Religious tensions existed when Jesus first came into the world, and they continue to this day. As another calendar year draws to a close, the Religion Newswriters Association has released its list of top religion stories and newsmakers for 2010. Heading the list this year is the public debate and controversy over a planned Islamic community center and mosque to be built near New York’s Ground Zero.

The plan ignited a national debate about religious freedom that kept the story in the forefront of U.S. news for months. Public opinion and outcry over the mosque reached a peak when a pastor of a small Florida church threatened to burn a Qur’an in protest, a planned act of bravado that until the pastor backed down fueled fears of international backlash against the United States.

The Islamic center’s leading proponent, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, was voted the 2010 Religion Newsmaker of the Year, topping Pope Benedict XVI, the many faith-based workers helping victims of the Haitian earthquake, and Sarah Palin, who devoted significant portions of her second best-selling book to arguing that candidates for office take a public Christian stand.

Source: A press release by Debra L. Mason for Religion Newswriters Association, www.rna.org/news