On Friday October 20, 2017, I spoke on a panel as part of the third annual Advance Initiative Conference. The conference, hosted at Stone Hill Church in Princeton, NJ, is a national gathering of church leaders, primarily of Indian descent, who seek to provide a more profound understanding of biblical application for churches that service immigrant and second-generation American communities.

The United States Justice Department recently announced it came to an agreement with Bensalem Township to resolve a dispute stemming from the township’s denial of zoning approval which would have permitted Bensalem Masjid to build a mosque on three adjoining parcels of land in the township.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right of American citizens and residents to freely practice religious beliefs and engage in any corresponding religious actions and/or rituals made in accordance with those beliefs. Additionally, federal law expressly prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender/sex, or national origin. 

Last week Robert Spencer spoke at Gettysburg College, at the request of the Young Americans for Freedom, an activist group with conservative views. Robert Spencer espouses extreme anti-Islamic views. According to Southern Poverty Law Center, his work was cited numerous times by the Norwegian terrorist that murdered over seventy people, and he has been deemed an extremist by the U.K. and thus barred from entering the country.

For the third time in less than 100 days, a court has prevented Trump and his administration from violating the U.S. Constitution.

This past week, Judge Orrick, a federal district judge in San Francisco, placed a temporary hold on Trump’s executive order that threatened to defund sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities seek to reduce cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement to enhance public safety and foster positive relationships with immigrant communities.