During the Faiths Act Fellowship, I was hosted by Islamic Networks Group (ING), an educational organization that promotes religious literacy and mutual respect. When the Fellowship ended, I came on board as a consultant. One of the first projects that I wrapped my head around was a mobile app. The CEO wanted a mobile app focused on multifaith/interfaith happenings in the world. As we talked about features, the list of “things this app will do” grew and grew. And so, after months and months of research and development, ING is proud to present “FaithNews – Multifaith News and Events“, now available for free download at the App Store. Here’s the description that we use:
Did you ever want to wish your neighbor happy holidays, but weren’t sure when his or her religion has holidays or what to say? Have you ever blanked on the Hebrew word for charity? Are you planning a luncheon and need to know when Ramadan ends so you can feed your Muslim guests? Multifaith News and Events has all that and more.
It’s not simply a calendar of holy days, or a dictionary of important religious terms. This app comes with over 200 interesting facts – some trivial, some wildly important – about the five major world religions represented by ING’s Interfaith Speakers Bureau: Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
The general concept for this app is to allow users to easily acquire daily news and information surrounding religion and interreligious issues.
These include:
- Daily aggregation of news articles on religious pluralism from several different news publications. Topics include religion in the workplace, religion and civil rights, 1st Amendment (freedom of religion) issues, etc.
- Multifaith calendar highlighting religious days of observance. Holidays will contain brief descriptions as well as links for more information.
- List of religious events and conferences around the country.
- Basic and often surprising facts about the world’s five major religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam. For added interest, related facts will link to each other; for instance you can easily see how fasting works in both Judaism and Islam.
- Information about Islamic Networks Group and its educational programs.
Designed and developed by Magnicode, Multifaith News and Events is the go-to app for interreligious information, events and more.