Mark Juergensmeyer

The killing spree by Mohammed Merah in Toulouse, France, that left seven dead in a little more than a week and culminated in Merah's own death as he jumped through the window of his apartment, is an eerie reminder of the War on Terror. It has come when we thought...

Where did religion come from? And how has it changed as human societies have evolved over the centuries?

You'd think only children would dare to ask such questions, but these musings are precisely the ones posed by America's premier sociologist, Robert Bellah in a recent book,...

The real date in 2001 that aches for American reflection is not 9/11, but 9/12. This was the day after the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon when President George W. Bush announced to the nation that "these were not just acts of terror, they were...

The massive protest movement that has erupted throughout India in sympathy with a fast against political corruption conducted by an elderly social activist has all the earmarks of a new democratic uprising in the subcontinent. Like the Arab spring protests that toppled dictatorships in Tunisa and Egypt and sparked...

The frustration over the inability of Congress to pass any kind of meaningful legislation has now turned into major Obama-bashing from the left. One op-ed piece after another has railed against the president's "centrism," "capitulation to the right," and "pointless compromise." As if any other position could be effective...

The morning after Norwegian Anders Breivik allegedly ignited a truck bomb of explosives in downtown Oslo and took a boat to an island camp where he coldly slaughtered scores of young political activists, I received an electronic version of a manuscript from a journalist in Norway. It was a manifesto...

Many Christians cringe when Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik is described as a "Christian terrorist." But that is what he is.

It is true that Breivik was much more concerned about politics and history than about scripture and religious belief. But much the same can be said about...

Before the protests at Tahrir Square that toppled the Mubarak regime last month, many Egyptian activists were convinced that violence was the only strategy that would work against such a ruthless dictator. They also thought that only their Islamic faith and determination could motivate the brave revolutionaries to dare to...

Though the dreaded Taliban leader, Baitullah Massoud, may have been killed, the Taliban is still very much in control.

The various groups collectively known as the Taliban are deeply entrenched in much of the Eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan even after the recent killing of Taliban leaders, the offensive...