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Student Says He’s Ostracized for Objecting to Graduation Prayer

By Lauri Lebo

…t. This story in itself isn’t a big deal. Each spring, incidents of school officials grumbling over the fact that they can’t pray publicly — and with a loud speaker — over the heads of graduating seniors are as common as wild honeysuckle vines. But what really irritates me is the public statement by a school official that kids who don’t wish to have religious views forced on them by their educators should just sit there and shut up. From the Bastr…

Clash of the (Scottish Islamic) Tartans

By Amanullah De Sondy

…give me sleepless nights. I was told I had a few choices: I could wear the official Glasgow tartan (having been born and raised in the city), the University of Glasgow tartan (as a graduand), or I could just wear any Scottish tartan without reflecting upon detail. In the end I chose the Hebridean Heather for purely aesthetic reasons—it matched the color of my hood. (Officially it’s a heather color but some say it’s pink.) Tartans continue to fasci…

The Pope’s “Condom Sense”

By Sarah Posner

…AIDS must move immediately to put this new teaching into action. The first step on any journey is always the hardest, but it is also the most important one because without it change is impossible. Dougherty and I discussed this issue at some length (taping before this official Vatican clarification), as well as the recent USCCB elections, and had a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of “American exceptionalism,” the question of whether Presi…

2010: What Did We Believe In?

By Gary Laderman

…sacred concerns of Americans? It shouldn’t be surprising, as you read RD’s official list, that these are also some of the most contentious political issues of our day… 1. Sexual Boundaries: A perennial sacred concern in every society. This past year, the highly charged American dilemma over sexuality points to one unequivocal fact: heterosexual intimacy between a man and a woman for the purpose of reproduction continues to be less and less relevan…

Shari’ah Creeps into Outer Space

By Hussein Rashid

…. Mazlan Othman, was in the news for speculation that she would become the official UN Ambassador to Extraterrestrial Life. Although false, the rumor caused some consternation as Othman is Muslim. Finally, a Vancouver astrophysicist, head of the Muhammad Institute for Space Science, wants to build a space-launch complex in Canada. All of these stories coming in close proximity to one another can only mean one thing: the stealth jihad to creep shar…

Same-Sex Marriage: The Cure for Unemployment (Worries)

By Joanna Brooks

…al County have in the anti-same sex marriage fight? The county (population: 166,000) is about 75% Latino. About 25% of residents live below the poverty line. Its official unemployment rate of 30.4% is the highest in the nation. When same-sex marriage was legal in California, about 50 Imperial County couples lined up to make their vows at the county courthouse in El Centro. In November 2008, about 67% of County voters voted Yes on 8. About one year…

Indonesian Volcano Update: Yes, it’s a Religion Story…

By Mark Woodward

…uge in mosques, religious schools and in other public spaces that were not officially designated as refugee centers. Social networking technologies normally used for chatter and gossip provided the basis an effective, if often chaotic needs assessment. Few people thought about how dangerous driving through clouds of volcanic ash, often well within the official “danger zone,” actually was. Ethnicity and religion, which are often divisive, simply di…

Pentagon Report Rejects Religious Right Arguments On DADT

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…study notes that there was stronger resistance to racial integration in the 1940s and 1950s than to the open service of gay and lesbian troops. Surveys of troops back then revealed many of the same objections as today. Harvard professor and author Peter Gomes, in an op-ed in the New York Times in 1993, after DADT first passed, noted a few of them: In 1942, the General Board of the Navy was asked by Admiral Knox to consider “enlistment of men of co…

Why Are Some Muslims Calling to Replace GMT with Mecca Time?

By Salman Hameed

…h landmark, making it the second tallest building in the world, visible for 16 miles. All well and good. One can marvel at human ingenuity and move on. However, what makes this case interesting is the fact that after the inauguration of the clock, there were calls from many Muslims to replace Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)—the world standard for 125 years—with Mecca Time. Some have argued that GMT is the remnant of a colonial heritage, and it is time t…

Hajj Journal: The Journey Begins and Ends

By Amina Wadud

…ons where patience is not gonna be enough. There are about a dozen windows, 12-by-12 inches in size looking into a room with people sitting at desks, adding more stamps to passports and only occasionally coming to the window to collect those revert notices or money. So the mob mentality prevails. People keep pushing toward these tiny windows whenever someone from inside approaches. I try to stand my ground, neither pushing nor yielding, but invari…