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  • September 11, 2013
    The line from 9/11 to Syria needs to be broken

    I vividly recall the first television pictures of the terrible and criminal attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on what has become known as 9/11. I was at the University of Birmingham on 11 September 2001, attending a churches' conference on China. It was hard to take in what was going on, but we were all vaguely aware as we viewed these unfathomable images that the reaction to these events would shape the course of history for years to come; and so it has proved.

  • June 14, 2012
    The squaring of 'zero'

    Negation has ascended into the imagination of our culture and society not necessarily as something to be scorned or regretted, but as something with which to be, in some cultural, philosophical, or even religious form, reconciled, says Dr Andrew Hass. But before we can understand how this figure might work its way into and through our present world, we need first to ask, whence 'zero'? For its history is by no means one we might expect.

  • February 14, 2012
    The coming of nothing

    It is not true that 'nothing comes out of nothing', observes Dr Andrew Hass. 'Nothing', we might say, gets bad press, and deservedly. For nothing strips away, tears down, erases. And we want a positive society. Yet there is always a substantive way to render nothing, and make it work for something. We see this even in the claim that “nothing gets bad press”: differently construed, we also know that, in today’s media-saturated world, no matter how negative certain press coverage might be, no publicity is bad publicity.

  • August 22, 2011
    American Muslim leader coming to Scotland

    Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, the American Muslim leader, author and activist at the centre of the recent storm about plans to build an Islamic community centre near Ground Zero in New York, arrives Scotlan

  • August 5, 2011
    Festival looks to peace possibilities post-9/11

    With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks less than a month away, the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh is seeking to reawaken a spirit of hope for people of different belief and cultural backgrounds who want to work for a peaceful future.

  • September 23, 2010
    'Until there are churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia'?

    As part of an ill-tempered debate, some say that there should be no mosque in Park Place, New York, until there are churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia, says Martin Marty As another thoughtful commentator remarked, this amounts to saying, "Until they are like us, we will be like them."

  • September 10, 2010
    The Cross, the mosque and Ground Zero

    Every religion has their bad apples; entire orchards can become diseased, says Massachusetts Bible Society chief executive Anne Robertson. That's why we need to encourage and discover faithful living. As for the Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero, this will be a test of living together, she suggests.

  • September 6, 2010
    First US Muslim college opens in California

    As the row continues over an Islamic cultural centre to be sited near to Ground Zero in New York, the first US Muslim college has opened in California.

  • August 13, 2010
    Cordova House and Mosque at Ground Zero

    The building of Cordova House and Mosque near Ground Zero in New York, where many lost their lives on 9/11, has become a subject of heated debate. Michael Kinnamon, who heads up the National Council of Churches USA, cuts through the controversy to make a directly Christian appeal for neighbourly love.

  • April 21, 2008
    Pope prays for peace at site of New York 9/11 attacks

    In New York at 9.30 am local time on Sunday 20 April 2008, the Pope visited Ground Zero, the name now used to refer to the site once occupied by the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. He prayed for peace and an end to hatred.