#religious-leadership

#religious-leadership

Born in Brooklyn, his life followed a path that blended scholarship, service and spiritual calling. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Southern Connecticut State University. First, he felt drawn to ministry at the age of 19, according to his biography on the Brown Memorial Baptist Church website. That calling deepened his studies at Yale University, where he trained for the ministry and went on to graduate from divinity school in 1994.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

On a sunlit June Friday in Srinagar's Old City, the Jamia Masjid stands as it always has, ornate and imposing. Its 14th-century wooden pillars have been witnesses to centuries of sermons and struggle. Inside, about 4,000 worshippers sit in silence. When Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the spiritual leader of Kashmir's Muslims, rises to speak, he does so with grace but caution. Draped in his customary golden-bordered white thobe and crowned with a brown Karakuli hat, he delivers a sermon laced with quiet prayers.