Tony Blair Faith Foundation

The headline 'Mo-mentous' summed up the tabloid press verdict on the Olympics. The wide-eyed, victorious face of Muhammad 'Mo' Farah, a British Somali track athlete, was the defining picture, a stake through the heart of the anti-immigrant, racist politics of the extreme Right in Europe. Dracula will doubtless drag himself out of his coffin but it was a moment to be savoured. Like a pint of newly poured Guinness, the media froth coming off the Games has taken a long time to settle.

Despite heavy rain, phase two of Faiths Act in Sierra Leone has started its next phase of training religious leaders to reach out and equip people in their local communities with life-saving information about malaria prevention. The excitement built up as we starting receiving recommendations from the Inter Religious Council of Sierra Leone and religious leaders about those who should be trained in the second phase. In just two days, we had over 50 faiths leaders for the 45 slots for the orientation.

As part of our blog series: Perspectives: Religion and Public Life, , Dr. Hakan Yilmaz explores the factors behind the relationship between secularism and democracy in Turkey. Perspectives: Religion and Public Life is a series of short blogs on questions about the relationship between religion and secularism, you can find the rest of the series by clicking here. In Turkey, as opposed to the other secularist regimes in the Islamic world, secularism and democracy have found a modus vivendi.

And again, I succeeded! Got up at dawn in Catania, Sicily, reached the airport to discover that my flight to Venice had been cancelled, ended up in a town where I had not planned to land, arranged my train transfer and finally arrived in the cute Venetian village where Face to Faith was set to meet. I did not have time to set a foot into the hotel before I was warmly “grasped” from the F2F friends from all parts of Italy: Rome, Turin, Milan, Venice, Bari….

As part of our blog series: Perspectives: Religion and Public Life, Rabbi David Wolpe discusses how to bring religion into politics. Perspectives: Religion and Public Life is a series of short blogs on questions about the relationship between religion and secularism, you can find the rest of the series by clicking here. For nearly two millennia politics was poison for the Jewish people. The principle aim in understanding the machinations of power was to make oppression less onerous. Great swaths of tradition that spoke to the exercise of power lay mostly unexplored.

As part of our blog series: Perspectives: Religion and Public Life, Dr. Olena Bogdanova discusses Ukraine's national religiosity. She examines the difference between religious practice, religious affiliation, and religious belief. Perspectives: Religion and Public Life is a series of short blogs on questions about the relationship between religion and secularism, you can find the rest of the series by clicking here. Ukraine might look like a rather religious Christian country to a random visitor.

As part of our blog series: Perspectives: Religion and Public Life, Marshall Louis M. Alferez discusses the Philippines' national sense of spirituality. He examines the tensions that exist between progressive thought and spiritual conservatism and the struggle to find balance. Perspectives: Religion and Public Life is a series of short blogs on questions about the relationship between religion and secularism, you can find the rest of the series by clicking here. Most Filipinos would say that religion is a central aspect of everyday life.

When educators start to plan for professional development conferences, they sift through the latest research and survey the needs of those who will be attending. This year, Edmund Rice Education Australia hosted a national conference on Service, Solidarity Learning and Faith. Experts in the field, including Dr Damien Price, Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum, Professor Dave Andrews and Dr Wayne Tinsey who could all give their expert opinions on directions for educators to facilitate the best, most meaningful experience for their students.

This summer, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation hosted an intensive academic summer course examining human rights and religious minorities with McGill University. The two week course held in Montreal, Canada brought together Faith and Globalisation Initiative students from partner universities around the world. Director of Policy, Ian Linden, who taught the students for part of their course, also writes about the success of the course and the importance of the rule of law in protecting religious rights.

This summer, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation hosted an intensive academic summer course examining human rights and religious minorities with McGill University. The two week course held in Montreal, Canada brought together Faith and Globalisation Initiative students from partner universities around the world. The below blog is from, Zeng Qifei, one of the students who attended the course. You can read more blogs from the summer course here.  I'm a Chinese, an analytic college student, and a convinced atheist.