(OPINION) The return of Taliban rule after 20 years will likely produce the typical mayhem and murder when a regime suddenly collapses. But much is also at stake for world Islam, a crucial aspect that the media have tended to slight thus far. Journalists may be witnessing a new phase in what Georgetown University expert John Esposito has called a long-running "struggle for the soul of Islam."
Read MoreThe controversy and context surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics pose an opportunity to think about the Games through a lens of faith. From a Muslim track and field athlete to Israel’s first surfer, here is a guide to the Games for the religiously-minded.
Read MoreSolidarity with Israel among evangelical Christians has evolved for the last decade while one man reigned over the Holy Land. After his stinging defeat, Christian leaders are trying to heal the fractures it created.
Read More(OPINION) Many believed the Abraham Accords of 2020 and other peace agreements would permanently ease the conflict between Israel and Palestine. A scholar of the Middle East says otherwise.
Read More(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.
Read MoreEvery year on Holy Saturday, the day before Pascha (Easter), Orthodox Christians believe that the Holy Fire appears inside the Tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They believe this light, captured by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, is the confirmation of the Resurrection. For them, it’s a miracle, a manifestation of Holy Spirit.
Read MoreIsrael observed a day of national mourning on Sunday, May 2 for the 45 Jewish worshippers crushed to death in a stampede just after midnight Friday. It’s the biggest civilian mass causality in Israel’s 73-year history. More than 150 pilgrims suffered injuries. An estimated 100,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews had gathered for the annual Lag b'Omer festival, despite warnings for years that the site was not safe for big crowds.
Read More(OPINION) April 24 has long been observed worldwide as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. In 2021, President Joe Biden chose to formally acknowledge that the systematic murder of more than a million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire was, in fact, a genocide.
Read MoreRamadan, which spans the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is a full month of religious fasting. The associate professor of religious studies and director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University answers six questions about its importance.
Read MoreAn Afghan official told Religion Unplugged that the country plans to repatriate various ancient artifacts they believe were looted from their national museum in the nineties during civil war, including a medieval Hebrew prayer book now in the Museum of the Bible’s possession in Washington, D.C. The 1200-year-old prayer book is the world’s oldest Hebrew manuscript after the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Read MoreThe Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem is believed to mark the spot where the tree was felled to make the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Several legends theorize about its founding, linked to Abraham’s nephew Lot; the mother of Byzantine Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor who sojourned in the Holy Land in 326; and Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, said to have founded the monastery at the behest of a Georgian prince.
Read MoreThis year’s Passover, the annual Jewish holiday, will offer families the chance to reflect on the hardships of the previous year. It also prioritizes looking with hope to the future.
Read MoreFranciscans in the Holy Land, a Catholic order that’s preserved Christian sites in Jerusalem since the Middle Ages, have celebrated Lent for years by following the path step by step that Jesus may have taken nearly 2,000 years ago on his 40-day fasting journey through the Judean Desert.
Read MoreThe Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Mar. 16 that more Dead Sea Scrolls — among other relics — were found in a cave in the Judean Desert. The fragments contain passages from Zechariah and Nahum, among other books.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Israel is the top country for vaccinating its population. It now possibly faces legal obligations — and calls from the United Nations — to prioritize vaccinating Palestinians.
Read MoreBerliners are debating renaming Pacelliallee – a major street named after Rome-born Eugenio Pacelli, better known as Pope Pius XII, to honor former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (1898-1978). Pius XII served as a Vatican ambassador in Berlin and has been accused of anti-Semitism and sympathizing with Nazis during the Holocaust. Meir was Israel’s first and only female prime minister.
Read MoreThe National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul claims a 1,200-year-old Hebrew prayer book at the Museum of the Bible was stolen from their collection in the nineties. It’s the latest in a series of scandals about looted and forged antiquities that has rocked the Museum of the Bible since its 2017 opening in Washington, D.C.
Read More(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.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The religious freedom of and even the number of Christians in Egypt is highly contested, but there are a number of important reasons why the Coptic pope declines to call discrimination against Christians “persecution.” A recent webinar by In Defense of Christians discussed the topic.
Read MoreOf the many Christian flags, insignia and sacred objects seen outside the Capitol Building Jan. 6, there is one that deserves more attention— the shofar, an ancient Jewish instrument traditionally made from a ram’s horn. The shofar has become a common protest tool in some circles, framing political battles as spiritual battles.
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