BOB ABERNETHY, host: Joining me now to talk about some of the major news of the week are Kim Lawton, managing editor of this program, and Kevin Eckstrom, editor-in-chief of Religion News Service. So, Kevin, a fourteen-minute video is posted on YouTube and triggers violence all over the Muslim world, demonstrations resulting in the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya. What are the messages from all that, especially the religious messages?

KEVIN ECKSTROM (Editor-in-Chief, Religion News Service): Well, I think, you know, we live in this increasingly smaller world, interconnected world, and things that happen in one place instantaneously affect things in another place, and religion obviously is playing a larger and larger role in global affairs, and what you’ve seen, I think, this week is that one of the greatest barriers to interfaith understanding is actually technology and the ability to get these messages out. You know, five years ago, ten years ago, somebody could have made a video like this and nobody ever would have seen it, but now you can post it on YouTube or you can put it on Twitter or Facebook, and it’s around the world instantaneously, and it automatically pits one religion against another, and that’s a huge challenge that nobody, I think, has quite figured out how to deal with just yet.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Middle East • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

1. Tomb01 wrote: ” it automatically pits one religion against another”  No, what it does is expose the violence that is one of the fundamental aspects of the Islamists. September 17, 8:18 am | [comment link]

2. Cennydd13 wrote: If you look at the symbols of Islam, you’ll see that one of them is the SCIMITAR, the curved sword of Islam and a symbol of Mohammed, who was an Arab GENERAL.  This is self-explanatory of the intent of Islam.  The CRESCENT is none other than the ancient symbol of the Egyptian Moon God.  Enough said? September 17, 6:51 pm | [comment link]

3. jann wrote: Tomb01 got it wrong.  Violence is a fundamental aspect of Islam. September 18, 2:37 am | [comment link]

4. Tomb01 wrote: Um, not sure I understand, Jann.  I think that is what I said? September 18, 9:29 am | [comment link]

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