Secretary Kerry acknowledged in his remarks on religion and diplomacy [...] "Religion today remains deeply consequential, affecting the values, the actions, the choices, the worldview of people in every walk of life on every continent."  The Secretary's words speak to the State Department’s recognition of a growing need to assess religious dynamics in world affairs and engage religious actors across a wide range of foreign policies.

n sync with PM Narendra Modi government’s religion diplomacy, which plays a pivotal role in its foreign policy, India has offered help to Vietnam to restore a Hindu temple in the country belonging to the Champ civilisation. The diplomacy comes at a time when Modi is visiting Vietnam capital Hanoi. The Myson temple has a striking resemblance to Indian temples built during the same period.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday the Greek government will start constructing a mosque and a Muslim cemetery for the Muslim minorities in the city. Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Tsipras touched on refugee flows and the Greek government's efforts to improve the fundamental rights of minority groups living in Greece. Tsipras's promise concerns 200,000 Muslims living in Athens, while Athens is known as the only capital without a mosque in Europe.

Christians and Muslims lived together for decades in Bambari, and throughout the Central African Republic. [...] “The radio hopes to be a kind of bridge over the river that could help people to be reconciled,” said Mathias Manirakiza, the Central African Republic director for Internews, the international media development nonprofit that helped the community establish the radio station.

Why, then, did the tsar’s forces weaken their own diplomatic case by taking away hundreds of Russian monastics? The best guess is that the entire monastic peninsula was on the verge of veering out of control because of the theological dispute which had been gathering pace for several years...

The deceit of history consists in making us believe we live in the present; when in reality, history is all there is, and everything is but mere repetition. [...] Pope Francis, in delivering a message of hope, invoked the founding fathers of the European project, and exhorted European political leaders to follow their footsteps and that “Today more than ever, their vision inspires us to build bridges and tear down walls.”

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Saturday said that the reopened historic Ferhadija Mosque sends a message of peace to all people in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well all citizens of the world. Davutoğlu made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the renovated 16th century Ferhadija Mosque in the country's second-largest city, Banja Luka. The mosque is considered a cultural symbol of the country but suffered extensive damage by dynamite in May 1993 during the Bosnian War.