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Obama has proposed working with like-minded Muslims, through nations and networks, to build partnerships. Though it’s an awkward place for an American president to stand—because it could backfire. The last time we helped develop a network of Muslims who came together for common cause, it got messy; al Qaeda emerged from the bloody aftermath.

That the kindergarten logic of “hear no evil, see no evil” is being used in order to sway public opinion in favor of the Center, but while the success of these maneuvers remains to be seen, its damage is immediately apparent: if Park51 ‘sounds’ nothing like mosque, claims to ‘be’ nothing like a mosque, and, ‘looks’ nothing like a mosque, then, and only then, does it emerge a defensible endeavor within the United States.

Remarkably and dismally, Israel, which faces such formidable demographic challenges is (as a recent report by Israeli think tank the Metzilah Center noted) “the only Western democracy that still lacks an immigration policy.”

This is not as easy as it may seem, this blogging for one hundred days.

“Evangelicalism is a very diverse, broad movement and there are many different expressions. I think, very shortly, there will be an expression of evangelicalism which will be inclusive of LGBT people.”

The consequences of fusing the sacred and the secular.

Speaking out against Islamophobia does not mean supporting Park51.

I did not have to fight. I did not have to struggle for justice. And even more: I did not have to explain: almost paradise.

A Qur’anic passage on sex, adultery, and “hidden adornment” raises a lot of questions, with answers hard to find.

There was a fair amount of surprise when ADL went on record opposing the construction of a progressive, moderate, multifaith dialogue-oriented Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan. Wait a minute, my (non-Jewish) boyfriend asked me, did they drop a letter from their name? Are they the Defamation League now?