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This study critically examines India’s secularism through an interdisciplinary analytical framework that explores the complex intersections of religious dynamics, legal structures, and political contestations. Sites of worship, functioning as sacred spaces, legal entities, and political symbols, have become focal points for multifaceted power dynamics. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 (hereinafter the Places of Worship Act) aimed to resolve historical disputes by institutionalizing a “status quo” as of 15 August 1947. However, the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi–Babri Masjid dispute is widely seen as marking a shift in adjudicatory emphasis, with archaeological reports and scriptural materials accorded heightened probative weight vis-à-vis the Act’s status quo principle. In its wake, appeals to “historical justice” have helped channel controversies over sacred sites into legal forums, where disputes are increasingly framed through evidentiary and procedural lenses rather than solely as property conflicts. Subsequent litigation has, at times, been mobilized within broader ideological projects that center Hindu identity in national politics, with the potential to reshape sacred space and public memory through legal–administrative pathways and to recalibrate the practice of secular adjudication in India.

This paper explores the role of physical proximity of places of worship in facilitating interfaith dialogue. The research focuses on a religious cluster within the Greater Toronto Area, which emerged due to incremental zoning changes over time. Using key informant interviews as the method and Allport’s contact hypothesis as the guiding theoretical framework, it explores the effects of proximity and contact (interaction or encounters) on intergroup relations. The findings suggest that physical proximity is not a strong factor in facilitating interfaith dialogue initiatives. However, proximity does seem to have an effect in creating a space for interactions and encounters to occur, which can lead to attitudinal shifts concerning the religious “other.”

This study investigates the application of close-range photogrammetry for digital preservation of cultural heritage, focusing on the interior of San Felipe Neri Parish in Brgy. Poblacion, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. The main objective is to generate a detailed and accurate 3D reconstruction of the church's interior and associated features to showcase modern heritage preservation efforts. The study is oriented towards the 11th Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations: Sustainable Cities and Communities. In particular, it addresses target 11.4–Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage. A modified workflow from Bedford’s (2017) Photogrammetric Applications for Cultural Heritage was implemented, using an iPhone 11 camera, measuring tape, Agisoft Metashape, and MeshLab. A total of 219 images were acquired and processed, and the resulting model was rescaled using field measurements. The final model achieved less than 5% error across all key object measurements, validating the accuracy and potential of accessible photogrammetric tools in indoor heritage documentation. Several challenges were noted, such as mesh distortion from moving objects (e.g., cloth), texture distortion from excessive lighting, and incomplete reconstruction of single-color surfaces (e.g., rugs, screens). Despite these issues, the study demonstrates that low-cost, consumer-grade equipment combined with an optimized workflow can produce reliable 3D models suitable for documentation, visualization, and conservation planning.

This research paper is based on the study of the evolution of pilgrimages on the Santiago Way, highlighting the Portuguese Way to Santiago—Central Portuguese Way and Coastal Portuguese Way—which has experienced massive popularity over the years. The primary objective of this work is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the pilgrims’ motivations to undertake the Santiago Way pilgrimage. A mixed methods approach is adopted based on the simultaneous use of quantitative and qualitative data. So, an analysis of secondary data, provided by the Oficina del Peregrino de la Catedral de Santiago de Compostela and by the Municipal Department of Cultural Heritage Management of Porto is combined with a thematic analysis of seven interviews with stakeholders of the Portuguese Way to Santiago. The findings suggest that there is an increase in cultural and sports motivations, although spiritual and religious motivations continue to have a strong presence. The ecumenical character of the Santiago Way is also proved, given the large number of pilgrims of religions other than the Catholic one, who travel these paths—the vast territories that are traversed—until reaching the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. A new paradigm still needs to be registered, perceptible in the rise of Turigrims, pilgrims who benefit from support services that mitigate the hardships of the way.

This article examines the relationship between jihād and the protection of non-Muslim places of worship in early Islam. Drawing primarily on Qurʾānic verses 22:39–41 and the Covenants of the Prophet, it employs a synchronically comparative framework that analyzes a broad corpus of textual sources, seeking to reconstruct how the early Muslim worldview understood the justification for jihād. It also examines the norms governing conduct after conflict, particularly in relation to treaty-making. The article attempts to make sense of Q22:39–41 within the broader landscape of late antiquity, which was marked by religious persecution and the destruction of sanctuaries under Byzantine and Sasanian rule. The study highlights how clear rules of engagement were articulated in early Islam, including limits on violence and the consequences of treaty violation. It argues that the motivations behind the early conquests cannot be reduced to material interests but rather were guided by a theological and ideological vision linking conquest with the establishment of a just peace, one grounded in the protection of communities, faith, and places of worship through a covenantal paradigm.

Archaeologists have proposed that quite a number of structures dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B in southwest Asia were nondomestic ritual buildings, sometimes described specifically as temples or shrines, and these figure large in some interpretations of social change in the Near Eastern Neolithic. Yet the evidence supporting the identification of cult buildings is often equivocal or depends on ethnocentric distinctions between sacred and profane spaces. This paper explores the case of Göbekli Tepe, a large Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Turkey that its excavator claims consisted only of temples, to illustrate weaknesses in some kinds of claims about Neolithic sacred spaces and to explore some of the problems of identifying prehistoric ritual. Consideration of the evidence suggests the alternative hypothesis that the buildings at Göbekli Tepe may actually be houses, albeit ones that are rich in symbolic content.

Vâlcea County in the South-West Oltenia Region, Romania, has a great diversity of tourist destinations and boasts an impressive number of monasteries, churches and places of worship. This research aims to comprehensively investigate how tourists perceive the main reasons for visiting religious settlements and the frequency in Vâlcea County, situated in the South-West Oltenia Region, by employing a two-stage methodology to understand the interplay of demographic variables, travel behaviors and individual motivations, while utilizing GIS and SPSS for spatial and quantitative analysis. The two stages are: (1) the analysis of the specialized literature to identify the motivations, beliefs and tourists’ perceptions regarding religious tourism and pilgrimage and (2) statistical analyses and interviews with internal stakeholders (residents), which present their tourist and religious perspective on Vâlcea County. The research questions aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the intricate interplay between demographic variables, travel behaviors and individual motivations within this distinctive context. The research significantly contributes to furthering our understanding of the behavior of participants in religious tourism and pilgrimage in Vâlcea County, highlighting that certain variables, such as gender, education level and occupation, may or may not significantly impact their preferences and choices. Geographical Information System (GIS) software was used to map the study area and, at the same time, the main places of worship that were visited by tourists. The SPSS (version 15.0) program was used to investigate and analyze the quantitative research data. The results reveal that, in Vâlcea County’s religious tourism and pilgrimage, gender, age and education level do not significantly impact travel choices or visit durations. However, occupation emerges as a crucial factor influencing transportation preferences, while respondents’ place of origin shows no significant association with the presence of accompanying individuals during religious visits. The current research was limited by its focus on a single case study of Vâlcea County in the South-West Oltenia Region and the scarcity of previous studies on religious tourism and pilgrimage in Vâlcea County.

This article examines the limits of welcome that Christian communities of faith in the U.S. South extend to recent immigrants. We argue that churches are political spaces in which pastors and lay members weigh faith-based conceptions of hospitality against law-and-order discourses and in which notions of universal membership confront racialized immigration politics. Drawing on sixty interviews with pastors and lay ministers in thirty-five churches in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; and Charlotte, North Carolina, we show how hospitality within individual churches often operates quietly, \"under the radar,\" producing a politics of invisibility. This invisibility, although providing some shelter from harsh law enforcement practices, does little to fundamentally alter the precarious situation of immigrants. We show that as Christian ethics of hospitality come up against worldly social boundaries of race and legal status, the actual practice of hospitality in these churches falls short of biblical ideals. Our analysis furthers understandings of political and faith-based membership and the dynamic articulations between them.

Persons with disabilities (PwD) as citizens have the same rights as non-disabled citizens including the right to religion and worship according to their religion and beliefs. In Indonesia, six religions deserve the recognition and protection by the state, i.e. Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucius but PwD people still experience discrimination and dangerous access to places of worship in mosques for Muslims, churches for Christians and Catholics, vihara for Hindus, temples for Buddhists, and kelenteng for Confucians. This article aims to review and explore Indonesia's regulatory and policies on the rights of PwD. The research method used is legal research using legal principles and social approach. PwD in Indonesia are not yet free in religion and it is not easy for them to access places of worship because of social and cultural stigma and unequal standing with other citizens. The findings from this study conclude that the policy paradigm and regulation of the rights of PwD in Indonesia is dominated by a compassionate perspective. Forms of discrimination and dangerous experienced by PwD include: discrimination against places of worship, discrimination against facilities of places of worship, no special services for PwD, the mindset of religious leaders still discriminates against PwD. The completion from law and policy perspective is that the regulatory paradigm of PwD should be based on human rights, among others: making special regulations for places of worship disability-friendly, legal sanctions and awards to managers of places of worship, and work effectiveness of the national commission for disability.

Treaties and covenants have been the most important instruments of international relations in both ancient and modem times, playing a significant role in the promotion of religious freedom, peaceful coexistence, and interfaith harmony. The rapid spread and broad appeal of early Islam brought matters of international relations and cosmopolitan state governance to a cadre of Muslim leaders whose main political experience had been with parochial Arabian tribalism. The foremost issue was the position, rights, and responsibilities of non-Muslim religious communities within the Arab-Islamic empire. Consequently, numerous covenants and treaties were devised with subjects and with foreign states during the expansion of the Muslim world. This study examines the protection of non-Muslim places of worship under the rule of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and his successors, including future caliphs and generals. It explores the practical application of the covenants by the successors of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ during early Islamic history, exploring the extent to which these covenants and treaties were effective in maintaining peaceful co-existence in a multi-faith society. In sum, for the sake of concision, only specific segments of the covenants and treaties are examined, which were devised with the non-Muslims for the protection of their worship places during the early Muslim Conquests.