(ANALYSIS) As 2021 comes to a close, everyone is looking toward 2022. The news cycle over the last two years has been dominated by COVID-19, and that doesn’t seem to be subsiding given the rash of recent omicron infections. The Catholic world, meanwhile, had in 2021 one of its busiest years. Expect 2022 to be just as busy.
Read More(OPINION) Religious leaders have long involved themselves in the immigration debate, taking a variety of of pro and con positions. So does religiosity make people more welcoming, or more suspicious, of the stranger? A recent Religion News Service story tries to answer the question as it has unfolded in Europe.
Read MoreAmid heightened needs of Afghan girls and women, ReligionUnplugged interviews Daisy Khan, one of the most prominent female Muslim leaders in the U.S., about her work leading the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality to advance the rights of women based on the spiritual principles’ integral to the Islamic faith.
Read MorePalestinian protests in the West Bank and COVID-19 restrictions amid the rise of the omicron and delta variants are dampening Christmas tourism for the second year in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem. Israel hopes that its domestic tourists will still turn out for the celebrations.
Read More(REVIEW) The latest Hollywood blockbuster “Dune,” a space opera based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same name, is essentially a philosophical thought experiment that asks, How would Islam adapt and change thousands of years into the future on a distant desert planet? By projecting into the future, the film highlights our present reality.
Read MorePublisher Gökhan Talas used his training as a graphic artist, knowledge he gained from Kurtulus churches in Ankara and training at the Filipus theological school to found Miras Publishing Ministries with his wife in 2011. Miras is the only Turkish-language Christian magazine in an increasingly hostile climate and marks its 10th anniversary this month.
Read More(OPINION) On Nov. 10, the Iran Atrocities Tribunal opened its doors to a series of public hearings to investigate allegations of mass killings of protesters by the Iranian government in 2019. Amnesty International published a report detailing the deaths of 304 people killed by Iran’s security forces during the November crackdown.
Read More(OPINION) Afghanistan is probably the most heavily Muslim of nations, and the Taliban who regained power in August proudly proclaim totalist governance based upon strictly interpreted and enforced Shariah — Islamic law. This example of Islam in action presents a huge challenge to the world religion.
Read MoreThe Light a Candle charity — a project of Sean Feucht, 38-year-old worship leader, political activist and former Republican candidate best known for his 120-city tour of “worship protests” — has raised more than $200,000 for its Afghan Emergency Relief Fund. But the charity has no experience in the country and has provided no concrete plans.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This week, Samaritans are celebrating Sukkot — one month after Jews. The ranks of the once mighty Samaritan people reached 3 million in biblical times but were reduced by persecution and apostasy to 146 by 1918. Today they number 814: Half live on a mountaintop in the West Bank, and half live along coastal plains in Israel.
Read More(OPINION) Oct. 11 is the International Day of the Girl Child, a day to empower empower young girls and promise them a better future. In August 2021, all these promises, plans, dreams and hopes came crashing down one by one until there was nothing left. Afghan girls have watched as every piece of the country was taken over by the Taliban.
Read More(ANALYSIS) After completing the decades-long construction of the Jacob’s Well Greek Orthodox Church in the Palestinian city Nablus in 2018, Archimandrite Ioustinos, 81, has an equally lofty ambition to fulfill before he retires.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The land we now call Afghanistan has been a place of constant migration through its mountainous passes. Its linguistic, cultural and religious diversity is a result of millennia of trade along the Silk Road. Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban means that some minorities are again at heightened risk of persecution.
Read More(ANALYSIS) For the Armenian religious minority in Istanbul, a practice based on ancient tradition serves as a strategy of visibility, a cry and demand, a claim to the minority right to the city for a people scattered and decimated by genocide more than 100 years ago.
Read More(OPINION) Today, innumerable dangers are posed by the radical Islamist beliefs of the Taliban. And yet, in more than a few reports and discussions, terrorism is noted while the profoundly religious nature of the new Afghan government remains unaddressed.
Read MoreA 9-year-old Afghan girl inspired a retired U.S. Air Force general and his wife to fight for her people with schools, clinics and boots.
Read More(OPINION) Reporting on the Taliban’s rise must understand the rigid form of Islam that dominates Afghan culture. In rural villages across the countryside, where most live, mullahs with rudimentary schooling are part of the influential elite establishment.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in starts with the deadly explosions that rocked the Kabul airport as the U.S. military attempts to evacuate thousands. Besides the Afghanistan news, catch up, as always, on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) I want to place a spotlight on the important work of Christian groups across Afghanistan over the years, the little mention they have received by the secular press, a recent story that illustrates both the plight of Afghan refugees and the Catholic converts now living outside the country who have been crucial in helping people get out.
Read MoreThe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced its cooperation with the U.S. government to organize and process the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees entering the country as the U.S. withdraws troops and the Taliban assumes control over Afghanistan.
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