Newsletter Archive

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is renewing his call for surveillance of mosques in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting. That’s been tried before, creating what some say is a chilling effect that makes it harder for the Muslim community to police itself.

We’ve all heard about the so-called ‘Terrorist Watchlist’ but what do we really know about the database of information regarding people known to be, or “reasonably suspected” of being, involved in terrorist activity? For starters, there are a staggering number of people on the list and, yes, they can — and do — legally buy guns.

The majority of U.S. hate crimes are based on race or ethnicity, according to the most recent numbers, and there are 48 documented anti-LGBT groups nationwide. For the Latino gay community, or for someone like singer Hamed Sinno — who identifies as Arab-American, queer and Muslim — that can be a scary thing.

A gay imam worries any goodwill generated by the celebratory funeral of America’s most famous Muslim, boxing legend Muhammed Ali, will be lost in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Orlando. Now Daayiee Abdullah is more determined than ever to spread the message that ‘sexual diversity is a blessing in our community and not a curse.’

Some young Arab millennials see a secular state as a solution to terrorism and one writer and humorist tells VOA the United States and the West should stand in solidarity with people who embrace human rights, secular liberal values, and a separation of mosque and state.

Near the front lines with Kurdish fighters in Iraq, VOA hears Peshmerga commanders complaining about old and inferior weapons in their fight against Islamic State. The United States is helping to arm the fighters via the Iraqi government, but are the weapons getting where they need to be?

Good news for advocates of net neutrality, who scored a major victory this week when a federal appeals court ruled that the internet is effectively a public utility. So what exactly is net neutrality and what does it mean for you? Here’s a quick wrap of what you need to know.

Russian athletes with Olympic aspirations are training hard but, given the recent doping scandal that saw Russia banned from world athletics since November, the question of whether they can compete at the Rio games is up in the air. VOA visited with athletes in Sochi who wonder what they’re training for.

A traveling pastor takes his sermon on the road. Protestant Christianity spread westward across the frontier, thanks in large part to circuit riding preachers who traveled by horseback to conduct church services in small towns and isolated pioneer outposts. You might not find today’s traveling preachers on horseback, but when they drive their cars to reach isolated, rural congregations, their mission remains the same.