Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University The man who took a rabbi and three congregants hostage in Colleyville, Texas, on Jan. 15, 2022, believed that Jews control the United States of America. He told his hostages, as one revealed in a … Continue reading How antisemitic conspiracy theories contributed to the recent hostage-taking at the Texas synagogue
Deborah Whitehead, University of Colorado Boulder What constitutes women’s leadership in religious communities is open to many interpretations. In the U.S., more attention has been given to women’s ordination because of the highly public and visible nature of these roles, … Continue reading Women lead religious groups in many ways – besides the growing number who have been ordained
Saba Sattar, The Institute of World Politics India’s position as a secular nation is under threat. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the country’s 200 million Muslim minority population has been increasingly targeted. Over the past … Continue reading How one atheist laid the foundation of contemporary Hindu nationalism
Execution for a Facebook post? Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University ( @prof_ahmetkuru ) Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer in Pakistan, had been imprisoned for six years when he was sentenced to death in December 2019. The charge: blasphemy, … Continue reading Why blasphemy is a capital offense in some Muslim countries
How two Islamic groups fell from power to persecution. Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first-ever democratically elected president, died unexpectedly during a trial in June 2019. He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an … Continue reading Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s Gulenists
John Fea, Messiah College A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said. This story … Continue reading Cherry-picking the Bible and using verses out of context isn’t a practice confined to those opposed to vaccines – it has been done for centuries
Mohammed Abbasi 