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What’s Wrong With the Virgin Mary Depicted as a Barbie Doll?

By Joseph Laycock

…eligious statues and images—have decried “Barbie: The Plastic Religion,” a new exhibit by Argentinian artists Pool Paolini and Marianela Perelli, featuring 33 Barbie and Ken dolls dressed as saints, prophets, and deities from world religions. The dolls aren’t arranged in blasphemous poses or otherwise used to offend religious sensibilities, so what exactly about the exhibit is upsetting? The answer may be that Barbie is herself profane. An editori…

Cyclops Baby of the Apocalypse? Another Day in ISIS Fundamentalism

By Joseph Laycock

…ntist is constantly “rediscovering” the meaning of the Bible and “creating new truth.” Similarly, in attempting to eradicate a thousand years of Muslim culture and return Islam to an imagined pristine state, movements like ISIS open the door to strange and unprecedented forms of Muslim practice. As it turns out, photos of the alleged infant Dajjal actually show a child born in 2008 in Bolivia and another child that died in 2006 in Chennai, India….

January 6 protester holds giant image of White Jesus in a Make America Great Again cap.

America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War

By Nilay Saiya

…country would be immune from the threat of civil war, wouldn’t it? Yet, a new American civil war is no longer unthinkable. Political scientist Barbara Walter has identified two specific factors that predict the likelihood of civil war occurrence. Alarmingly, both variables are present in the United States today and are quickly pushing the country to the brink. The first is “anocracy,” a political science term for countries that mix democratic and…

It’s Theology, Not Baseball: Misunderstanding Iraq’s Sectarian Conflicts

By Amyn B. Sajoo

…o war-zones in search of martyrdom. Most will be content to exercise their new-found contempt for “deviants” — particularly those closest to home, such as the Ahmadiyya, Alevi, Baha’i, Shi’a, and Yazidi —in acts of organized domestic rage. There is plenty of encouragement for that “low-intensity” domestic jihad in official legislation in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, where exclusive theologies accompany the dominant political ide…

Raelian Swastika Campaign Calculated to Stoke Controversy

By Joseph Laycock

…oses. I witnessed another example of “swastika-phobia” on a trip to Kochi, India, once home to a sizable population of Indian Jews, a part of which is still known as “Jew Town.” I overheard an American tourist exclaim with alarm, “I was in Jew Town, and there were swastikas everywhere!” When her friend tried to explain that in Kochi the swastika is a symbol of Hinduism and not Nazism, she responded, “I know, but still!” Because the swastika inspir…

Spiritual Unplugging, Or What to Do When There is Wifi at the Ashram

By Matt Hamilton

…guilt. But sending another perfunctory, apologetic note wouldn’t suffice now, if ever. I was tired of that detour. As I walked back to my room—a small bungalow—the only thing I could do was think of my mom, sautéeing vegetables while watching the evening news; my dad, reading the newspaper and sipping coffee at the table; my boyfriend, practicing the piano. I could only see them in my mind’s eye and love them. With my phone and laptop stowed in m…

Pigging Out: What ‘Radically Unkosher’ Jewish Foodies Like Michael Pollan Are Missing

By Jonathan Schorsch

…Jewish foodies. Kashrut comes within a dense, rich, long-standing culture promoting, ideally, upright, prudent, modest living, including, reverence for and balanced coexistence with the natural world. The final, and perhaps greatest irony to the dismissal of kashrut, is that Jews through the ages have adopted the local cuisines and food cultures of all of their homelands—whether Persia, Greece, Morocco, Poland, or India—and adapted them all quite…

If The National Prayer Breakfast Is Apolitical and Nonsectarian, Why Is It Used to Question Obama’s Faith?

By Sarah Posner

…ss warfare.” That same year, Obama was accused roundly by conservatives of promoting “phony religiosity.” He received no brownie points from conservatives for his 2011 appearance, during which he described his Christian faith as “a sustaining force for me over these last few years,” a sustenance required, in part, because “When Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time, we are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what othe…

Some Thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ Terrible Tweet

By Haroon Moghul

…mans had become Islam’s historically most powerful civilization. Along the Indian Ocean rim, as Engseng Ho argues in The Graves of Tarim, a new, peaceful, entirely non-militarized trade linked East Africa to China. (He’s at Duke University.) The artistic and aesthetic legacies from these periods speak for themselves. The Alhambra Palace in Granada, which so inspired Washington Irving. The Taj Mahal in Agra. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The wonderf…

“Burka Avenger”: Pakistan’s Middle Class Gets a Feminist Cartoon

By M. Sophia Newman

…mics study (PDF) documented an upswing in gender equality and education in India after the arrival of cable television. “Introducing cable increases the likelihood of current enrollment for girls by 3.5 percentage points,” the authors wrote, describing a shift over four times larger than the 0.83% increase created by the Pakistani government between 2005 and 2011. The show could have the same effect in Pakistan, particularly if public interest sta…