Western Religion

Memona Hossain | – Weeks prior to the lockdowns and closures that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary General António Guterres said 2020 would be a “pivotal year for how we address climate change.” Revamped emission goals were expected from 196 countries, but with international meetings postponed due to the pandemic, the stark reality […]

Christians

How did Washington State get sensible Sex Education Passed? The Religious Right is Collapsing

James A. Haught

Here’s a dramatic example of the growing power of Americans who say their religion is “none”: Last spring, progressives in the Washington state legislature, backed by Planned Parenthood, mandated that all public schools must teach sensible, practical sex education. The goal: to prevent teen pregnancy, reduce sexual disease, save girls from “date rape,” caution grade-schoolers […]

African-Americans

Trump’s Scapegoats, African-Americans and Muslim-Americans, defended the Blue Wall and Elected Biden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump notoriously said “I think Islam hates us,” and slapped a Muslim visa ban on a number of countries, which he later expanded. The ban cut families off from loved ones in Yemen, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria. Joe Biden pledged to end the ban on “Day one” of his presidency. […]

Islamophobia

How Islamophobia drove the Reception of the poorly fact-checked ‘Caliphate’ Broadcast

The Conversation

By Fahad Ahmad | – On Sept. 25, the RCMP arrested Shehroze Chaudhry, a Muslim man, for allegedly fabricating his affiliation with the Islamic State group (ISIS). Chaudhry — popularly referred to by his supposed nom de guerre, Abu Huzayfah — had been the subject of numerous news stories since 2017. Most notably, in 2018, […]

France

Republican Food: French President Macron nails his colours to the Mast of Islamophobia

Open Democracy

By Chris Myant ( OpenDemocracy.net) – In the small Provençal town of Aups, where the local Catholic church declares République française: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité [The French Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity], above its main entrance, there is a plain and nondescript monument put up in 1881. Its plaque announces that it is there: A la memoire […]

American Jews

After praising Nordic “genes,” Trump slams Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump can’t keep himself from sounding like a Nazi. Campaigning in Minnesota, he told the almost all-white crowd, most of Scandinavian descent, “You have good genes.” Human beings are a very young species, perhaps 300,000 years old, and have not had time to differentiate much. There is no significant genetic […]

Christians

Demons of the deep state: how evangelicals and conspiracy theories combine in Trump’s America

The Conversation

By S Jonathon O’Donnell | – Are demons active forces in American life and politics? That is what a large number of evangelicals in the US believe and are increasingly vocal about. Since the 1980s, growing numbers of evangelicals have given the fight against demons a key role in their spirituality and their politics. Known […]

Christianity

Why in the World would Evangelical Christians deny the Human-Caused Climate Emergency?

The Conversation

By Adrian Bardon | – U.S. Christians, especially evangelical Christians, identify as environmentalists at very low rates compared to the general population. According to a Pew Research Center poll from May 2020, while 62% of religiously unaffiliated U.S. adults agree that the Earth is warming primarily due to human action, only 35% of U.S. Protestants […]

Christians

Why are Americans abandoning Religion in Droves?

James A. Haught

Charleston, W.Va. (Syndicated to Informed Comment) – Religion is fading more quickly in the United States than in any other nation, according to a forthcoming research book. Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next, by University of Michigan scholar Ronald Inglehart, is to be released in January by Oxford University Press. Writing […]