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So You’ve Decided to Run for Senate Against a Pro Wrestling Mogul

…of the Orientalist imagination: they dressed like extras from Lawrence of Arabia; they spoke in broken English or faux-“Arabic”; they were brutal and blood-thirsty fighters; they hated America and American values; and the crowds hated them back. In fact, one of the two most hated wrestlers in the last quarter century was an Arab character in the mold of The Sheik, but with a War On Terror twist: Muhammad Hassan played an Arab-American who was fed…

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Satanic or Silly: Does Yale Press Censorship of Cartoons Insult Muslims?

…ictions, which were intended to irritate Muslims, has worn thin by now—the Saudis, to take just one example, are once again importing Danish butter. Indeed, the images are readily available online anywhere in the world through a simple Google search, and sites like Mohammed Image Archive make far more offensive images than the dozen Danish cartoons readily available. The cautious reaction by Yale University Press is understandable, but I find the…

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Sam Harris Says Qur’an “Not That Good”

…a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” It’s amazing how imperialism and racism are so closely intertwined and persistent, and always under a veneer of civilization. I know Harris thinks he is being original and provocative, but at best he is being derivative and puerile. I am more shocked that Sullivan, with his awareness of British history, not only did not see the connection, but gave it a serious air…

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What if Israel Were in Germany? An Alternate History

…many and the Mormons rule a Missouri monarchy. I think you could do a much better job than me in explaining the doppelgänger world you created… The Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa are united in a democratic superpower—the UAS—with its capital in Riyadh. Persia, Kurdistan, and Turkey are independent democracies closely allied with the UAS. Israel, as you note, is located in central Europe; the story there is that after the Arabs bea…

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Hijab: Culture, Custom, and Chaos

…e applied outside of the context in which it was revealed: seventh century Arabia, with all its peculiar good and bad. On the broader scale then, all passages have to be understood in the context of their revelation first. What does this mean at that time? Then, once those implications are clear, and the ways they were applied at the time are verified, then we must look at our current realties and figure out how can we, or even, if we can, achieve…

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Southern Baptist Convention Declares Gay Rights Are Not Civil Rights

…ll, tax-paying citizens of the United States of America, you can damn well bet it is a civil rights movement. Nobody copyrighted the phrase, and nobody can, on one hand say, “Yes, we see that you’re being wronged,” and then say, “but you have no right to work for your civil rights, or to call it a ‘civil rights’ movement.” But the SBC certainly does want it both ways. They work in their “love the sinner, hate the sin” philosophy by being clear tha…

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Hail Santa! War-on-Christmas Outrage Over Satanic Tree Reveals the Self-Serving Ambiguity of ‘Religion’

…gelicals sometimes claim they “hate religion, but love Jesus,” but you can bet the RFI wouldn’t therefore claim that evangelicals have no religious rights. Slide from a presentation used by the author in religious studies classes. So why isn’t The Satanic Temple a religion? The RFI doesn’t say. It’s implied they’re not a religion because they don’t believe in God. But in United States v. Seeger (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that belief in a Supr…

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The Unsung Speech at Notre Dame, A Postmortem

…up; or in her case, not. I suspect that Judge Noonan was considered a safe bet to balance the pro-choice president: an eminence gris whose conservative Catholic bona fides are polished by his claim that a fetus is essentially a person from the time of conception. Regardless of his intentions, anti-choice people must have been deeply disappointed that he did not take one for the team. Despite his valiant if ineffective effort to link anti-abortion…

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Imus is Back… Of Course

…iscourse. Sure. He’s racist and sexist. I get that. Is this a problem? You bet! Does it make me cringe? Of course! But is it unfamiliar? Hell no! Racism and sexism are as American and foundational to our cultural make-up as democracy. Imus simply reflects America’s contradictions. What comes to mind for me is the greater problem: the perennial closeting of race and sex. Let’s all say this together: RACISM AND SEXISM EXIST AND ARE INTEGRAL PARTS OF…

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Wesolowski Sexual Abuse Case a New Approach or Same Old Same Old?

…to tell it. Only the notion that clergy are qualitatively different (read: better) than lay people makes being stripped of such titles bothersome. Of course it is hard to get a prestigious church job like a diplomatic post if you aren’t ordained, but that hardly compares with facing your abusers in court. Wesolowski’s will be the first Vatican trial for sexual abuse, yet still no date has been announced. Can we really expect that young boys will b…

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