IRFN: Junta Closes Another Monastery in Burma

glasses off:

1. Belgium: Ghent City Employees Banned from Wearing Religious Symbols (Nov. 27)

Ghent, Belgium
Flandersnews.be reports that the city of Ghent, by a vote of 26 to 23, has decided to forbid city employees from wearing ‘religious or political’ symbols, including headscarves. The ban will apply to all city personnel that comes into contact with the public on their jobs, such as childcare workers, though it would not affect teachers and police officers. The decision is the second of its kind for Belgium; the city of Antwerp instituted a similar ban earlier this year.

2. UN: Angolan Muslims, Minorities Threatened (Nov. 28)
3. Russia: Community’s Request for Land Stalled Indefinitely (Nov. 29)
4. Myanmar: Junta Closes Another Monastery (Nov. 30)

Yangon, Myanmar
Asianews reports that Burmese authorities continue to punish the country’s Buddhist monks for their participation or perceived support of September’s protests against the junta. The Burmese government recently shut down the Maggin monastery in Thingangyun, near Yangon. The monastery, well-known for receiving AIDS patients, had already been raided four times in September, when some of the monks were jailed. The remaining monks and novices found refuge at a nearby pagoda, and the patients were transferred to a hospital in a neighboring town.

5. Uzbekistan: Baptist Receives Two Years of Correctional Labor (Nov. 30)
6. Iran: Tehran Police Crack Down on Winter Clothing (Dec. 1)

Tehran, Iran
Reuters reports that Tehran’s police will once again monitor women in the city to ensure that their outfits are in line with “Islamic codes”, according to Tehran’s chief of police, Ahmad Reza Radan. Until recently, dress codes were only enforced during the summer, when the weather became warm, but now police aim to clamp down on offenders who wear “tight trousers tucked inside long boots” or “a hat or cap instead of [head]scarves”.Offenders may be warned, or taken into a police station and fined.

Features: Turkey: what are the causes of intolerance and violence? By Güzide Ceyhan, Forum 18

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International Religious Freedom Archive from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty