Religion Dispatches
…sofar as you have the power to determine what is truth.” Such is the post-truth world, the world of alt-facts. Many technological and social changes have led to the possibility of this situation, from the rise of the 24-hour news cycle and the collapse of the newspaper industry, to the blurring of news and entertainment. As Emily Nussbaum observed in a remarkable article, “all news-like items feel fungible.” In addition to enabling burgeoning publ…
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…n’t make the news. The episodes of mass peaceful protest within the Muslim world for the most part have not made the news, with the exception of what’s happened over the past six or eight months. Do you think the Arab Spring is changing this negative perception of Islam? Now, if you talk to an average or semi-well informed American, you don’t have to explain yourself when you talk about mass nonviolent movements in the Middle East, because they…
Read More…European parliament… This is the second piece of contentious and patently Russian-inspired legislation to come off the rails in Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks. Earlier this month, parliament rejected a bill that would have seen internationally funded nongovernment group designated as “foreign agents.” The provision included in that law would have spelled disaster for organizations working on rights issues and other delicate areas, many of whom rely o…
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…ch hidden practices to light. At their best, activism, art, and religion share common goals: to make visible the violence human beings do to one another; to disrupt the dehumanization that makes such violence possible (a dehumanization accomplished through words like “drug dealer” and “worst of the worst” and “prisoner” and “detainee” and “terrorist”); to begin to imagine that another world is possible; and to help bring that world into being—a wo…
Read More…uting authorities do not ignore evidence of all possible motives for this gruesome killing, including Tsilikin’s sexual orientation. Russia has hate crime laws on the books that can be applied. I have reason to be skeptical: of the several dozen anti-LGBT attacks I’ve documented in recent years, none were investigated and prosecuted as hate crimes, even the ones that most blatantly involving a hate motive. Russian officials and state media spread…
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…Security Council, the U.S., NATO and even the Arab League would join in a crusade against a ruling madman? Libya dominates the news cycle these days because of our own deep-seated desire to be thrilled, especially by the illicit and unsavory. This is hardly a new idea, but I am not reviving the notion of man the sinner nor am I arguing that we are wired by our DNA to hate, cheat and battle each other. We are slaves to our eyes. It is the riveted g…
Read MoreThis morning Fox News published a breathless report—based largely on the “reporting” of Patrick Poole, a self-styled “terrorism analyst” whose writings have appeared in conspiracy-minded publications like Front Page magazine—which asserted that the Congressional Muslim Staff Association has hosted speakers at its meetings who have “terror ties.” A similar report, written by Poole, who also claims to be “an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforce…
Read More…t kid’s going to do something about it. How can any American reading such stories not feel a little proud rush of patriotism, right? A slight welling up in the chest? I don’t mean to sound condescending here, but how can anyone not find such brave principled kids absolutely adorable? Ummm, actually there is one group that seems to hate stories about little kids standing up to bigotry. And that would be the American Family Association. Remember Wi…
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…, and I know I can’t ask this in public because of how it might be misconstrued. Is it inherently antisemitic to claim that black people are the true Hebrews/Israelites?” My immediate response: “Inherently antisemitic? No. But do many Hebrew Israelites and their sympathizers use antisemitic rhetoric to support their claim? Yes.” But as I reflected on that answer, the more unsatisfactory it sounded to me. After even more reflection this is, perhaps…
Read More…t the majority of tea partiers believe Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. As Ruy Teixeira showed in this further dissection of the poll: Findings from a recent New York Times/CBS News poll make this point very clearly. The poll finds that the general public remains stalwart in its support for the Roe v. Wade decision establishing the right to obtain a legal abortion: 58 percent say this decision was a good thing, compared to just 34 percent who say…
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