IARF News Digest

Connecticut has enacted legislation tasking its Department of Education with creating optional curriculum resources on Arab and Islamic studies for public schools. Supporters see it as a key step to counter anti-Muslim bias, while critics raise constitutional concerns regarding religious endorsement.

Three Houston-area mothers filed a lawsuit using the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act and parental rights provisions to challenge a state law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

A report by the Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist Christian Unity Council details widespread communal violence, harassment, and property seizures targeting religious minorities during the first half of 2026, prompting calls for a Minority Protection Act.

A joint statement signed by 115 European parliamentarians urges the Egyptian government to end discrimination against Baháʼís and other religious minorities, calling for equal civil rights, marriage registration, and burial rights.

Progressive religious organizations in the US are using religious freedom laws to defend civil liberties, including abortion access, migrant protections, Indigenous land preservation, and harm reduction initiatives.

A van driver rammed into a crowd celebrating Berlin Pride, killing one person and injuring 16 others. German police are currently searching for a 21-year-old suspect connected to Islamist circles.

President Donald Trump signed proclamations cutting Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly 90%, opening sacred Indigenous ancestral lands to mining despite a history of federal acknowledgment of their cultural significance.

This four-part Cardus audio documentary examines Quebec’s Bill 21, which restricts religious symbols worn by public servants in positions of authority. It traces Quebec’s transition from Catholic Church dominance to state secularism, the political controversies that led to Bill 21, and the debate over pluralism, neutrality, religious freedom, and identity. The series presents competing perspectives without explicitly taking a side and places the issue in the context of an expected Supreme Court of Canada ruling on Bill 21 and the notwithstanding clause.