The Vile Attack on Salman Rushdie Reminds Us of the Value of a Free Society — But is Our Outrage More About the Criminal Than the Crime?
When it was published in 1988, The Satanic Verses wasn’t immediately controversial. But the charged…
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Orlando Massacre and ISIS: The Illusion of Power
Omar Mateen’s vicious assault on a Saturday night crowd in an Orlando gay bar either had…
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A Plea to Jewish Leaders: Help Us Reject All Institutional Efforts to Convert Muslims and Other People of Faith
I’m currently trying to finish a book manuscript on the malevolent effects of what I…
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Looking for Islam in All the Wrong Places: A Response to Nabeel Qureshi
Nabeel Qureshi made his debut into the evangelical anti-Muslim apologetics market with his conversion narrative…
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No, Sunni and Shia Muslims Have Not Been Fighting Forever
Several days ago, before the Saudi government’s execution of prominent Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr…
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America No Longer a Christian Nation: And Other Critical Data from 2015
After a year that included Pope Francis’ first visit to the U.S., the ongoing battle over “religious…
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Does Violence Always Win?: Learning From René Girard (1923-2015)
Last August, a photo of a grieving father holding a child who had not survived…
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“Religion, O Diabolic”: Lamenting Religious Violence, Then and Now
Paris has known religious violence before. Over the course of two days in August of 1572, agents…
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Not All Christians are Terrorists
“I know that not all Christians are right-wing extremist terrorists, but why are all right-wing…
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Is Religion to Blame for Violence? Karen Armstrong’s Flawed Case
Just as I finished Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood, which is a very extended attack on…
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