Islam

While the work of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom is vital, the ambassador is most effective when he or she influences the department and US policy as a whole. The combination of ambassador-at-large and religion is thus a difficult one at State, so having someone as politically experienced as Brownback in the role is vital.

Are we, in fact, seeking through foreign policy to protect ourselves from a pre-millennial apocalypse—or, perhaps, to bring about a post-millennial one? The intellectual and spiritual resources of Protestant Christianity have a great deal to add to this debate. But up until now, I haven’t seen much evidence that these resources have yet been brought to bear on these questions.

Indonesian President Jokowi should make clearer that while the Indonesian Ulama Council’s (MUI) has every right to issue its opinions, it does not speak for the government nor make laws for this diverse and multi-religious country.

The international human rights community should protest the arbitrary imprisonment of the Aksu couple rigorously since they are descendants of a people who have been historically persecuted, violated, and subject to genocide.

In an unexpected move, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court unanimously agrees on an action that provides a major advance in religious freedom.

The Burmese military is the primary perpetrator of violence against Rohingya. Villages in Maungdaw township on the border with Bangladesh are almost completely empty because Rohingya fled the brutal violence. The United Nations is calling it a textbook case of ethnic cleansing, and Human Rights Watch believes it may constitute crimes against humanity.

Bangladesh is building one of the world’s largest refugee camps to house the hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar. Here’s what you should know about what the UN Refugee Agency calls the fastest-growing refugee emergency in the world today.

War and religious conflict in the 1600s between Ottomans and Persians still have consequences for politics and beliefs in the Middle East today.

When President George W. Bush declared his “War on Terror,” the face of the enemy was a grainy two-inch picture…