Muslim pilgrims, donning face masks and moving in small groups after days in isolation, began arriving at Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Wednesday for the start of a historically unique and scaled-down hajj experience reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Russian court on Monday ordered an influential monk, who has denied the existence of the new coronavirus and urged his followers to ignore government lockdown orders, to pay a fine for fomenting enmity through his sermons.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed a decree converting Hagia Sophia, the former cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Istanbul, into a mosque.

Buddhist religious leaders joined Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Jain leaders in a joint statement issued on 24 June calling for the removal of religious imagery from nightclubs across the United States. Specifically, they are targeting clubs run by the California-based company Live Nation, which has locations in Anaheim, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, and New Orleans as part of its House of Blues network.

The Government has set out the precautions that churches need to take when they re-open for public worship from 4 July. 

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that because of the coronavirus only "very limited numbers" of people will be allowed to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage that traditionally draws around 2 million people from around the world.

A crowd of Buddhists gathered at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, on Saturday morning in support of demonstrations across the United States protesting police brutality and systemic racism toward the black community. The event was organized by a conglomeration of Buddhist monastics behind the banner “Buddhists for Black Lives Matter.”

German authorities arrested a 21-year-old man and launched a terrorism investigation after he threatened to carry out an attack targeting Muslims, prosecutors said on Monday.

The World Council of Churches says that its 11th assembly, originally planned for September 2021 in Karlsruhe, Germany, is postponed until 2022 due to the gravity and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christian charity CARE is calling on the Government to issue "specific" guidance to churches before they re-open as lockdown measures ease.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he expects Muslims living in Russia to follow the recommendations of clerics and observe self-isolation measures during the Eid al-Fitr holiday celebrations.

It may be 2021 before normal services are resumed across the Church of England, the Bishop of London has said.

As Buddhists around the world prepare to mark Vesak and commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. Millions of Buddhists, many living under lockdown or subject to strict social-distancing rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be marking the sacred day at home or connecting with their communites digtally, by joining online observances of Buddhism’s most auspicious holiday.

The International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), which aims to overcome suffering through the practice of Dharma and through developing a socially engaged form of Buddhism, is seeking to leverage its global reach with the launch of an emergency fund to bring much-needed relief to vulnerable and underprivileged communities during the global coronavirus crisis.

St. Petersburg, April 22, Interfax - A court in St. Petersburg has fined Artyom Skripkin 10,000 rubles after finding him guilty of staging a holy procession down the central Nevsky Avenue.