“There is no such thing as a just war: they do not exist!” In a speech at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on March 18, 2022, Pope Francis declared “war is always – always! – the defeat of humanity, always,” emphasizing there is no such thing as a just war. War is certainly a defeat for…
The contemporary debate around the right to free exercise of religion — and its limits — focuses overwhelmingly on conservative Christian beliefs about sex, gender, marriage, and reproduction. This is understandable given the vast resources and focus that the Christian right has placed on gaining religious exemptions from laws that advance LGBTQ nondiscrimination and reproductive…
Though the COVID health emergency within the U.S. seems to be lessening in intensity, the occurrence of 35,000 COVID hospitalizations per day and 12,000 deaths per week during early March 2022 shows that the crisis is clearly not over. Widespread resistance to public protocols and mandates aimed at halting the spread of the virus has…
President Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Justice Breyer’s seat on the Supreme Court. The nomination is no doubt historic: If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the third Black Supreme Court justice and first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. When it comes to matters of church and state, issues…
Last December, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Combating International Islamophobia Act. The bill creates a new position – a Special Envoy – within the U.S. State Department. The envoy would monitor Islamophobia globally. While the House passed companion legislation around the same time, the Senate bill…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has strained the attempts of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to maintain control and influence over its far-flung flock. The ROC has attempted to revive an imperial-style of church governance without the legal structures of an empire. Instead, it relies on mass media to cohere the wide territory claimed as its…
The bloody invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops has shaken the international order born of the ashes of World War II battlefields. Our fragile international system was shocked and stunned by the unbridled attack by Russia – a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council – whose leader is bent on seizing its neighbor Ukraine…
Ubuntu: I am because you are, because we are. But beyond that, I am because I belong, and I have chosen to belong, to form a part of, participate in, and unite with others and their ideas and ideologies, despite the realistic existence of nuances and differences. The meaning of this word reflects perhaps the…
Legal pluralism, as practiced in Egypt in the 19th – 20th centuries, was made possible within institutional structures, procedural norms, and Islamic legal practice under Khedival rule. Islamic legal practice during Ottoman rule not only made other legal traditions accepted within a pluralist legal order, but also, it made them germane to how the system…
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concluded with an agreement that would constitute the Glasgow Climate Pact. Throughout the Conference, high-profile figures such as Sir David Attenborough were enlisted to persuade delegates to respond boldly to climatological crises confronting the world. Leaders of various religions met before the actual conference and many issued important…