America is becoming more pluralistic. Tulsi Gabbard, from Hawaii, is the first Hindu to be elected to Congress. She just took her oath of office in the new House of Representatives and took her oath on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu sacred text. Here is the Washington Post story. Read more
Lots of countries are questioning when Muslim women can wear full-face veils called niqabs. In Canada, according to this story from Reuter’s Faith World, the question was whether women should have to remove their niqabs while testifying in court. The Supreme Court would not issue a blanket rule saying that it would depend on each case. For example, a lower court might consider “the harm that could come if Muslim women who wear the niqab feel discouraged from reporting offenses.” Read more
Dan Gilgoff, the religion editor of the CNN Belief Blog, is leaving to work for National Geographic. Here he lists the five things he learned since he began editing the Belief blog. One thing he thinks will be very big this century is the explosion of people with no religion. Read more
This is a must read by the Islamic cleric, Sheikh Musa Furber, about the status of women in the context of the events in India. He argues that there is nothing in Sharia law that condones rape or even the marriage of a girl to her rapist. He writes near end of his post in the Washington Post, “there is something deeply wrong when a Muslim society views the shame of a single rape to outweigh facilitating the spread of... Read more
World Religions
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