RNS Morning Report: Muslim Role Models; Social Enterprise Startup; Gospel Choirs

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Need to know: Friday, March 29, 2019

How new role models are inspiring young Muslim women to reimagine their lives

Reasserting an earlier tradition of strong female voices, Muslim high school and college students are dedicated to making change inside and outside Islam.

Faith and civil rights groups ask for FBI meeting on white nationalism

'Our communities must go to their houses of worship every week knowing that they are a target, and the FBI won't even give us the time to hear our concerns,' said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates.

Nuns in Africa create social enterprise startups to help communities

A Silicon Valley social enterprise 'accelerator' has linked with a network of African nuns to help low-income families help themselves.

Gospel choirs try to build racial harmony through song

In St. Louis, a diverse gospel choir tries to build racial harmony through a love of music.

NBA star Enes Kanter on faith, basketball and political activism

Simran Jeet Singh writes, Enes Kanter is not your average NBA player. How many NBA players have clashed publicly with dictators and their regimes? Or have had their home countries request red notices from Interpol?

Puerto Rico bans conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló signed an executive order on Wednesday banning the medically denounced practice of “gay conversion” therapy for minors across the island.

 


 

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Egyptian seminary renews its claim as arbiter of Islam’s true meaning

With Islam under global scrutiny and ISIS projecting power over the internet, Al-Azhar University's observatory has set out to counter terrorist messaging.

For Israeli lunar lander, faith provides inspiration and challenges

An engineer says SpaceIL and SpaceX had many 'long discussions' about moving the launch date so it didn't overlap with the Jewish Sabbath.

How the White House is courting evangelicals on its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

A March 7 meeting at the White House is just one of a series of meetings, dinners, lunches and coffees the Trump administration has had with evangelical leaders as it prepares to release its peace plan.

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Taking stock of the clergy sexual abuse crisis: Holding bishops accountable

(RNS) — As the Catholic sexual abuse crisis has rolled on, the demand that the bishops be held accountable has become the focus of inquiries from the Vatican to attorney general offices across the U.S.

How many Millennials are really leaving the LDS Church?

Mormons in the United States used to retain about three-quarters of their young people. Now it looks to be closer to half, writes Jana Riess.

All Americans owe it to our country to see what’s happening at the border

There's a widespread system of criminalization, commodification and dehumanization that pervades every corner of our immigration and border apparatus, write Aaron Alexander and Lauren Holtzblatt.