Readers React: Islam remains misunderstood 17 years after 9/11
Since the 2016 election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there has been an increase in hate groups in the U.S. due to the actions of the current president. White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been emboldened and there has been an uptick in divisiveness, bigotry and Islamophobia. Both Jews and Muslims face increased prejudice […]
Activist Group Accuses Myanmar Military of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’
The activist group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused the Myanmar military of committing “crimes against humanity” as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee violence in Rakhine State. “The Burmese military is brutally expelling the Rohingya from northern Rakhine State,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “The massacres of […]
Report: Russia Among World’s Worst on Religious Freedom
Days after imposing a complete ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses operating in the country, Russia has been labeled a “country of particular concern” by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). It is the first time that Russia has been designated among the highest tier of violators of religious freedom. It joins 15 other […]
China Bans Muslim Baby Names in Xinjiang Region
Chinese authorities have banned a list of Muslim names for children born in the northwestern region of Xinjiang according to reports. Officials released a list of dozens of baby names with religious connotations used by Muslims around the world. The ban on baby names existed in Hotan, a region of the semi-autonomous Xinjiang, since 2015, […]
After Travel Ban Ruling, Return to 9th Circuit Court Would be Next
The first time a U.S. federal court issued a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the government filed an appeal the next day. After Wednesday’s court ruling against Trump’s second executive order, which temporarily suspends refugee admissions and the issuance of new visas to people from six countries, an appeal to the […]
Trump’s travel ban: How could Hawaii block it?
Just hours before President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban was set to go into effect, a federal judge in Hawaii issued a temporary restraining order, putting the ban on hold. The ban would have restricted entry of citizens of six Muslim-majority nations into the US for 90 days and temporarily suspended the refugee programme from […]
Best Legal Arguments Against Trump’s Immigration Ban
Is President Trump’s recent executive order on immigrants and refugees legal? It’s a surprisingly tricky question. The order arguably violates both a federal statute and one or more sections of the Constitution—depending on whether the immigrant is already in the U.S. In the end, opponents’ best hope for undoing…
A Brief History On The Fear of Immigrants
Trump’s Immigration Ban and the Loss of Our Democracy
I stood dismayed, the cold piercing my body, staring at a bleak landscape. It was 2002. I had just ended my first interrogation session of an al-Qaeda terrorist at one of our “black sites.” I wanted, like all my colleagues, to find and destroy the Islamic terrorists who had attacked my country. And I knew, […]
What the Bible says about welcoming refugees
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that placed a stay on refugees from seven Muslim majority countries. Entrance of refugees from Syria, however, will be banned for the next 120 days. Two days prior to…