As American Christians, what is our relationship with the Middle East, and why does it matter to us? How does our relationship contrast to the superficial and shortsighted way governments engage the region?

It could be easy to be cynical about Neighborly Faith and the organization’s interfaith conference that took place on November 1 and 2 at Wheaton College.

Last spring, in the 53rd minute of a hotly contested soccer match between two of the most famous soccer clubs…

In every major Muslim country, governments use, abuse, and instrumentalize religion, but they don’t merely use it; they feature it…

Some people did not like Robert Nicholson’s article on Ilhan Omar’s run-in with Israel because they disagreed with the way he classifies Judaism and Christianity in a category separate from Islam.

Is it possible that the partisan quarrel about the rightness or wrongness of Ilhan Omar’s actions is really a hidden debate about the “Islamic Question” that still remains unresolved 18 years after September 11, 2001? As the election cycle heats up, Republicans and Democrats are likely to dance around this question’s two sub-questions: How do we deal with the Islamic world, and how do we deal with Islam inside our borders? The answers to both should be characterized by a single word: respect.

Ignoring the democracy versus pluralism dilemma fails to address the core issue facing both communities at the onset and consequently will not yield a Middle East friendlier to human rights and religious liberty. This debate is one that governments and politicians themselves cannot lead. Civil society is where this discussion must take place, and believers themselves are the ones who should lead it.

Religious diplomacy is important, but religious leaders should focus on representing the truths of their religion and the concerns of their constituencies rather than working toward meta-religious consensus. They will be most successful when their diplomacy is understated and narrowly-construed.