Islam
(ANALYSIS) In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, “The Matrix,” a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in isn’t real. It’s a virtual reality, created by artificial intelligence.
A group of faith leaders has sent a letter to President Donald Trump thanking him for his recent designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern.”
The shrine, once crowded day and night with devotees, now stands eerily deserted. For weeks, it has remained sealed as a crime scene after a mob attack left one of his followers dead. Since August 2024, more than 100 shrines have been attacked or vandalized, according to rights groups.
(ANALYSIS) Around me, bodies pressed together. Sweat mixed with tears as the chant intensified: “Allah ... Allah ...” What I experienced that evening mirrors a broader phenomenon in Morocco: Some young, educated urbanites are returning to Sufism, Islam's mystical tradition, seeking spiritual depth in an age of digital distraction and ideological exhaustion.
(ANALYSIS) President Trump recently designated Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act. Like most of his acts, this ignited major controversy, much of it reflecting longstanding and now renewed disputes about what is really happening in that country.
(ANALYSIS) Bad Bunny is more than a global music phenomenon; he’s a bona fide symbol of Puerto Rico. The church choir boy turned “King of Latin Trap” has songs, style and swagger that reflect the island’s mix of pride, pain and creative resilience.
In the last decade, more than a dozen coups have shaken West Africa and the Sahel. Amid this turmoil, religious leaders are emerging as stabilizers who are guiding dialogue and providing a moral compass in societies caught between soldiers and fractured civilian states.
When she began wearing the hijab, critics accused Wafaa Al-Khudari of abandoning her sect, but now she and other Syrian women are leading the charge to ease religious tensions in their communities. The country, which recently ousted a regime, regularly experiences violent conflicts among the political and religious sects.
Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose campaign was powered by youthful energy, a surge of new voters and a promise of unconventional change, completed his yearlong journey with a decisive victory — to be elected mayor of New York City and the first Muslim to hold the office.
President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) Oct. 31 for tolerating religious freedom violations especially against Christians, and threatened sanctions and military force to discourage such persecution.
(ANALYSIS) The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, published a statement condemning the latest public execution in Afghanistan and calling on the de facto authorities to immediately impose a moratorium and abolish the use of the death penalty.
Ablution, or wudu, is often performed before prayer and involves washing the hands, face, mouth, nostrils, arms, and feet in a certain sequence with running water. “I always travel across Africa with work. Many buildings and public spaces have no wudu facilities. This makes most Muslims uncomfortable,” said one frequent traveler.
(ANALYSIS) Compassion loses nothing by being partial, only when it turns self-righteous. Empathy must be guided by conscience, not by those who claim the right to decide whose pain counts.
The competition — called “FIFA Unites: Women’s Series 2025” — had been originally scheduled to be played in Dubai with teams from Chad, Libya and the host nation UAE. FIFA confirmed that the tournament would instead be be played in Morocco, starting on Sunday, with a revised lineup that includes the Afghan refugee squad, Chad, Tunisia and Libya.
(ANALYSIS) In Myanmar, when the military has a hard time conscripting enough residents into their ranks, they turn to monks for help. The religious leaders — many of whom have been well-connected to the government — are backing the recruitment drive. The regime has been targeting men across all segments of society — including the urban poor, displaced populations and ethnic and religious minorities.
(REVIEW) Like most mainstream, organized religions, Islam is a big tent. Corralling the various ideologies, sects, divisions, major players and developments over the course of some fourteen hundred years into a digestible narrative is no easy job, and Tolan’s effort is both daunting and admirable.
In 2006, I was able to travel to Israel for the first time. Even as a child, I had learned from my father about the spiritual legacy of the Jewish people, the land God had given them, and how He had protected them. And, best of all, during that amazing year, I was able to set foot on the land myself. There I began to meet and come to know Israelis as friends and allies, and to see with my own eyes the biblical heritage I had inherited as a Christian believer.
Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo clashed sharply over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Thursday night, in the first televised debate for New York City mayor, their first major showdown since the young democratic socialist stunned the former governor in the Democratic primary.
From Oct 8-10, the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan, part of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, an international opinion tribunal competent to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and communities, held public hearings in Madrid.
The Constitutional Court in South Africa decided last month that husbands can adopt their wives’ surnames upon getting married, ruling that until now the law discriminated against men. While it is being celebrated as a progressive decision by some, the ruling has outraged many — with some religious and traditional leaders saying this is an assault on marriage.
(ANALYSIS) The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted, without a vote, a resolution on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, which is to strengthen accountability efforts in Afghanistan.
Nine months before she was killed by an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona started quoting “Shawshank Redemption.” “Hope is a dangerous thing,” she told Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi over a WhatsApp video call. Farsi and Hassona began talking in early 2024, after Farsi’s plans to make a documentary in Rafah were upended due to the closing of the border.
Two years after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the start of the Jewish state’s military campaign in Gaza, a growing number of Americans are expressing skepticism toward Israel’s actions and the U.S. response to the conflict, according to a new survey. It reveals that 39% of Americans say Israel is going too far in its military operations against Hamas — an increase from 31% a year ago.
(OPINION) Two years since the terror attacks launched by Hamas on Israel, there appears to be a persistent moral ambiguity on how the world has responded to Israel’s plight. Should they be faulted at all for their call to get Israeli hostages back and to demand the disarmament of Hamas to finally end the war in Gaza?
The upcoming “FIFA Unites: Women’s Series” marks the convergence of sports, politics, religion and human rights. For the Afghan refugee players, it’s a real chance to reclaim their place in the game. For FIFA, it’s a test of whether its commitment to women’s soccer extends beyond symbolic support — and whether it is willing to confront the contradictions within its own global family.
A new congressional bill would require the U.S. to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), indicating egregious, systemic and ongoing religious freedom violations in the country that is the deadliest for Christians. The Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 echoes a longstanding call by many religious freedom organizations.
(ANALYSIS) The young Donald Trump administration is unusually focused on the issue of religious liberty — operating through two newly formed organizations that emphasize concerns raised by those conservative Catholics and Protestants who are a crucial element in the president’s political “base.”
(ANALYSIS) More recently, a 2021 study from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative looked at 200 popular movies and found that Muslim characters were either completely missing or shown as violent. Despite the consistency of negative representations of Muslims on television following the rise in Islamophobia, the post-9/11 climate actually saw the introduction of more diverse Muslim characters.
(ANALYSIS) As Algeria tries to assert itself on the international stage as a civilizational bridge, the country’s Christian community continues to face renewed challenges. In late July, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune traveled to Italy to meet with both Pope Leo XIV and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The latter meeting produced a joint initiative to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for several historic sites in Algeria linked to early Christianity.
For more than a decade, Hindu businessman Balwant Rathore and his Muslim partner Mohammad Harun have run their shop together. Then, without warning, they were told to vacate their shop. Blaming “Love Jihad”, a Hindu nationalist leader’s son ordered Muslims to leave the market.