(WNS)–Two months after the Obama administration called out militant terror group Islamic State (ISIS) for committing genocide against Christians in Iraq and Syria, refugee data show those finding a safe haven in the United States are not the ones suffering the most persecution. Last year, President Barack Obama set the goal of bringing 10,000 Syrian refugees to the United States in fiscal year 2016. So far, the State Department is on track to fall well short of that number, with only about 2,700 successfully resettled. State Department figures show 499 Syrian refugees have resettled in America this month, but not […]

(WNS)–Due to mounting abuses of religious minorities, especially by ISIS, the European Commission created a new position to promote freedom of religion. The move by the executive body of the European Union comes on the heels of Canada’s decision to defund and close its Office of Religious Freedom at the end of March. The United States continues to monitor religious freedom violations through its Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which was created by an act of Congress in 1998 to monitor international violations and make policy recommendations. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed Ján Figel’ as the first special […]

(WNS)–The House of Representatives passed legislation April 26 to snuff out the Islamic State’s (ISIS) black market of pillaged cultural antiquities. “The looting of antiquities is big business for ISIS,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “And unfortunately, buyers in the United States appear to be a primary end-destination for many of these pieces.” Since taking footholds in Syria and Iraq, along with countless acts of violence, ISIS has ransacked ancient sites and destroyed valuable cultural artifacts. ISIS seeks to remove all traces of the region’s rich and diverse religious and cultural past. […]

(WNS)–In what could be the nation’s first religious litmus test for holding a judicial post, the Wyoming Supreme Court is being asked to dismiss a small-town municipal court judge because of her biblical views about marriage. Attorneys for Judge Ruth Neely, along with a growing list of supporters, argue the efforts of an unelected state commission to remove her from office are rooted in religious bias and misinterpretation of the law. In 2014, a judge overturned Wyoming’s marriage statute, allowing same-sex couples to get marriage licenses. A reporter asked Neely, the Pinedale municipal court judge and a part-time circuit court […]

(WNS)–Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on May 20 vetoed a bill that would have criminalized abortion in the state, saying the proposed law was too vague and wouldn’t survive an inevitable test in court. The Oklahoma Senate passed the measure to make performing abortion “unprofessional conduct” and a felony. Any physician convicted of assisting in an abortion would face one to three years in prison and the revocation of his or her medical license. The bill included an exception to allow an abortion to save the mother’s life. “The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain […]