Francis’ visit comes amid strong challenges to the church in the southern state, including huge inroads by evangelical Protestants and grinding poverty in a region rich with coffee, Mayan ruins, pine-covered hills and jungles. [...] The challenges have always included the church’s relations with indigenous communities who have struggled for centuries to maintain their traditions and independence, sometimes embracing and sometimes clashing with the hierarchy.

As Japan gears up to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and caters to a surging influx of foreign visitors, the country faces a cultural dilemma: Should it stop identifying Buddhist temples on maps with the traditional “manji” symbol that is often confused with a Nazi swastika?

Nations and Jewish communities around the globe are set to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday with ceremonies and memorials coinciding with the 71st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

I was excited to take part in an international symposium last week on Buddhist-Muslim interfaith dialogue in the commercial crossroads of Southeast Asia and the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. Appropriately titled "Interfaith Dialogue and Peaceful Coexistence in Multicultural Societies."

The cultural dimension of Turkish-Iranian relations and the scope of Turkey's soft power were discussed at a seminar jointly organized by the Ankara-based Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and the Tehran branch of the Yunus Emre Institute over the weekend in the Iranian capital of Tehran. 

Hundreds of French mosques are participating in a major open-house event this weekend, offering visitors the opportunity to come in for tea and a chat about Islam in a country shaken by jihadist attacks. 

As soon as news broke that the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters were Muslim, skilled Muslim activists took to social media platforms to denounce Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his 27-year-old wife Tashfeen Malik. But after the New York Post’s online headline “Muslim Killers: Terror eyed as couple slaughters 14 in Calif.,” the term “Muslim Killers” began trending with more than 10,000 tweets.

To celebrate the power of the volunteerism, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon is marking the International Volunteer Day by emphasizing that volunteering fosters creativity, “draws strength from our passions and connects us to those who need us most.”