A Sense of Belonging

Religious Freedom for the Muslim World: The Unlikely Activism of Kamal Fahmi

A few excerpts from my article for The Media Project. Kamal Fahmi sat with Mazen, a Yemeni teenager at a community center in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city and cultural capital. Mazen’s father was there, who arranged the meeting. Impressed with the boy’s intelligence and demeanor, Fahmi learned of their troubling problem. Mazen didn’t want to … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: Competition, Good and Evil

God, There is pleasure in struggle, but spite is so easy. Egypt found a long-lost joy, an international opportunity, and a rare but familiar reminder. For the first time since 1990, the national soccer team qualified for the World Cup. Frequently the African champion, the streets filled and horns honked after the stoppage time winning … Continue reading →

The Public Spectacle of a Slain Coptic Priest

This article was first published at World Watch Monitor. The images are horrific. Fr. Samaan Shehata, a 45-year-old Coptic Orthodox priest lay dead on the ground, stabbed and beaten by a young man wielding a meat cleaver. Blood dripped down his face into his long, black beard. Dirt discolored his flowing, black robe. His cross … Continue reading →

Wisdom and Foolishness in Abrahamic Faith

“Knowledge is power,” is an oft-repeated saying. In an information economy this makes perfect sense, and our educational system is geared to develop know-how. Wisdom, on the other hand, sometimes seems a neglected virtue. It is the realm of philosophers, maybe, who have little to do with practical life. Or religion, often considered a private … Continue reading →

Dealing with Death at a Distance – 5 Tips for Saying Goodbye

The expat life has many benefits, but one of the hardest challenges is being far from family. This can be felt the most when you hear of someone who is sick, receives a bad medical prognosis, or is in an accident. Living in a foreign country is hard when a loved one is dying. What … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: Palestine, Parliament

God, To make peace, to make law – men must meet together. Egypt has played a primary role in fostering unity between Fatah and Hamas. There can be little progress in just peace with Israel when Palestinians are feuding. And now Egypt’s parliament opens a new session. The first word: Do not defame the body. … Continue reading →

Copts in Egypt’s Textbooks

There is a general understanding that Egypt’s Christians are marginalized in the educational curriculum. An additional idea is that this came during an Islamization period in the 1970s, or perhaps during Nasser’s presidency. A researcher examined this question and described them on Mada Masr. Here is his evaluation: Based on an analysis of Egyptian … Continue reading →

Is the Muslim Brotherhood Linked to Violence?

The link between the Muslim Brotherhood and the ongoing terrorism in Egypt is a controversial question. The government says yes, the MB leadership says no, and Western analysts appear split on the issue. Some see the Brotherhood as the fount of all Islamist violence, others note decades of proclaimed nonviolence in a gradualist strategy to transform … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: Mashrou3

God, Some people have a project. Others like to project. And some just like to sing. Judge between them, God. Their intentions and their cause. An upscale district in Cairo invited a popular Lebanese band to a concert festival. The lead singer is well known as a homosexual. Some in the crowd raised a rainbow … Continue reading →

Muslims Work for Religious Freedom, in Italy

Some of the articles I’ve written concern interfaith efforts to secure religious freedom, particularly in Muslim nations. Two days ago, the Saudi-based Muslim World League met with the Italian Minister of the Interior to best secure Muslim rights in the traditionally Catholic nation. In a helpful explanation from the 2016 US Report on International Religious … Continue reading →

Why Egyptians Get Confused by Our American Children’s Names

Names don’t work the same in every culture. We realized this six years ago, when our oldest daughter came home from her first days of school with “Emma Jaison” printed on her books. Her name is Emma Hope Casper, which I clearly wrote on all her official forms. But I also filled out the ever-important … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: United Nations

God, Significant things happened within Egypt this week. A prisoner was acquitted after four years detainment. Two churches reopened after security concerns. Police station spot inspections were begun by parliament. But the president was in New York at the United Nations, significantly negotiating the path of the nation. He earned praise for helping un-divide the … Continue reading →

Did the Muslims Conquer Jerusalem?

Did the Muslims conquer the Middle East? History says they did, from both the Western and Islamic perspectives. Much of the self-understanding of modern civilization has been built upon this premise, the resulting Crusades, and eventual colonization by European powers. Some fear there are signs of a renewed animosity between the Western and Muslim worlds, a … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: Militant Human Rights

God, Egypt is abuzz over human rights allegations, accusing security of systemized torture. Egypt is ablaze in militant conflict, attacking security in systemized violence. Clarity, God, and safety. Settle the challenges Egypt must face. The government refutes the charges of torture, stating any examples are individual, investigated, and prosecuted. It states the research into the … Continue reading →

Saudi Arabia’s Neighbor Defends Religious Freedom of Individuals

This article was originally published by Christianity Today, on September 13. The cause of religious freedom received a significant boost from the Muslim world today. The island Kingdom of Bahrain—connected by bridge to Saudi Arabia—has declared “freedom of choice” to be a “divine gift.” “We unequivocally reject compelled observance,” states the Bahrain Declaration for Religious … Continue reading →

A Long Good-Bye, From Far Away

Today, September 12, would have been my mother-in-law’s 67th birthday. Tayta, as our children call her, passed away six months ago. She fought courageously through two bouts of cancer, and the first time she triumphed. The second time, she succumbed. We remember her well, but the relationship will never be the same. Complicating things completely … Continue reading →

Friday Prayers for Egypt: Rohingya

God, The Azhar spoke out about the death and displacement of Muslims from Myanmar. It called on the world’s conscience to care, and the international community to do something about it. It also asserted—rightly or wrongly—that if they were Jews, Christians, or Buddhists, there would have been action already. God, some of the images are … Continue reading →

Happy Birthday: The First Coptic Church in North America

At least in urban and suburban America, it seems like Copts are everywhere. There is an Orthodox Church a town over from where I grew up in New Jersey. I played soccer with an Egyptian Christian in high school. Strange to think then, the church in North America is only 39-years-old, today. Technically that … Continue reading →

The Uneasy Life of a Middle East Skeleton

Meet Max. In skeleton-years he is at least 55. Max came to our home about three years ago, and I must confess we have not treated him very well. At the time of his arrival our young children had Egyptian friends playing over the house, and we are unsure if there was any unspoken trauma … Continue reading →

Is Sex Slavery Legal in Islam?

In my recent post about al-Azhar and the doctrine they spread around the world, one reader offered this question in the comments: Someone I know wrote an article about Islam recently and made the statement that, according to his knowledge, official Islam has never condemned the action of ISIS soldiers in raping Yazidi women. He … Continue reading →