If we stopped to learn the rules governing our fluency in violence, it would actually make us less fluent. Why? Because the rules of violence reveal an unpleasant reality: We don’t use violence; violence uses ...

Secretary of State John Kerry is calling for the release of an Iranian-American minister from a Tehran prison, a welcome step for advocates who had accused the State Department of being “AWOL” on the case. ...

Iranian jet warned away from U.S. drone. As an Iranian fighter jet approached a Predator surveillance drone over the Persian Gulf earlier this week, it was warned away by a U.S. ...

Gareth Higgins We shouldn't really expect the Oscars to grasp the point of history, though this year the films nominated for Best Pi ...

Pastor released in September is re-arrested and ordered to complete prison sentence. Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor imprisoned for nearly three years for “apostasy” until hi ...

In some ways, the Sunni/Shiite divide is similar to divisions between Protestants and Catholics — both follow the same faith, but with different ways of understanding and worshipping God. ...

NEW YORK — Manhattan was a traffic nightmare as the United Nations General Assembly was in session and security precautions ramped up. Iran's president gave his usual insulting address. Israel's prim ...

Religious rights activists are hailing the release over the weekend of an Iranian pastor accused of apostasy and a Pakistani girl who was charged with blasphemy. Religious rights ...

According to a report late Friday from Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an international organization devoted to issues of religious freedom, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a Muslim convert to Christianity who has b ...

Religious minorities continue to suffer loss of their rights across the globe, the State Department reported on Monday, with a rise in blasphemy laws and restrictions on faith practices. ...

The State Deparment yesterday released a statement on the imprisonment of Iranian Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who has been imprisoned for over 1000 days on charges of apostasy. ...

Youcef Nadarkhani, the 35-year-old Christian pastor has been imprisoned in Iran since October 2009 after protesting a law that all children read the Quaran and being charged with evangelizing to Muslims. The trial date has been set for Sept. 8.  From ...

BosNewsLife.com reports : TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran has released Pastor Mehdi “Petros” Foroutan who served about one year in prison following a police crackdown on his and other house churches,  a spokesman told BosNewsLife late Tuesday. Jason ...

David Cortright History shows engagement, not attack, dissuades countries from developing nuclear weapons. CA ...

President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to crack down on Iran and Syria and promised to "never again" allow atrocities like those seen during the Holocaust. President Ba ...

Reza Aslan How U.S. and Israeli threats are undermining the democracy movement in Iran. WE IRANIANS ARE a cyn ...

After searching for a while, I found a post by the American Center for Law and Justice that confirmed what had become my hope: Reports of Nadarkhani's execution were false. L ...

While compiling the morning “Daily Digest,” I often recall the advice of Karl Barth, who is said to have told young theologians “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspa ...

In a speech to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, President Obama urged Israeli leaders to refrain from "loose talk of war" relate ...

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Color The 1 Percent 99 Percent Conflicted Soon after the Occupy Wall Street encampment was set up at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan last fall, 26-year-old Ryan Quick told his father, Leslie C. Quick III, a financier, that he might ...

It seems like every day we hear from another politician saying that “we are ready to attack Iran if necessary," or from another pundit full of hot air telling us why we should invade Iran right now. ...

A recent Gallup poll shows that 81 percent of Americans want the President to be focused on domestic issues, while 9 percent say they want him to focus on foreign policy issues. Not too surprising ... until yo ...

THE HUFFINGTON POST/RNS: The End Of 'Compassionate Conservatism'? The Republican presidential candidates competing for the affections of Florida voters have plenty of labels with which to tar each other: Influence peddler. Failed politic ...

No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we ho ...

In the fall of 2002 and winter of 2003, a steady drumbeat of rhetoric and accusations from the Bush administration were leading the United States into war against Iraq. In the fa ...

It’s hard to remember the warm-up to the Iraq war now almost 10 years old. Following the devastating experience of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001), the United States experienced enormous national feelings of anger and s ...

NPR: Evangelical Leaders Struggle To Crown A Candidate Rick Santorum was fresh off his surprise showing in the Iowa caucuses and fielding questions on a radio program, when a caller challenged the Republican presidential candidate on his overt rel ...

A round-up of recent Op-Ed columns from the mainstream media. A round-up of recent Op-Ed columns from the mainstream media. Susan Straight , an author whose nove ...

The news cycle often moves so quickly that very often big news stories are forgotten within a day, sometimes even more quickly. The news cycle often moves so quickly tha ...

UPDATES: Earlier today (Friday, Sept. 30), the Iranian Embassy in the U.K. issued the following statement regarding Pastor Nadarkhani: UPDATES: Earlier ...

Dead Sea Scrolls go digital Dead Sea Scrolls go digital The Dead Sea scrolls, 2,000 parchment and papyrus copies of 974 biblical texts, have been pixilated f ...

Similar to many of my Western counterparts, my first thoughts when I first heard about the attacks in Norway went to extreme Islamic terrorism. Similar to many of my Western count ...

One might think that three wars -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya -- would be enough. Apparently, for the United States military apparatus, it's not. One might think that three war ...

<p><a href="http://www.ryanrodrickbeiler.com/Palestine-Israel/Palestine-Israel-Portfolio/13237970_n64hV#1125028640_vBEo3" target="_blank"></a>People can take a certain amo ...

Ten years ago, I established AmmanNet, the Arab world's first Internet radio that used technology to create audio and text content freely. Ten years ago, I established AmmanN ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/02/07/christians-and-muslims-we-are-all-egyptians/" target="_self"></a>While much of the prognostication about Egypt's future ha ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/02/03/call-on-obama-tell-mubarak-to-leave-now/" target="_blank"></a>By all journalistic reports, it was the Egyptian government of Pr ...

<p><a href="/sites/default/files/images/110202-gascannister.jpg"></a>For an entire week now we've watched tens of thousands of Egyptians march demanding a change in government. ...

"To win the future" was a catch phrase for President Obama during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. "To win the future" was a catch phrase for Pres ...

<p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&amp;issue=soj1101&amp;article=is-god-violent" target="_blank"></a>I recently received a note from ...

This past Sunday and Monday the news media published their first summaries of the documents they received from WikiLeaks which contained more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2010/11/12/friday-links-round-up-natural-birth-pedicures-detroit/" target="_blank"></a>Natural Birth. Pedicures. Detroit. Here's a li ...

The emotion that grips me this morning, after watching President Obama's speech last night and listening to the commentary about the "end of our combat mission in Iraq," is a deep sadness. ...

<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="/sites/default/files/images/100826_MLK.jpg"></a>[Editor's Note: In anticipation of the anniversary of the March on Washington on ...

If I hadn't just read <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Millions-Coyote-Capitalism-Immigration/dp/047042334X?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=thenefrev-20&amp;link_code=btl&amp;camp=21368 ...

<p><a href="/sites/default/files/images/100728-wikileaks.jpg"></a>It's out: An enormous trove of <a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2010/07/27/wikileaks-truth-tellers-and-a- ...

The nuclear fuel swap deal signed between Iran and Turkey and Brazil is a positive development that deserves U.S. support. The nuclear fuel swap deal signed between Iran and Turke ...

It's the age-old question. Who can claim to speak for American Jews on Israel?</p> <p>World Jewish Congress president Ron Lauder seems to think he's found the answer. It's him.< ...

Monday and Tuesday, President Obama hosted leaders from 46 other countries at a summit on nuclear weapons, focused on the threat of terrorists getting nuclear material. Monday and ...

The new U.S. The new U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a significant step toward reducing nuclear dangers, advancing global nonproliferation norms, and facilitating further red ...