Today's guest blogger is Christopher Stedman, an Outreach, Education and Training intern at the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC); he also facilitates IFYC's media work with Vocalo.org. Chris is currently a candidate for a Master of Arts in Religion at Meadville Lombard Theological School, where he is writing a novel and an accompanying paper on storytelling.

Ever since I stopped going to church a number of years ago, I've been seeking out a community of like-minded "non-believers." But secular folks are particularly difficult to organize; assembling Atheists, Agnostics, Secular Humanists, and all the other "non-religious" is tricky because our common thread--that we are not something--underscores only what we do not believe. That leaves a lot of room for division among what we do believe.

Today's guest blogger is Abed Z. Bhuyan. Abed is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service where he majored in International Politics and minored in Islam and Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is currently a high school teacher in New York City with Teach for America.

In his most recent weekly column at Forbes, New York University Professor Tunku Varadarajan asserts that the recent murders at Fort Hood is a case of an individual, Nidal Malik Hasan, "Going Muslim." A term coined by Varadarajan himself, it is an adaptation of the phrase "Going Postal." While Varadarajan pats himself on the back for his neologism, he only succeeds in showing his own ignorance and bigotry.

In fact, Varadarajan is the latest in a series of individuals who engage in something that might be called "Going McCarthy" -- after the anti-Communist, fear-mongering Sen. Joseph McCarthy of the 1950s. Indeed, the fear-mongering that Varadarajan espouses is not uncommon to us now nor is it unusual in our collective national history. Islam has been conveniently placed in the void left by the Soviet Union and communism in the post-Cold War world. Modern-day McCarthyites, including Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson, pride themselves on instigating a paranoia that targets American Muslims like me. Let there be no doubt that Varadarajan has officially joined their ranks.

I said two prayers when I saw the initial reports: the first for the dead and suffering, the second about the shooter, praying that he wasn't Muslim. A whole lot of Muslims know how I feel, just check out the blog posts by people like Hussein Rashid, Wajahat Ali, Daisy Khan and a host of others on this.

I admit, it's kind of peculiar to be so invested in the identity of the perpetrator, but we Muslims have a lot at stake. After all, it's our religion the murderer du jour has violated, which is bad enough. But in addition to that, we have to deal with our faith being the subject of constant questions (asked on television talk shows and in OpEd columns) like, "Is the religion inherently violent or is this more about the people?" And there is always the question (sometimes implicit, sometimes shouted out loud): Are all Muslims somehow suspect because of the few who turn to terror and murder? Do people hold us responsible? Fear us? (Incidentally, there's a lot of people who aren't Muslim who prayed the shooter wasn't Muslim either, because they understand what's at stake as well. See more.)

Today's guest blogger is Hannah McConnaughay, an Outreach Education and Training Associate at the Interfaith Youth Core. Hannah graduated in June of 2008 from the University of Chicago, where she studied religious studies and economics and was a member of the Interfaith Youth Core's Fellows Alliance.

Since the shooting at Fort Hood, there have been many reactions to the fact that the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, was a Muslim. But as I consider what happened at Fort Hood, I'd rather focus on those who were shot - Cap. John Gaffaney, Priv. Francheska Valez, Spec. Kham Xiong and 41 other dead or wounded. When I think about them and their service I do think about Islam, but not because of Hasan. It's because the first American soldier I remember was Muslim.

Today's guest blogger is Joshua M.Z. Stanton, co-editor of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue™ and a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College.

When Bernie Madoff was arrested in December, 2008, the blogosphere filled with hate. Anti-Semitic remarks of the sort not seen in a generation surfaced, as Madoff fulfilled all of the worst possible stereotypes about Jews. One crooked investor who preyed on his coreligionists' charitable contributions made anti-Semitism seem trendy.

Last week, when a mentally unstable major in the army shot up a meeting space at Fort Hood in Texas, the blogosphere was again overflowing with hate, this time aimed against Muslims. Even as top military brass made clear that the incident was a military - not religious - matter, bloggers framed Nidal Hasan as a terrorist, inspired to kill in the name of his religion.

I'm writing from Toronto, where last night I gave a plenary address on Muslim-Jewish cooperation to the Biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism. Backstage after the address, my friend Rabbi David Saperstein gave me a grim look and said, "The shooter had a Muslim name."

He called his wife who works for NPR, and his face got more grim as I heard him say:

"Are you sure he was a Muslim? Are you sure he was a Muslim?"

He hung up the phone and turned to me. "This is our worst nightmare."

Last week, Interfaith Youth Core held our sixth conference on interfaith work, Leadership for a Religiously Diverse World. At the opening as I looked out on more than 600 faces, I thought back to our first conference, where I spoke with the 30 attendees about a lofty idea for an interfaith youth movement.

Needless to say, this conference showed that the interfaith youth movement is more than a big idea now. The people paying attention and the goals we set launched the new era of this movement.

By Eboo Patel and Samantha Kirby

Where is the Arab Muslim leadership for peace in the Middle East? It's a question that some people ask aloud, and others only think about - but it's always hovering in the room. I have met and known many in this category over the years, but few with the charisma, intelligence, pedigree and integrity of the man I just met.

Forsan Hussein is an Israeli Arab Muslim, one of the over 20% Israeli citizens who are Arab. He grew up in the northern town of Sha'ab. He was 10 years old when he learned the value of nurturing relationships between different religious communities. As he saw the Muslims in his village build bridges with their Jewish neighbors, he found a life's passion in promoting coexistence, interfaith cooperation and service.

I told a friend that I was off to DC this week for the third meeting of the President's Faith Council, and I got a chuckle and a snide comment in return: "So what do you do after meditating together and trading spiritual insights?" he asked.

Hah! The Faith Council feels more like a second job than a self-enrichment group (the fact that our administrative meeting was held on a federal holiday should tell you something). Our task is to offer recommendations on how faith-based and community groups can better partner with the federal government in six distinct areas: poverty reduction, fatherhood and healthy families, environmental issues, interfaith cooperation, global development, and reform of the faith-based office.

Seventeen more Afghans died yesterday when the Indian Embassy was bombed. This is kind of grim news we have come to expect from Kabul, and Karachi, and, even more depressingly, Chicago.

As President Obama and his team figure out their plan for the battle in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as we mourn all the deaths in those tragic situations, we have to remember that too many neighborhoods in American cities are also battlegrounds.

Too many people caught in the crossfire in Kabul and Kandahar are innocents, too many children over there are seduced into violence because of a lack of options. So are too many victims in American battlegrounds. Too many young people here get seduced into violence because of the absence of alternatives. Just as a perverse version of religion draws young people in other parts of the world into violence, a perversion of territory and tribe draws young people in our cities to tear one another down.

By Eboo Patel and Becca Hartman

Do you know how your religious tradition speaks to serving others? To diversity? I posed this question to a full sanctuary on Tuesday night.

An hour before the talk, I had posed the same question to the youth of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda Jewish Congregation, and Idara-e-Jaferia Mosque, who co-hosted the event in Bethesda, Md. From that fruitful conversation, we have planned to author the book "Rabbi Hillel to Malcolm X: Not Only For Myself". (We have the title at least.) We also have half a dozen service projects dreamed up, inspired by the partnership of these three religious communities.

All of that was spurred by the simple questions posed above.