Sikhs should be allowed to carry ceremonial knives in schools and other public places, says Britain’s first Asian judge. But can religion ever justify loopholes in the law?

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Every bit of Christian teaching can be summed up in three words: God is love. That is the simple truth that teaches tolerance of same-sex unions.

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A secular campaign group has lodged a formal complaint against Cherie Blair for allegedly sparing a violent criminal from jail because he believed in God. The wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, and a current judge who sits under the name Cherie Booth QC, said that she would suspend Shamso Miah’s prison sentence because he was a “religious man.”

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Atheist convention in Melbourne forced to smaller venues because of lack of government support.

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Football star Tim Tebow stars in a Superbowl ad that will tell us that doctors recommended his mom to abort him but she didn’t.  Slate discusses why this ad is misleading and potentially dangerous.

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A female suicide bomber attacked a column of Shiite pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad on Monday, killing 41 people and wounding 100.

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This in-depth article tells the story of the transformation of Omar Hammami from a very Americanized child growing up in Alabama into a radical jihadist in Somalia.

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Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have said they will donate $10bn (£6.2bn) over the next 10 years to develop and deliver new vaccines.

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Dutch-Somali writer and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out against Islam at a book fair in India.

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In the latest incident reflecting rising tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia, pig heads were thrown onto the grounds of a mosque.  Until recently, Malaysia has been one of the more moderate Islamic nations, with largely peaceful interfaith relations.

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N.Y. Times columnist attacks Richard Dawkins for saying that Pat Robertson’s views on Haiti represent orthodox Christianity.

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There is a slow realization of the need for non-religious “chaplains”.

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In a New York Times Op-Ed, author James Wood discusses theodicy in the context of the Haitian earthquake.

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Focus on the Family, a Christian organization, will run a commercial during the Super Bowl, even though networks have often rejected potentially controversial Super Bowl ads in the past, such as an ad from PETA in 2009 and an ad from Moveon.org in 2004.

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Controversy over the firing of an aggressively proselytizing Christian science teacher in Ohio.

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Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the U.S. military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found. Biblical citations inscribed on U.S. military weapons is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament that reads “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

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A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders have issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. Shaikh Ould Zain, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, says the scholars believe cutting young girls’ genitals to limit their sexual activity as women is against religious beliefs. He said the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.

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Authorities in Kyrgyzstan keep a tight grip on religion, fearing both Christian and Muslim fundamentalism. Bolot, a young evangelical preacher in Kyrgyzstan, says he already been arrested twice this year after setting up a new church. He says he is the victim of a new law on religion, which critics say severely restricts religious freedoms and is forcing some groups underground. Under the law, new religious groups have to have at least 200 members before they can register with the authorities and operate legally - previously the figure was 10.

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You may remember the story of Nadia Eweida, the British Airways check-in worker who was banned from wearing a small cross on a chain. This modest manifestation of her faith was as important to her as a turban or hijab to other workers. Yet the airline accommodated these other items without, perhaps, embracing the underlying values that would have protected Ms Eweida and anyone else from the blundering assertion that “rules is rules is rules”. After a public outcry that included secular, religious and political voices from across the spectrum, the airline modified its uniform policy. But not before Ms Eweida had been off work for months without pay, and crucially, without accepting the ethical and legal principle that would protect her and others of all faiths and none in the future. Worse still, BA instructed an international law firm strenuously to resist her claim of religious discrimination.

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Richard Dawkins is spearheading a fundraising drive for Haiti.

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