Weekly religion news roundup (February 20-26, 2026)
Photograph by Utsav Srestha via Unsplash
Hannah Estifanos
US ambassador’s Israel comments condemned by Arab and Muslim nations. Arab and Muslim governments have condemned remarks made by the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel would be justified in taking over a vast stretch of the Middle East on Biblical grounds. (BBC News)
Minnesota faith groups sue DHS over access to immigrant detainees. It’s at least the second lawsuit challenging the federal government’s policy of barring faith leaders from accessing some DHS facilities. (Religion News Service)
In Italy, the bones of St. Francis are going on public display, a mixed blessing for Assisi. The bones of St. Francis of Assisi, the San Francisco namesake and medieval friar who inspired Pope Francis and generations of Christians before him, are going on public display for the first time, giving his hilltop Umbrian hometown yet another reason to welcome pilgrims. (Los Angeles Times)
For years the Taliban told women to cover up in public. Now they’re cracking down. In stop-start efforts since November, Taliban officials have cracked down on women and girls in the western city of Herat who have been ignoring the hardline group's rules by showing their faces. Enforcement agents are preventing them from entering hospitals and seminaries and pulling them out of public transport. (NPR News)
Displaced Sudanese women caught up in war suffer wretched Ramadan. In Al-Sarraf camp, families who fled el-Fasher lack food, medicine and even cooking utensils, during the holy month. (Al Jazeera)
50 Cent’s ‘Moses the Black’ brings 4th-century saint into mainstream culture. Producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s “Moses the Black” acknowledges both humanity’s propensity toward violence and the transformative power of faith. (National Catholic Reporter)
Each week in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.
Justice Department lawsuit says UCLA failed to protect Jewish employees from hostility. The Justice Department is suing the University of California over allegations that UCLA failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that roiled the campus in 2023 and 2024. (Associated Press)
Breakaway Catholic group rejects Vatican talks, indicating collision course for pope. A breakaway Catholic traditionalist group rejected the Vatican’s offer of talks, suggesting a collision course with Pope Leo XIV over its planned consecrations of new bishops without his consent. (Associated Press)
Proctor Conference marks leadership transition. Tears flowed and applause resounded as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, a national network serving pastors, lay leaders and the next generation of those working for social justice out of the Black Church tradition, marked its first-ever leadership transition at the annual gathering in Chicago Feb. 23. (Baptist News Global)
From Diwali parties to daily puja: Hindu campus houses push for deeper faith practice. The Vivekananda House, a Hindu student center across eight U.S. college campuses, is contributing, says students, to ‘a major push in how Hindus are represented on campus.’ (Religion News Service)
Four Years into the War, Life Goes on for Ukrainians. Even as Moscow weaponizes winter, locals attend church conferences, go sledding, and plan celebrations. (Christianity Today)
Hannah Estifanos is the copyeditor of The Christian Citizen.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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