The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality is a program for the American Society of Muslim Advancement. It is a global social network and grassroots social justice movement designed to empower Muslim women, including promoting religious leadership roles for women. Its website posts a list of Islamic women’s organizations. Contact through the website.

The Baptist World Alliance is a network of 228 churches in 120 countries that works to promote the church’s ministry and works around the world in various aid areas.

Read the U.N. Millennium Project’s gender equality report.

“Who’s Afraid of Sacred Soccer?” is a June 16, 2010, essay at ReligionDispatches.org by Gary Laderman, head of the Department of Religion at Emory University.

Douglas Pratt is a Professor of Religious Studies in the department of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Ethics at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. His areas of expertise include Christianity, Islam, Christian-Muslim relations, interreligious dialogue, and religious issues such as pluralism, fundamentalism and extremism.

Read a June 24, 2010, story published in the Los Angeles Times about the change of leadership in Afghanistan from Gen. Stanly McChrystal to Gen. David Patraeus.

Read the June 22, 2010, profile published by Rolling Stone about Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of all U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. After the article was published, McChrystal was removed from his post for the unflattering comments he made about the Obama administration.

The BBC maintains a profile on Pope Benedict XVI.

The New York Times has a Times Topics page on Benedict.