By Dr. Ali Gomaa
Grand Mufti of Egypt

I was shocked as any sensible human being did when I learned about the senseless, appalling and cowardly act of violence in Fort Hood. This horrific attack is a complete violation of Islamic law and norms and the perpetrator is no way representative of the Muslim people or the religion of Islam. God upholds the sanctity of life as a universal principle. "and do not kill one another, for God is indeed merciful unto you" says the Quran in (4:29). Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as major sin punishable in the Afterlife as well. Prophet Mohammad said, "The first cases to be decided among the people on the Day of Judgment will be those of blood-shed"

The Islam that we were taught in our youth is a religion that calls for peace and mercy. The first prophetic saying that is taught to a student of Islam is "Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you. What we have learnt about Islam has been taken from the clear, pristine, and scholarly understanding of the Quran, "O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." When God said "to know one another" He did not mean in order to kill one another. All religions have forbidden the killing of innocents. To kill an innocent human being is tantamount to killing the entire humanity.

Let me be clear by reiterating that Islam is utterly against extremism and terrorism but unless we understand the factors that provide a rationalization for terrorism and extremism we will never be able to eradicate this scourge. This must be understood in order to build a better future that can bring an end to this grave situation that is destroying the world.

My heart, my thoughts, and my prayers go out to the families who lost their loved ones. We offer our deepest and sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and pray for a speedy recovery of the wounded. We demand the perpetrator to be brought to justice and stand the trial.

However, it was unfortunate to see hasty responses and reactions which immediately jumped on Islam within minutes of the first news reports of the incident. Blaming an entire religion because of the acts of this not-well man is patently unfair and serves no purpose.

It is important for us at this time of great sadness to stand together and process this horrific incident in a way that is fair and reasonable. It is important that we do not demonize Muslims without cause not because it is good for Muslims, but because our future ability to coexist in peace depends on it.

Dr. Ali Gomaa is Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Q: What you say about the protecting the environment would seem so obvious and yet you have run into opposition. Who is against this idea of saving the earth and why?

Response of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Although it is true that it would seem the most basic and simple idea that human beings would protect their shared home, the planet earth; there is yet resistance, and sometimes deliberate opposition. We see this in every field of human endeavour: scientific, political, social, and even religious. Here we perceive the antinomy that we see every day in our fellow human beings: while we know that things like smoking, over-eating, abuse of alcohol and narcotics are not only injurious but destructive to human life, we persist. This is the often, sad reality of the human person as microcosm. And as macrocosm, that is, on a planetary scale, we see the same realities: of pollution, over-consumption, and abuse and wrong use of natural substances in an exploitative way.

Therefore, it is not illogical to conclude that the same drives that cause ruin to individual people exist at the global level. And the same blindness that prohibits an individual from changing deleterious behaviors to healthful ones exists on institutional, governmental and societal levels as well. This is the disconnectedness of humankind from God, from each other, and from the creation that God has given us to be the stewards. It is ultimately a spiritual issue.

Indeed, the opposition to environmental responsibility is a form of global denial of realities that we face daily in our individual lives. That is precisely why the healing of our planet begins and ends with the healing of human souls. For only as we cease to abuse the world in our immediate vicinity, in our relationships and in our personal stewardship of the created world, will we truly cease as cultures and counties to care for our shared home, planet earth.

By Muqtedar Khan
Director of Islamic Studies, University of Delaware

The American Muslim community is experiencing shock, disbelief and apprehension as it watches the unfolding details of the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist and practicing Muslim, born in Virginia of Jordanian parents, turned against his fellow citizens and military colleagues and murdered 13 and wounded 30.

What happened at Fort Hood follows a nightmare script that has been one of the biggest fears of the American Muslim community since the appalling events of September 11, 2001. One crazy Muslim, acting on his own, causing significant mayhem and murder and inviting anger and backlash against millions of peace loving and hardworking Americans who are Muslims. National and local Muslim organizations immediately issued strong condemnation of the event and called for calm.

It is important to understand that Major Hasan is an isolated, alienated and sad individual who was clearly not well adjusted to his life. In a community that values family life, he was single at 39 and still looking desperately for a wife, according to his former Imam. He was in an army that was at war with his co-religionists and he had difficulty dealing with that. He was frequently taunted and harassed for being a Muslim by his own colleagues. After years in the military and after years of caring for soldiers as a doctor, he did not feel as if he belonged and perhaps that was the key to why he could turn on his own.

By Michelle M. Lelwica
professor, Concordia College

A few weeks ago, Ralph Lauren made the news with an altered ad that featured a model with giraffe-like legs and hips so narrow that her head seemed oddly oversized. Though the image ran only in Japan, media critics in the west deplored it as yet another example of the extremes to which the fashion industry will go in digitally manipulating its spreads to capture the attention of prospective consumers.

Why should people of faith care about such images?

There wouldn't be much to worry about if models stretched to such slender and surreal proportions were a rarity in our society today. But images like the one Ralph Lauren produced are part of a ubiquitous iconography that young women look to as they search for ways to define their worth and understand their purpose in the world. This iconography belongs to a broader network of beliefs, myths, rituals, and moral codes that encourage women to find "salvation" (i.e., happiness and fulfillment) through a thinner body. I call this "The Religion of Thinness," for it has many of the features of traditional religion, even though it fails to deliver the salvation it promises and sadly shortchanges the spiritual needs to which it appeals.

By Rev. Richard L. Killmer
National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Just two days after taking the Oath of Office, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order halting torture. Americans from all walks of life, including members of the religious community and retired military leaders, celebrated this significant step toward closing a sad chapter in America's history.

But the January Executive Order was only the first step. Despite President Obama's significant start, there is much more to be done to make sure that future generations of Americans grow up in a country that does not torture. Torture is immoral because it violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It threatens the spiritual well-being of a nation.

The task for the U.S. government is to put in place safeguards to make sure that torture never happens again. In order to know what laws or other changes are needed, the American people need to better understand U.S. torture policies and practices since 9/11. We need to know who was tortured, why they were tortured, who ordered the torture, what the effects of the torture were and who the torturers were.

By Mitch Albom
columnist, author

He was The Singing Rabbi. Not just on the pulpit. Everywhere. In his later years, if you asked Albert Lewis how he was doing, he'd warble:

"the old gray rabbi
ain't what he used to be
aint what he used to be"

I knew him as a boy, the way most of us know our men of faith - from afar. Back then, if I saw him coming, I ran. He scared me. Or the idea of him did. A Man of God. Surely I did not belong in such company.

Then, nine years ago, when I was in my 40's and he was 82 and in failing health, he asked me a question that changed my life:

"Will you do my eulogy?"

By Vali Nasr
Professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

The Muslim world is going through a quiet and profound revolution. Islamic consciousness is on the rise, sweeping over every aspect of public and private life. But it is not the zeal of this turn against secularism that is noteworthy, but the diversity of opinions and new ways of thinking that it embodies.

This rising fervor is led not by the usual authorities--clerics and Islamic activists--but, more prominently, by bloggers, rappers, fashion designers, televangelists, human rights activists and self-styled Islamic gurus and thinkers of all stripes. Theirs is a call to religion, but also interpreting the meaning of piety and its relevance to society and politics in new ways.

There are reformers in this mix, but this is by and large a conservative Islamic resurgence, which celebrates piety while rejecting violence and extremism. There is no one flavor of Islam dominating with some interested in politics while others are content to leave politics alone and focus on matters of personal faith and practice. Just as the separation of church and state in the U.S. supported the flourishing of many different Christian denominations, the loosening of the grip of top-down state control and sponsorship of Islam is making room for many Islams.

By Jon O'Brien and Sara Morello
Catholics for Choice

The United States is embroiled in a debate over health care. Ideological divides over morality and money are front and center, and threatening to derail any real progress on what has become a major crisis.

There is a curious divide in the national conversation we are having about what exactly health care is or what it should be. More often than not, it's about who or what should be left out of the final plan. Some say that it should only be about providing care to some people; others say it should be only about covering some parts of people. Proponents of these positions claim the moral high ground while seeking to leave out undocumented residents or restrict access to reproductive health care. What they are really doing is projecting their own vision of what is moral onto those who will be most affected by this distortion: the taxpayers who will fund and use whatever system emerges.

By Austin Dacey
author

A new, milder "Atheism 3.0" is on the market, teaching a more forgiving attitude towards faith. Bruce Sheiman, author of An Atheist Defends Religion, maintains that humanity is better off with it than without it. Although a recent Religion News Service classifies me and my book The Secular Conscience among the 3.0s, I have to say that I'm not all that happy with the taxonomy.

I'll not mention that this "truth-must-lie-somewhere-in-between" narrative trips all too easily off of journalistic fingers. Should we agree that God is half dead? Nor will I dwell on the implicit assumption that Atheisms 1.0 and 2.0 have passed into planned obsolescence and that 3.0 constitutes some kind of scheduled improvement on them both. I'll be damned if I can imagine an upgrade to Hume or Baron d'Holbach, and Hitchens is no slouch either.

By Welton Gaddy, others

A group of prominent faith leaders brought together by Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of Interfaith Alliance, has released an open letter to other religious leaders, politicians, and pundits calling for civility in public debate and to specifically refrain from using inappropriate references to the Holocaust and Nazis. A copy of the letter along with its signers follows.

An open letter to religious leaders, politicians, pundits and the public:

In the last month, we have seen an alarming number of public figures use the Nazis and the Holocaust as metaphors in public debate on issues critical to this country. This development is but the most vile example of the disturbing language that has insinuated itself into our national dialogue. Examples of this divisive and ill-spirited rhetoric include:

By John Gehring
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Just in time for Halloween, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is once again spooked about all those "radical secularists" lurking ominously behind ever corner. In case you didn't notice, these godless heathens are "waging war" against American culture and plotting to "smash the last vestiges of Christianity in America." So argues the irrepressible cultural warrior in a recent On Faith commentary and in his new book, "Secular Sabatoge: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America."