RELIGION

Islamic leaders in India are trying to prevent author Salman Rushdie from entering the country for a literature festival.

A mosque and an Islamic school were set on fire in Benin City, Nigeria this week. Christians and Muslims -- traditionally at odds in Nigeria -- are increasingly antagonistic and these retaliatory attacks are a bad sign of what could be to come.

The Christian presence in Egypt stretches as far back to the earliest days of Christendom.

A video that describes GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul helping an interracial couple in Texas in 1972 went viral following its release on YouTube on Dec. 28. The video, titled The Compassion of Dr. Ron Paul, highlighted the Texas congressman and medical doctor's personal generosity and support of free market health care.

The outspoken comedian has been mum on Twitter.

Some Conservative Muslim groups are calling for a boycott of Sawiris' many companies.

Nigeria is in the midst of a general strike and nationwide protests against the government, which removed a fuel subsidy at the start of the year. Is there a movement and is it growing in strength?

The split goes all the way back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the year 632 and it had to do with succession.

Most of the Republican presidential candidates laid out their credentials as social conservatives in a debate on Saturday as the 2012 campaign prepares to move from New Hampshire to South Carolina. With another debate to be hosted by NBC's Meet the Press, they can do it all over again on Sunday.

We cannot sustain unsustainable schools,” Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said at a press conference.

How does Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber flaunt his new tattoo? Well... by going to the beach and having fun. Bieber was seen at a beach in Los Angeles on Friday, with his father, a friend and a new tattoo... that of Jesus Christ!

If Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, he'll not only be the first Mormon to do so: he'll also be the first presidential candidate whose father was born in Mexico. Much of his family still lives across the border in Colonia Dublan, where Romney's grandfather fled to avoid being prosecuted for polygamy. Romney's relatives down south hope that as the election continues, he will embrace both his Mormonism and his Mexican background more openly.

For those of you who have never heard of a Bark Mitzvah for dogs, word on the street is that it's not the latest trend, but a quite a long-existing tradition to celebrate the coming of age of a dog. The fad has gained steam again after The Associated Press released new footage of a New Jersey dog named Nicky, photographed wearing a kippah for a ceremony attended by his owner and friends.

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese Ronhingya are currently living in neighboring Bangladesh, where they are unwanted refugees

Friday was the holiday of Epiphany in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Gunmen opened fire on a church service in Nigeria Thursday, killing six people and wounding 10, the church's pastor said, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous nation.

A group of file-sharers in Sweden has managed to get the government to recognize it as a religious community.

It could be that the act of writing down values and beliefs is the next big fat-buster, as part of a mental diet strategy.

A sect of self-proclaimed digital pirates, which believes information is holy and copying is a sacrament, has been recognized as an official religion in Sweden.

The well-known conservative Christian family who star on the popular 19 Kids and Counting traveled to Iowa to lend their support to Santorum in the days before the caucuses.

Debbie Cook, a well-known scientologist and a former executive of the Church of Scientology, shocked the world when she blasted the church's leader for fraudulent fundraising practices in an email which has gone public and sparked controversy internally within the Church.