(RNS) The day after President-elect Donald Trump appointed a man accused of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as his chief strategist, two of the nation’s largest Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups formed an unprecedented partnership to fight bigotry.
The American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America Monday (Nov. 14) launched the new national group: The Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council. Though Jewish and Muslim groups have cooperated before, the size and influence of these two particular groups — and the prominence of the people who have joined the council — marks a milestone in Jewish-Muslim relations.
“Our council is coming at the right time,” said Eftakhar Alam, senior coordinator at ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances. Continue reading
In an apparent attempt to assuage the fears of LGBT Americans, President-elect Donald Trump told Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes that he has no plans to roll back same-sex marriage rights. Asked by Stahl if he personally supports marriage equality, Trump replied, “It’s irrelevant because it was already settled. It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.” He went to clarify that even if he were to appoint a judge who opposes marriage equality, the issue has been “settled” and he’s “fine with that.”
“Now, courtesy of a Zero Hedge reader, we have visual confirmation of how a substantial portion of these professional, paid protesters arrive at the site of the protest, in this case Chicago. As our reader notes, “I have a video of 5 city blocks on the West side of Chicago lined with busses from Wisconsin (Badger Bus Lines) bringing in protestors. The Sears tower is visible in the background.”” –
“Plenty of people on both sides of the political aisle have described the stakes of the upcoming presidential election in biblical terms. But at least one person in a San Diego Catholic church took things a step further in recent weeks. In an insert to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s weekly bulletin on Oct. 16, a flier told parishioners that “it is a mortal sin to vote Democrat,” 
“The Vatican has condemned a right-wing Catholic radio station after a broadcast said the recent earthquakes in Italy were “God’s punishment” for gay civil unions. The remarks, made on the station Radio Maria, were “offensive and scandalous”, the Vatican said. A Dominican friar said the quakes, including one in August that killed nearly 300, were caused by sins of man. He said these included the approval of same-sex civil unions last May. But the Vatican rejected the remarks as pagan, and said they had nothing to do with Catholic theology.” –
Two Australian artists have set up what they call an “ecosexual bathhouse” at a festival of experimental art in Sydney where people are invited to have sex with the earth to help secure the future of the planet.
Jakarta’s Christian governor was interrogated by police on Monday after tens of thousands of angry Muslims took to the streets on Friday to demand that he be jailed for allegedly insulting Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
“Dutch politician Geert Wilders has spent years speaking out against the threat Islam poses to his country, and now he finds himself in legal trouble for it. …The charges stem from a March 2014 rally in which Wilders asked a room full of supporters if they wanted “more or fewer Moroccans” in the country. When the audience chanted, “Fewer, fewer!” Wilders responded, “Well, we’ll arrange that, then.” This led the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders for “offending members of a group based on their race, and hate speech and discrimination,” according to the 
“The Obama administration’s desire for a universal health-care system soon may be fulfilled – in Bangladesh. It is there that U.S. taxpayers potentially face an initial $90 million “investment” solely to design such a system. …The administration through USAID expressed a commitment to help the government of Bangladesh, or GOB, achieve its objective of providing UHC by 2032. The agency acknowledged, however, that several obstacles stand in the way attaining that goal – including a GOB trend of spending proportionally less money each year on health care for Bangladeshis.” –