August 13, 2014 LINCOLN, Neb. — Iekhan Safar moved from Iraq to Lincoln for the same reason that hundreds of Yazidis, a Kurdish religious minority, came to Nebraska’s capital city: to live near family, far from the dangers they’ve long faced as a persecuted group. Lincoln has the largest concentration of Yazidis (yah-ZEE-dees) in the…
August 14, 2014 (RNS) Civil rights and religious groups say efforts to rid federal agencies of anti-Muslim bias have faltered and prejudice against Muslims persists, particularly in the training of anti-terrorism officers. On Thursday (Aug. 14), 75 groups — including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Auburn Seminary and the NAACP — sent a letter to the White…
Former teacher and current president of an extreme-right association, Christine Tasin was fined 3,000 Euros on August 8 in Belfort after she made “insulting remarks against Islam” during the celebration of Aid-el-Kebir. She was charged with “incitement of racial hatred.” Tasin made these comments on October 15, 2013 in Belfort during an exchange with Muslims….
August 14, 2014 When the extremist group Isis (now known as Islamic State or IS) declared a caliphate taking in parts of Syria and Iraq it reignited a debate over the role of an Islamic state. For many a caliphate is a political leadership, others a spiritual figurehead, and for some a combination of the…
August 13, 2014 Because moderate Christians and Muslims are so pleasant people believe that religion is good, decent, ordinary churchgoers have helped enable religious fundamentalists to become suicide bombers by being “so nice” that people do not question their faiths, Richard Dawkins has argued. Dawkins, the evolutionary scientist and outspoken atheist, said moderate Christian and…
