Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Charlotte Keenan, Chief Executive of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Globalization will be the greatest force for good in the 21st century, but it will also create the century’s greatest challenges. People are pushed together as never before and the close juxtaposition of faiths can create tensions.

"A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language", wrote George Orwell in Politics and the English Language. "It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts".

There is only one view of the murder of Lee Rigby: horrific.But there are two views of its significance. One is that it is the act of crazy people, motivated in this case by a perverted idea about Islam, but of no broader significance. Crazy people do crazy things. So don’t overreact. The other view is that this act was indeed horrible; and that the ideology which inspired it, is profound and dangerous. I am of this latter view. So of course we shouldn’t overreact. We didn’t after 7 July 2005. But we did act. And we were right to.

When political and civic leaders seek to engage religious figures to come together to promote human dignity across sectarian lines and contribute to stability in the region, they have overwhelmingly responded with alacrity.

The last few months have been punctuated, almost back-to-back, by two significant events: the election of a pontiff from the Americas and the installation of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, known for his deep commitment to Africa.  They both, in different ways, pointed to the fact that the Global South holds the majority of the world’s Christian community.

By Ed Husain (picture above), London Evening Standard – 23 April 2013 It all looked so familiar to Londoners: CCTV images from Boston, Massachusetts, brought back memories of the July 2005 Tube bombings. They were young men in backpacks on a mission to kill and maim fellow citizens, for causes in far-away lands that they had embraced as their own. In an eerie link to sports, Londoners were murdered the day after the Olympic Games were secured. Bostonians were killed as they approached their marathon’s finishing line.

Faith and globalisation are two of the world's most powerful contemporary forces; the dynamics and contours of religion form today an integral part of international relations. Yet how much do we understand about how religions work as global institutions? Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, in her recent book Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers discusses how religions work as global institutions, considering their role in world affairs.

In my work as a lawyer in courts, especially in the Shariah courts, I have increasingly found that women’s issues, though linked directly to local communities, cultural practices and religion, have a parallel with global issues, especially, global foreign polices which impact women directly. Spiritually is part of human make up, which at times people call religion. Religion has often been referred to as a social code, which allows us to have good core values of a belief, honesty, balance, respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness and accountability.

The predominance of male dominated interpretations of canonical texts has often caused analysts and others to proclaim the inherently dangerous relationship between religion and women.

I am Reverend Elizabeth the manager for Tonkolili UMC Schools, in Magburaka, and pastor in charge of St. Mathews United Methodist church. I started experiencing Christ in my life after the death of my husband. But I converted in 1990, and in 1993 I lost my husband. Twenty years I had been struggling. I went to the college I studied theology and in 2000 I went also to study theology. I also studied in Nigeria, where I did my evangelism. I studied in Abuja, studied in Jalingo and Jos. My experience has been a wonderful one and a miraculous one.