Islam is growing more rapidly than any other religion in the world, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center that says the religion will nearly equal Christianity by 2050 before eclipsing it around 2070, if current trends continue.
“The main reason Muslims are growing not only in number but in share worldwide is because of where they live,” Alan Cooperman, Pew’s director of religion research, tells NPR’s Tom Gjelten. “Muslim populations are concentrated in some of the fastest-growing parts of the world.”
The finding is part of the center’s report on the future of the world’s religions. You can see the full report at the Pew site, which has also published an interactive tool to help readers drill down by geography and religion.
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Indonesian Muslims perform Eid Al-Adha prayer at Al-Akbar Mosque in Oct. 2014 in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Nine days after 9/11, George W. Bush declared during an address to a joint session of Congress that every nation now “has a decision to make,” that “either you are with us or with the terrorists.” Jihadists saw his statement as a gift from God. They argued that with this line drawn in the sand, members of the Muslim community now had a clear view of the parade of sellouts, hypocrites and “white-washed” Muslims among them. It would be obvious who was on the side of the Muslim community and who, as ISIS wrote in the seventh issue of its English-language magazine Dabiq, would rush “to serve the crusaders led by Bush in the war against Islam.”
According to jihadists, this opportunity to unearth the true Muslims, those who had the community’s back and those who didn’t, was a gift from above. As Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed at the time in an interview, which was also later reproduced in the same Dabiq article, this line in the sand basically meant that “either you are with the crusade or you are with Islam.”
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The president has given terrorist groups a propaganda victory beyond their wildest dreams.
Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice, The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening.
Mueller is interviewing as early as this week three top intelligence officials as part of the probe, the Post reported, citing “five people briefed on the requests.”
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The three officials the Post says Mueller is interviewing are Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Richard Ledgett, the recently retired deputy NSA director.
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Coats will also meet with members of the Senate intelligence committee Thursday, one week after his tense grilling by the panel, according to a committee source.
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Mueller investigating Trump for obstruction of justice
Rep. Steve Scalise, a congressional staffer, a lobbyist and a member of the Capitol police force were shot Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, during a Republicans’ early-morning practice ahead of a charity baseball game.
Federal law enforcement officials identified the alleged shooter as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, who died following a shootout with authorities.
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At least six people including Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership as the majority whip, were hospitalized.
A biotech company is trying to transform future treatments of Parkinson’s by transplanting brain cells from pigs into the brains of people with the disease.
There’s currently no cure for Parkinson’s disease, a condition that progressively limits a person’s ability to move. The age of onset and the speed of progression vary, but it affects nearly 1 million U.S. residents. Parkinson’s essentially causes the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells, which assist our brains with regulating and controlling movement. As it stands, there’s medicine to treat this, but its effectiveness starts to dwindle after a few years of use.
Now, Living Cell Technologies in Auckland, New Zealand, hopes that its new methods can also slow down the disease’s progression. Researchers took cells from pigs’ choroid plexus — a part of the brain that has a “cocktail of growth factors and signaling molecules known to keep nerve cells healthy,” according to New Scientist — and planted them into the brains of 18 patients. They put the cells in capsules with a coating made from seaweed, which helps stop patients’ immune system from attacking the foreign pig cells and also helps “growth factors” move into nearby human brain tissue.
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Pig brain cells were transferred to the brains of humans with Parkinson’s disease.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was cut off by two of her male colleagues while questioning Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, just one week after they interrupted her during a different hearing.
During Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Harris asked him to explain what Justice Department policy prevented him from answering some questions from the committee’s members, and whether he had discussed that policy with his staff prior to the hearing.
But as Harris, a former prosecutor, pressed the attorney general to answer her questions, she was interrupted by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
A gunman in a UPS uniform killed three people and wounded two others before turning his weapon on himself as police approached at a company facility in San Francisco early Wednesday, authorities said.
The San Francisco Police Department said three people were killed and the suspect was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Two others were wounded.
Assistant Chief Toney Chaplin said at a press conference Wednesday that officers responded to a call of several people shot at the UPS facility at around 8:55 a.m. local time (11:55 a.m. ET).
. UPS workers gather outside after a reported shooting at a UPS warehouse and customer service center in San Francisco on June 14, 2017. Eric Risberg / AP
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and three other people were wounded Wednesday morning when a gunman opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team as they were practicing on a field in Alexandria, Virginia.
The gunman, James T. Hodgkinson, was then shot by police and later died of his wounds.
Scalise was standing at second base when the shooting erupted and he was hit in the left hip, witnesses said. He managed to drag himself into the outfield amid all the shooting and was later rushed back across the river to a Washington, D.C. hospital.
After undergoing emergency surgery, Scalise was in critical but stable condition, a spokesman for MedStar Washington Hospital Center said.
. James Hodgkinson of Belleville protests outside of the United States Post Office in Downtown Belleville, Illinois on April 17, 2012. Derik Holtmann / AP
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute are closer than ever to developing a vaccine to fight heroin addiction, the institute announced in a statement on June 6.
Researchers at TSRI have been working for more than eight years to develop a vaccine that would block the “high” that heroin users feel, making it easier for people to recover from heroin addiction by helping to eliminate the “motivation” to use the drug. Their latest findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in June.
What would the vaccine do?
The vaccine — which has been tested on rhesus monkeys — works by training the body’s immune system to fight heroin molecules, creating antibodies that “neutralize” the heroin and block the molecules from getting to the brain, according the statement from TSRI.
Interracial marriage was legalized 50 years ago Monday in the Loving v. Virginia case — and people on Twitter are celebrating the landmark decision in perhaps the most adorable way.
With the hashtag #LovingDay, people are sharing family pictures and Pinterest-worthy wedding shots. Let’s take a look of some of the heartwarming stories.
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Mildred Loving and her husband, Richard Loving, are pictured in a file photo from Jan. 26, 1965.
In the world, human beings are facing various problems. People who are full of greed, anger, and ignorance are seen to be fighting with each other in words and deeds. As the fighting continues, various problems such as civil wars, wars of aggression, and wars of aggression are occurring. As world peace is being destroyed, humans are facing unbearable problems. Innocent children and women are not getting the rights they deserve and deserve. I can't think of one thing every time. What is it? The United Nations. If we look at the responsibilities and duties of the United Nations, I think it is not suitable for solving the problems that are happening in the world today. In fact, the United Nations and the World Security Council, such an organization must rule the world, must be able to give orders, and must have various ways to obey orders. There must be no organization that can influence more than that organization. There should be experts from each country. They can even dominate the superpowers like the US, China, and Britain. Only then will global peace be achieved quickly. Now, if a country with power develops more militarily, economically, or socially than its own country, then powerful countries will jealously seek out enemies and wage war. Or they will attack with fighter jets. In this, innocent people are losing their lives. No one understands the value of a life. You should think about how to achieve global peace by controlling these. If the US continues to be the permanent president of the UN, world peace will never be achieved. If you think carefully, no one sees that they are working for the common good, but for their own benefit, for the benefit of their own country. The permanent president of the UN and the Security Council has rejected this, As a young Rohingya, I have come to realize that only by electing the president and secretary from among the countries in the world through a secret ballot system and governing the world fairly can we achieve global peace. The United Nations and the Security Council are organizations in which any country must govern, give orders, and make them obey their orders. For example, only when a defendant is tried in court can we hold the leaders of the countries in check and control them, can we achieve global peace smoothly. Otherwise, it will not be easy for powerful countries to use various excuses to end this war every year, every year, for the benefit of themselves and their countries. No country's leaders pay any attention to the words of the United Nations and the Security Council. If we look at it in practice, look at the Rohingya issue. Myanmar is a small country. Even that country has been under siege for 8 years. What action can be taken? Why is the UN and the Security Council Powerless? Without such Power, how can the organization bring about global peace? Everyone should think about it. Whether there is a veto or a strong one, all countries in the world can only achieve global peace if they are subject to the UN and the Security Council. Seek peace in the quiet embrace of nature. Peace is an indispensable need of the human race. It is not as if one person can kill another person, and it is as if one country can attack another country, but instead of trying to build peace, we must try to destroy the peace now, and the world is getting hotter and is on the verge of collapse. I especially appeal to all the world experts to urgently try to bring about peace in all parts of the world. Mr, Noor Muhamed Arkhan Rohingya Youth Myanmar
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Mueller investigating Trump for obstruction of justice
Steve Scalise shot
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