Spiritual briefing

California

Three US Muslims sue over questioning

LOS ANGELES — Three Muslim Americans filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that U.S. border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel. The three men sued Department of Homeland Security officials in a federal court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed in California because some of the questioning allegedly occurred at Los Angeles International Airport. In the lawsuit, the men claimed that U.S. border officers at land crossings and international airports peppered them with questions about whether they were Muslim and attended a mosque and how often they prayed.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the men, said the questioning violated the men’s constitutional rights to freedom of religion and protection against unequal treatment. “Just as border officers may not single out Christian Americans to ask what denomination they are, which church they attend, and how regularly they pray, singling out Muslim Americans for similar questions is unconstitutional,” said the lawsuit.

North Carolina

University reconsidering name

RALEIGH — A small private college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina is considering a name change amid scrutiny of its namesake’s history as a slaveholder. William Peace University President Brian Ralph told WRAL-TV Tuesday that the school will hold a series of “listening sessions” with faculty, staff, students, alumni and others on whether to rename the school, among other questions.

Ralph’s remarks came as the university released findings from a task force that reviewed the school’s historical ties to slavery and white supremacy.

Iraq

Rights group denounces LGBT violence

BAGHDAD — A transgender woman said several men beat her up, threw her in a garbage bin, cut her and set her alight before she was rescued. A gay man said his boyfriend was killed before his eyes. A lesbian woman was stabbed in the leg and said she was warned to stop her “immoral behavior.” The accounts are part of a report by Human Rights Watch that accuses armed groups in Iraq of abducting, raping, torturing, and killing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with impunity. The Iraqi government, it says, has failed to hold perpetrators accountable.

Released Wednesday, a report by the Iraqi LGBT rights group IraQueer also accuses Iraqi police and security forces of being often complicit in compounding anti-LGBT violence and of arresting individuals “due to non-conforming appearance.”

China

US expands travel bans for officials

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday expanded existing U.S. travel bans against Chinese officials whom it accuses of repressing ethnic and religious minorities. The State Department said it is barring those targeted from traveling to the U.S. due to their involvement in crackdowns on freedom of speech and religion in China and abroad. Officials did not identify which officials would be subject to the expanded ban nor say how many would be affected.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are being applied to Chinese officials who “are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, policies or actions aimed at repressing religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers and peaceful protesters in China and beyond.”