On Saturday a gunman with anti-Semitic views opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 and wounding 4. In tragic irony, this happened on the very same day the world observes International Religious Freedom Day. Today we stand in solidarity with this community and mourn their losses with them.

Emotions run high and reasonable discourse runs low when the subjects of the travel ban or immigration come up. But whether you protest or praise particular policies, one thing is undebatable: both Muslims and Mexicans/Latinos face blatant discrimination in Trump’s America. Why is this the case, and how should Republican and Democrat followers of Jesus respond?

Hate groups will continue to poison hearts, stir up violence, and polarize people in 2018. So to gear up for these challenges I began re-reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s Strength to Love. Peacemaking is not for the faint of heart. It demands an uncompromising rejection of the unloving ways of the world and a radical embrace of the enemy-loving way of Jesus.

On an early mid-August morning, my wife and I began our day long journey to Sandpoint, Idaho to conduct a training for people interested in learning more about the current refugee crisis. But when we arrived we found protesters outside and 170 people inside, almost all of whom were also there to protest. Here's what happened next.

With fortitude, the Muslims and all those outside of Masjid Omar Ibn al-Kuttab in Ohio practiced great restraint in the face of incredible offense. A leader of the mosque had informed friends of Peace Catalyst earlier in the morning that a hate group was planning to arrive during Friday Prayers.

Recently, while at a birthday party for a Muslim friend, the host came and shared that he had read some disturbing anti-Muslim writing in response to an interview in which he had been the main Muslim voice. Abdullah was quite pleased with the article, written by a Christian academic who was genuinely interested in Abdullah’s views, but it was the comments to the article that disturbed him.