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Must We Burn Something to Get Attention?: 50 Years After the Catonsville Nine

By Jason C. Bivins

…earlier interreligious impulses they’d explored during Vietnam to build an international movement that was less explicitly Catholic in its goals and orientations. But while those protests multiplied in number, and continue still, they were drowned out by the hosannas of Ronald Reagan’s America™. If burning children are the price paid for our stock portfolios or geopolitical advantage, well, just keep smiling, America. The whole world is now the la…

Ban on Female Genital Cutting in Somaliland is Progress, But Success Relies on Working with Religious Leaders

By Chelsea Garbell

…trenched cultural practice reinforced by economic, political, and social structures across the Middle East and North Africa, effecting 200 million women worldwide. The earliest known reference to FGC was in the 5th century BCE writing of Herodotus, and FGC was also practiced in 19th century America and Europe as a cure for insanity, masturbation, and female libido. Despite the lack of scriptural support for FGC in either Christianity or Islam, in…

Shocked by Aung San Suu Kyi’s Insensitivity to Ethnic Cleansing? Don’t Be.

By Michael Jerryson

…as a responsible member of the community of nations, Myanmar does not fear international scrutiny, and we are committed to a sustainable solution that would lead to peace, stability and development for all communities within that state…. Since the 5th of September, there have been no armed clashes, and there have been no clearance operations. Nevertheless, we are concerned to hear that numbers of Muslims are fleeing across the border to Bangladesh…

UPDATE: Sam Brownback as Religious Freedom Ambassador? His Distinguished Predecessor Hopes for the Best

By Peter Laarman

…le many conservative senators, including then-presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, could easily have made an issue of David’s well-publicized positions in support of abortion and gay rights, they and other senators chose to focus only on his capabilities for the ambassadorial position. I came away even more admiring of Rabbi Saperstein as a model of fairness and generosity in his own person. May his tribe increase. *** As to my assess…

Brownback Nomination Further Evidence That “Religious Freedom” Is Code For “Conservative Christian Supremacy”

By Sunnivie Brydum

…d to vilify Muslims.” Brownback’s nomination is also the latest sign that Trump is willing to hire even economic “losers” if it appeals to his base, which has been grumbling lately about the president’s attacks on his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. If confirmed, Brownback would be the first religious freedom Ambassador-at-Large who did not attend seminary or a pursue a similar denominational education. He’d be the first Catholic to hold the…

Nike’s Token Equality: New Campaign Masks the Truth About Workers’ Rights

By Gerald J. Beyer

…nic malnourishment. Contemporary activists—those at the forefront of the struggle for worker’s rights—may not know it, but there are deep resources across religious traditions that support this crucial work. For over two decades Interfaith Worker Justice has allied members of multiple faiths who recognize the call to support beleaguered workers in their religions. For example, Islamic scholars point out the Holy Qur’an exhorts employers to “Give f…

Irony Watch: Trump’s Travel Ban Violates Religious Freedom Act According to ACLU Lawsuit

By Sunnivie Brydum

…The federal lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by the ACLU in conjunction with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) and Jewish international refugee resettlement organization HIAS, marks a new development in the ongoing legal battle over the president’s January 27 order. “The executive order violates two of our most cherished constitutional protections,” the complaint alleges, including the Fifth Amendment’s promise of equal protection unde…

First They Came for the Brotherhood . . . Egyptian Gov Seeks to Criminalize NGOs

By Austin Dacey

…order or morals.” Under the proposed legislation, the operation of foreign international organizations in Egypt and the cooperation of domestic organizations with intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations would be severely restricted. The NGO coalition statement points out that these provisions “will be used against any rights organization that seeks to acquire consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, or with any orga…

Where Trump and Climate Deniers Seem Very Far Away: COP22 in Marrakech

By Donna Schaper

…at you did not vote for “him.” Every third protest sign exasperates about Trump and the climate deniers. The main message is that Africa is no longer destitute but is instead cutting edge, both economically and environmentally, and ready to provide leadership to a top-down world. “Please don’t come here to solve our poverty when yours is so apparent,” the message goes. The biggest surprise for me is around women. They (we) are more prominent, more…

Refusing the Monsters on Maple Street: A First-Person Commentary from the Mass Hysteria at JFK

By Marion Grau

…activists, that effective policing has to be more than police in riot gear rushing in with big guns—that it’s about being present, building trust, soothing people’s nerves, rather than leaving them exposed to terror or the fear of terror. Becoming frustrated at the lack of information from uniformed personnel, I went online and asked my friends on social media if they had heard what was going on. Answers came quickly and soon we knew that there we…