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Bangladesh could drop Islam as the country's official religion following a string of extremist attacks against people of other faiths. The supreme court in the South Asia nation has began to hear arguments which challenge Islam's status as the official state religion. It comes after a spate of attacks against people of other religions such as Hindus, Christians, and minorities Shi'ites, which have been blamed on Islamic extremists. When Bangladesh was formed in 1971 after the nation split from Pakistan, it was declared a secular state. However, in 1988 the country's constitution was amended with Islam declared as the state...

Killing resembles recent attacks on religious minorities, police sayPolice are hunting for the killers of a Christian man hacked to death in northwestern Bangladesh on March 22. The murder was the latest in a series of attacks on religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country. Three attackers rode up on motorbikes and repeatedly stabbed Hossain Ali, 68, while he was taking a regular morning walk in Kurigram district. They then fled after detonating two small homemade bombs as local people tried to help the victim, police said. Ali, a retired Family Planning Department official, also fought against Pakistani troops in Bangladesh's...

Bangladeshi law student who criticized Islamism on his Facebook account has been attacked with machetes and killed, police said, the latest in a series of murders of secular activists and bloggers by suspected Islamist militants.

Two people have been hacked to death at an apartment, including an editor of a transgender magazine in the Bangladesh. Another person was also killed and one person injured when three attackers entered their apartment in Dhaka posing as couriers and attacked them with sharp weapons, police said on Monday. Julhas Mannan ran a transgender magazine Rupban and previously worked at the US embassy.

Gay rights activist, U.S. government employee one of two hacked to death by radical Islamists in Bangladesh THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, April 25, 2016, 6:33 PM NEW DELHI — Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed two men in Bangladesh’s capital Monday night, including a gay rights activist who also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, police said, in the latest in a series of attacks targeting atheists, moderates and foreigners. Police said they suspected radical Islamists in the attack, which occurred two days after a university professor was hacked to death. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A court in southern Bangladesh sentenced two Hindu schoolteachers to six months in jail for making "abusive" remarks about Islam that led a mob to attack their school, a magistrate said Tuesday.

Much to the distress of Indian leaders, on January 19 the Bangladesh army announced it had thwarted a coup attempt against the government, conceived and nearly executed by some mid-ranking officers. Five army officers, including a lieutenant colonel and two Majors have already been arrested, while a top army officer is under investigation. The attempted coup was instigated by Islamic radical military personnel, including some Bangladeshis living abroad and retired and serving officers. Ever since the India-friendly government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came into office in December 2008, her arch-rival Begum Khaleda Zia and elements of Pakistan’s military establishment...

Bangladesh hanged Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday for genocide and other crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said, a punishment that risked provoking an angry reaction from his supporters. Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka Central jail after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the war. Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister, was hanged at 12.01 a.m. local time, Law Minister Anisul Haq told...

The head of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party was executed early Wednesday for his role in acts of genocide and war crimes during the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971, a senior government official said. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Motiur Rahman Nizami, the 73-year-old leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hung at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday inside Dhaka central jail amid tight security. […] Nizami is the fifth senior official from opposition parties to be executed since 2013 for war crimes carried out during the 1971 war. Three other senior members of Nizami’s Jamaat-e-Islami party and a top leader of...

Two assailants armed with pistols and cleavers attacked Jogeswar Roy, 45, the head priest of Sri Sri Sant Gourio Math, at his home in the temple on Sunday morning, officials said. "The priest was preparing for morning prayers when they pounced on him and slit his head from the body at the verandah of his home inside the temple," said Shafiqul Islam, a government administrator in the sub-district Debiganj where the temple is located. Two devotees were wounded in the attack including one who was shot as he tried to save the priest, he added. The motive for the murder...

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has vetoed religious freedom legislation similar to that adopted by the federal government and nearly half of the states, he announced. He says he would have accepted the legislation if it only protected pastors, but can’t countenance the protection of other religious adherents who are not clergy. As with other religious freedom bills, Georgia’s had faced strong opposition from the media and corporations. The media, which tend to be ignorant, at best, of religious freedom, mischaracterized the bill as “anti-gay.” Corporations that manufacture or market their products in China, Saudi Arabia, and other locations with deadly...

A lecturer at Goldsmiths University in London has defended female circumcision and child marriage as legitimate responses to colonialism and a product of women’s “agency,” in a shocking seminar that has been uploaded to Soundcloud by one of her students.

The Muslims told the Detroit Free-Press that they were concerned about the religious implications of Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church's "Eggstravaganza!" They were also "troubled" by images of a bunny rabbit. "It really bothered my two kids," parent Majed Moughni, told the newspaper. "My son was like, 'Dad, I really don't feel comfortable getting these flyers, telling me to go to church. I thought churches are not supposed to mix with schools.' "

A breakaway Pakistani faction of the militant Taliban group has claimed responsibility for an Easter Sunday bombing in a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 65 people. Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, told the Associated Press that a suicide bomber with the faction deliberately targeted the Christian community. The explosion took place near the children's rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park — which was crowded with Christians celebrating Easter — local police chief Haider Ashraf said. He said the explosion appeared to have been a suicide bombing, but investigations were ongoing.

In a recent survey, 60 percent of American Muslims said they faced discrimination in the past year because of their religion.

A breakaway faction of the militant Taliban group in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for an Easter Sunday bomb attack on a park in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 60 people, and wounded 300. Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, told the Associated Press Sunday that a suicide bomber with the faction deliberately targeted the Christian community. He warned that more attacks would follow. Senior police officer Haider Ashraf says the explosion took place close to the children's rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park, which was crowded with Christian families celebrating Easter.

A suicide bomber killed at least 65 people and injured more than 280 others, mostly women and children, at a public park in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, striking at the heart of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's political base of Punjab. The blast occurred in the parking area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, a few feet (metres) away from children's swings. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which occurred in a busy residential area during the Easter holiday weekend. Police said it was not clear whether the attack had deliberately targeted mainly Muslim Pakistan's small Christian...

Update — AP’s latest on casualty count: “A spokesman for the Punjab government says that a bomb attack on a park in the Pakistani city of Lahore has killed 60 people and injured 300.” An explosion in Lahore, Pakistan, has killed between 50-60 people, mostly women and children, and left hundreds injured as they celebrated Easter. Law enforcement said the explosion occurred near a large group of Christians celebrating Easter, according to the Associated Press: Senior police officer Haider Ashraf says the explosion took place close to the children’s rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park. He says the explosion appeared to have...

An explosion ripped through a crowded Pakistan park where Christians were celebrating Easter on Sunday, killing at least 60 people, officials told the Associated Press. About 300 people were injured when a bomb detonated in the parking area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in the eastern city of Lahore. A suicide bomber is suspected of being responsible for the blast, though authorities continue to investigate. The explosion reportedly occurred just outside the exit gate and near rides for children. "When the blast occurred, the flames were so high they reached above the trees and I saw bodies flying in the air," Hasan...

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called on Tuesday for a “European pact for freedom and security” following the attacks in Brussels claimed by the ISIS group that killed around 35 people. “Today they hit Belgium, but they also hit the capital of the European Union,” Renzi said in a speech, vowing that “it will take months, perhaps years, but we will beat them”. […] “Europe must go all the way this time. We must invest in a common security and defense structure,” he said, adding that the debate over defense integration has been raging since 1954, when a plan to...