As one of a tiny number of openly gay imams in the world, Daayiee Abdullah has felt the sting of rebuke from fellow Muslims. No good Muslim can be gay, they say. And traditional schools of Islamic law consider homosexuality a grave sin.

In the wake of the shooting at Emanuel, congregations in the AME and other black churches have ratcheted up security — installing cameras and, in some cases, posting armed ushers. Officers sometimes sit in on Bible study, and law enforcement ran a background check on Campbell Chapel’s unfamiliar visitor.

The banners proclaim it in large, red letters: “Honor God — say no to anti-Muslim bigotry.”

In times of rising Islamophobia, President Obama made a plea for religious tolerance during his first presidential visit to an American mosque.

Americans as a whole are growing less religious, but those who still consider themselves to belong to a religion are, on average, just as committed to their faiths as they were in the past — in certain respects even more so.

A controversial new survey of Conservative rabbis shows that nearly 4 in 10 (38 percent) would officiate at the marriage of a Jew and non-Jew if the Conservative movement lifted its prohibition on these unions.