“Freedom of conscience underlies all other rights. It’s why our Bill of Rights begins with the free exercise of religion, and without the freedom of conscience to live in accordance with your core values, all other rights are in peril,” says Rabbi David Saperstein. More →

November 6, 2015

“We have not seen these kinds of attacks on Christians all over the world in a long time,” according to Rev. Thomas Reese, SJ, a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. “We have to focus the attention of the world on the crisis that Christians face, and we need governments to recognize this is an issue they have to deal with.” More →

April 10, 2015

A delegation of top Yazidi spiritual leaders is seeking help for their ancient religious minority in Iraq, which has been particularly targeted by ISIS. “We became victims of one of the largest…atrocities of the modern world,” says Yazidi human rights advocate Murad Ismael. More →

October 31, 2014

“Some people call it laughter through tears. I would suggest you could call it laughter through fears,” says Harvard University Yiddish literature professor Ruth Wisse. More →

January 10, 2014

“There is a lot of irony in the fact that the monk Wirathu and his followers are using fear in order to incite acts of violence that are precisely against the spirit of so much Buddhist teaching,” says Eyal Aviv, a professor of religious studies and international affairs at George Washington University. More →

August 22, 2013

“The questions in the eyes of many other Muslims,” says Georgetown University Islamic studies professor John Esposito, is “are these people really Muslims or not?” More →

January 20, 2012

During decades of civil war in Sudan, says John Ashworth of Catholic Relief Services, the church was the only institution on the ground with the people, and because of that it gained huge moral authority. Now South Sudan is voting in a referendum for independence from the Muslim-majority national government in Khartoum. More →

January 14, 2011