Teaching Hinduism? Here’s a review of the ten most common misconceptions about Hinduism from Sheetal Shah, the Senior Director of the Hindu American Foundation, in an essay for the Washington Post’s On Faith. Among the ten common things about Hinduism everyone should know: “Hindus recognize and worship the feminine divine” “Hinduism is actually a family of six major schools of thoughts, one of which is Yoga.” “Hindus believe the Divine resides in all beings.” “Caste-based discrimination is not intrinsic to... Read more

Is the Catholic Church trying to erase traces of Islamic heritage from its most famous icon of the medieval period, the Mosque of Cordoba? That’s what this fascinating article from Foreign Affairs suggests. It notes that last year Google Maps deleted reference to the Mosque of Cordoba. It was reinstated after a petition with 55,000 names was submitted to Google. In addition Foreign Policy notes that since 2006 the Catholic Church “has slowly wiped away the word “mosque” from the... Read more

Here, in 1994, the Canadian singer and novelist, Leonard Cohen, narrates a film on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is also known as the Bardo Thodoli, is “a guide for those who have died as they transition from their former life to a new destination.” Religion Facts describes it a detailed overview of the stages of death. “It chronicles the experiences and religious opportunities a person encounters at various stages: while dying, at... Read more

Studying early Judaism? Here’s an illustrated cartoon version of the Book of Genesis with literally everything, “from Eden to Egypt!” The underground comic genius, R. Crumb, who wrote Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade and Fritz the Cat, illustrated every page of the Book of Genesis. In the NPR clip below, Crumb notes that it’s  a “vicious story”  that includes violence, nastiness, with people in a position of power ruling elites who derive pleasure from inflicting pain and suffering on other humans.” The... Read more

Here is an excellent documentary about the rise of the Houthis from BBC News. The narrator, Safa Al-Ahmad, is from BBC Arabic and spent three months following the Houthis and even got access to their enemies, the Sunni tribal leaders and Al-Qaeda fighters. It runs just over 40 minutes but it explains who the Houthis are, what they want, and how they have succeeded so far. UPDATE: You can see the full 54 minute documentary here at Frontline.. The PBS... Read more

Is Islam a violent religion in need of a “reformation?” Are Muslims responsible for 70% of the violence in the world? These are some of the claims that the celebrated author,  Ayaan Hirsi Ali, makes in her new book Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.  Many Muslims and some writers disagree with Hirshi Ali’s characterization of Islam as a violent religion and recently took their debate to Twitter. On one side was Max Bluementhal, a journalist and author, and on the other was... Read more

Here’s a beautiful clip from the Parliament of World Religions explaining the meaning of religion and the Parliament’s attempt to help people to understand each other and to build a better world. Read more

Meet Britain’s first female hip hop duo here in this short clip for the Telegraph. Al Jazeera featured their story in a longer twenty five minute documentary here calling it “a universal story about friendship, love and idealism, and two young women finding their place in the world.” And it is exactly that as these two young women challenge the norms for Muslim women by appearing on stage. You can see another clip and read more about the duo here... Read more

Are we a Christian nation? Religion seems to be woven into our very fabric. Writing for the New York Times, Princeton Professor Kevin Kruse, notes that “it is inscribed in our pledge of patriotism, marked on our money, carved into the walls of our courts and our Capitol.” But the ubiquity of religion in our nation did not come from our founders. Rather, according to this fascinating story from Professor Kruse, it came from business people in the 1930’s and... Read more

We are covering radical forms of Islam in my World Religions class. Here is an excellent overview of Wahhabism, a radical form of Sunni Islam that started in Saudi Arabia. The clip is less than three minutes and comes from the Discovery News Network. Alistair Crooke , in an article for the Huffington Post, argues that we cannot understand ISIS if we don’t know the history of Wahabbism.  The article includes another short video clip about the connection between Saudi Arabia... Read more