https://znetwork.org/category/topic/culture-race/religion/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:22:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/culture-race/religion/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organizers-fight-back-as-missouri-moves-to-crack-down-on-speech-in-schools/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organizers-fight-back-as-missouri-moves-to-crack-down-on-speech-in-schools/#respond Mon, 16 Feb 2026 18:22:44 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294794 A bill moving through the Missouri legislature threatens to censor public school curricula, lead to attacks on teachers, and chill First Amendment speech. If passed, HB 2061 would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism into codes of conduct for Missouri’s public schools and universities. That definition has been the subject of intense critique from dozens [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/organizers-fight-back-as-missouri-moves-to-crack-down-on-speech-in-schools/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mohammad-deepak-the-vanguard-the-republic-needs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mohammad-deepak-the-vanguard-the-republic-needs/#respond Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:58:35 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294785 On January 26, the day we celebrate the birth of the Republic, a Hindu gym owner in Kotdwar, Uttarakhand, stepped up to confront a Bajrang Dal posse who were ordering Vakil Ahmed, owner of the Baba Cloth Shop, to remove the appellation “Baba” from his shop name. It was their contention that Baba is a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mohammad-deepak-the-vanguard-the-republic-needs/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/steadfast-resistance-under-occupation-from-minneapolis-to-palestine/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/steadfast-resistance-under-occupation-from-minneapolis-to-palestine/#respond Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:55:59 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1294513 Two images, from opposite sides of the world, are seared into our minds:  Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in his blue knit bunny hat, carrying his Spiderman backpack, being snatched from the streets and detained by ICE.  Five-year-old Hind Rajab’s voice, tiny and terrified, crying out for help from the car as her family members’ dead bodies lay next [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/steadfast-resistance-under-occupation-from-minneapolis-to-palestine/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/#respond Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:49:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293669 On Boxing Day 2006, Ethiopian troops, endorsed by the United States, rolled into Mogadishu. Their intervention, aimed at crushing the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and installing “a weak, decentralised client state … willing to settle for ongoing state collapse rather than risk a revived Arab-backed government in Mogadishu”, shattered a fragile moment of order and birthed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-somaliland-gamble-is-repeating-the-bloody-history-that-created-al-shabaab/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-making-of-a-maga-martyr/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-making-of-a-maga-martyr/#respond Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:12:21 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293119 In the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump quickly took up the cause of a 35-year-old veteran named Ashli Babbitt. “Who killed Ashli Babbitt?” he asked in a one-sentence statement on July 1, 2021.  “An innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman,” Trump said during a Fox [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-making-of-a-maga-martyr/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-christmas-once-meant-and-what-it-could-mean-again-for-a-divided-america/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-christmas-once-meant-and-what-it-could-mean-again-for-a-divided-america/#respond Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292679 When we think of Christmas today, what comes first to mind? Twinkling lights along Main Street, the ceaseless hum of commerce, the relentless parade of advertisements promising joy measured in price tags. Rarely, if ever, do we pause to consider the ethical marrow beneath this season. And yet, for all its modern commercial veneer, Christmas—like [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/what-christmas-once-meant-and-what-it-could-mean-again-for-a-divided-america/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/#respond Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292685 Jesus’s birth was a silent night, when all was calm and all was bright, but there was a context to the Christmas story critical to understanding the lesson of Christmas. This context gives insight into why Jesus taught what he later taught. It was a time of foment, rebellion, near civil war, with fake news, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-christmas-story-the-courage-jesus-learned-as-a-refugee/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wall-of-separation-between-church-state-the-first-amendment-under-threat/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wall-of-separation-between-church-state-the-first-amendment-under-threat/#respond Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:56:08 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292644 Speaking today at Turning Point USA’s annual “AmericaFest” conference, Vice President J.D. Vance said, to great applause: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.” Actually, we haven’t. Vance’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-wall-of-separation-between-church-state-the-first-amendment-under-threat/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/peddling-lord-ram-as-a-slick-commercial-acronym/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/peddling-lord-ram-as-a-slick-commercial-acronym/#respond Mon, 22 Dec 2025 15:43:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292616 The revanchist government of the day was clearly canny enough to understand that removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGA) which was an enforceable right-to-work budgeted endowment would be seen as an egregious enormity, a veritable red line even for compliant Hindu followers. So, they pressed into service the only entity that could [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/peddling-lord-ram-as-a-slick-commercial-acronym/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/was-the-pentecostal-boom-in-latin-america-a-cia-psyop/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/was-the-pentecostal-boom-in-latin-america-a-cia-psyop/#respond Sun, 30 Nov 2025 16:19:24 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1291797 The surge of Protestant missionaries and charismatic revivals across South America didn’t happen in a vacuum; it unfolded within a Cold War landscape where the United States actively sought religious movements that could blunt the rise of Catholic liberation theology. If you look closely at the historical record, declassified CIA cables, State Department memos, USAID [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/was-the-pentecostal-boom-in-latin-america-a-cia-psyop/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/islam-vs-the-west-the-four-biggest-fallacies-about-islam-explained/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/islam-vs-the-west-the-four-biggest-fallacies-about-islam-explained/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290894 Isn’t Islam inherently violent? What stopped the Islamic world having an Enlightenment? Why are some Muslims so into head-chopping? And isn’t Hamas the same as Islamic State? A recent conversation with a friend highlighted to me how little most westerners know about Islam, and how they struggle to distinguish between Islam and Islamism. This lack [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/islam-vs-the-west-the-four-biggest-fallacies-about-islam-explained/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-deterioration-of-the-concept-of-communal-into-vote-bank/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-deterioration-of-the-concept-of-communal-into-vote-bank/#respond Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:19:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290589 In the area of Humanist studies in sociology it is perhaps hard to find a more endearing concept than that of the “communal.” Be it Latin, French, German, or English, all extensive etymological studies show how the word denoted that which is general, collective, public, “Held in common” – a history that was to lead [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-deterioration-of-the-concept-of-communal-into-vote-bank/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/muslim-surveillance-the-real-story-behind-the-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/muslim-surveillance-the-real-story-behind-the-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2025 18:19:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1290595 In May 2016, an organisation of Western governments headquartered in Berlin, called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), adopted a definition of anti-Semitism that incorporates anti-Zionism. That definition has become the pre-eminent benchmark for identifying anti-Semitism by governments, public bodies and universities across the global North. Due to its conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/muslim-surveillance-the-real-story-behind-the-ihra-definition-of-anti-semitism/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/justice-you-shall-pursue-rabbi-david-mivasairs-lifeline-to-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/justice-you-shall-pursue-rabbi-david-mivasairs-lifeline-to-gaza/#respond Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:34:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289872 On a damp morning in Hamilton, Ontario, Rabbi David Mivasair leans over a laptop in his home office, toggling between WhatsApp threads filled with names he now knows by heart — families in Gaza he has been speaking with for nearly two years. A father searching for insulin for his daughter. A grandmother whose house [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/justice-you-shall-pursue-rabbi-david-mivasairs-lifeline-to-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-sparks-global-protests-except-in-india/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-sparks-global-protests-except-in-india/#respond Wed, 01 Oct 2025 18:06:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289368 While accepting the Orizzonti best director award at the Venice Film Festival, Anuparna Roy, the first Indian to do so, closed her acceptance speech by urging people to care about what was happening to the children in Palestine. “Every child deserves peace, freedom, liberation, and Palestine is no exception,” Roy said. “I don’t want any [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-sparks-global-protests-except-in-india/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/green-islam-how-muslims-are-powering-environmental-action-across-the-world/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/green-islam-how-muslims-are-powering-environmental-action-across-the-world/#respond Tue, 26 Aug 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287787 As the world grapples with myriad environmental problems, a growing number of studies  shows the role of religion is key. Religion influences people’s worldviews, including how we think about nature and our roles within it. This is true of Islam, one of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing religions. Islamic teachings on protecting nature can help inform how we respond to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/green-islam-how-muslims-are-powering-environmental-action-across-the-world/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/speak-out-now-against-netanyahus-final-solution-for-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/speak-out-now-against-netanyahus-final-solution-for-gaza/#respond Mon, 18 Aug 2025 19:18:18 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287462 The world is asking why major Jewish organizations, and congregations around the country, aren’t speaking out about genocide. It can’t be hidden. The failure to condemn Israel’s crimes against humanity is a glaring breakdown of moral responsibility, casting a dark shadow and is a growing source of antisemitism. I have overheard neighbors, who are not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/speak-out-now-against-netanyahus-final-solution-for-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-antisemitic-wine-in-new-antiracist-bottles/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-antisemitic-wine-in-new-antiracist-bottles/#comments Fri, 08 Aug 2025 16:21:31 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287070 The movement for Palestinian rights has long been one of the least antisemitic spaces in US politics. It is highly conscious of the dangers of antisemitism, because of its vile similarity to racism against Palestinians, because of the large Jewish presence among anti-genocide forces, and because of awareness that pro-genocide forces constantly smear anyone supporting [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/old-antisemitic-wine-in-new-antiracist-bottles/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-christian-zionist-view-of-foreign-policy-is-holy-war/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-christian-zionist-view-of-foreign-policy-is-holy-war/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:49:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287022 “You’re very much into God in this room and that’s very nice,” President Donald Trump told a group of business leaders at a July 14 luncheon hosted by the White House Faith Office. In attendance were dozens of corporate executives, including Hobby Lobby CEO David Green and oil billionaire Albert Huddleston, along with senior administration officials. “You’re more than [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-christian-zionist-view-of-foreign-policy-is-holy-war/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/winning-hearts-and-minds/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/winning-hearts-and-minds/#respond Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:01:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286436 Most days, in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Bible Belt, the old sanctuary at Christ Lutheran Church sits empty. Decades ago, it was home to a congregation of 3,000 people. By the late 1990s, that number had dwindled to seven. At the turn of the millennium, Jody Silliker, a young minister fresh out of seminary, was [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/winning-hearts-and-minds/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-attack-on-piera-mosque-and-the-rising-tide-of-islamophobia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-attack-on-piera-mosque-and-the-rising-tide-of-islamophobia/#respond Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:44:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286191 On the 12th of July, 2025, a devastating act of Islamophobia unfolded in Piera, Spain. The Piera Mosque, a symbol of the local Muslim community, was set on fire in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime. While the incident has sparked widespread condemnation from the Muslim community and officials such as the Mayor [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-attack-on-piera-mosque-and-the-rising-tide-of-islamophobia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-faith-leaders-are-standing-up-to-the-largest-pro-israel-christian-lobby/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-faith-leaders-are-standing-up-to-the-largest-pro-israel-christian-lobby/#respond Sat, 05 Jul 2025 15:28:26 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285848 At lunchtime on July 1, as the Senate prepared to vote on Trump’s deeply unpopular “Big Beautiful Bill,” the cafeteria line at the Rayburn House Office Building ground to a halt. Where lobbyists and staffers usually rushed through the midday crush, over 100 clergy and faith leaders had gathered in solemn resistance. They linked arms [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-faith-leaders-are-standing-up-to-the-largest-pro-israel-christian-lobby/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-present-and-future-of-left-jewish-identity/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-present-and-future-of-left-jewish-identity/#respond Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:53:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284765 As Jewish protesters began flooding capitol building rotundas, blockading roads in cities across the country, and staging an unprecedented protest in New York City’s Grand Central Station, journalists attempted to pin down this “new” phenomenon. Some in Jewish establishment organizations decried these Jewish dissenters, either claiming them as patsies for terrorism, betrayers of their community, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-past-present-and-future-of-left-jewish-identity/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-religious-employers-get-a-pass-workers-pay-the-price/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-religious-employers-get-a-pass-workers-pay-the-price/#respond Sun, 01 Jun 2025 11:50:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284441 Like nearly a third of U.S. adults, I was raised Catholic. So when Pope Leo XIV was elected, I took note. What stood out to me was not just our shared nationality, but the legacy of his chosen name. His predecessor, Leo XIII, issued Rerum Novarum, an 1891 encyclical that supported labor unions and championed workers’ rights. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-religious-employers-get-a-pass-workers-pay-the-price/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-leo-xivs-link-to-haiti-is-part-of-a-broader-american-story-of-race-citizenship-and-migration/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-leo-xivs-link-to-haiti-is-part-of-a-broader-american-story-of-race-citizenship-and-migration/#respond Mon, 19 May 2025 16:37:43 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283930 Early coverage of Pope Leo XIV has explored the first American pontiff’s Chicago upbringing, as well as the many years he spent in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop. Genealogist Jari Honora broke the story of the pope’s ancestors’ connection to the Creole of color community in New Orleans. A family historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection’s [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-leo-xivs-link-to-haiti-is-part-of-a-broader-american-story-of-race-citizenship-and-migration/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pope-and-the-vatican-divine-right-or-male-monopoly-elderly-men-excluding-women-and-youth-in-the-name-of-heaven/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pope-and-the-vatican-divine-right-or-male-monopoly-elderly-men-excluding-women-and-youth-in-the-name-of-heaven/#respond Mon, 12 May 2025 16:55:09 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1283635 Although I am not religious, I extend my heartfelt condolences to all Catholic believers on the passing of Pope Francis – Jorge Mario Bergoglio – and congratulations on the agreement among the cardinals in selecting a new Pope, Leo XIV – Robert Francis Prevost. This spiritual moment holds its significance and deserves respect, as it [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pope-and-the-vatican-divine-right-or-male-monopoly-elderly-men-excluding-women-and-youth-in-the-name-of-heaven/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:57:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282952 In 2022, Pope Francis created a will expressing his desire that just one word be inscribed on the stone marking his burial place: Franciscus. Franciscus, Latin for Francis, is the name Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose when, twelve years ago, cardinals elected him to become the Bishop of Rome. He sought union with Saint Francis, known as one who lived on the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-franciss-legacy-of-love-and-peace/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282958 Growing up, I had virtually no contact with people who identified themselves as Catholics. Perhaps some of my friends and acquaintances in high school and college were but if so, I didn’t know it. The first open Catholics I came to know in late 1969 at the age of 20 were people like then-Sister Joann [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pope-francis-presente/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/#respond Tue, 22 Apr 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282848 Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrant parents, is dead at 88 after a prolonged illness. Almost alone of Western leaders, he showed enormous sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. He called the small Catholic community there every evening. In honor of his passing, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-pope-francis-divinized-palestinian-suffering-the-gaza-pieta/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-elephant-in-the-room-of-trumps-dictatorship-settler-colonialism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-elephant-in-the-room-of-trumps-dictatorship-settler-colonialism/#respond Mon, 21 Apr 2025 15:10:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282777 There is a proverbial elephant in the room that few dare to identify openly. Revoking visas, arresting students on the streets, detaining them in staunchly Republican jurisdictions, banning protests, cutting federal funding to universities, and forcing institutions to censor their faculty and curricula—all of these actions, and more, violate academic freedom, civil liberties, and both [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-elephant-in-the-room-of-trumps-dictatorship-settler-colonialism/feed/ 0