On Tuesday, October 26, the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece banned kosher and halal slaughter methods. These forms of ritual slaughter are religious requirements for Jews and Muslims. Both ways require animals to be slaughtered without anesthesia.
On the afternoon of October 8, Friday, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toledo in Spain released an apology for the “improper use of a sacred place.” The statement released by the archdiocese on behalf of Archbishop Francisco Cerro Chaves responds to a music video shot in the 13th century Toledo Cathedral.
Germany's largest mosque, the Cologne Central Mosque, has been permitted by Cologne to broadcast the call to prayer every Friday afternoon. The permission to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer, or adhan as it’s called in Arabic, came as part of the agreement to ease restrictions between the Muslim community and the city of Cologne.
On October 11, Monday, the Pavlovsky District Court of the Krasnodar territory in southern Russia sentenced the disabled 59-year old Vladimir Skachidub to more than four years in prison. Skachidub's sentence came from 2020 criminal charges for preaching his religious faith.
Local officials in China’s Xinjiang province announced that a prominent Uyghur real estate businessman and philanthropist, Yaqub Haji, died in prison. Investigating the social media of Haji’s families and friends, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that his body was handed over to his family on September 6, 2021. There is no available information as to when and how Haji died.
On July 29, three Jehovah’s Witnesses were sentenced to six years in prison, on top of the two years they served while waiting for their trial. Two of the Jehova’s Witnesses are father and son, Vilen(68) and Arsen(37) Avanesov. Aleksandr Parkov (53), a companion, was also charged. Arsen and Parkov were sentenced to six and a half years, while Vilen was sentenced to six years. By the end of their time, they would have all spent nearly a decade behind bars.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s Interior Minister, in an interview with RTL radio in February 2021, commented on the proposed Anti-Separatism Bill. Darmanin describes the bill as tough but necessary, calling it “an extremely strong secular offensive.” The bill passed the lower house of the French parliament on Friday, July 23, 2021. Darmanin sponsored the bill with the support of his party, La République En Marche.
On June 7, in a first-of-its-kind ruling, a French court convicted 11 out of 13 accused of cyberbullying a teenager over her views against Islam on social media. The 18-year-old started receiving threatening messages after her video criticizing Islam and the Quran posted last year from her social media accounts went viral.
The Vatican had sent a letter to the Italian government to request a change in a new anti-homophobia law to be passed. On June 17th, a "verbal note" by the Vatican's secretary of relation with states, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, was delivered to the Italian embassy, as confirmed by a spokesperson of the Vatican.
