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April 14th, 2011
04:26 PM ET
Muslim beauty contestant faces critics on all sides, she saysBy Richard Allen Greene, CNN Manchester, England (CNN) - Shanna Bukhari gets some pretty nasty messages through Facebook, she says. They call her a "dirty Muslim." They say England is a "white nationality country" and she shouldn't be allowed to represent it. But that's just what she hopes to do at the Miss Universe beauty contest this year. If the Manchester, England-based fashion model wins the British contest next month, Bukhari will become the first Muslim to represent Britain at the international contest. The idea isn't going down well with everyone - Bukhari says she has gotten hate mail from across the board. "I've had racists, I've had a minority from Muslim community, I've had it from all religions and all communities that dislike what I'm doing," she said. The most upsetting messages, she said, are video links suggesting she should be murdered.  Antiabortion activists outside the U.S. Supreme Court during the annual March for Life.
April 14th, 2011
02:09 PM ET
New abortion laws show Christian Right's continued powerBy Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor So maybe the Christian Right isn't so dead after all. In fact, the movement that was supposed to have been eclipsed by the fiscally focused Tea Party in recent years and was said to be reeling from the loss of leaders like Jerry Falwell is showing some pretty dramatic signs of life. In last week’s down-to-the-wire budget battle between the White House and Republican leaders, for example, it was a GOP effort to defund Planned Parenthood – a longtime enemy of Christian conservatives – that emerged as a final stumbling block. And Family Research Council President Tony Perkins says the last time his conservative Christian movement saw so many victories at the state level – where many legislatures are busy passing new abortion restrictions - was in 2004, when more than a dozen states adopted same-sex marriage bans.
April 14th, 2011
11:01 AM ET
Opinion: Burqa ban turns a right into a crime
By Sarah Joseph, Special to CNN London, England (CNN) - The ban imposed by French President Sarkozy on wearing a face-covering veil, or niqab, is simply dangerous gesture politics, representing little more than pandering to the far right in France. The full force of the state is coming down on fewer than 2,000 Muslim women out of a population of 6.5 million French Muslim citizens. For what purpose? We are told it is for security, the preservation of "French values" and to alleviate the oppression of women. For security purposes, women who wear the veil should be ready to remove their face covering in places where security and identity checks are necessary, such as airports. The argument that criminals could abuse the niqab is not compelling enough to deny the fundamental freedom of religious expression to a group of French citizens - or indeed visitors to France.
April 14th, 2011
10:56 AM ET
18 years after Waco, Davidians believe Koresh was GodBy Ashley Fantz, CNN Nearly 20 years ago, 76 people lost their lives during an FBI raid near Waco, Texas. CNN's Drew Griffin looks at those events at 8 ET/PT and 11 ET/PT Sunday night in "Waco: Faith, Fear & Fire." Waco, Texas (CNN) - Sheila Martin's children burned alive. God, she says, wanted it that way. "I don't expect you to understand," she says, leaning her bird-tiny frame against a full shopping cart in the nursery aisle at a Super Walmart. Her pink shirt, flats and purse match the lilies, hydrangeas and clusters of jasmine she's buying. "Oh, look, they have forget-me-nots!" She caresses the blue petals and, like a child, puts her nose in the plant and inhales. "These will be perfect for the memorial." On Tuesday, Martin and a handful of other surviving Branch Davidians will gather at a hotel off a freeway in this dusty Central Texas town to remember the federal siege on their religious compound, an event that has become synonymous with the word Waco. On that day in 1993, a 51-day standoff between the armed Davidians and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended in a fire and the deaths of at least 76 people. Among them were Martin's husband and four of her children.
April 14th, 2011
09:12 AM ET
How church helped sign Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn DodgersBy Jamie Crawford, CNN Washington (CNN) - Sometimes, matters of faith have a quiet yet powerful way of influencing history. Take, for example, the behind-the-scenes story that preceded the entry of the first African-American player to major league baseball more than six decades ago. That player, of course, was the legendary Jackie Robinson, who shattered the big-league color barrier when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The story of faith belongs to the baseball executive who signed Robinson, the equally legendary Branch Rickey, and to a New York minister who played a quiet role in a major decision. And the telling of that story spans generations and families, from the minister’s wife, who wrote it down, to the couple’s granddaughter who uncovered it many years later among her late grandmother’s writings. “I had no idea that I would find a story that linked my grandfather to a part of U.S. history,” the granddaughter, Donnali Fifield, told CNN. “But as soon as I read it, I knew it was historically significant.” |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's note: Sarah Joseph OBE is the CEO and editor of 