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For more information about the Christmas wars, see the recent transcript The Christmas Wars: Religion in the American Public Square. Heated disputes over seasonal religious displays in public spaces have become an American holiday tradition. Indeed, each year, as Christmas and Hanukkah approach, Americans across the country contest the appropriateness of the government sponsoring or […]
Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December 2006 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Peter Berkowitz, a Hoover Institution fellow, and Ari Shavit, a columnist for the Israeli paper Ha’aretz, offered a brief history of Zionism and argued […]
Except in France, most Muslim women choose to cover their heads — but many among the general public disapprove
Library of Congress Washington, D.C. With the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, the United States became one of the few countries in the world to make promotion of religious freedom an explicit foreign policy goal. The act, signed into law by President Clinton, established an Office of International Religious Freedom at […]
Pew Research Center Washington, D.C. In his recent article in Foreign Affairs, Walter Russell Mead argues that as U.S. evangelicals exert increasing political influence, they are becoming a powerful force in foreign affairs. In recent years, evangelicals have voted overwhelmingly Republican, helping to put conservatives at the helm of U.S. foreign policy, while focusing their […]
Washington, D.C. Recent violence between Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim guerrilla group, and Israel; sectarian conflict in Iraq and escalating tensions around Iran’s nuclear ambitions have drawn urgent attention to the resurgence and politicization of Shiite Islam and its relationship to Sunni Islam. The Pew Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations invited Vali Nasr, author […]
Washington, D.C. The Associated Press reports that a federal appeals court on Thursday, May 25, sent back a lower court’s order for a suburban Atlanta school district to remove textbook stickers calling evolution “a theory, not a fact.” The Pew Forum gives quick answers to complex questions raised by the news. Featuring: David Masci, Senior […]
Washington, D.C. A May 10 Associated Press article reports that U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina is allowing four former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to pursue a lawsuit alleging their U.S. captors violated their religious rights. The Pew Forum responds to questions raised by the news. Featuring: David Masci, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Forum on […]
Washington, D.C. Anwar Ibrahim has been called a leading force for reform in Malaysia and has written extensively on the political influence of Islam in Southeast Asia. After serving from 1993 to 1998 as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, Anwar was considered the heir apparent of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad until he was abruptly fired and […]
Download the Discussion Read the original Transcript The current legal and political battles surrounding the teaching of evolution in American schools are part of an 80-year-old debate stretching back to the summer of 1925 and the famous Scopes “monkey” trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Now, as then, the fight reflects deep divisions within the country over […]