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American Muslim Community Must Search its Soul After Orlando Massacre

By Omar Sarwar

…ed of treatment. LGBT people have every right to feel insulted by this anti-scientific framing of same-sex intimacy, one that is by no means restricted to Muslim communities. There isn’t a shred of evidence to show that same-sex desire or attraction is pathological, and it is irrational to attribute it to the “proliferation of sexual images” or the “increasement of public sexuality” in society. So too is it irrational—even cruel—to prescribe lifel…

Secularism in the US is Larger, More Diverse and More Dynamic Than Ever, But You Wouldn’t Know it From the Media

By Chrissy Stroop

…ted fact that the social and political polarization that pervades these not-so-United States is asymmetric and significantly worse on the political Right. Not coincidentally, that side of the proverbial aisle consists largely of the conservative, mostly white Christians from whom the newly nonreligious are fleeing. These same conservative Christians, directly encouraged by their defeated president and a host of powerful Republican leaders, attempt…

Kill Your Patriarchs: An Interview with Michael Muhammad Knight

By Hussein Rashid

…s work together. The Taqwacores was seen as inflammatory by dominant Muslim-American voices when it emerged, packed as it is with drinking, drug use, sex, and Sunni-Shi’ah friendship. But it undeniably captured a sense of what a post-1965 immigrant Muslim community could look like. All the characters are recognizable. It is as much Islam in America as Malcolm X, as Al-Maghrib, or as Muslims for Progressive Values. I do not want to take anything aw…

The Paranormal to Pop Culture Pipeline

By Joseph Laycock

…ry emerged about “Robert,” a doll allegedly given to Robert Eugene Otto of Key West, Florida in 1906 by a Caribbean woman skilled in black magic. This doll—currently on exhibit in Key West’s Fort East Martello Museum and Gardens—allegedly moved by itself and exhibited other disturbing behavior. Why did two stories of demonic dolls emerge in 1970? It may have something to do with the Twilight Zone episode “Living Doll,” which aired in 1963. In that…

Resurrecting Marley at 70: Rastafari History in 5 Songs

By Darren J. N. Middleton

…loring Jah Music’s global ambassador and his varied legacies. From February 11-14, participants will ponder everything from tribute concerts to political monuments; from documentary films to new novels; and from remixed re-releases to ital beverages. It’ll be all Bob all the time, which is an appropriate tribute to the one who placed the Rastafari faith—and what far more will recognize, reggae—on the world’s cultural map. Lois Cordelia: “Bob in Bl…

The Roots of the American Right’s Muslim Brotherhood Panic

By Sarah Posner

…ed by the MB or a derivative organization. Consequently, most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution.” (emphasis in original; I wrote more about Gaffney’s calls on Congress to “investigate” shari’ah here). WND’s Aaron Klein, whose attempt to link the Brotherhood to Obama I wrote about on Saturday, and has been echoed by Rush Limbaugh, no…

The Speech Mitt Romney Never Gave

By Joanna Brooks

…by government edicts to march the “Trail of Tears”; the millions of African-American migrants who left the violence of the Jim Crow South to build the great industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest; or the Jews who fled pogroms and Nazi exterminations. Others have certainly suffered more than Mormons. But we too know the American story of facing loss and finding in our loss the power to build something greater. Our hard work and industry tra…

A Victory for Conservatives in Revised AP History Curriculum

By Peter Laarman

…mention, in the context of World War II, the internment camps for Japanese-Americans and the use of the atomic bomb on Japanese cities while failing to cite the provocation of Pearl Harbor. But their overall effort to problematize U.S. history and leave behind the traditional triumphalist narrative was clearly a positive step forward. That’s what makes it so very depressing to see that effort get beaten down. Now we will be back to a mor…

New Book Reveals How Faith is Like a Covert Operation for the Bush Family

By Frederick Clarkson

…irst clashed in the Michigan GOP caucuses, which preceded the usually first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. (Bush ultimately won after a critical court ruling.) But Wead revealed to Baker how the ‘covert operator’ orientation of the Bush camp played out on the ground. “I ran spies in our opponents political camps,” Wead said, including elected Robertson precinct delegates in Michigan. These Bush agents made headlines when they abandoned Robertson and…

Battle of Antisemitism Definitions is Actually a Proxy War For Criticism of Israel

By Joshua Shanes

…e antisemitic. And this, in turn, reflects a fundamental transformation in American Judaism over the past half century. In my youth, American Jews forged (in both senses of the word) a pluralist community through Holocaust commemoration and Israel celebration and worship. I don’t use that word worship lightly. Many of us were raised to worship Israel, and we manifested that devotion through innovative myths and rituals, from dance to liturgy and b…