A recent concert for peace in Gaza brought together Jews and Palestinians at a Catholic church in Santiago. Some 500 people attended the concert for cello, flute and classical guitar, with two female voices, organized by the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Fernando Chomalí. The archbishop, who organized the event, is a descendant of Palestinian immigrants.
Read MoreAt a time when the Trump administration has renewed a travel ban on various Muslim majority countries in Africa and across the Middle East, the Quran owned by John Adams is but one indication that our nation’s founders regarded Islam — as well as other, non-Western, non-Christian faiths — as worthy of respect and protection under the law.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The 12-day confrontation between Iran and Israel in June 2025 may not have escalated into a full-scale regional war, but it marks a potentially critical turning point in Iran’s internal political landscape. Though the Islamic Republic has entered into direct conflict with a foreign adversary before, it has never done so while so militarily weakened, internally fractured and increasingly alienated from its own population.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Taiwan’s international rating on freedom of religion is undisputedly very high. The 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, published by the U.S. Department of State, also noted Taiwan’s constitutional protection of the freedom of religion as well as the diversity of religious beliefs, but questions are asked about how freely can one practice their religion.
Read MoreWhen a shell slammed into a madrassa (an Islamic school) housing over 1,200 children, its caretaker, Sayyed Habib, didn’t dial the army or the police. He didn’t call emergency services. He called Pradeep Sharma, a Hindu and former lawmaker, and his best friend since ninth grade. it was an example of how people of differing faiths found it in their hearts to help one another.
Read More(ANALYSIS) To this day, there are no national memorials for the victims. Instead, triumphalist military monuments, many of them built in Tamil-majority areas, celebrate a victory in a war whose collateral damage amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Read MoreAs the evening crowd arrived for services Thursday evening at Young Israel of Century City, Benny Factor watched for updates on his phone, which was leaned against a tissue box on the table in front of him. The chyron of an Israeli TV channel he was streaming told the story: “Happening now,” it said in Hebrew: “A wave of attacks has begun in Iran.”
Read MoreThe Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan has long experienced significant constraints on its religious practices. From not being allowed to call their places of worship “mosques” or use Islamic terms such as “Azan” (call to prayer) to not being able to vote because Ahmadis must either renounce their faith or agree to be placed on a separate electoral list categorizing them as “non-Muslim.”
Read MoreWhat motivated the smashing on April 23 of the main gate to Damascus’s historic Jewish cemetery and the digging of a pit disturbing the tomb of renowned mystic Rabbi Hayyim ben Joesph Vital? The desecration can be understood as part of the history of Jewish and Muslim leaders battling on the metaphysical astral plain in parallel to the normative Israeli-Arab military conflict.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In May 2025, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) reported that since the aid blockade began on March 2, 2025, 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition. WHO further warned that if the situation persists, nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months.
Read More(REVIEW) With its central dome and minarets, Birmingham Central Mosque is a notable example of Islamic architecture in the U.K. It is one of 160 places of Muslim worship in the city that artist Mahtab Hussain photographed over a two-year period starting in 2023. But, as his photographic installation “Mosque City: Birmingham’s Spiritual Landscape” reveals, not all of these mosques are as conspicuous.
Read More(EXPLAINER) As tensions rise between India and Pakistan, questions about what constitutes a lawful war are once again in focus. International law makes a clear distinction between jus ad bellum (the right to go to war) and jus in bello (the rules governing conduct in war). These are framed by the United Nations Charter, customary international law and treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, all of which define what states and their leaders can — and cannot — do during conflict.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Ashraf, a Muslim and daily wage labourer from Wayanad, Kerala, had arrived in this coastal Karnataka city just weeks earlier. On the evening of April 27, he was found dead near a temple in Kudupu — barely six miles (10 kilometers) from Mangaluru city’s centre. Reportedly killed on the sidelines of a cricket match, his death was a brutal act that felt grimly familiar.
Read MoreWhy was Segev Schwartz the only casualty in his battalion of 30 Israeli soldiers when a terrorist tossed a hand grenade in a cafeteria on Oct. 7, 2023? That was his mother Sara’s question. The answer she found completed a picture of Segev she and her husband shared on the eve of Israel Memorial Day, the commemoration of the fallen in Israeli wars and acts of terrorism since 1948.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Why empower a small group of unelected, perhaps unrepresentative, people from some religious communities with official privileged access to the governor? Why treat seven people as if they could speak for the millions of religious believers in Texas? Can a Baptist properly reflect Catholic concerns, or an Orthodox Jew reflect Muslim concerns?
Read MoreFor the past few years, many TV dramas that air during Ramadan have tackled women's issues triggering public discussions that have led to cultural, social and legal changes. Dramas about women this Ramadan include “Hezbet Omri” (“The Sum of My Life”), which highlights the financial difficulties of the protagonist as she seeks alimony after divorce; and “Ikhwaati” (“My Sisters”), which features an all-female cast who face challenges outside traditional norms.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In recent days, a horrifying surge of violence and bloodshed has swept across Syria, leaving a civilian death toll of nearly 1,400. Most of the victims were part of the Alawite sect, former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s religious community. A number of Christians who live in close proximity to Alawite communities have also been killed.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, an important aspect of their faith is their role as stewards of God on Earth. One way Muslims do this is through the practice of Zakat, an obligatory kind of charity that’s one of the five pillars of Islam.
Read MoreThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that several regions in Syria have witnessed an escalating wave of targeted killings and individual acts of retribution. The organization noted that direct executions are being carried out through various methods, from field executions to surprise assassinations by unidentified gunmen.
Read MoreThe 97th Academy Awards was a banner night for Jews. Adrien Brody and Mikey Madison won the Oscars for best actor and best actress, the first time in decades that Jewish actors have swept that category; best supporting actor went to the co-star of a film about Jewish cousins who tour Majdanek; and “The Brutalist,” a film about a Holocaust survivor’s experience of antisemitism in America, won for cinematography and score.
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