Monday’s Religion News Roundup

Ahead of a congressional hearing on homegrown Muslim terrorism on Thursday, the White House is pushing a message of religious tolerance, Muslims are protesting, and the congressman behind the hearings is defending himself against charges of xenophobia and hypocrisy. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough visited a Washington-area mosque known for its cooperation with the […]

Ahead of a congressional hearing on homegrown Muslim terrorism on Thursday, the White House is pushing a message of religious tolerance, Muslims are protesting, and the congressman behind the hearings is defending himself against charges of xenophobia and hypocrisy.

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough visited a Washington-area mosque known for its cooperation with the FBI and praised Muslim-Americans. “You’ve sent a message that those who perpetrate such horrific attacks do not represent you or your faith, and that they will not succeed in pitting believers of different faiths against one another,” McDonough said.

In Times Square on Sunday, 300 people gathered to to protest the hearing, saying that singling out Muslims is unfair and divisive.


Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the man behind the hearings, defended the need for them. “I don’t believe there is sufficient cooperation” by American Muslims with law enforcement, King said Sunday on CNN. “Certainly my dealings with the police in New York and FBI and others say they do not believe they get the same – they do not give the level of cooperation that they need.”

King’s past support for the Irish Republican Army, which has used violence in its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, has some critics crying hypocrisy, WaPo reports.

Germany’s new interior minister said that Islam is not a part of the German way of life, and France plans to hold a national debate on the role of Islam in French society, according to Reuters.

In case you missed it, House Speaker John Boehner announced last Friday that the House of Representatives will defend DOMA now that President Obama won’t.

For the last three years, U.S. federal prisons have housed special units called “Gitmo North” that are disproportionately filled with Muslim inmates whose communication with the outside world is strictly monitored, AFP reports.

Noting that Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims (and maybe feeling a little guilty about that) the Council on American-Islamic Relations has offered a $5,000 reward after two Sikh men were gunned down – one of them fatally – in Northern California.


Plaintiffs’ attorneys and private investigators have been searching for 233 Roman Catholic clergy accused of sexual abuse in civil lawsuits in an attempt to persuade a judge to recommend the release of church files for every cleric ever accused of sexual abuse. More than 80 cannot be located, according to the AP.

The Catholic Church in Mexico is trying to confront its historic ties to drug traffickers, who are very generous and very violent. For the second time in two months, the Vatican has sided with parishioners against a U.S. bishop who wanted to close their church.

A Chinese government official said there will be shock waves in Tibet when the Dalai Lama dies but that the Communist leadership will not allow serious instability, according to the AP.

Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has penned letters to 600 world leaders – including Obama – warning them, “Repent ye! Repent ye! My day of judgments upon all the earth is at hand.”

Raucous crowds danced in the streets of the Haiti, which celebrated its first Carnival since last year’s devastating earthquake.

A small historically black Pentecostal church is drawing new parishioners from unlikely sources: MIT and Hahvad. The New York Times wonders why young persons who eschew premarital sex, drug use, or general debauchery (a la evangelicals) would want to join a frat.


Mother Teresa is waiting for a miracle.

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