecutors say

A man accused of vandalizing an Islamic center at New Jersey’s flagship university on the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr has been charged with a hate crime.
 
FILE - The Iowa Capitol is visible before sunrise, Jan. 12, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. After a marathon day that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, April 20, Iowa lawmakers wrapped up a four-month legislative session that was focused on reforming the way special education is managed and speeding up tax cuts. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Iowa lawmakers address immigration, religious freedom and taxes in 2024 session

Iowa lawmakers have wrapped up the General Assembly’s four-month session that focused on reforming the way special education is managed and speeding up tax cuts.
 
FILE - Presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her opening campaign rally at the Zocalo in Mexico City, March 1, 2024. If elected, Sheinbaum would be Mexico's first leader with a Jewish background in a country that’s home to nearly 100 million Catholics. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

Mexico’s likely next president would be its first leader with a Jewish background

By mid-2024, Claudia Sheinbaum will most likely become Mexico’s first female president. She would also be its first leader with a Jewish background in a country that’s home to nearly 100 million Catholics.
 
FILE - A Tunisian police officer stands at the entrance at El-Ghriba synagogue, the oldest Jewish monument built in Africa more than 2,500 years ago, while Jewish pilgrims attend the annual Jewish pilgrimage in the resort of Djerba, Tunisia, Friday April 26, 2013. The Jewish Tunisians who organize an annual pilgrimage to one of the world’s oldest synagogues are planning a scaled-down event on May 2024, citing concerns about security less than a year after a deadly shooting shook the community. (AP Photo/Aimen Zine, File)

Tunisian Jews scale back annual pilgrimage to ancient synagogue because of security concerns

Jewish Tunisians who organize an annual pilgrimage to one of the world’s oldest synagogues are planning a scaled-down event next month.
 
FILE - Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley speaks in London, Nov. 9, 2023. London's police commissioner will meet with senior members of the Jewish community on Monday April 22, 2024 after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an "openly Jewish'' man's presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators. (James Manning/PA via AP, File)

London police to meet with Jewish leaders as protests spark concerns about the safety of Jews

London’s police commissioner will meet with senior members of the Jewish community on Monday after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an “openly Jewish″ man’s presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators.
 
Lama Rod Owens sits in the yard of his childhood home in Rome, Georgia, on Saturday, March 30, 2024. Owens is an influential voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers, respected for his work focused on social change, identity and spiritual wellness. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Lama Rod describes himself as a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. He wants to free you from suffering

Lama Rod Owens describes himself as a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. The Harvard Divinity school-educated lama and yoga teacher blends his training in Tibetan Buddhism with experiences from his life as a Black, queer man.
 
Wearing a necklace with her name in Hebrew, Charlotte Gleicher, 7, a first grader at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation's Capital, is helped by her teacher, Dafna Kiverstein, to roll out dough for matzah during a "Matzah Factory" field trip at the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Tradition in Rockville, Md., Thursday, April 18, 2024, ahead of the Passover holiday. To be kosher for Passover, which begins next Monday evening, the dough has to be prepared and cooked all within 18 minutes and not allowed to rise. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Children learn matzo making and Passover’s traditions ahead of the Jewish holiday

A group of Washington area first graders had no time to waste — they had matzo to make. The students from Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital had just 18 minutes to prep and cook the cracker-like, unleavened Passover staple.
 
FILE - Chairs for the Bibas family, hostages held in Gaza, are seen at a Passover seder table set, Thursday, April 11, 2024, at the communal dining hall at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where a quarter of all residents were killed or captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Passover is a major Jewish holiday, celebrated over seven or eight days each year, commemorating the exodus of ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, as recounted in the Bible. To many Jews, it symbolizes freedom and the birth of a Jewish nation. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

War, hostages, antisemitism: A somber backdrop to this year’s Passover observances

Passover is a major Jewish holiday, celebrated over seven or eight days each year. It commemorates the exodus of ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, as recounted in the Bible.
 

London police apologize after threatening to arrest ‘openly Jewish’ man near pro-Palestinian protest

London’s police force has been forced to issue two apologies after officers threatened to arrest an “openly Jewish” man if he refused to leave the area around a pro-Palestinian march because his presence risked provoking the demonstrators.
 
FILE - Mandisa accepts the award for pop/contemporary album of the year at the Dove Awards Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. Mandisa, a contemporary Christian singer who appeared on “American Idol” and won a Grammy for her 2013 album ‘Overcomer’, has died. She was 47. A representative for the singer told The Associated Press that the singer was found dead in her home in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Mandisa, Grammy-winning singer and ‘American Idol’ alum, dies at 47

Contemporary Christian singer Mandisa, who appeared on “American Idol” and won a Grammy for her 2013 album “Overcomer,” has died. She was 47.
 
Protesters gather outside St. Joseph the Worker Church on March 17, 2024, in Beal City, Mich., in response to a priest's criticism of a gay author who read a book at a parish school. The Rev. Thomas Held resigned as pastor on April 16, 2024. (Sue Knickerbocker Field/The Morning Sun via AP)

Catholic priest resigns from Michigan church following protests over his criticism of a gay author

A Catholic priest has resigned as pastor of a church in a small central Michigan community. It is the result of weeks of controversy following his regret that a gay author had read a book to preschool children.
 
Salman Rushdie poses for a portrait to promote his book "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder" on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Has Salman Rushdie changed after his stabbing? Well, he feels about 25, the author tells AP

Nearly two years after the shocking knife attack that nearly killed him, Salman Rushdie appears both changed and very much the same.
 
The installation '"I piedi, insieme al cuore, portano la stanchezza e il peso della vita" ('The feet, together with the heart, carry the tiredness and weight of life') by Italian artist Maurizio Catalan is displayed on the facade of the church next to the women's prison at the Giudecca island during the 60th Biennale of Arts exhibition in Venice, Italy, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. A pair of nude feet dirty, wounded and vulnerable are painted on the façade of the Venice women's prison chapel, the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and part of the Vatican's pavilion at the Venice Biennale in an innovative collaboration between inmates and artists. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Maurizio Cattelan, Zoe Saldana join iconoclastic Vatican Biennale exhibition inside women’s prison

A pair of nude feet — dirty, wounded and vulnerable — are painted on the façade of the Venice women’s prison chapel.
 
Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The Latest | World leaders call on Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen

World leaders are calling on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.
 
Flores sit on a fence outside the Christ the Good Shepherd church in suburban Wakely in western Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. A man has been arrested after reportedly stabbing a Christian bishop and multiple churchgoers during a televised service in Sydney Monday, April 15, 2024, police said. There were no reports of life-threatening injuries. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Teenager is charged with terrorism offenses in stabbings of bishop and priest at Sydney church

A 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service has been charged by police with terrorism offenses.
 
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Florida school districts can opt to allow volunteer chaplains under a bill signed Thursday, April 18, 2024, by DeSantis, who dismissed critics who say religion shouldn't be mixed with public education. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)

Florida will open schools to volunteer chaplains

Florida school districts will soon have the option of allowing volunteer chaplains in as student counselors. Republican Gov.
 
Julia Bullock, center, and castmates rehearse for the Metropolitan Opera's production of "El Nino," on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in New York. “El Nino” opens April 23. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

John Adams’ Nativity oratorio ‘El Nino’ gets colorful staging at the Met

Composer John Adams’ work is returning to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in a decade in a new staging of his Nativity oratorio “El Nino.”
 
Representatives of member countries take votes during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

The Latest | Iran says air defense batteries fire after explosions reported near major air base

Iran’s state news agency says the country’s air defense batteries have fired after reports of explosions near a major air base at the city of Isfahan.
 
Hkalam Samson poses for photography together with his wife after his release from the prison in Myintkyina township in Kachin state, Myanmar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Hkalam Samson, prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority, was detained by the authorities just hours after he was released from prison under an amnesty by the military government, a relative, a colleague and local media said Thursday, April 18, 2024.(AP Photo)

Prominent Baptist pastor in military-ruled Myanmar detained again hours after release from prison

A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority has been detained just hours after he was released from prison by the military government.
 
Police patrol outside the Christ the Good Shepherd church in suburban Wakely in western Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Australian police say a knife attack in Sydney that wounded a bishop and a priest during a church service as horrified worshippers watched online and in person, and sparked a riot was an act of terrorism.(AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Sydney teen accused of stabbing 2 clerics showed no signs of radicalization, Muslim leader says

A Muslim community leader says a 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service might have “anger management and behavioral issues” and a “short fuse” but had shown no signs of being radicalized.
 
Shlomi Berger sits in his daughter's bedroom in Holon, Israel, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Agam, 19, was abducted two days after the start of her army service along the border with Gaza during a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. "The Passover story says we come from slaves to free people, so this is a parallel story," Berger said. "This is the only thing I believe that will happen. That Agam will get out from darkness to light. She and all of the other hostages." (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israelis grapple with how to celebrate Passover, a holiday about freedom, while many remain captive

Jews around the world will soon celebrate Passover, recounting the biblical story of their exodus from Egypt after hundreds of years of slavery.
 
FILE- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sandalwood paste and vermilion applied on his forehead during the inauguration of Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor, a promenade that connects the Ganges River with the centuries-old temple dedicated to Hindu god Shiva in Varanasi, India, Dec. 13, 2021. Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, is now mainstream. Nobody has done more to advance this cause than Modi, one of India’s most beloved and polarizing political leaders. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

Once a fringe Indian ideology, Hindu nationalism is now mainstream, thanks to Modi’s decade in power

Hindu nationalism was once a fringe ideology in India, and now it is mainstream. Nobody has done more to advance this cause than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
 

Catholic officials in Brooklyn agree to an independent oversight of clergy sex abuse allegations

An independent monitor will oversee the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s handling of sexual abuse allegations under a settlement between the diocese and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
 
Iranian army members march during Army Day parade at a military base in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. In the parade, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that the "tiniest invasion" by Israel would bring a "massive and harsh" response, as the region braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran's attack over the weekend. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The Latest | Netanyahu says Israel will decide how to respond as Iran warns against retaliation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint.
 
Police patrol outside the Christ the Good Shepherd church in suburban Wakely in western Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Australian police say a knife attack in Sydney that wounded a bishop and a priest during a church service as horrified worshippers watched online and in person, and sparked a riot was an act of terrorism.(AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Sydney clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says

A Muslim community leader in Australia says the father of a boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics saw no signs of his son’s extremism.
 
President of Columbia University Nemat Shafik testifies before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on "Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University's Response to Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Columbia’s president rebuts claims she has allowed the university to become a hotbed of antisemitism

Four months after a contentious congressional hearing led to the resignations of two Ivy League presidents, Columbia University’s president unequivocally denounced antisemitism on her campus.
 
FILE - The Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III sits before speaking, Feb. 1, 2024, in Dallas. The Dallas pastor who took over leadership of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s longtime civil rights organization resigned Tuesday, April 16, after less than three months on the job. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

New leader of Jesse Jackson’s civil rights organization steps down just months on the job

A Dallas pastor who took over leadership of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s longtime civil rights organization has resigned after just months on the job. The Rev.
 
FILE - A cyclist rides past the New York Court of Appeals, May 5, 2015, in Albany, N.Y. New York’s highest court will hear arguments Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in a lawsuit that seeks to throw out a regulation requiring health insurance policies to cover medically necessary abortions — a case that could jeopardize a similar state law. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

New York’s high court hears case on abortion insurance coverage

New York’s highest court has taken up a case that seeks to throw out a regulation requiring health insurance policies to cover medically necessary abortions.
 
Exterior view of the 'Michaela Community School' in Brent, north west London, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. A Muslim student who wanted to pray during lunchtime has lost a court fight against a strict London school that had banned prayer on campus. A High Court judge said Tuesday that the female student had accepted when she enrolled in the school that she would be subject to religious restrictions. (Lucy North/PA via AP)

A London court rules against a Muslim girl who wanted to pray at a school known for strict rules

A Muslim student who wanted to pray during lunchtime has lost a court fight against a strict London school that had banned prayer on campus.