From BBC News

“Long live Baba!”  The chant echoed down the street outside Prashanti Nilayam (Abode of Peace), the ashram that Sathya Sai Baba set up in Puttaparthi.

Thousands of people were packed tightly in the narrow lane, many of them seated on the ground, their hands joined in prayer as they murmured his name.

These were ordinary Indians, people who believed Sai Baba to be a living…

by Robyn Henderson-Espinoza

From State of Formation

They (the Christians) call today “Holy Saturday.”  In fact, I’m on my way to be with them on this (Holy) Saturday.  I’ve not been in a Saturday Church Service in years, and I’m perfectly happy being a sorted and doubting insider on the outside of a dominant religious sector called…

By Jessica Ravitz, CNN

Around the world, people are still struggling to come to terms with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which have left more than 8,000 dead, thousands more missing and hundreds of thousand others homeless. The threat of a nuclear crisis only adds to the…

Niqab wearer explains why she will continue to wear a veil despite the new ban in France

from the Guardian

Anne [not her real name], 32, is French and lives in a village south of the Burgundy town of Mâcon. A mother of four, she converted to Islam at 18 and has worn the niqab for five…

by Ruth Messinger

from the Huffington Post

Last spring, my organization, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), asked its supporters to set an empty place at their Shabbat tables. This was a gesture to show solidarity with the hundreds of millions of people who go to…

From The Washington Post

The newly enacted French ban on all face veils is a really poor response to a quite legitimate concern. The concern to which I refer is not what some see as the inevitable takeover of Europe by fundamentalist Muslims. That is an Islamophobic fantasy designed…

From The Huffington Post

A lot of people ask me what it’s like to be a Muslim comedian and if it’s possible to be religious and funny. I believe laughter and prayer helps people heal. Islam is not just something I practice, like working out or something. It’s how I aim to live my life. It makes me a peaceful person, easy-going, positive by nature, loving, caring, forgiving, firm and confident. It has taught me that we are all connected — we…

From The Huffington Post

1. God created the universe.

This is the most fundamental concept of Judaism. Its implications are that only God has absolute ownership over Creation (Gen. 1-2, Psalm 24:1, I Chron. 29:10-16). Thus, Judaism’s worldview is theocentric not anthropocentric. The environmental implications are that humans must realize that they do not have unrestricted freedom to misuse Creation, as it does not…

From State of Formation

I was walking down the crowded, cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem’s Old City when a bearded man with narrow eyes reached out his hand and tried to grab my breast.  I did not know him.  I had not made eye contact.  I was not acting provocatively—in fact, despite a heat wave that added insult to the already injurious desert summer, I was burning up in the long-sleeved shirt and ankle-length skirt that’s customary for…

From State of Formation

I was walking down the crowded, cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem’s Old City when a bearded man with narrow eyes reached out his hand and tried to grab my breast.  I did not know him.  I had not made eye contact.  I was not acting provocatively—in fact, despite a heat wave that added insult to the already injurious desert summer, I was burning up in the long-sleeved shirt and ankle-length skirt that’s customary for…

From State of Formation

I was walking down the crowded, cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem’s Old City when a bearded man with narrow eyes reached out his hand and tried to grab my breast.  I did not know him.  I had not made eye contact.  I was not acting provocatively—in fact, despite a heat wave that added insult to the already injurious desert summer, I was burning up in the long-sleeved shirt and ankle-length skirt that’s customary for…

From State of Formation

I was walking down the crowded, cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem’s Old City when a bearded man with narrow eyes reached out his hand and tried to grab my breast.  I did not know him.  I had not made eye contact.  I was not acting provocatively—in fact, despite a heat wave that added insult to the already injurious desert summer, I was burning up in the long-sleeved shirt and ankle-length skirt that’s customary for…

by Whittney Barth

from State of Formation

I am currently a master’s student at Harvard Divinity School in a program I chose in large part because of the religiously diverse student body. Students, faculty, and staff gather weekly to take part in a Noon Service hosted by one of the student organizations on campus. The hosts alternate: one week we are meditating with the…