Recently, a group of Muslim Americans issued a statement asserting that same-sex relations and being transgender are forbidden in Islam. They claim that there is “universal consensus” on the issue. As a Muslim ally to the LGBTQ community, I want to…
In Mozambique, Saudi Muslim scholarships for Christian students win hearts
Paulos Do Manuere, a staunch Catholic, doesn’t forget the Thursday in 2013 when he received a fully funded scholarship from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to study civil engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. “I was astonished to…
The Hateful Faithful are a threat in every religion and every country
In the past week, followers of Jesus observed Maundy Thursday and Good Friday rituals followed by Easter Sunday. The same week, adherents of Judaism were preparing for Passover. Meanwhile, followers of Islam were observing daily fasts during the month of…
Panelists discuss how the Hamline University controversy could have been handled better in a diverse culture
Institutions of higher learning must hone flexibly to respond to campus divisions over religion and race that can escalate into the kind of public controversy currently embroiling Hamline University, a panel of experts said during a Jan. 31 webinar hosted…
Jesus and Muslim students at prayer
Jesus took a whip and drove the money changers from the temple. This doesn’t suggest he would have interrupted Muslim students at prayer. A teacher at Franklin Academy Charter School in Pembroke Pines, Fla., however, interrupted Muslim students during prayer…
Violence in Nigeria threatens religious freedom for Christians and Muslims alike, USICRF reports
Religious intolerance and deep partisan divides have given rise to nonstate actor violence in Nigeria that increasingly threatens freedom of belief and practice in a nation once known for its widespread religious diversity, according to a new report by the…
Fact-finders highlight ethno-religious violence in Nigeria, while State Department declines to act
Christians and Muslims both fear they will be “eradicated” in Nigeria, a fact-finding team from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom discovered. Last year, the commission, known as USCIRF, asked the U.S. State Department to label Nigeria, Africa’s most…
U.S. religious freedom monitoring agency raises concern again about abuses in Algeria
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has expressed displeasure over a series of recent court decisions that seek to limit the religious rights of Christians in the North African country of Algeria. USCIRF’s concern, expressed via a press…
Franklin Graham: the apple that fell far from the tree
As I see it, Franklin Graham is far from the man his father was. In conspicuous ways, he is still like the angry, impatient and entitled 11-year-old I met in the summer of 1964.