On March 15 an Indian court upheld a state “hijab ban” that prevents Muslim girls from wearing the head covering at schools. The ruling could set a precedent for other states governed by the ruling Hindu-first Bharatiya Janata Party.
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Enes Kanter Freedom’s efforts go far beyond the basketball court. He is one of the most outspoken basketball players and athletes at the professional level when it comes to activism, standing up for religious freedom and the oppressed. He’s been one of the few pro athletes willing to criticize China for its treatment of religious minorities.
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Syed Ali Sarvat Jafri lives near Ayodhya, the Indian city that witnessed violent intercommunal rioting after Hindu nationalists tore down a 16th century mosque. Jafri aims to spark conversations about history, memory and heritage-preservation through his art, which draws on his ancestral legacy of blending Hinduism and Sufism in poetry.
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(REVIEW) “Prey” is a meticulously researched book, and Ali offers us page after page of grim statistics to support her thesis that the surge of immigration into Europe in 2015 has led to a surge in sexual violence.
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(OPINION) The many cases of anti-Catholic vandalism have been documented by me here in recent years. Also well-documented has been the number of professionals in the mainstream media who keep overlooking such criminal activities.These incidents just keep happening, yet they continue to be given little to no mainstream news coverage.
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In the 1980s and ‘90s, modest religious dressing in Kenya meant a very restricted wardrobe — one solid color of fabric stitched and sold in select shops run by members of the church. Today, trend-conscious religious millennials are changing the dress code, not necessarily by dressing immodestly but by adding twists of artsy, modern style.
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The 2022 World Cup, which will be held in the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, will test the majority-Muslim country in several ways — primarily when it comes to religious mores around public intoxication and homosexuality, both of which are illegal there.
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(TRAVEL) Bibles used to be ubiquitous in hotel rooms. But a 2017 survey by STR revealed that 79% of hotels had religious materials in their rooms, down from 95% of hotels in 2006. Indeed, as America becomes more secular and Wi-Fi more common, the need for a physical Bible inside your nightstand drawer has grown more obsolete.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in summary reflects on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Plus, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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Rebuked for linking COVID-19 measures to Jewish suffering at the Nazis’ hands, the controversial Georgia congresswoman was on the offensive the night of May 27. Other Republicans in the House, like minority leader Kevin McCarthy, publicly debunked her comparisons between mask mandates and proof of vaccination to the Holocaust.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in mourns the loss of two incredible people and journalists: Rachel Zoll and Amy Raymond. Plus, catch up on all the week’s best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(OPINION) An Israeli reflects on the recent violence in Jerusalem that has killed at least 30 people, set off when thousands of flag-waving Jewish youth celebrating Israel’s victory over Arabs in the 1967 Six Day War marched down an alley where Muslim activists had arrived during Ramadan to pray at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.
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Thousands of Kashmiris are flocking to Sufi shrines this Ramadan, where their faith and worship is taking a leading role in their healing from trauma, depression, PTSD and other mental health issues.
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Fazlun Khalid has worked for decades to raise environmental consciousness among Muslims and demonstrate what he sees as the inherently ecological nature of Islam and the environmental worldview it espouses.
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(REVIEW) A new Pakistani short film is making waves for criticizing blasphemy laws. “Swipe” follows a young boy in a dystopian future who is addicted to iFatwa, a fictional crowdsourcing app that lets players decide who deserves a death sentence.
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(ANALYSIS) What will 2021 bring? That’s the big question following a 2020 that will forever remain a year where the world was held hostage by a pandemic. It was also a year where we had a combative presidential election and a reawakened social justice movement that brought our divided politics out into our streets.
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(ANALYSIS) Thousands of Islamic militia members are going to gather outside churches in Indonesia this Christmas week. This sounds like a terrifying scenario, and in parts of the world it certainly would be. But very few, if any, Indonesian Christians are worried. They are more likely to greet the militia members with tea and cake.
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(OPINION) White supremacist terror is as lethal as Islamist terror — and here’s why it may be even harder to combat.
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Seven months after deadly anti-Muslim riots in New Delhi, calm has been restored, and local Muslims have returned for prayers in the restored mosques. But those complicit in the 53 deaths, of which two-thirds were Muslims, remain at large.
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(OPINION) The Oct. 16, 2020 terrorist beheading of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty has galvanized France and led to increased international tensions. French President Macron has portrayed the conflict not as a lone terrorist attack but as a war between Islamists and France that is a conflict of ideologies.
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