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American Buddhism: Beyond the Search for Inner Peace

By Joshua Eaton

…that change since 2007? I have not made an extensive survey of the current American Buddhist scene, but I did attend the Conference on Engaged Buddhism, organized by the Zen Peacemakers in 2010. I learned much from this experience. From what I could observe at the conference, a large number of Buddhists are attempting to draw upon principles intrinsic to the Dharma to deal with challenges we face in present-day society. Some, with scientific backg…

Suicide Bombers and the Prozac God: A Review of Dying for Heaven

By Bruce B. Lawrence

…anted. Next is Hamza Yusuf. He may be still more dangerous, since he is an American born convert to Islam. He also has a high profile on YouTube and offered a written reflection on Michael Jackson’s death. Yusuf has failed the test (distinguishing moderate from militant Muslims—though in all fairness his failure is self-professed) created by that pillar of American tolerance, Daniel Pipes, so he too warrants a surveillance wherever his followers c…

Kill Your Patriarchs: An Interview with Michael Muhammad Knight

By Hussein Rashid

…from it with “absolute sincerity”. The insights that MMK offers on Muslim American life are woven throughout his non-fiction and fictional works. Between Impossible Man and Osama Van Halen, for example, we get one insider’s view of the implosion of the Progressive Muslim Union, the first female-led prayer in the U.S., and a view of the problems with contemporary Muslim-American organizations. Blue-Eyed Devil, a must for any syllabus on Islam in A…

Prison as Resurrection

By Caleb Smith

…onversations. What’s the most important take-home message for readers? The American prison has become a disaster and a scandal in recent years. My book tries to show how powerfully the prison has shaped American culture over a longer history. The prison has been a source of gothic nightmares but also, more surprisingly, a scene where we have rehearsed some of our most cherished fantasies: about the individual’s capacity to remake himself or hersel…

Graham’s Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy Theory Not New

By Sarah Posner

…he Internet to look for information that is critical of Muslims and Muslim-Americans getting involved in public policy. They compile that into a guilt-by-association Powerpoint and then shop it to reporters.” These individuals include, said Khan, Frank Gaffney, who issues baseless warnings to members of Congress about “creeping shari’ah;” Paul Sperry, co-author of the book Muslim Mafia, which claimed that the Council on American Islamic Relations…

Breivik’s Demographic Warfare and the American Right’s Demographic Winter

By Sarah Posner

…d how Anders Breivik’s “demographic warfare” appears to be informed by the American Christian right’s hysteria over “demographic winter,” citing the work of Kathryn Joyce. A closer examination reveals another shared belief: the significance of the 1683 Battle of Vienna. As Mark Juergensmeyer points out in his feature piece for RD: The title of Breivik’s manifesto, which was posted on the internet on that day, is “2083”—the date Breivik suggested w…

If the Media Are Reluctant to Properly Label the GOP’s Racist, Christian Nationalist Ideologies, We’ll Have Trouble Hanging on to Democracy

By Annika Brockschmidt

…le to be independent.” The statement that mainly focusing on the threat to American democracy as a news organization would make it “partisan” is bizarre—and a result of the media’s fetishization of “bipartisanship,” long after it has ceased to exist, because Republicans have refused to engage in regular politics within the bounds of democracy. If being “partisan” when it comes to the existence of democracy is a problem for news organizations, they…

“You Lie!”: Messing with American Mass

By Ben Brazil

…a long way towards explaining the outrage felt by legislators and by many Americans. The president was not speaking to a labor union in Ohio or to teachers in Florida—he was speaking to a joint session of Congress, a ritualized setting that invokes all the sacredness of the democratic government of the United States of America. Americans tend to watch such speeches together—as families, in restaurants, in bars. For a few moments, a significant po…

Global LGBT Recap: Culture War Claims More Victims

By Peter Montgomery

…nity Jason Bruner, while not dismissing the well-documented involvement of American religious conservatives, examines a broader picture of tensions between the Anglican Church in Uganda and the Anglican Communion over sexuality issues, and the competition between the Anglican Church and growing Pentecostal churches. Bruner summarizes: While others have focused upon the American origins of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, it is essential that Ugan…

Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State

By Bruce Ledewitz

…need to disentangle. This is necessary to ensure the equal standing of all Americans. But it is also important to break the hold of a chauvinistic nationalism on, for example, American Christianities. I have very little confidence that prayers sanctioned at official government events, such as inaugurations, do anything but lay a sacralizing veneer over the entire proceeding. I don’t think prophetic transformation of public life is going to be fost…