Search for "cheap international airline tickets for students phone number 1-800-299-7264"

‘Atheizing’ the Dead, Religious Doughnuts, & Tax-Free Witching

By Michael J. Altman

…chool wearing her prohibited nose ring. In Roswell, New Mexico, a group of students have been suspended for giving their teachers boxes of doughnuts with religious messages attached to them. Romania has decided not to tax its witches and fortunetellers. One reason being that the witches and fortunetellers aren’t good at keeping receipts. Calvin College canceled a show by music group The New Pornographers because some people didn’t get the irony. T…

Marco Rubio’s “Constitutional Scholar”

By Julie Ingersoll

…ince the 1980s and, to a generation of Christian-schooled and homeschooled students, the authority on God’s role in American history. New polls show Rubio winning 2-1 in a three way race with current Governor Charlie Crist and the Democratic candidate, Kendrick Meeks. One might have expected Rubio to seek the support of the Beck and Barton crowd in a primary contest, but it’s a puzzle as to why he would do that now. And this wasn’t even a fundrais…

Prophet Muhammad

By Amina Wadud

…enment or some such. Nope. It’s more like that story about one of Buddha’s students. He held up a flower, and the student attained enlightenment. Every thing, every place, every circumstance contains ayat, or signs. A flower can be as much of a teacher as a person with a fancy set of qualifications, degrees, or lines of authority. It’s the state of the student’s heart that matters. When my teacher accepts me as a student, he makes a commitment, he…

You Asked For It

By Amina Wadud

…More Muslims participate in the fast than any other ritual. Let’s get the numbers in our head then: of the 1.3 billion Muslims, if less than half are children and even children fast, then you could say almost a billion Muslims are fasting. I don’t think we can make a case about Ramadan and what ever number of incidents that might occur due to some individual Muslims. There is no statistical corollary between fasting, Islam, Muslims and the (still…

It’s Not Just About Ground Zero

By Mark S. Byrnes

…French fleet threatened Boston. A teacher playing Thomas Prince leads the students in prayer and “call[s] upon God to bring a storm and wipe out the ships,” whereupon their prayers are answered, showing God’s special protection of America. The lesson then connects the site of Prince’s prayer, the Old South Church, to Samuel Adams and thus to the American Revolution. It trumpets the role of the “Black Robe Brigade,” putting ministers at the center…

Muslims Wearing Things, Tea Party Chastised on Nazi Talk, and Politicking in Church

By Michael J. Altman

…thered outside and prayed. A school board member in Tennessee said that if students don’t want to hear prayers over the loudspeaker at football games they can “put their fingers in their ears.” The schools have since put a halt to pre-game prayers. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says prayer had a direct role in spiking her polling numbers. Can meditation change your brain? The best response to Juan Williams’ fear of Muslims in “garb” is the…

In the Trenches with the HRC, Working for Transgender Inclusion

By Rev. Erin K. Swenson

…nal offices to introduce inclusive non-discrimination legislation covering students (Student Non Discrimination Act, H.R. 4530/S. 3390), credit (Freedom from Discrimination in Credit Act, H.R. 4376), and housing (Fair & Inclusive Housing Rights Act, H.R. 4820; Housing Non Discrimination Act, H.R. 4828). HRC has also advocated for administrative action in the Obama Administration, successfully pushing for updated nondiscrimination statements to inc…

The Ground Zero-Sum Game

By Reuven Firestone

…ted, that most of us have no idea how it affects us. I’ve asked my college students what they think of when they see a scene from a movie in which they hear the call to prayer and see a minaret or dome. The answer? “Something bad is about to happen.” Islamophobia can remain in latent form until it is triggered by economic, political, or social stress. In the last decades it has been activated by economic and social problems and the increased numbe…

Ramadan: Third Day is the Charm

By Amina Wadud

…e work day started at 7:30 no matter what the season. My first Ramadan, my students sat for their final exams during the first three hump days. I got a migraine just having to proctor, not produce. The only difference — the work day was one hour shorter. In fact, since no one took off an hour for lunch, it was like an exchange. The countries in Southeast Asia also have the added benefit of being near the equator. There are no extreme schedule diff…

How To Engage Politics As A Community?

By Daniel Schultz

…on’t know what would be effective — and I suspect that at least some of my students will be skeptical as well. Partway through the book, though, I had an epiphany. My own practice of citizenship consists, aside from voting every couple years, of reading a lot of stuff so that I can stay informed, then forming opinions about public policy and arguing with people on the internet about it. Like the Guatemalan strategy, this approach is premised on in…