What were the top ten favorable news stories about Muslims in 2013? Altmuslim put together a liston their site and below are the stories they ranked. We covered three of them in our blog–Malala, Kamala Khan and Somewhere in America. Malala Yousufzai nominated for Nobel Peace Prize First Muslim fraternity enters U.S. campus life Hijab victory against Abercrombie & Fitch Yusuf Islam inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Kamala Khan IS Ms. Marvel  First female recitor of the Quran... Read more

Timeline of World Religions  Kumbh Mela: A Week at the Largest Religious Gather…  The World Religions Tree: Cool Infographic  Museums Faulted on Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art  In Pictures: India’s Parsi  Read more

Even when the Dali Llama is speaking, it’s tough to pay attention sometimes. Saw this AP photo on the Huffinngton Post. Read more

Did civilization arise before religion or did religion arise before civilization? History books teach us that civilization arose with the Neolithic Revolution when hunter gatherers first settled down because of the discovery of agriculture.  Settled life then led to cities, writing, and religion. The discovery of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey several years ago may change that story. Göbekli Tepe contains a series of circles with limestone pillars carved with bas-reliefs of animals like gazelles, foxes and wild boar. The... Read more

Does the video “objectify the Muslim female form” or does it simply show Muslim women as cool and fun?  Not everyone agrees. Both NPR and the Huffington Post put up this video of young Muslim women wearing hijabs, skateboarding, walking around around and doing other random things to the music of the Jay-Z song “Somewhere in America.” It’s been both lauded and condemned. Some applaud it because of its “aesthetic beauty and depiction of Muslim women as modest, cool, and... Read more

< Pope Francis recently spoke about growing inequality in the world. “Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusions and inequality.” Some criticized the Pope as being a Marxist. But the question remains, how unequal are we? Max Fisher put together the maps above for Atlantic Magazine. They show America near the bottom.... Read more

Reza Aslan, author of  “Zealot, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” outlines the argument of his book: that we can separate Jesus “the man” from Jesus “the Christ”  and place Jesus “the man” as a product of the time and place in which he lived. In this interview with Evan Smith, he says that Jesus was an” illiterate, poor and pious peasant who lived in the back woods of Galilee who nevertheless started a movement on their behalf.”... Read more

Protestant American Christianity is changing. Pews are disappearing and many Christians are abandoning the church altogether. But others, like the hipsters in the story below, challenge the traditional fundamentalism and seek to replace it with a more meaningful and relevant kind of Christianity. Hipster Christianity, according to self proclaimed hipster, Brett McCracken, is all about when church and cool collide. In fact,  the title of McCracken’s book  is “Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.” According to this story in... Read more

Guests of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday define God. Some of the guests include Brené Brown, Stephen Pressefield, Dr. Brian Weiss, and Tina Turner. Read more

Conservatives and liberals clash in every faith. Just last week, for example, the Methodist church defrocked a Pennsylvania minster for officiating the gay wedding of his son. Now, America’s only openly gay Muslim Iman, Daayiee Abdullah,  faces criticism.  He tells Aljazeera America that “some local imams have refused to greet him, and many others across the country argue his work performing same-sex marriage is not legitimate, and that he should control his “urges.” You can read more about Abdullah in... Read more