In addition to confronting political issues in the Middle East, US agencies and departments across the government are targeting violent extremism, human rights, and civil rights at home and abroad, says the Obama administration's special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

"When mass violence hits a country and tears it apart, it takes a long time for it to repair itself," says human rights activist Eric Stover.

Sold into sexual slavery early in her life, today Somaly Mam fights human trafficking and protects young girls in Cambodia against sexual abuse.

Engaged Buddhism means "you must confront social suffering," says Thai scholar and activist Sulak Sivaraksa, "and people suffer now because of the environment."

A recent expansion of the federal hate crimes law "does not suspend the First Amendment," says New York Times staff writer David Kirkpatrick, "and there's nobody, I think, on either side of the US Senate or House of Representatives that intends to see preachers locked in jail."

"You can’t say that religious opinions made over 1, 000 years ago are valid for all times," says Gamal al-Banna, a reformist Muslim cleric in Egypt. "We must have a revolution in the understanding of Islam, a revolution almost like Martin Luther’s."

Matthew McGarry, Catholic Relief Services representative in Afghanistan, says "people's faith is central to every aspect of their daily life in Afghanistan, and not taking that into account can undermine every other positive thing that the Administration might want to do."

For 100 days in 1994, Rwandans killed each other at a rate of 10,000 a day. Today the country tries to heal its wounds and deal with the consequences of the slaughter. "We have a nation to build," says Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana. "We cannot wait until we forget the genocide."

Bob Abernethy discusses Pope Benedict XVI's address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York with Religion & Ethics Newsweekly managing editor Kim Lawton.