Tag: Religious Freedom

The Freedom Matters podcast, launched on 18 November, bills itself as a “quarterly update on current and emerging threats to religious freedom,” with the first episode focusing on anti-discrimination laws in the states, territories, and federally.

I may not like the burqa, but I certainly don’t want it banned, writes Monica Doumit.

A bid to protect the religious freedom of faith-based aged care facilities in New South Wales was rejected in the Upper House on 19 November by 23 votes to 16. But the issue could be raised in an upcoming statutory review of voluntary assisted dying laws.

Catholicism is by far the country’s largest religious grouping, so we might feel safe from recent parliamentary and media attention on cults. However, we need to be wary of any push by the State to ban religious belief or practice for the good of the believers themselves, writes Monica Doumit.

A Victorian inquiry investigating the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and fringe groups is set to convene in just under a year’s time, in a move experts warn may affect religious freedom in Australia.

President Donald Trump said 31 October he would place Nigeria on a religious freedom watch list in response to violence in that country perpetuated against predominantly Christian communities – and subsequently threatened military action if that country's government didn't "move fast" to respond.

Religious freedom is severely restricted in 62 of the world's 196 countries, affecting around 5.4 billion people; "in other words, almost two-thirds of the world's population lives in countries where serious violations of religious freedom take place," Cardinal Parolin said.

The NSW Supreme Court recently deemed a law that sought to ban protests near places of worship as unconstitutional. But why are we still prohibited from praying outside abortion clinics, asks Monica Doumit.

Should a Catholic student in a Catholic school be forced to call a male teacher who identifies as non-binary “Mx” instead of “Sir” or “Mr”? Believe it or not, we could be heading all the way to the High Court to find out.

According to Dr Thompson, constitutional guarantees for religious liberty and freedom in the West can only do so much to protect religious communities.

The Northern Territory government is set to renege on a pre-election commitment to restore protections for religious schools. This can only be explained by wilful blindness on the part of MPs, writes Monica Doumit.

The Spanish bishops' conference was criticised by the head of Spain's far-right VOX party after the church expressed religious concerns following a local council's measure that would effectively ban Muslims from holding religious events in certain areas.