RELIGION HEADLINES SAT 7/19/25 

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(SRN NEWS)  The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.  The ICC accuses the Taliban of having “severely deprived females of the rights to education, privacy, expression, thought, conscience and religion.”  Since returning to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures on the population, including the country’s small Christian minority.  Persecution has increased, and many believers have had to flee the country. 

(  )  A judge has rejected a challenge to Michigan’s longtime ban on taxpayer-funded abortions for low-income residents, saying a group that brought the lawsuit had no standing to file it.  In 2022 Michigan voters approved an amendment that enshrined abortion in the state constitution.  But the ban on most taxpayer-funded abortions has been in place for decades, no matter which political party has controlled the legislature or the governor’s office.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of YWCA Kalamazoo, which pays for abortions sought by women in southwestern Michigan.  The judge says the Y  was the wrong party to bring a challenge. 

(  )  The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging the Trump administration to deal cautiously with the new regime in Syria.  The Commission is unsure about the Damascus government’s commitment to freedom of conscience and the safety of Syria’s small Christian minority.  Under strong-man Bashar Assad, Syrian Christians were generally allowed to practice their faith in peace, but the civil war that led to his ouster has seen a surge in persecution of believers.  The latest outrage came in June when someone bombed the Mar Elias church outside Damascus killing more than 20 people.  The new government blames ISIS. 

(  )  A disturbing new study from the Anti-Defamation League finds that 25 percent of Americans believe the recent surge in attacks on Jews in this country “is understandable”.  Anti-Semitism spiked around the world after the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the U.S. has not been immune.  Almost 40 percent of respondents also say that attacks on Jews would stop if Israel were to halt its efforts to remove Hamas from the Gaza Strip.  On a more positive note, the ADL poll also finds that 60 percent of Americans believe that anti-Semitism is a serious problem and 75 percent say the government needs to do something about it.