World Religions

Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your rights.

As someone who spent four years in Eugene, Oregon, a.k.a. Berkeley North, I had a fair amount of exposure to Rastafarianism. I think most people’s only contact with the religion — if they’ve had any at all — comes from college kids and/or big weed-smokers who invoke Bob Marley, the religion’s most famous ambassador. The upper-middle-class white kids at school were constantly sparking up the one-hitter between classes were derisively known as “Trustifarians,” as in trust fund Rastafarians.


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Why? 'Zeal' for living as a Muslim?

Anyone who knows anything about Islam knows that devout Muslim believers who practice their faith do not drink alcohol. It is not very hard to find this out, as this Google search shows (Muslim beliefs on drinking alcohol).


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5Q+1: Welcoming Jaweed Kaleem to the beat

A few weeks ago, The Miami Herald‘s executive editor Anders Gyllenhaal had high praise for one of his many reporters. He noted that–like many religion reporters–as many people were on vacation during Holy Week and Passover, Jaweed Kaleem was at his busiest.


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Old West -- er, Old Testament -- justice?

While with The Oklahoman, I covered the state prison system for a while and served as a media witness for three or four executions (yes, it’s sad to say I can’t remember which, but as a reporter, I tried not to dwell on such experiences).


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Faith-free drama in Afghanistan

At the end of the Time cover story about efforts to reopen the Pir Mohammed School in Senjaray, Afghanistan, the commander of the 120 U.S. soldiers located there gets caught up in an all-to-common tragedy.


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More than samosas and saffron

Did you read this Sunday New York Times story about Swami Ramdev headlined “Indian Who Built Yoga Empire Works on Politics“? I don’t know if it was worse as a religion news story or as a political news story but it really failed to even begin to adequately explain either the religious or political situation in India.


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