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Clearly, the unfolding nuclear drama in Iran is one of the world’s most important news stories. If that is the case, and I think it is, there is a strange and powerful ghost that is haunting almost all of the mainstream news coverage of what is happening.
Gentle readers, it’s time to set the wayback machine to May 12th in the year 2008, where we read the following in a New York Times op-ed page piece written by historian Edward N. Luttwak, of the Center for Strategic andInternational Studies.
Part of me is hoping we get a good sex scandal next week so we can move off of all-Park51-coverage all the time. On the other hand, now is not a bad time to be on the Godbeat, eh? We have all the excitement right now. There are great opportunities for all sorts of angles. Paul Vitello at the New York Times simply asked a bunch of different New York City Muslims how they feel about the controversy. The result was very well-executed and really fascinating. It’s not heavy on religion so much as accommodation and compromise, but I actually think that’s a better way to handle those very important issues.
Have you heard the news? President Obama is a Muslim after all. I couldn’t believe it, but he must be. I mean, 18 percent of Americans couldn’t be wrong. I can only assume that, two years after I thought this “story” had been laid to rest, that some reputable media outlet finally exposed Obama for the closet Muslim (not that there’s anything wrong with that) that nearly one in five Americans think he is.
The two-thirds of Americans who oppose the Cordoba House might argue that theirs is a fairly understandable reaction against an ill-advised project. Some, such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, say that their opposition is part of a concerted effort that needs to be investigated.
Of all the ridiculous things written about the controversy over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, one has stood out for me. A couple of weeks ago Salon‘s Justin Elliott asked Why did no one object to the “Pentagon mosque“? He said that “right-wingers have been strangely silent” about Muslims praying in the Pentagon and having their own Muslim chaplain.
No one can make you feel guilty like a pastor. Or in this case a New York Times story about pastoral burnout that I’ve been meaning to write about for two weeks:
We’ve had an interesting conversation going on in a recent comment thread about how the media cover Islam and Christianity. Some people have speculated that political correctness or moral relativism harms some media coverage. I wonder if it might just be some problems with history. A GetReligion reader sent in this CNN article cheerily headlined “Muslims in Spain campaign to worship alongside Christians.”
When a large religious group sets aside entire month for fasting, you can imagine there will be physical implications for people who might need to eat, like pregnant women and athletes.
