Even in the rarefied world of academic scholarship, this fear of offense has protected Islam from the sort of critical scrutiny every other world religion has undergone for centuries. Some modern scholars who do exercise their intellectual freedom and investigate these issues, like Christoph Luxenberg or Ibn Warraq, must work incognito to avoid the wrath of the adherents of the “Religion of Peace.”

With his path now clear to the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney is on the verge of becoming the first Mormon to head a major party’s presidential ticket, a new milestone in America’s embrace of religious groups that were once shunned by society.

Elder William Walker slipped white booties over his black wing-tip shoes and instructed his guests to do the same as he led them into the newest Mormon temple in the world. This day was the first chance the public had to see inside the sacred space for the area’s 49,000 Mormons, and it was also one of the last.

Mitt Romney bristled at a question Monday about his Mormon faith as it relates to an issue of race before returning to the issue of his beliefs. Romney engaged in two separate exchanges at a town hall event in Wisconsin -- one tense, the other empathetic -- that shed light on arguably one of the most poorly understood elements of the former Massachusetts governor's personal biography.

Evangelical leaders on the forefront of establishing relationships with Muslims in the United States admit they face unprecedented challenges. For Christians, the question remains – how do fruitful relationships between people from the two dramatically different faiths begin?

In my guilt files are several stories about the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead. Many stories have just done an inadequate job of explaining this doctrine and practice of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We do need to be wise as serpents, and not naively think that the gesture of friendship will turn terrorists from their evil plans. But we also need to love Muslims. Some have said that all Muslims want to kill Christians and Jews. Really? Yes, the Qur’an could be cited (e.g., Surah 4.76; 5.52; 8.12–13, 60; 33.60–62; 58.20; 66.9; 68.44). And yet, not all Muslims are fundamentalists who embrace the violence of the Qur’an.

Once again, watchbloggers are accusing Rick Warren of heresy. Why? Because, Warren explains, a secular Orange County newspaper got something wrong about a religious issue. Rick sent me this interview where he seeks to bring clarification. He gave me permission to share it here at the blog. I think it will be helpful.

The reaction by Afghan Muslims to their holy scriptures seems inexplicable to those of us in the West. We assume that since Muslims consider the Quran to be the written "word of God", that it must hold the same place in their religion as the Bible does for us Christians. But as Muslim scholar Yusuf K. Ibish has explained, in Islam the place of the Quran is not parallel to the Bible, but to Jesus.

A protester who ridiculed the Muslim prophet Mohammed claims he was assaulted by a Muslim who was offended by the stunt, but a judge has sympathized with the alleged perpetrator, in a case that has drawn national attention.