Easter 2015: Start Of Passover, Good Friday Fall On Same Day

This Friday marks the first time in many years that both the Christian holiday Good Friday and the start of Jewish Passover have fallen on the same day.

Processions like the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge Friday morning will be held worldwide to remember the day Jesus was crucifie by the Romans.

As CBS2’s Andrea Grymes reports, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Way of the Cross bridge. Anyone is welcomed to join in the walk, which started at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint James in Brooklyn. The march ends at Saint Peter’s Church in downtown Manhattan around 1:30 p.m.

In Jerusalem, the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows, retraces the path of Jesus Christ on his way to crucifixion. In New Jersey’s Upper Saddle River on Good Friday, there’s a bit of a twist.

Pastor Bob Stag leads parishioners from the Church of the Presentation on a 12-mile bike tour for the Stations of the Cross.

“It is a mini-pilgrimage and I’ve been to the holy land several times and most people won’t ever get to the holy land or ever get to pilgrimage to Rome or pilgrimage in northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. But everybody, well, almost everybody, can jump on a bike and follow me around,” he told WCBS 880’s Sean Adams.

For prayers, reflection and meditation, they stop at seven churches– three of them Protestant. The ministers come out and discuss their church’s architectural significance.

The eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown Friday night and commemorates the Israelites’ escape from Egyptian slavery more than 3,000 years ago.

During the first two nights, families gather for a Passover Seder, the ritual meal which features six symbolic foods, including matzo. Matzo is a cracker-like unleavened bread that symbolizes the exodus from Egypt, when there wasn’t enough time to let the bread rise.

Read more: Start Of Passover, Good Friday Fall On Same Day « CBS New York

Islam: Muslim population to grow fastest says new study

Mosque in Almere, the Netherlands

Muslim population worldwide is rising rapidly and could be nearly as much as the number of Christians in 2050, a new report called the "Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections 2010-2050" by the Pew Research Center has predicted.

The study, released on April 2, says that the world's religious profile is changing primarily due to differences in fertility rates among various communities and because of people switching faiths. "Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any major religion," the research says.

The number of Muslims will be equal to those of Christians by 2050, the report predicts, even though some Christian countries and areas, like Latin America, Brazil, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa, are also growing fast.

Islam will also replace Judaism as the second largest religion in the United States by 2050 and Muslims in Europe will constitute 10 percent of the overall population. India will also have the largest number of Muslims in the world by the mid- 21st century, Pew researchers say.

Read more: Muslim population to grow fastest says new study | Europe | DW.DE | 03.04.2015

Middle East:: Arab League summit wraps up with plan for pan-Arab force

Arab leaders have agreed to try to form a joint military force to tackle regional crises. Saudi Arabia is already leading a coalition of Arab countries that have been conducting airstrikes against rebels in Yemen.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (pictured above), who hosted the two-day Arab Summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, told the final session of the gathering that the leaders had agreed in principle to form the pan-Arab force. He said a high-level committee would be formed to work out the details of implementing the force.

Other Egyptian officials said it was to include up to 40,000 elite troops backed up by fighter jets and warships. However, it wasn't immediately clear how many of the Arab League's 22 member states were prepared to contribute to the proposed force.

Much of the discussion over the past two days focused on Yemen, which the elected president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, fled late last week, before traveling to Sharm el-Sheikh.

With Shiite Muslim Houthi forces advancing on President Hadi's power base of Aden in the south of the country, Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, along with several other Arab nations, launched a bombing campaign against the rebels four days ago. So far though, there was little evidence that the air campaign had stopped the Houthi advance.

Read more:: Arab League summit wraps up with plan for pan-Arab force | News | DW.DE | 29.03.2015

Middle East - Mideast's religious minorities at risk of 'genocide'

Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East are being targeted and some are facing a possible "genocide" by Islamic State militants, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the UN on Friday.

Speaking at a UN Security Council debate, Fabius said an "action charter" was needed to address the threat from the Islamic State group.

"We are witnessing a true genocide," Fabius said. "The Islamic State group in particular kills, enslaves or exiles people who don't think like them, especially Christians. It's not enough to raise awareness – we need to implement concrete solutions to protect these vulnerable populations."

Read more: Middle East - Mideast's religious minorities at risk of 'genocide' - France 24

France - The ‘moderate’ imam who claims ‘all women are selfish’

An imam in France has claimed in a sermon that selfishness is part of “the nature of women”, comments that have shocked all the more because of his reputation as a progressive influence on Islam in the country. “No matter how much good you bestow upon a woman, she will deny it. Her selfishness drives her to deny it.”

These were the words of Imam Mohamed Khattabi, delivered during a Friday sermon at the Aicha Mosque in Montpellier, southern France, on March 6, two days before International Women’s Day.

Standing high in the mosque’s minbar (pulpit), Khattabi continued: “This holds true for all women, whether Western, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. This is the nature of women.

“If a woman overcomes her nature and acknowledges [the truth] … Allah grants her a higher place in paradise. But if she succumbs to her nature, and refuses to acknowledge the man's rights – or rather, the goodness that man bestows upon her – she is destined to go to [hell]…”

Read more: France - The ‘moderate’ imam who claims ‘all women are selfish’ - France 24

EU: Leave Facebook if you don't want to be spied on by US, warns EU - by Samuel Gibbs

The European Commission has warned EU citizens that they should close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services, finding that current Safe Harbour legislation does not protect citizen’s data.

The case, dubbed “the Facebook data privacy case”, concerns the current Safe Harbour framework, which covers the transmission of EU citizens’ data across the Atlantic to the US. Without the framework, it is against EU law to transmit private data outside of the EU. The case collects complaints lodged against Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Microsoft-owned Skype and Yahoo.

Schrems maintains that companies operating inside the EU should  not be allowed to transfer data to the US under Safe Harbour protections – which state that US data protection rules are adequate if information is passed by companies on a “self-certify” basis – because the US no longer qualifies for such a status.

The case argues that the US government’s Prism data collection program, revealed by Edward Snowden in the NSA files, which sees EU citizens’ data held by US companies passed on to US intelligence agencies, breaches the EU’s Data Protection Directive “adequacy” standard for privacy protection, meaning that the Safe Harbour framework no longer applies and does not protect citizen’s data.

The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard Schima in a case brought by privacy campaigner Maximilian Schrems, looking at whether the data of EU citizens should be considered safe if sent to the US in a post-Snowden revelation landscape.

“You might consider closing your Facebook account, if you have one,” Schima told attorney general Yves Bot in a hearing of the case at the European court of justice in Luxembourg.

Read more: Leave Facebook if you don't want to be spied on, warns EU | Technology | The Guardian

Greece - Germany : A different vision, but the same goal: Merkel and Tsipras agree to cooperate

In his first official visit to the German capital, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pledged to honour his country’s commitments following almost five years of austerity measures.

He said it was important to move away from stereotypes about the two nations, adding that Greece’s economic problems were not the fault of any one country or institution.

Speaking from a press conference in Berlin, both Tsipras and Merkel agreed Athens needs to make big structural reforms in order to fight widespread tax evasion and corruption in Greece.

Such reforms, combined with a solid Greek budget would provide the foundations for a return to growth and a rise in employment, they added.

Read more:A different vision, but the same goal: Merkel and Tsipras agree to cooperate | euronews, world news