(OPINION) What did the Founding Fathers really believe about the role of religion in America? When Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison appeared, they were trying to figure out what they believed personally about God even as they debated religion’s role in a fledgling nation. These guys didn’t fit into our 21st century boxes.
Read More(OPINION) Modi and former President Donald Trump are hyper-nationalists and Islamophobes. Both push fear-driven campaigns based on historical grievances and aversion to foreign religions and ethnicities. A militant Hindu monk has been elected to lead India’s largest state, and he is rabidly anti-Muslim.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The #WithoutJustCause campaign, highlighting the fates of a broad range of political prisoners including faith leaders, civic activists, businesspeople and former government officials, aims to shine the light on their stories, raise awareness and increase pressure to secure their release.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Dec. 9, the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention) marked its 75th anniversary. The Genocide Convention can be praised for being the first international treaty to define genocide, providing a historic commitment to prevent genocide and punish the perpetrators.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In November 2023, British media reported on the use of sexual violence in the recent wave of violence in Manipur, India. This follows a conflict that erupted in May 2023, described by the U.N. as a “community conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei and the predominantly Christian Kuki ethnic communities.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) What with Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine raging unabated and now Israel’s retaliation after extensive Hamas terror attacks from Gaza, it’s understandable that journalists, their audiences and politicians have paid little attention to a massive ongoing humanitarian crisis in interior Asia, where Western media lack observers on the ground.
Read More(OPINION) As news was breaking on Saturday and we were learning about the atrocities that were taking place in Israel, I immediately wrote an article. But even as I was writing, the news kept getting worse. How could this be happening? It turns out that things were far worse than we could have imagined. Here are some open, honest, raw reflections on the last 48 hours.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Aug. 15, 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and took control of the country. Subsequent months have seen severe restrictions on the rights of women and girls, religious minorities and much more.
Read More(ANALYSIS) After weeks of wrenching testimony, jurors delivered a guilty verdict June 16, 2023, for the gunman who killed 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 – the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. The next phase of the trial will focus on sentencing, and whether Robert Bowers should face the death penalty.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new report suggests that the Tatmadaw continues to target religious and ethnic communities. This comes years after the Tatmadaw specifically targeted the Rohingya for annihilation.
Read More(OPINION) Today, “the longest and deepest hatred of human history” shows no signs of abating. This is especially true online, where the worst aspects of humanity get free expression, where conspiracy theories of the ugliest kind abound, and where the most uncredentialed, unqualified person can gain a following. This is fertile ground for antisemitism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Richard Glazar insisted that no one survived the Holocaust without help. To this Prague-born Jewish survivor, who endured Nazi imprisonment at Treblinka and Theresienstadt, plus years in hiding, it was impossible to persevere without others’ support.
Read More(OPINION) According to a tone-deaf editorial published on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Kentucky Courier Journal, “Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities,” and “Hitler was just one of many dictators.” But it is right and fitting to commemorate the singular sufferings of particular people or nations, as in the Holocaust.
Read MoreChurch members and relatives in Ukraine have been unable to find out who is holding Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana, where and why. Armed and masked men in military uniform seized them on Sept. 21 from their home in Russian-occupied Mariupol. Neighbors “distinctly heard groans and cries” as the masked men took them away “in an unknown direction,” local Baptists said.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Nigerian diaspora academics discussed the findings of a U.K. government report on July 6, concluding that several factors like water scarcity are affecting violence in Northern Nigeria, complicating a designation of genocide. Many acts of violence carried out by Boko Haram against Christians bear Quranic punishments for so-called infidels, and the Nigerian army is struggling to contain the violence.
Read More(OPINION) The Kutupalong refugee camps in Bangladesh are inhabited primarily by the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group that fled mass atrocities in Myanmar. Amid the spread of COVID-19, there is a growing fear that the refugees will now face further threat to their lives, as the camps are more densely populated than New York City.
Read More(OPINION) Thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been affected by a litany of mass atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram and Fulani herders. The Nigerian government should respond with comprehensive investigations and prosecutions, but it is clear that will not happen until we, as an international community, recognize the nature and severity of these crimes.
Read More(OPINION) The chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed governments across the world the liberty to heighten existing religious persecution. Many religious minorities are discriminated against in healthcare provision and some are even being blamed for the spread of the virus.
Read More(OPINION) The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) launched its annual report Tuesday, recommending India, Nigeria, Russia, Syria and Vietnam as “countries of particular concern” engaging in severe religious freedom violations.
Read More(OPINION) In early April, the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom called for the release of prisoners of conscience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These prisoners are often detained simply for holding beliefs their government does not recognize. But a prison sentence should not become a death sentence due to the virus.
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