What the French Could Learn From These 2,000 Swedish Women

Policymic has an excellent story about Sweden's reaction to the attack of a pregnant Muslim woman in a Stockholm suburb a week ago. Two thousand Swedish women donned hijabs in support of the woman, took to the social media with pictures of themselves,  and demanded politicians deal with "structural discrimination that affects Muslim women."

According to Policymic, the French reaction was "nowhere near as sympathetic."  When Argenteuil Muslims were attacked in early June, the French press sided with the police. And two years ago the French tried to institute a ban on burkas and niqabs in public. What accounts for the two different reactions? This might be an interesting question for religion students to debate.

Broken Arrow: Relocation of the Navajo

Here is an ward winning video focused on the removal of 12,000 Navajo from their ancestral homes in Arizona. Navajos, like other native Americans, saw themselves as caretakers of the Earth which is why the effort to remove them from their land  in 1977 was particularly offensive. Martin Sheen narrates the documentary.  It's all on line in 7 parts here and is very interesting and engaging. I use parts of it for our unit on indigenous religions in North America.  And here is a link to a Navajo creation myth.

Epic of the Persian Kings: Heart of Iranian Identiy

NPR has a great story about the Shahnameh, or "Epic of the Persian Kings."  It  is a foundational Iranian myth and legend written all in verse over a thousand years ago.  A Persian poet, Abolqasem Ferdowsi, wrote the epic which is longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey. In an interview with NPR, Azar Nafisi, a contemporary Iranian writer, says that the Shahnameh is at the heart of makes her Iranian.

An Iranian film maker and graphic artist in New York, Hamid Rahmanian, translated and illustrated a new version of the Shahnameh.  NPR says "this Shahnameh edition is amazing, that its "like a monk's gilt-edged tome for the digital age, with linked dynastic stories of fabled kings, queens, knights and magical beings."

The NPR site allows you to listen to the audio story, read the story,  and see a slide show of some of the pages of the book.

Below is a picture of one of the gilt edged and illustrated pages.

Battling Superstition, Indian Paid With His Life

Here is an interesting glimpse into India's world of superstition from the New York Times.

Superstition is so entrenched in India that it is almost a part of its very fabric.  Gurus, babas, astrologers, godmen, and even mystical soothsayers make a living with their miracles and magic.

One critic, Narendra Dabhokar, spent his life challenging the entrenched beliefs in superstition. Everywhere he saw magic, he showed the audience why it wasn't magic. He even took up a bill, the anti-black magic bill, but politicians were reluctant to move on it.  He paid with his life. Last week, two men shot Dr. Dabhokar  as he went on a walk and killed him. He threatened a way of life.

Indigenous African Religion Finds Roots In America

Indigenous religions is one of the first units in my World Religion class. Here's an article about the Yoruba, an indigenous West African religion. It's older than Christianity and Islam. Now it's gaining followers in America.

According to the NPR story, it's gaining followers because "it offers a spiritual path and a deep sense of cultural belonging."  It's also popular to African Americans because it "offers them an ancient spiritual heritage, one that pre-dates slavery in the United States."

You can listen to the audio story below and you an also see links to more information about the Yoruba.

• Here's a good overview of the Yuruba from Goddpath
• From Howard University, another overview
• The University of Kent has an excellent history

Ten Muslim Women Everyone Should Know

Fazeela Siddiqui, program manager for Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE), put together a list of ten of the most important Muslim women from the 7th century to the present for the Huffington Post. "Contrary to popular belief," she notes, "Muslim women have served as revolutionary and heroic leaders." Some, she says, "have been jailed, ridiculed and harangued for their activism; yet, their strength and faith always persevered." You can see a slideshow with pictures and a brief biography of each of the ten women.

Anousheh Ansairi, pictured above, is the first Muslim woman in space. Students could research these women and develop presentations. Below is a list of the women with their accomplishment. For many, I have provided a clickable link that will give you more information.

• Rab'ia al-Adawiyya, Iraq, (717-801 C.E.): set  forth the doctrine of “Divine Love?” Here is a link to some of her poetry. 

• Fatima al-Fihri:, (Morocco, unknown-880C.E.): founded of the oldest degree-granting university in the world? 

• Nana Asma'u, (Nigeria, (1793-1864):  was one of the first advocates for Muslim women. 

• Sultan Raziyya, India, 1205-1240): She was a Sultan of Delhi from 1336 to 1240. In the 19th century, she traveled throughout the Middle East and northern Africa educating women in poor and rural regions. 

• Laleh Bakhtiar, USA, 1938-Present): Her “The Sublime Quran” is first translation by an American of the Quran into English. 

• Shirin Ebadi, Iran, (1947-Present): the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy and human rights in Iran. 

• Daisy Khan, (USA, 1958-Present): founded the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) which works for women’s rights in Islam. 

• Anousheh Ansari USA, (1966-Present): In 2006, she became the first Muslim woman to go into space. 

• Dr. Amina Wadud (USA, 1952-Present): the first female imam to lead a mixed-congregation prayer.

Democracy and Islamic Law

Studying the Ottoman Empire?  Here's a great essay about the impact of the breakup of that empire and the rise of Islamic law from the magazine section of the BBC News Magazine.

Roger Scruton, a writer and philosopher, argues that while Ataturk, father of modern Turkey, created a secular country in which loyalty to the new country was first and loyalty to religion was second, other parts of the former empire in North Africa and the Middle East, did the opposite.  States like Iraq, Iran and even Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood, created Islamic states where loyalty to Islam comes first and loyalty to the state comes second. 

Scruton argues that states based on religion cannot succeed. He argues that secular law adapts but rebellious law, like Sharia, does not. "When God makes the laws, the laws become as mysterious as God is. When we make the laws, and make them for our purposes, we can be certain what they mean." 

This is an interesting argument students could debate.  Thanks to Tom Whitby for tweeting the link.

Hispanic Americans Leaving Catholicism for Islam

Some American Latinos are leaving the Catholic Church for Islam. No one knows the exact number, but estimates vary between 100,000 and 200,000. Why?  Watch the clip. It's only two minutes.

Turbans, Hijabs,Kippas Face Restrictions in Quebec

The Quebec government plans to introduce in September a "Charter of Quebec Values" that would essentially ban all religious symbols in many public places.  According to this article in the Vancouver Sun and this one from the Huffington Post, the legislation would prevent "employees in public institutions like schools and hospitals from wearing religious symbols such as turbans, niqabs, kippas, hijabs and highly visible crucifixes."

The proposed legislation has created an uproar and is another example of the attempt of some western countries to more completely secularize their culture. In an article from Aljazeera, Massoud Hayoun suggests that the "measure would essentially import controversial European legislation on religious dress to North America."

Buddhist-Muslim Tensions in Burma: The 969 Movement

Student interns for the PBS news site, Religion and Ethics, ask George Washington University religious studies and international affairs professor Eyal Aviv to explain Buddhist extremism in Burma and the role of their leader, Wirathu.

The name of the nationalist movement he leads is the 969 Movement. According to the New York Times, "its agenda agenda now includes boycotts of Muslim-made goods." The movement has included lynch mobs responsible for killing more than 200 Muslims and forced more than 150,000 from their homes.

In another story from the New York Times, a mob swarmed a car of U.N. Rights Envoy. The envoy, Tomás Ojea, said the experience gave him empathy for the fear and tension under which the Muslims live in Myanmar.

This is not the kind of Buddhism for which the Dali Llama  is spokesman.

Understanding Karma and The Hindu's Response to Suffering

Karma is an essential Hindu belief, based on the idea that our actions and deeds affect the future. Bad karma will bind your soul to the cycle of rebirth, while good karma could lead to a better rebirth in the next life.

How does karma explain the terrible disasters that plagued India this year like the mass pesticide poisoning of school lunches in July, or the floods in the state of Assam that dislodged dislodged five million people in the same month?  Could all this be explained by bad karma?

In a thoughtful essay for the Huntington Post, Joe McKnight, a recent graduate of Union Theological Seminary and a freelance journalist,  talks to two Hindu teachers in an attempt to understand the role of karma in these disasters.

Dr. Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California,sees a difference between individual karma and societal karma. Corruption had long plagued the school lunches. That corruption led to the poisoning. The program itself collected bad karma and that led to the poisoning. The individual karma of the children had nothing to do with it.

McKnight says that another Hindu writer related the flooding to the cumulative effect of society's treatment of the environment. He suggests that when we exploit the envrionment
Earth has to react. According to this writer, "anytime a living thing is being taken advantage of, it reacts. This is not about punishment, but cause and effect."

This is a fascinating essay, maybe a little too sophisticated for the overview of religion in 9th grade world history, but certainly good for a religion class that studies religion in more depth.

In pictures: What is an illuminated manuscript?

BBC Religion and Ethics has an excellent slideshow about illuminated manuscripts. And the British Library also has an excellent interactive site in which you can actually open and turn pages using your mouse and shockwave.  Both sites are excellent resources for the Middle Ages and even for a religion class.

Seattle Seahawks turn to Meditation for an Edge

It seems that elements of religion permeate every aspect of our lives. Here, the Seattle Seahawks turn to the Buddhist and Hindu practice of meditation  to better focus their players' minds.

Seattle Seahawks coach, Pete Carroll, asks his players not only to work out their bodies, but also their minds. With sports psychologist Mike Gervais, Carroll begins many workout sessions with six minutes of meditation. While not required, Gervais says about 20 players usually show up.

 According to the story in ESPN, "the big idea is that happy players make for better players."  Coaches frown on yelling and swearing and players end interviews with a "thank you."  It's all about positive thinking. And get this: "in a trial program entering its second year, a group of 15 to 20 players is undergoing Neurotopia brain-performance testing and has worked with Gervais to create status profiles -- updated every week on an iPad app -- of what's going on in their lives, how much sleep they're getting, their goals and how they're dealing with stressors."  

Burka Avenger

This is an animated cartoon, created by a Pakistani pop singer, as a kind of protest against the Taliban. The heroine wears a burka, not as a symbol of subservience, but as a way to hide her identity as she fights against evil and for female education. 

But, according to the Daily Beast, it created a backlash when an Indian news show asked whether the show was "cool" or "conformist."  It seems that anything to do with burkas can create misunderstanding.

CNN has a good story about the series you can read here.  And here's another story  from the New York Daily News.

'Hijab Outcry' In Sweden

On Saturday, a pregnant Muslim woman wearing a hijab was assaulted. Her hijab was torn off. Ever since that attack, Swedish women rallied in support by donning hijabs themselves. And they posted pictures of themselves all over Twitter. You can see some of the pictures here at “the Huffington Post where I got the video clip above. You can also find hundreds of other posts in support of the hijab. I copied from Twitter the entertaining picture below -- a conversation between a Mufti and Christian minister.

Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story

In this superb talk, Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie eloquently discusses the dangers of cultural preconceptions.  With no overlapping stories to change these preconceptions, these single stories can be definitive.

"Show a people one thing over and over," she says, "and that is what they will become."   Start the story of the native Americans with arrows, and not with the arrival of the British, and you begin a single story that defines a people.  Or, start  the story with the failure of the African states rather than the creation of these states by the colonial powers, and you begin a single story.

We need overlapping stories to dispel the stereotypes created by  single stories. While Africa has problems including war and starvation, there are other stories, equally important. "The consequence of the single story," Adichie notes, "is this: it robs people of their dignity."

American Jains Adapt Faith for Modern life

How do religions change when they move far away from their birthplace? Chinese Buddhism is different than Japanese Buddhism.  And, according to this article from the Huffington Post, American Janism is quite different from Indian Janism.

That's because young American Jains, according to this story from the Huffington Post, are reinterpreting "the traditions of their religion for 21st century life."  

Jainism is an ancient Indian religion with some similarities to Buddhism. Like Buddhists, Jain monks and nuns do not form attachments. They also practice nonviolence and that belief means that they try not to kill insects or microbes.  Some textbooks show Jain nuns sweeping the walkway in front of them so they will not inadvertently kill insects as they walk.

In America, these young Jains translate that commitment to nonviolence to respect for the environment and for animal rights. As doctors, lawyers and business people, Jains "are increasingly seeking a compromise between their faith and practicality."  Another example is the increase in the practice of veganism among young Jains.

Buddhism and Comedy

Studying Buddhism?  Here's an interesting story about the Buddhist tradition of  "Dana."  That tradition forced this American Buddhist, Wes Nisker, to eventually supplement his income with comedy.

According to the NY Times,  Nisker grew up as a Jew in Nebraska. In the late 60's and 70's,he studied Buddhism and meditation in India, Myanmar, and Thailand. In the United States, he traveled the Buddhist circuit and taught mediation, for free,  practicing  the Buddhist tradition of Dana or generosity.

Needing to earn money, he began writing a few books on Buddhism. But once, again, he was convinced to give the books away as another example of Dana.  Finally, he began adding comedy to his mediation workshops, usually at the beginning or the end of each workshop.  Now, he performs in theaters, traveling the Buddha Belt.

In another story, The Times reviews Nisker performances. They note, "his performance, laced with songs that he has written, manages to make suffering a knee-slapper."  My thanks to Jeff Feinstein for sending the link to this story.

Religions in a Minute

Here are great one minute summaries of most world religions. Below, you find Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. You can find a few others here. I embed them on Blackboard for the kids to watch as a quick review or even as an overview introduction.

What Religion? Members of Congress

Hunter Schwarz at Buzzfeed, mapped out the religions of all the members of the House of Representatives. The map above shows all the different religions of the House members but if you go to the Buzzfeed site, you can see a map for each religion alone, like the one below for Catholic members. And here is a breakdown in list form. Looks like the majority are Catholic.

Tech-Savvy Pastor & Bible App

You've probably heard of the Bible app--the app that lets you download a version of the Bible onto your mobile device. What you probably don't know is the interesting story of how it was developed.

Rev. Bobby Gruenewald, pastor of an Oklahoma-based megachurch called LifeChurch.tv, first developed the idea for the app while waiting for a plane at an airport and wishing he had his Bible to pass the time. He flew home and registered a domain name called youversion.com. The rest is history.

According to this feature story in the Chicago Tribune,  100 million people have downloaded the app. You can get it in one of 617 versions and one of 377 languages. And Rev. Gruenewald now has 30 paid staff members, 500 volunteers worldwide, and 420 million dollars in donations.

Belief-O-Matic: What Religion are You?

Do you know which faith is most compatible with your religious beliefs? Belief-O-Matic does. Just create an account, answer the questions, and Belief-O-Matic will tell you which faith is most compatible.  It's a fun activity for students when we begin our World Religions class.

Egypt: Graveyard of Arab Spring

Want to review the events in Egypt with your students?  Here's a nice review of Mursi's ouster and the subsequent events from Reuter's Faith World. And here's a clip from the BBC on how the Egyptian military grew so strong. Thanks to F.C. Tymrak for tweeting the link.

Keeping Zoroastrianism alive after 3,000 years

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world but its numbers are shrinking. One cannot convert to Zoroastrianism. You have to be born into it, which explains why the numbers are dwindling to about 200,000. This clip above comes from BBC News. 

Tattooed Traditionalist: Nadia Bolz-Weber

Reverend Weber is the Lutheran pastor of the house for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado and one of the five women in religion to watch, according to this CNN article by Sarah Sentilles.

Not only is Weber changing what pastors look like because of all her tattoos, she's also changing what the church looks like. Hers is all about social justice and is "irreverent and progressive."  For example, according to Sentilles, "You can even buy a church T-shirt with the slogan “Radical Protestants: Nailing sh*t to the church door since 1517” emblazoned on the back."

Last year, she released a new book called "Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint." Here's a review by the Baylor University Press.  I think that Krista Tippet plans to interview sometime in the next few months. 

The Life of Muhammad: PBS Broadcast

PBS will air on Tuesday, August 20, a new 3 hour documentary on the life of Muhammad. It was first produced for the BBC in 2011. According to this review in the Washington Post, Rageh Omaar, a Somali-born journalist, narrates the series.  The Post says that it portrays the Prophet in a  "respectful and positive light."

The first hour that  airs Tuesday  examines Muhammad's early life and marriage.  The second part examines the Prophet's "Night Journey to Jerusalem" and his war with the Meccan tribes. The final hour looks at  Muhammad's later life, the Sharia law code and the concept of jihad.

Indigenous Religions: Aboriginal Dreamtime

Aboriginal spirituality--the Dreaming--is part of our unit on indigenous religions.  The Dreaming is essentially a creation story. Over time, these stories set "out the structures of society, the rules for social behavior and the ceremonies performed in order to maintain the life of the land."

The Australian Museum has a great site about Aboriginal spiritual beliefs with a good overview of the Dreaming. The Australian government has another excellent site.  Both are great for a webquest.

Here is a short clip about the Dreamtime.

Bride Trafficking in India

PBS correspondent, Fred De Sam Lazaro, suggests that a shortage of brides in India is fueling trafficking in young girls.  Wealthy men from northern farm states look to girls in the impoverished east and sometimes pay parents for their daughters. According to Kailash Satyarti, an anti-trafficking activist, "marriage is but one fate tens of thousands of young women face every year across India."  He says that India women are stolen, sold and resold.

  

Krista Tippet on Compassion

Here is Krista Tippett on Ted Talks discussing compassion. She thinks that we need a new definition of compassion that is synonymous with empathy and linked to practical virtues like generosity, kindness, and hospitality.

She offers some examples in people that she has interviewed like Matthew Sanford who became a paraplegic at the age of thirteen in a car crash that killed his father and sister. Today, he works with wounded war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan showing them how to live with disabilities. She also talked about Albert Einstein whose compassion led him to invite Marian Anderson, the great black singer, to stay at his house since the nearby hotel was segregated.

Krista Tippet is the host of the weekly radio show, On Being, which is  about religion or what the show calls the big questions of the time. Every week she interviews different people from all faith traditions.  She is a journalist by training but also has a degree in divinity from Yale University. In 2003, she launched Speaking of Faith, which is now called, On Being.

Indigenous Religions: Sacred Land in America

In my World Religions class, we study indigenous religions in Africa, America, and Australia. I show part of the video above, In the Light of Reverence, when we look at native American religion. The documentary, from PBS's POV, looks at the significance of the land to native American religion and examines the native American struggle with whites over how the land should be used. The complete documentary features the Hopi in Arizona, the Wintu in California, and the Lakota in the Black Hills.

Last year, students completed a chart outlining the position that each group held and their reasons.

Sam Horowitz Video: Bar Mitzvah Battles Go Viral

Sam Horowitz’s video of his Bar Mitzvah celebration went viral this week.  In it, Las Vegas-like show girls perform a dance, almost seductively, until near the end, young Sam Horowitz emerges and joins the dance.

Some find the video offensive. In an editorial in the Washington Post, David Wolpe suggests that the dance teaches a young child “sexualization of spirit.”  In addition, he says, "the Bar Mitzvah (which is a stage a child reaches, not the name of a ceremony) is important because one becomes responsible for the mitzvot, not because one poorly approximates a pubescent Justin Timberlake.”   In short, he finds the video “godless.” 

Others, like Brad Hirschfield, also writing for the Post think that we might be too quick to judge. Maybe the dance was never meant to reflect the "religious part" of the celebration.   In addition, the two minute dance routine is a small part of the larger celebration.  "...No celebration should be reduced to any single part of the whole."

Are these videos considered degrading? Disrespectful of Judaism? Disrespectful generally of religious festivals? These are good questions a religion class could debate. 

Creation Myths from Big Myth

Studying the role that myths play in religion? Big Myth has some great animated creation myths from the around the world. Just click on on area and the myth will load. Many are available free but you can order a disc for a nominal fee and get them all. You can even download the creation stories in a PDF. These work well for both younger and older students. My religion students, mostly juniors and seniors, loved them last year.

In addition to listening to creation myths, students can also examine different ways of interpreting myths from this university site. Maybe students could make a list and try to find myths that fit into the different categories.

Myths and Sacred Texts

What role does myth play in helping us to understand and define religion? That's exactly what Bill Moyers set out to discover in 1988 when he interviewed a number of writers about their perspective on faith and sacred texts.

I ask my students to explore the site and read and listen to audio clips of some the interviews and complete this chart for the different writers.  After they complete the chart, I ask the students to respond to a couple quotes in a journal I created on Blackboard.

The World Religions Tree: Cool Infographic

I saw this cool inforgraphic on another blog. The page is in Russian but the infographic is in English. You can magnify the image and move it around.  Thanks to Seth Dixon for tweeting the link.

Discovering Religious Diversity: Scavenger Hunt

Familiarize your religion students with the religious diversity in your area. Each year I ask the students to complete a scavenger hunt for the different faith traditions in their area. I give them a worksheet, and a list of links to help them identify the different faiths within their community.  Here is a list of those links:

• The Pluralism Project is one of the best. You simply input a keyword or use a pull down menu for religious tradition and state. 
• The Association of Religious Data Archives is pretty good.  You can input your zip code and a graph will pop up showing what kinds of faith traditions are near you.
• A Northern Virginia Community college teacher has comprehensive directions on how to find the different faith traditions in a community.  I used a lot of her sources for my scavenger hunt.

Is Lady Gaga's Burqa Good for Muslim Women?

This is a fascinating story that students will certainly enjoy and could even debate. In a forthcoming album, Lady Gaga appears with a full head covering, or burqa, and according to the Daily Beast, "sings provocatively about the Islamic full-body covering for women."

 Did Lady Gaga go too far?  That depends on who you ask.

Myriam Francois Cerrah, writing for The Independent, thinks that Lady Gaga's burqa is good for Muslim women and makes an interesting argument. Noting that many have criticized Lady Gaga for shamelessly exploiting "orientalist fetishes to promote herself," Cerrah thinks that the singer's headcovering might "raise a smile with many Muslim women."

"I relish the fact her act subverts the monopoly on meaning typically associated with the face veil as the evil imposition of male domination,"  she argues. She also notes that "Gaga is appropriating Islamic symbols and in so doing, associating her confident sexual identity and power with women typically assumed to be passive and voiceless victims."

But others clearly disagree. Here's a story from Policymic called "Lady Gaga's 'Burqa' is Supposed to Empower Muslim Women, But Does the Opposite." And from ThinkProgress, you can read this story called "Lady Gaga’s New Song ‘Burqa (Aura)’ Is Further Proof She’s Not A Very Good Political Artist."

Here's another eloquent voice critical of Lady Gaga by Umema Aimen for the Washington Post suggesting that Gaga's song "Burqa" sends the wrong signal. Aimen notes that she like some of the song "but then you lost me when you proceeded to turn such a sacred symbol of my religion into an exotic costume. It is not something you can wear to your Halloween party."

Missouri Priest Performs Miracle

Did a Missouri priest perform a miracle and help save a 19 year old girl? Some believe he did. Watch the clip and read the story from the Huffington Post.

Defining Religion

How do the scholars define religion? Marx called it opium of the people.” Freud called it “an illusion produced by psychological projection.”  But others like Mircea Eliade, Rudolf Otto, and Ninian Smart had different ideas. I do a jigsaw using short readings about each of these scholars from Russell McCutcheon's book, Studying Religion,  Students complete a chart with a little background on each scholar and a summary of their major ideas about religion.  In addition to the readings, here are several clips about a few of the scholars.

The Raelians: UFO Religion

These are Raelians, if you did not know. They want to rehabilitate the swastika, not as a symbol of hate but as one of peace for which it was originally intended. The swastika was indeed part of the early Vedic religion.

According to this Guardian article, the Raelians were formed in 1974 by race car enthusiast, Claude Vorilhon, and say they have over 70,000 members. They are interested in scientific mortality and, according to The Guardian,, that is "why their logo is a swastika inside the Star of David – the swastika represents "infinity in time", the Star of David "infinity in space."

Since I never heard of the Raelians before, I did a little research. Here are a few articles about them.

• Time Magazine, Who are the Raelians
• BBC also has a story called Who are the Raelians
• New York Magazine has a story called Raelians at the Gate
• World religions and Spirituality Project has a fact sheet about Raelian beliefs and doctrines

Why Study Religion?

School starts in just a few weeks, so I thought that I would start posting some ideas for the first few weeks of  religion class.  In World Religions, we will begin trying to understand why we study religion. I ask students to read two short essays, one from the Academy of Religion, simply called “Why Study Religion?” and another by James Carroll, called “Why Religion Still Matters.” Carroll is a Boston Globe columnist and former Catholic priest. We discuss both essays and come up with a list of reasons why we study religion and why it still matters.

Buddhist Festival of Souls: Celebrating Ancestors

Ancestor worship.  Both the Japanese and the Chinese venerate their ancestors and the tradition dates back to at least the Zhou dynasty.  Here's a modern holiday that celebrates ancestors.

The Buddhist Festival of Souls, called the  Bon or Obon festival, occurs in Japan in July and in China in August. The Japanese believe that the souls of their ancestors return to their homes on earth. It's their job to guide them and help them find peace. The Japanese usually hang lanterns in front of their houses to guide the spirits. The festival is also celebrated in Buddhist temples in America. Here are stories about some of the celebrations in some cities:

• Good background story about the festival from the Huffington Post
• Here's an article from the Examiner about the festival in Atlanta
• The New Jersey Messenger has a story about celebrations in Seabrook.
• The Salinas Herald has another story about the festival in their city.
• Nice photos of the festival in San Jose's Japantown from The Mercury News

Faith-Based Community Initiative: Department of State

Secretary of State John Kerry recognized the importance of religion in politics and  foreign policy when he recently announced a new State Department initiative--a faith-based community office. Shaun Casey, professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, will head the office. Casey also advised President Obama's presidential campaign on outreach to religious voters. According to the The Huffington Post, religious leaders have campaigned for such an office for a long time.

You can read more about Casey and the office he will head  with the links below.

• The Religious News Service  has more on Casey. 
• The Methodist Church also has a short biography of Casey
• The Department of State has a description of the office Casey will head.
• Here is The Washington Post report about the office.

Arabic Roots of Science: The Royal Society

The Royal Society, a fellowship of some the most eminent scientists, has a great online exhibition of the Islamic roots of modern science from astronomy to medicine. Just click on one of the titles for the story. You can also download the exhbition catalog. All of this could make for a great webquest. Thanks to David Korfhage for tweeting the link.

Muslims Prepare for the End of Ramadan

Eid al-Fitr is a two-day festival that marks the end of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. It begins, according to to the news clip above and the BBC, with the sighting of the crescent moon. The Guardian has a good story about the mechanics of fasting in extremely hot temperatures, "...how the body is able to cope in temperatures that have been higher than in Miami at times..." You can also find pictures about Eid al-Fitr at this slideshow from the Guardian.

Buddhists Crawl from China to Tibet temple for pilgrimage

People will do a lot things for faith. Here, the BBC reports, four Buddhist pilgrims are trying to crawl from Gansu to the holy city of Lhasa, in an attempt to show their faith in the Buddha.

Band of Angels: Women in Early Christianity

The role of women in the development of early Christianity  is a question we consider in AP World History when we compare the role of women in the development of other major religions like Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism.  

In a new book called Band of Angels,  Kate Cooper argues that women played a significant role. She writes,  "early Christians usually gathered in private homes, with families and communities praying together, and women were a vital part of this process."  The Guardian review of Cooper's book notes that while Mary is given "due weight,"  another woman, a disciple of Paul, Thecla, also plays an important role. 

In Photos: Ramadan in Jerusalem

Great pictures of Ramadan in Jerusalem at the blog, The Electronic Intifada. A resident of Jerusalem decided to document how Palestinians celebrate Ramadan and uploaded dozens of beautiful pictures. The photographs below show food stalls that open up after the breaking of fast. I copied the captions directly from the blog.

"Restaurants are normally closed during the day in Ramadan but some open a few hours before the breaking of fast (the iftar)."

"Baraze’ is a snack made of sesame seeds available throughout the year but is more popular during Ramadan."

Your Brain on Meditation: Practice Makes Perfect

Brain scans of experienced mediators might help those of us who are new to meditation learn how to practice it effectively.  That's what Judson Brewer, a faculty member at Yale School of Medicine, suggests in the video clip above.  This might be a nice clip to show students when studying Buddhism and Hinduism.

The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics & Society

Muslims number 1.6 billion and make up 26% of the world's population, according to the Pew Research Center.  And with almost a billion Muslims, Asia/Pacific has more than 3 times more Muslims than the Middle East.  The report also includes Muslim beliefs about Sharia, morality, and politics. Thanks to F.C. Tymrak for the link. The material here could work for a web-quest for a unit on Islam in religion classes.