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October 2023, LGBTQ, Meaning Making
Maij Vu Mai
The Space Between Us

by Maij Vu Mai

What is religious pluralism to the Survivor? To the one who’s lost faith in themselves? Lost faith in other people? Lost faith in humanity? To the one who’s lost faith in their ability to connect because…

The Space Between Us
October 2023
Miranda Hovemeyer
Putting Interfaith Inclusivity to the Test

by Miranda Hovemeyer

I’ll be honest. I haven’t felt at home in the field of interfaith work for quite a while. During one of the last interfaith conferences I spoke at, I was asked by an older white gentleman why I was there, then insisting…

Putting Interfaith Inclusivity to the Test
Arts, October 2023
Sable Manson
Interfaith Retreat-in-a-Box

by Sable Manson

n the spring of 2020, I was working with my higher education colleagues to prepare for an interfaith retreat set on Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. We had planned numerous…

Interfaith Retreat-in-a-Box
October 2023, Emerging Interfaith Culture, Interfaith Relationships
Najeeba Syeed
Multi-Faith Relations in Rural Settings

by Najeeba Syeed

I’ve written about “casserole” hospitality, an ethic of care demonstrated in America’s Heartland found in communities of various traditions who welcome…

Multi-Faith Relations in Rural Settings
October 2023
Anum Mulla
Compassion as Strength: Reclaiming Religious ...

by Anum Mulla

When we talk about compassion, which by definition is found in aspiring to alleviate another’s suffering, it is far too often viewed as a path that only implores people to be kind. Some societies are…

Compassion as Strength: Reclaiming Religious Pluralism

Seven Principles of Interfaith Engagement

Seven Principles of Interfaith Engagement

by Jim Burklo

Here I offer some basic guidance about how people of different faiths can engage with each other in meaningful and productive ways. This advice is the product of 36 years of interfaith work, culminating in my present job as associate dean of the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California.

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Hablando con Extraños en Espacio Sagrado

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Hablando con Extraños en Espacio Sagrado

por Lynda Trono

Este año la Conexión NAIN (Red Inter-religiosa de Norteamérica) comenzó con una sorpresa. El tema fue Espacio Sagrado (Sacred Space). Y por primera vez en los 28 años de existencia de NAIN, su conferencia anual sucedió en Méjico.

The Gift of These Voices

The Gift of These Voices

Those of you who have followed TIO since it launched in September 2011 know that a major motivation for creating this publication was to tell the untold interfaith stories proliferating around the world. That much has begun, with 1,500 articles in TIO’s archive now being programmed with new software that should make them much more accessible by subject, theme, and author. We hope to launch TIO’s renovated website this September, with TIO’s whole library available to you in just a few clicks.

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Creating Sacred Space for All of Us

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Creating Sacred Space for All of Us
What might a space designed to accommodate the needs of all faiths look like? In 2004, an international ideas competition was held to design sacred spaces where people from all religious traditions could feel comfortable, safe, and respected.

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The Dark Side of the Golden Rule and Other ‘Universals’

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The Dark Side of the Golden Rule and Other ‘Universals’
The following reflection is excerpted from a longer presentation Donald Frew delivered at the August 2011 annual gathering of the North American Interfaith Network in Phoenix, Arizona, dedicated to exploring the Golden Rule

Featuring Eboo Patel

Featuring Eboo Patel
This year TIO has devoted its March-July issues highlighting a handful of contributors who have made a special mark in the interfaith community and been particularly generous in contributing to this journal. This month we are happy to share the work of Eboo Patel, a 41-year-old Muslim who grew up in Chicago, did his PhD at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then founded the Interfaith Youth Core. Today IFYC has a staff of 45, a $6.5 million annual budget, and a laser-like focus on developing interfaith leadership in the confines of higher education in the United States.

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New Rooms in the Interfaith Movement

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New Rooms in the Interfaith Movement
IN THE OPENING SESSION of an Interfaith Youth Core conference a few years ago, a Chicago pastor took the microphone and introduced himself. He spoke about how much he had gained from his Buddhist meditation practice, expressed disdain for Republicans in power, and proclaimed how excited he was to be in a friendly space with people of other faiths. Finally, he noted his frustration that a particular type of Christian was always absent from such gatherings, saying:

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What We Can Learn from the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

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What We Can Learn from the Same-Sex Seating Controversy
A recent New York Times story on the tension caused when Orthodox Jewish men request same-sex seating on airlines for religious reasons generated over 3,000 reader responses. The scenario as described in the story generally unfolds something like this: the individual reaches his assigned seat and finds that the seat next to him is occupied by a woman. He shifts uncomfortably in the aisle until the flight attendant or an alert passenger recognizes what’s going on and asks the woman to switch seats with a male so the Orthodox Jew may have his religious views accommodated. Often the woman is offended; sometimes she refuses to move. This has made for many challenging situations and some flight delays.

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The New Identity Politics of Religion

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The New Identity Politics of Religion
As an undergraduate in the early 1990s, the heyday of identity politics, I was a full-throated participant in the protests for cultural centers and academic study programs that focused on racial and ethnic minorities.

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In Promoting Campus Diversity, Don’t Dismiss Religion

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In Promoting Campus Diversity, Don’t Dismiss Religion
A few weeks back, I was on a campus visit to the University of California at Los Angeles, where I first heard the story of Rachel Beyda. A pre-law sophomore, she applied for a seat on UCLA’s student Judicial Board and found her various identities an area of focus in the interview process.

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Excerpts from Interfaith Leadership: A Primer

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Excerpts from Interfaith Leadership: A Primer
Below are excerpts from the opening and closing of the Introduction to Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, a new book from Eboo Patel being published by Beacon Press this August. Copyright by Eboo Patel.

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Hacking a Better Future for Interfaith Cooperation

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At the recent Religion Communicators Council convention in New York City, Daniel Sieberg of Google News Lab gave attendees a peek at some of the cool tools that Google has in its carousel. Most of us use the Google Search and Maps features regularly, but there is much more under Google’s hood. Several tools got me thinking about how we could significantly improve the enterprise of interfaith cooperation.

Featuring Vicki Garlock and Bud Heckman

The best gift in editing this publication for the past five years has been getting acquainted and working with hundreds of interfaith leaders, young and old, women and men, from dozens of different national, religious, and spiritual affiliations.

Featuring Ruth Broyde Sharone

If ‘interfaith’ is considered a big tent, you might say it covers the whole of humankind and our relationships, includes indeed all that lives, according to so many traditions. The 21st century really is different because we’re much more connected with each other, and our networks grow each day. So many changes in a few years, so many strangers who’ve become friends!

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Varanasi Now and Forever

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“There is hardly any city in the world that can claim greater antiquity, greater continuity, and greater popularity than Banaras (the British name for Varanasi). Banaras has been a holy city for at least 30 centuries. No city in India arouses the emotions of Hindus as much as Kasi does.” (Varanasi’s name in Hindu religious literature)

Featuring Marcus Braybrooke

The Reverend Doctor Marcus Braybrooke has aptly been called the dean of interfaith historians. He has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles attending interfaith events for half a century. His work mining the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago and the subsequent evolution of the Parliament of the World’s Religions is where the student of interfaith history must begin. Amazon’s Marcus Braybrooke Page, which lists 37 of his books, introduces him this way: “Marcus Braybrooke is an Anglican priest, an interfaith activist and author. He is President of the World Congress of Faiths, Co-Founder of the Three Faiths Forum, and a Peace Councilor.”

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Muslims for Progressive Values Takes on Wahhabism

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One day she woke up and said to herself, “Enough is enough.”

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What It Is Like to Have Interfaith Dialogues

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I have been an active member of Multi-Faith Student Council at the University of Minnesota for two years now. I have been fortunate to learn so much about other people and their faith. I am no expert on interfaith dialogues but did pick up some things along the way. The beginning can be awkward because you don’t want to ask dumb questions or seem ignorant. The truth is, there is no such thing as a dumb question.

Planning this Year for TIO 2.0

This month marks the fiftieth issue of The Interfaith Observer (TIO), and the time has come to take a breath and a break from ‘business as usual.’ For the next five months, from March through July of 2016, TIO will look back and gather the work by and about five of our most prolific writers, one a month. Next month, we will feature the work of Marcus Braybrooke.

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Sweden’s Religious Community Responds to Flood of Refugees

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During the autumn and winter of 2015 Sweden has had a great influx of refugees, mainly from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. More than 250,000 men, women and children have arrived in Sweden in recent months. Sweden, a nation of nine million inhabitants, has been caught unprepared. Sweden and Germany are the two countries in Europe that have received the largest number of refugees. Södertälje, a small town south of Stockholm, has received more refugees from Iraq than all of the United States. The comparison between Europe and the U.S. in receiving refugees is stunning. The U.S. has received a total of 2,000 refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Europe has received around two million people from these countries during the last six months!