RFYN Madurai meets US Chapter tour

18th May 2012 Madurai, India   An encounter of the young adults of RFYN from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, with a group of graduate students from the University of South Carolina, led by Prof. Hal French, chair of the US Chapter.   Report: US Chapter student tour meets RFYN Madurai (PDF illustrated, 4 pages)            

Moderate Muslim or reformist Muslim?

  Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam Today and Allah, Liberty and Love claims that moderate Muslims are afraid of breaking out of religious orthodoxy and explains why she’s calling for a reformation within Islam.   Video, 12 March 2012      

Bektashi Order of Macedonia welcomed into membership

The IARF has recently welcomed the Bektashi Order of Macedonia as a new member group. It is a branch  of the Bektashi Order of Dervishes which has members in 31 countries, with headquarters originally in Turkey, now established in Albania. It is Alevite in character. The order has its origin in the teachings and life […]

IARF Training Workshop on UN Human Rights Mechanisms

 26-27 May 2012  Geneva, Switzerland In response to specific requests during the last 19th Session of the Human Rights Council in March 2012, from grassroots NGO representatives and human rights defenders, IARF in collaboration with the David M. Kennedy Centre for International Studies is organizing an international training workshop on the UN Human Rights Mechanisms – focus on the […]

London Conference on plight of Sabian Mandaeans of Iraq

26th April 2012House of Lords, London IARF was contacted on 20 March 2012 by Dr Layla Alroomi, the spokesperson of the Mandaean Human Rights Group (MHRG), with a request to attend a conference regarding: The plight of the Sabian Mandaeans of Iraq as a Religious, Ethnic and Linguistic minority …getting more serious. Since 2003 this small […]

Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights

    Case studies of seven countries—Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Poland—where such laws exist both on paper and in practice. 

The politics of religious freedom

  …what is religious freedom, and why are we talking about it now?    From The Immanent Frame blog (“interdisciplinary perspectives on secularism, religion, and the public sphere”), recent academic articles on the subject.    

EME 2012 conference – forms

  EME region conference 2012 – Trifold flyer   (PDF, 2 pages) EME region conference 2012 – Updated Programme Information (4 July) (PDF, 2 pages) EME region conference 2012 – Registration Form (PDF, 1 page)