Most Popular Posts

Thanks for all the page views!  We just exceeded 15,000 after just seven months.

• By far, the most popular post was the timeline of religions above.
• The seond most popular post was about the huge Hindu holiday, Kumbh Mela, that happens every twelve years and attracts over 100,000,000 Hindus.
• The third most popular post was about the Zoraostrian community in India called Parsis. A famous Indian photographer, Sooni Taraporevala developed a photographic exhibit of the community.

Zealot Author Goes to Reddit to Answer Questions

Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, went on Reddit today and answered questions for almost two hours about his book, Christianity, and Islam. What does he think about reading holy texts as historical texts?  Were you surprised by Lauren Green's questions on Fox? What is the fundamental difference between Abrahamic religions that prevents peaceful interaction?  Is there any hard evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really existed?  How do Muslims view Jesus?

I copied some of the questions and answers into a Google document that you can find here.  I think some of Aslan's responses are worth sharing with my religions class.

Sharia Law: A Guide to What it is & Why States Want to Ban It

Studying Islam? Here's a great primer on Sharia Law, what it is and what is not. The Huffington Post put together this overview because a number of states recently prohibited judges from considering "foreign laws" when making decisions.  The so-called foreign laws really refer to Sharia law.  The Huffington Post story also includes a good slide show showing a historical timeline of Sharia Law.

Zealot Author to Fox News: I am an expert who Happens to be a Muslim

Fox news anchor, Lauren Green, grilled Reza Aslan, author of   "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazaretth," because  she could not believe that a Muslim was qualified to write about Jesus. Although Aslan reminded her that he has taught and studied religion for two decades, has four degrees including one in the New Testament, and is fluent in classical Greek, she continued to press him.

Earlier this year, Leslie Hazleton, an English journalist, wrote a biography of Muhammad called, First Muslim.  Some critics questioned her ability to write an objective biography, but none seemed as obtuse as the Fox News anchor who grilled Aslan.  Dan Murphy, writing for the Christan Science Monitor, takes up this question in this excellent article and Susan Brooks Thistlethwait, writing for the Washington Post, deals with the question in an equally brilliant manner. I highly recommend both articles.

If we follow Lauren Green's line of reasoning, only adherents of a religion are qualified to write about them.  A westerner cannot write about Hinduism or  Buddhism with objectivity, regardless of the degree of their scholarship.

Mehdi Hasan: Islam Is A Peaceful Religion

Journalist Mehdi Hasan defends Islam as a peaceful religion in this awesome debate at Oxford Union. It's only 13 minutes and absolutely worth showing to a religion class when studying Islam. UpWorthy, where I found the video, describes the debate as a "totally-mesmerizing-insanely-eloquent-defense." And it is exactly that!

Reading the Bhagavad Gita Today

Wikipedia Commons

Here's a great essay about the value of the Bhagavad Gita today, written by Charles Martin who co-authored a new translation of the Hindu classic. The Gita is part of the great Indian classic, the Mahabharata and Martin sees a number of lessons from the story that are still valuable today.

The Gita is a drama that pits Arjuna in battle against his cousins and teachers for control of the kingdom of Bharata in northern India. The moral dilemma that this causes Arjuna is the subject of the book as he debates what he should do with his charioteer, who also happens to be the god, Krishna, in mortal  form.

Arjuna ultimately decides to wage war against his relatives. Martin suggests that "Krishna’s reasons are deeply set in Hindu doctrine and practice: as a member of the warrior class, Arjuna has a duty to wage war, and it would be shameful for him to turn away from his responsibility."

Martin sees a number of lessons that Gita still has to teach us.

• One is that we should always live our lives deliberately. “Better to do one’s duty/ ineptly than another’s well,” Krishna tells Arjuna. 
• One must act without concern for loss or gain
• Don't follow. Instead lead with responsibility and not out of fear

Here is  a link to a lesson I usually do with Hinduism that asks students to think about the moral dilemma Arjuna faces and what he should do.

Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt

A high-ranking leader of the Mormon church in Europe voices his doubts about the truth of some of the church's teachings.  According to this NY Times story, Hans Mattsson was a pillar of the Mormon church in Europe but began to have doubts when fellow believers found  "information from the Internet that contradicted the church’s history and teachings."  For example, he saw credible evidence that Mormon founder, Joseph Smith was a polygamist and discovered that "other scriptures were rife with historical anomalies." Other church officials are also questioning the church. The Times outlines the specific questions or anomalies about which Mattsson and others are talking.

This might be a great article for a religion class.  Students might research whether these issues are  unique to Mormons.

Seeing Buddha

Photographer David Butow tries to capture what the NY Times calls the "interior and the hidden" part of Buddhism. According to the Times Lens section, "he layered reflections, employed camera motion and made metaphoric images that suggested stillness."

The Time Lens section has a slide show of 19 of Butow's images and has links to Butow's web page where you can see the images in a bigger format and read a little more about Butow.

Kick-Ass Women Of The Muslim World

The Huffington Post has a great story about 10 Muslim women who are challenging religious and cultural norms in the Middle East. The series includes a short video clip for most featuring each woman and a short paragraph biography. The series includes the following women:

1. Haifaa al-Mansour:  Saudia Arabian filmmaker, whose film Wadja,challenged norms about men and  women working together.
2. Syria female fighters:  GlobalPost profiles one small female Islamic unit in Aleppo.
3. Raha Moharrak:  She is first Saudi woman to climb Mt. Everest.
4. Dana Bakdounis: Saudi woman who challenged the veil by posting her picture on Facebook without a veil.
5. Riham Said: Egyptian journalist who did not wear her veil on TV when interviewing a male guest. 
6.  Egyptian women: Egyptian women band together to fight sexual harassment.  
7. Amina Tyler:  Tunisian women who challenged sexual norms by posting a topless picture of herself online.
8.  Parkour practitioners: Iranian girls practice movement based on military obstacles
9. Tawakkol Karman: called the "Iron Woman," she was the public face of the Yemen Arab Spring uprising.
10.  Humaira Bachal: She fights for the right for girls to get an education, much like Malala, Yousafazai.

In religion class, students might compare the way women in other religions are breaking gender barriers.

France's Headscarf war: Does it Attack or Protect Religious Freedom?

More rioting, more trouble over Muslim head coverings in Paris. In one incident, police stop and check the identity of a woman in a niqab, a full head covering. In another incident, school authorities tell a Muslim mother she cannot accompany her son on a school trip while wearing her hijab.

Angelique Chrisafis, writing for The Guardian, explains that this is all about separating church and state. "At the heart is the rule that any state worker in the public service must be impartial and neutral, and so cannot show their religious belief with an outward symbol such as a headscarf. Public-sector workers – from teachers to post office or train station staff – are prohibited from wearing the hijab, a visible cross, turban or Jewish kippa."

Does this position protect freedom of religion or does it threaten it.  The question might provide an interesting discussion in religion class.

Twitter and Free Speech vs. Hate Speech in France

Here's a great case for class discussion.

You cannot yell "FIRE" in a public theater, but in 1977, neo-Nazis could march in Skokie, Ill., a predominantly Jewish town. Today, in France, the French prosecutor asked Twitter to turn over the "data necessary for identifying the authors of anti-Semitic tweets that were accompanied by the hashtag #UnBonJuif (#AGoodJew.),"  according to this article in Tech President and this one from NPR.

Did Twitter "cave" to French authorities? Do the authors of the anti-Semitic tweets have a right to freedom of speech?  "The real issue," according to one observer, "is, technically, how can you tell the difference between real racists and fascists, and those simply talking or joking about the racist tweets?"

Here's a clip from NPR about the conflict.

West Africa: Timbuktu to Darfur with Nicholas Kristof and Win-a Trip student

Erin Luhmann, who traveled with NY Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, reports on conditions in West Africa including malnutrition in Mali,  club foot in Niger, and the refugee crisis in Darfur. Luhmann won Kirstof's annual "win a trip" competition."  Nothing, she says at the beginning of this report, prepared her for what she saw in West Africa.

You can also read Kristof's column about Darfur here, where he reports that mass atrocities have resumed in Darfur and that "it’s no longer news that the Sudanese government is slaughtering its people."

Infographic: Aids, TB and Malaria in Africa

Interesting and sad demographic about disease in Africa from the newspaper, Al Jazeera. Although a child dies from malaria every 60 seconds, tuberculosis and especially aids, have a huge impact. You can listen to a short documentary about the crisis here.

The impact of malaria on Africa is an important topic that the Tony Blair organization,  Face to Faith, discusses every year on World Malaria Day. The Tony Blair organization works to bring together students from different religions and cultures, and often discusses important topics like the impact of malaria on Africa. This infographic would be a great resource for students before any discussion.

Radical Muslim Feminist calls for Changes in Mosques

Hind Makki, a radical Muslim feminist, looks at mosques around the world who allow and do not allow women to pray together.  She highlights the successes and failures in her Tumbler blog called, Side Entrance.  Her work and blog was also noticed by the Huffington Post, which just did an interesting story about her and her motivations.  The story also includes a slideshow of women prayer areas around the world. You can follow Hind Makki on Twitter at @HindMakki.

Religion students might enjoy this story and it might provide an opportunity for students to compare women and prayer in other religions.

Religious Freedom and the Middle East

Writing for the Washington Post, Andrew Doran, a former State Department employee, writes about the plight of Middle Eastern Christians as revolutions continue to shake the Middle East. He argues that they are caught in the middle between Muslim fundamentalism and modernity.  He notes that Muslim religious toleration has been a hallmark of Islamic history, especially during Islam's golden age in medieval Spain under the Umayyad dynasty. There, Christians and Jews were seen as "people of the book."

What happened to that "medieval moment?"  Doran believes that it disappeared, in part, because of the rise of secularism. "The preeminence of secularism in the West coincided with – and likely contributed to – the rise of fundamentalism in the Middle East. Perhaps most disconcerting for Middle Eastern Christians, generally proponents of liberalism, is how comfortable Western liberal democracies have become with political Islam and even extremism. In consequence, many feel betrayed, especially by America..  

Is Doran right?  Are western democracies too comfortable with political Islam and even fundamentalism? This could be an interesting discussion in class and the article could also serve as a good review of Islam's golden age.

Is Scientology a Religion: Judges Debate

Most religion courses begin with a definition of religion. Names like Rudolf Otto, Ninian Smart, Mircea Eliade, and Emile Durkheim are often discussed. Must a religion have a god or higher being to be classified as a religion? Should it include worship?

These are some of the questions that Supreme Court justices in England are weighing as they try to decide if a couple can be married in a Scientology chapel. According to the Guardian online newspaper, the registrar general in London refused to grant the couple a license. The registrar says that the Scientology chapel does not constitute a legal place of worship as specified by one of their laws called the Places of Worship Registration Act of 1855. The couple sued and the case is now in the hands of England's supreme court.

The justices are struggling with conflicting opinions. One side argues that Scientology does not constitute a religion. They argue that Scientology "does not involve worship of a divine being. The central processes of Scientology are not about reverence or veneration. It's about constructing the self."

The other, the one fighting for the couple, argues that Scientology is a lot like Buddhism. "The Buddhist principle of nirvana is not venerated as a being or power that is supernatural or divine. In Scientology, L Rob Hubbard is not venerated."

This might be a great case to use during the first unit in a high school religion class.

The Scientists who Escaped the Nazis

In 1933, Max Born and other Jewish scientists fled Germany for England and America, at the urging of Albert Einstein.  Born was part of a group of elite theoretical scientists that most any country would want, except for Nazi Germany. Max Born's son, Gustav, is now 92 and recalls his family's flight from Germany eighty years ago. You can read the whole story in the BBC News and you can also see a list of these refugee scientists who went on to become Nobel Laureates and who received knighthoods in England.  You will also  find a link to Albert Einstein's famous speech supporting the newly created escape committee.

Zealot: The Life & Times of Jesus

If you teach World Religions, you might want to check out this new book about Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Aslan is also the author of No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam.

NPR interviews Aslan in the nine minute clip below. Aslan concentrates on the tumultuous and apocalyptic period in which Jesus lived. He relies largely on Roman sources about Palestine in the first century and uses the Bible to fill in some gaps. He sees the Bible as sacred history, which reveals certain truths, "...the facts that they reveal are not as valuable as the truths are." The book has gotten great advance reviews and you can pre-order it now.

In addition, here's a great article Reza Aslan wrote for the Washington Post today (7/15/2013) called "What can we know about Jesus."   He writes: "It is a miracle that we know anything at all about the man called Jesus of Nazareth. The itinerant preacher wandering from village to village clamoring about the end of the world, a band of ragged followers trailing behind, was a common sight in Jesus’ time—so common, in fact, that it had become a kind of caricature among the Roman elite."

Finally, here are several other links:

•  Aslan's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air 
• A short video clip on Huffington Post in which Aslan explains the importance of understanding the times in which Jesus lived in order to understand the man.
• An interview on the Daily  Show, on 7/17/2013, in which Aslan disputes the idea of Jesus as a detached, celestial spirit
• Aslan on Morning Joe, along with a short excerpt from his book
• Aslan talking at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California on Sunday, 7/21/13 as part of their summer preaching series
• Aslan's essay on the CNN Belief blog called "Losing Christ and finding Jesus."
• Here is Aslan talking to Rev.Jennifer Crumpton about Jesus and women
• Jesus the Revolutionary: A Q&A With Reza Aslan (this is excellent, worth copying and using in religion class)

Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban, Makes Appeal at U.N.

Speaking before the United Nations, on her 16th birthday, Malala Yousafzai asks for "free compulsory education for every child." Yousafzai was shot last year by the Taliban because of her outspoken belief in education for young girls. The NY Times has a good article about the speech here.

Yousafzai has been an outspoken critic of the Taliban for several years. In 2009, the NY Times profiled her in the video below.

Turbaned Sikh Men Take Their Fashion to the Streets

The Guardian Newspaper's fashion blog reports that Sikhs in England are trying to show that they, with their turbans, can be as fashionable as anyone else.  In fact, one young Sikh, Pardeep Singh Bahra, started a blog called Singh Street Style.  It includes photos of his friends and of Sikhs who just walk by.  He believes that "the turban can complement an outfit and give you more character," and wants to " inspire younger Sikh guys to be proud of their turbans..." 

Politicians who Meditate

Studying Buddhism?  Here's a story to show how some of its ideas have  permeated  American culture.   Salon Magazine has an interesting story about the increasing use of meditation by members of Congress. Congressmen Ryan and Sanford even encourage other members to try it. And Ryan is even writing a book about how meditation can reduce stress and even heal Congress.

Photos of Ramadan

Atlantic Magazine posted a series of images of Muslims around the world observing Ramadan including the one below.

Live From Mecca, It's Ramadan

NPR posted this video that includes views of the Grand Mosque in Mecca and "views of the faithful performing prayers and circumambulation around the Kaaba, the sacred cube at the mosque's center."  This would be great to show when you study Islam and the importance of the hajj.

 

Child Bride Turned Scholar

Tererai Trent defied cultural norms that denied African girls an education and restricted them to a life in the home. Married at 18 with three children, Trent learned how to read and eventually earned three degrees. She returned to her native Zimbabwe to help build schools and work as a role model for other girls. You can read more about Terai Trent and see other clips at this CNN site. The NY Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof profiled Trent in his book, Half the Sky,and wrote about her in a column in 2009, noting that "... there are so many other Tererais out there."

Why does African culture deny so many girls an education?  This might be an interesting research project when we cover Islam in Africa in the contemporary world.

Ramadan: July 9, 2013

Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, begins Tuesday, July 9. It always occurs in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. The clip above, from the History Channel, offers a brief overview of the holy month.  ESL teacher, Larrry Ferlazzo has a list of sites about Ramadan here. The Boston Globe, covering Ramadan in 2008, posted some awesome pictures that you can see here.

How Does An Islamist Extremist Change His Mind?

Maajid Nawaz used to recruit young Muslims to an extremist Islamist group and served five years in an Egyptian prison. He underwent a transformation and began advocating for democracy.  In the TedTalk above he explains that transformation and discusses the circumstances that create  extremist groups.  You can also listen to an NPR  interview with Nawaz here.