Interfaith Christmas: Making God Boundless

Mike Ghouse

No matter what faith you belong, the Interfaith Christmas can offer everything you had always wanted and more: To live in peace with fellow beings without feeling apprehension, discomfort or the fear of the other.

Rumi commemorated in Konya with a Seb-i Arus ceremony

A Seb-i Arus ceremony took place in the central Anatolian province of Konya on Monday in order to commemorate Jalal al-Din Rumi.

How Christians Have Almost Destroyed the Season of Advent

The Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel*

Advent is one of my favorite times of the church year. It is the beginning of the year for us, different from the “new year” in our secular calendar. Advent is a time of quiet preparation and expectation. I think it is less penitential as it has been, and still is, practiced in some churches.

How the Quran and Islam Honors Mary

Hesham A. Hassaballa

The story of Mary is one spoken with great reverence in the Quran, for she is a woman like no other.

...centuries ago, there was a devout woman in Palestine who made an appeal to her Lord:

O my Lord! Behold, to You do I vow [the child] that is in my womb, to be devoted to Thy service. Accept it, then, from me: verily, You alone art all-hearing, all-knowing!

President Gül issues message to mark Jewish holiday

President Abdullah Gül honored the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, or Festival of Lights, on Friday and stated that he sincerely welcomes the holiday.

In a message released by the Presidency Press Center, Gül sent greetings to Turkish Jews as they began the celebration of Hanukkah, an eight-day religious holiday.

Eboo Patel explores religious pluralism

Manya A. Brachear

Honor religious freedom by respecting the red, white and blue, says Patel

Eboo Patel (Photo: Armando
L. Sanchez, Chicago Tribune)

Eboo Patel is an idealist. A hopeless romantic. A dreamer. The Chicago-based founder of the Interfaith Youth Core and one of President Barack Obama's faith advisers doesn't believe people of different faiths should just all get along. They should work together. But there's another attribute that has grounded Patel's optimism and led him to develop one of the nation's leading non-profits devoted to interfaith cooperation. Eboo Patel is a patriot. If pairing a so-called “foreign” name with the concept of American loyalty makes some bigots cringe, Patel's latest book will make them cringe cover to cover. In “Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America,” Patel confronts the challenges of living up to America's high ideals, takes on the bigots and explains how he briefly lost hope for his cause, only to find it once again.

All Saints Church, Hosting Muslim Public Affairs Council Convention, Receives Threats, Hate Mail

For the first time in its history, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is holding its annual convention at a Christian church. But now the council's host, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., is facing vitriolic backlash.

Our History of Religious Intolerance Must Come to an End

Rev. Gary R. Hall,
Amb. Thomas R. Pickering,
and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf*

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, religious intolerance still exists in this country. Thanksgiving reminds us that the Pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution. But the Puritans did not welcome other religions into their colony. All through American history, most religions arriving on our shores have had to fight suspicion and intolerance.