World Religions News

(RNS) — This week’s photo gallery includes ICE's latest detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and more.

The post Photos of the Week: ICE demonstrations and more appeared first on RNS.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Intense rains have left at least 34 people dead after lashing parts of Pakistan and India and triggering flash floods and landslides in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Wednesday. Over 200,000 people in Pakistan have been displaced, and the shrine of the founder of the Sikh religion has been submerged.

Forecasters say rain will continue across the region this week. Heavy downpours and flash floods in the Himalayan region have killed nearly 100 people in August.

Part of a mountainside in Indian-controlled Kashmir’s Jammu region collapsed onto a popular Hindu pilgrimage route following heavy rains in the Katra area late Tuesday. Devotees had been trekking to reach the hilltop temple, which is one of the most visited shrines in northern India, officials said.

The bodies of most of the pilgrimage victims were recovered from under the debris, according to disaster management official Mohammed Irshad, who said at least 18 other people were injured and transported to hospitals.

Rescue teams scoured the area Wednesday for missing people, and the pilgrimage to the shrine has been suspended, Irshad said.

Authorities in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Wednesday called for army assistance in rescue and relief efforts after torrential rains caused major rivers to swell, inundating villages and displacing over 200,000 people, according to Lt. Gen. Inam Haider, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.

Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif said two soldiers were killed while helping flood victims. He gave no further details.

Floods also submerged the shrine of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, which is located near the Indian border in Narowal district.

Rescuers evacuated more than 20,000 people overnight from the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, which faced the risk of flooding. Those evacuated were living along the bed of the Ravi river, said Irfan Ali Kathia, director-general of the Punjab Disaster Management Authority.

Mass evacuations began earlier this week in six districts of Punjab after heavier-than-normal monsoon rains and the release of water from overflowing dams in neighboring India triggered flash floods in low-lying border regions, Kathia said.

Kathia warned floodwaters in the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers were rising dangerously and many villages were inundated in Kasur, Okara, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Vehari and Sialkot districts.

India alerted Pakistan about possible cross-border flooding through diplomatic channels rather than the Indus Waters Commission, the permanent mechanism under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. New Delhi suspended the commission’s work after the April killing of 26 tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, though Pakistan insists India cannot unilaterally scrap the treaty.

Rescuers with sniffer dogs continue to search for more than 150 people who have been reported missing this month after flooding killed over 300 residents in three villages in Pakistan’s northwestern Buner district.

Floods have killed more than 800 people in Pakistan since late June.

Scientists say climate change is fueling heavier monsoon rains in South Asia, raising fears of a repeat of a 2022 weather disaster that struck a third of Pakistan and killed 1,739 people.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Saaliq reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writer Babar Dogar contributed from Lahore, Pakistan.

Parents await news of their children after a reported mass shooting at Annunciation Church on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in Minneapolis. / Credit: Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP

CNA Staff, Aug 27, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).

Authorities and media reports on Wednesday morning said a mass shooting had taken place at a Catholic parish and school in Minneapolis, one that police were reportedly treating as a “mass casualty” incident.

The local crime watch outlet Minnesota Crime said on Wednesday morning that police reported 20 victims of an “active shooter” at the site of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, with emergency responders having initiated a “mass casualty response.” Annunciation Catholic School is located next to the parish.

Follow here for live updates.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” ~Mark Twain

Let me set the scene.

It’s a blistering summer day in Miami—the kind where the humidity hugs you tighter than your ex at a high school reunion, and the air feels like you’re swimming through warm soup. Not exactly the kind of weather that makes you want to move, let alone sweat through a surprise death-match workout on Muscle Beach.

But there I was.

The trainer—clearly a drill sergeant in a past life—barks out: “One more …

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Two men in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were among a group of people publicly caned on Tuesday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them of violating Islamic law by hugging and kissing, which the court ruled can lead to banned sexual relations.

An audience of about 100 people witnessed the caning on a stage in Bustanussalatin city park in Banda Aceh on Tuesday. The men, aged 20 and 21, were whipped across their backs with a rattan cane dozens of times by a group of people wearing robes and hoods.

Aceh allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex and sex between unmarried people. Caning is also a punishment in Aceh for gambling, drinking alcohol, women who wear tight clothes and men who do not attend Friday prayers.

The court in Aceh sentenced the men to 80 strikes each after Islamic religious police said they caught them engaged in what the court deemed were the sexual acts of hugging and kissing in a bathroom of a public park, court records said.

Eight other people were publicly caned Tuesday for adultery and gambling.

The men were arrested in April at Taman Sari city park in Banda Aceh after residents told a police patrol they saw the men enter the same park bathroom. The police found the men inside kissing and hugging. Prior to meeting in the park, the pair made contact through an online dating app, court records said.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law. There have been four previous canings for cases related to homosexuality since the province implemented Islamic law and established a religious police and court system in 2006. The change was a concession by the national government to end a long-running separatist uprising.

Indonesia’s national criminal code does not regulate homosexuality but the central government cannot strike down Shariah law in Aceh. However, the central government previously pressured Aceh officials to drop an earlier version of a law calling for people to be stoned to death for adultery.

Aceh expanded its Islamic bylaws and criminal code in 2015, extending Shariah law to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province’s population.

Two other men were publicly caned in February at the same Aceh park after a Shariah court convicted them of having sex.

A coalition of human rights groups filed a petition to Indonesia’s Supreme Court in 2016 seeking a review of Aceh’s regional regulations allowing caning, but the request was rejected. Indonesia’s Ministry of Home Affairs issued a letter in 2016 to Aceh’s governor about caning, noting regional laws in Indonesia should be enforced for minor crimes.

Canning is a corporal punishment and Indonesia has ratified a convention mandating the abolition of inhumane punishments, said Maidina Rahmawati, acting executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform in Indonesia.

“That public caning, even the act of caning itself, is contrary to various laws and regulations and also contrary to human rights interests in Indonesia because its exposure is not good for Indonesia,” Rahmawati said.

Shifting political dynamics played a role in the implementation of the policy, Rahmawati said.

“Because it seemed like this was the right thing to do, it had to be done, it had to be narrated to support the Sharia-based government in Aceh,” Rahmawati said.

Amnesty International issued a statement Tuesday calling the caning of the two men “a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty.”

“This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh. Intimate relationships between consenting adults should never be criminalized,” Amnesty’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer said in the statement.

Aulia Saputra, a Banda Aceh resident who attended the caning, said the punishment may prevent other violations of Shariah law.

“I hope that with the implementation of this caning punishment, it can serve as a lesson for the offender and also create a deterrent effect, so that such incidents do not happen again in the future,” Saputra said.

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Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has grown into a powerful force within the country’s theocracy, answering only to its supreme leader and overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal and missions overseas.

The force was in the spotlight Tuesday when Australia accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic attacks in the country. The allegation recalls earlier attacks and attempted assaults linked back to the Guard’s Quds Force, its expeditionary arm. “Quds” is a word in both Arabic and Farsi for Jerusalem and reflects one of the force’s key missions: confronting Israel.

Here’s more to know about the Guard.

Born out of a revolution

The Guard was born from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect its Shiite cleric-overseen government and later enshrined in its constitution. It operated parallel to the country’s regular armed forces, growing in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s. Though facing possible disbandment after the war, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing it to thrive.

Foreign operations key for the Guard

The Guard’s Quds Force was key in creating what Iran describes as its “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the United States. It backed Syria’s former President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and other groups in the region, growing in power in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

U.S. officials say the Guard taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use especially deadly roadside bombs against U.S. troops there. The Quds Force, as well as Iranian intelligence agencies, are believed to have hired criminal gangs and others to target dissidents and Iran’s perceived enemies abroad.

Since the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has arrested citizens it has accused of receiving orders from Iran to surveil targets or conduct vandalism. Iran has denied being involved in those plots. The Guard is also believe to be heavily involved in smuggling throughuot the Mideast.

Guard’s intelligence arm tied to arrests of foreigners

The Guard also operates its own intelligence services and has been behind a series of arrests and convictions of dual nationals and those with Western ties on espionage charges in closed hearings. Western nations and others described Iran as using those prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations, particularly over its nuclear program.

After making its announcement about Iran, Australia warned its citizens in Iran to immediately leave if they were able, noting they closed their embassy and that “foreigners in Iran, including Australians and dual Australian-Iranian nationals, are at a high risk of arbitrary detention or arrest.”

Guard under new pressure after 12-day war with Israel

The Guard’s carefully laid “Axis of Resistance” has faced its greatest challenge in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Hamas was one of the groups backed by Iran. Israel launched a war against the group in the Gaza Strip which rages on today. Meanwhile, Israel began targeting other Iranian-backed groups, decimating Hezbollah and repeatedly targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

In Syria, Assad’s government fell in December, taking away a key ally for Tehran and the Guard. Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire, something overseen by the Guard.

But in June, Israel launched a massive airstrike campaign targeting Iran. In its first day, those strikes killed top generals in the Guard, throwing the force into disarray. Israeli attacks also destroyed ballistic missile sites and launchers, as well as Guard-manned air defense systems.

(The Conversation) — Small local organizations called Active Clubs have spread widely across the U.S. and internationally, using fitness as a cover for a much more alarming mission. These groups are a new and harder-to-detect form of white supremacist organizing that merges extremist ideology with fitness and combat sports culture.

Active Clubs frame themselves as innocuous workout groups on digital platforms and decentralized networks to recruit, radicalize and prepare members for racist violence. The clubs commonly use encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram, Wire and Matrix to coordinate internally.

For broader propaganda and outreach they rely on alternative social media platforms such as Gab, Odysee, VK and sometimes BitChute. They also selectively use mainstream sites such as Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok, until those sites ban the clubs.

Active Club members have been implicated in orchestrating and distributing neo-Nazi recruitment videos and manifestos. In late 2023, for instance, two Ontario men, Kristoffer Nippak and Matthew Althorpe, were arrested and charged with distributing materials for the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division and the transnational terrorist group Terrorgram.

Following their arrests, Active Club Canada’s public network went dark, Telegram pages were deleted or rebranded, and the club went virtually silent. Nippak was granted bail under strict conditions, while Althorpe remains in custody.

As a sociologist studying extremism and white supremacy since 1993, I have watched the movement shift from formal organizations to small, decentralized cells – a change embodied most clearly by Active Clubs.

White nationalism 3.0

According to private analysts who track far-right extremist activities, the Active Club network has a core membership of 400 to 1,200 white men globally, plus sympathizers, online supporters and passive members. The clubs mainly target young white men in their late teens and twenties.

Since 2020, Active Clubs have expanded rapidly across the United States, Canada and Europe, including the U.K., France, Sweden and Finland. Precise numbers are hard to verify, but the clubs appear to be spreading, according to The Counter Extremism Project, the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and my own research.

The clubs reportedly operate in at least 25 U.S. states, and potentially as many as 34. Active U.S. chapters reportedly increased from 49 in 2023 to 78 in 2025.

The clubs’ rise reflects a broader shift in white supremacist strategy, away from formal organizations and social movements. In 2020, American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo introduced the concept of “White Nationalism 3.0” – a decentralized, branded and fitness-based approach to extremist organizing.

Rundo previously founded the Rise Above Movement, which was a violent, far-right extremist group in the U.S. known for promoting white nationalist ideology, organizing street fights and coordinating through social media. The organization carried out attacks at protests and rallies from 2016 through 2018.

Active Clubs embed their ideology within apolitical activities such as martial arts and weightlifting. This model allows them to blend in with mainstream fitness communities. However, their deeper purpose is to prepare members for racial conflict.

‘You need to learn how to fight’

Active Club messaging glorifies discipline, masculinity and strength – a “warrior identity” designed to attract young men.

“The active club is not so much a structural organization as it is a lifestyle for those willing to work, risk and sweat to embody our ideals for themselves and to promote them to others,” Rundo explained via his Telegram channel.

“They never were like, ‘You need to learn how to fight so you can beat up people of color.’ It was like, ‘You need to learn how to fight because people want to kill you in the future,’” a former Active Club member told Vice News in 2023.

These cells are deliberately small – often under a dozen members – and self-contained, which gives them greater operational security and flexibility. Each club operates semi-autonomously while remaining connected to the broader ideology and digital network.

Expanding globally and deepening ties

Active Clubs maintain strategic and ideological connections with formal white supremacist groups, including Patriot Front, a white nationalist and neofascist group founded in 2017 by Thomas Rousseau after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Active Clubs share extremist beliefs with these organizations, including racial hierarchy and the “Great Replacement” theory, which claims white populations are being deliberately replaced by nonwhite immigrants. While publicly presenting as fitness groups, they may collaborate with white supremacist groups on recruitment, training, propaganda or public events.

Figures connected to accelerationist groups – organizations that seek to create social chaos and societal collapse that they believe will lead to a race war and the destruction of liberal democracy – played a role in founding the Active Club network. Along with the Rise Above Movement, they include Atomwaffen Division and another neo-Nazi group, The Base – organizations that repackage violent fascism to appeal to disaffected young white men in the U.S.

Brotherhood as a cover

By downplaying explicit hate symbols and emphasizing strength and preparedness, Active Clubs appeal to a new generation of recruits who may not initially identify with overt racism but are drawn to a culture of hypermasculinity and self-improvement.

Anyone can start a local Active Club chapter with minimal oversight. This autonomy makes it hard for law enforcement agencies to monitor the groups and helps the network grow rapidly.

Shared branding and digital propaganda maintain ideological consistency. Through this approach, Active Clubs have built a transnational network of echo chambers, recruitment pipelines and paramilitary-style training in parks and gyms.

Club members engage in activities such as combat sports training, propaganda dissemination and ideological conditioning. Fight sessions are often recorded and shared online as recruitment tools.

Members distribute flyers, stickers and online content to spread white supremacist messages. Active Clubs embed themselves in local communities by hosting events, promoting physical fitness, staging public actions and sharing propaganda.

Potential members first see propaganda on encrypted apps such as Telegram or on social media. The clubs recruit in person at gyms, protests and local events, vetting new members to ensure they share the group’s beliefs and can be trusted to maintain secrecy.

From fringe to functioning network

Based on current information from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, there are 187 active chapters within the Active Club Network across 27 countries – a 25% increase from late 2023. The Crowd Counting Consortium documented 27 protest events involving Active Clubs in 2022-2023.

However, precise membership numbers remain difficult to ascertain. Some groups call themselves “youth clubs” but share similar ideas and aesthetics and engage in similar activities.

Active Club members view themselves as defenders of Western civilization and masculine virtue. From their perspective, their activities represent noble resistance rather than hate. Members are encouraged to stay secretive, prepare for societal collapse and build a network of committed, fit men ready to act through infiltration, activism or violence.

Hiding in plain sight

Law enforcement agencies, researchers and civil society now face a new kind of domestic threat that wears workout clothes instead of uniforms.

Active Clubs work across international borders, bound by shared ideas and tactics and a common purpose. This is the new white nationalism: decentralized, modernized, more agile and disguised as self-improvement. What appears to be a harmless workout group may be a gateway to violent extremism, one pushup at a time.

(Art Jipson, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Dayton. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)