After two separate incidents of Quran burning in Sweden and Denmark this July, emotions run extremely high in Iraq, where the Swedish embassy was torched down by protesters along with an attempt to storm the Danish diplomatic mission in the country’s capital Baghdad.
Video footage shows the Swedish embassy in Iraq on fire after hundreds of people stormed the complex in a protest against the planned burning of a Quran in Sweden pic.twitter.com/PAkccnCIz6
British-American social media personality Andrew Tate has long been controversial for his misogynistic commentary and when he was arrested along with his brother Tristan in Romania for human trafficking. Now, the former kickboxer and social media influencer stirred new controversy online after openly calling for the Islamization of the United Kingdom.
A Somali woman went viral on social media for being brutally beaten by her brother after she uploaded a Tiktok where she was seen dancing without wearing her hijab. The TikTok story gained the attention of many netizens and received mixed reactions from social media users.
Nearly ten months after the death of Mahsa Amini under police custody, which sparked one of the largest revolutions in Iran since the 1979 Revolution, the country’s “morality police” are back on the streets again, with police vans reportedly patrolling once again to find women who were found not wearing the hijab.
As the much-anticipated Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie in the titular role stirred political controversy and was banned in Vietnam for a scene showing a map that seemingly depicted the “nine-dash line” used by China for its claims on the South China Sea, the Greta Gerwig-directed film found itself in another scandal, this time a religious one after an American pastor called for holy judgment over its LGBTQIA+ content.
Female university students were barred from universities in Iran after refusing to follow the country’s mandatory hijab laws. This resulted in sham disciplinary “hearings,” class suspensions, and threats of being given zero grades.
Students barred from Iranian universities for refusing to wear a hijab https://t.co/zN4h9KxF2B
A Filipina drag performer stirred controversy after a viral performance at a local bar where she dressed up as Jesus Christ and danced to a remixed version of a Filipino-language Catholic Mass worship song, sparking a heated debate on where to draw the line between “expression” and “mockery”, especially in a country like the Philippines, where around 79% of the population identify as Catholic.
A young Christian man in Pakistan was fined and sentenced to death by a court on June 30th for allegedly committing blasphemy. This decision came after the Pakistani government agreed last month to try blasphemy suspects under the country’s anti-terrorism laws and existing anti-blasphemy laws.
Leaving one’s religion can be difficult and more challenging for some people than others. Such is the case of the Ex-Muslims of Kerala (EMU) members, an organization formed by former Muslims living in the southern state of Kerala in India.
Several human rights groups in Indonesia have called on the government to place a moratorium on blasphemy, urging them to amend the country’s laws on blasphemy and calling on the police to temporarily halt the enforcement of blasphemy-related articles to stop the abuse of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country.
