Here’s a great resource about Islam for both teachers and students. It’s a list with answers to one hundred common questions about the faith from why Muslims don’t eat pork, to what Muslims believe about Jesus. The Islam Networks Group, ING, put the list together. ING is a non-profit organization that tries to counter prejudice and discrimination against American Muslims. One of the ways they do that is with education. ING says that the list “includes actual questions that are... Read more
“Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think” explores issues in Islam on gender, justice, terrorism, and democracy. It’s based on research by the Gallup polling group. According to the producers, “Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents in 35 predominantly Muslim nations, as well as smaller populations in Europe and the USA.” This might be a good documentary for religion students as it challenges some popularly held notions and misconceptions about Islam. Read more
Studying World Religions? The Internet Sacred Text Archive has digital texts of most all religions. You can find the Zoroastrian Zend Avesta, The I Ching, or Book of Changes, Baha’i texts like the Baha’u’llah, or the Babylonian Talmud, to name just few of the site’s resources. It’s easy to search the site. It has a menu on the side with all its topics or you can simply search by title, author, or subject. Read more
Here’s “I Believe” from The Broadway musical, “The Book of Mormon” when it was performed at the 2011 Tony awards. Read more
What did The United States look like before the Europeans arrived? A self-taught map maker from Oklahoma, Aaron Carapella, shows us what the country looked liked with all the native American tribes and their original names before their “first contact with Europeans,” notes NPR in this fascinating story. Carapella told NPR that he thinks “a lot of people get blown away by, ‘Wow, there were a lot of tribes, and they covered the whole country!’ You know, this is Indian... Read more
Nuns can have fun too. Here Sister Cristina Scuccia competes on Italy’s version of The Voice, which she went on to win. Here’s the story from ABC. Read more
Here is an excellent explanation of the Sunni-Shia divide from BBC Radio (thanks to Emma Le Neve Foster for tweeting the link). The Pew Research Center has some good graphics about the divide, the differences in Sunni-Shia beliefs and the way Sunnis and Shias view each other. Below is a map that shows where most Shia live. Iran has the largest population of Shias which, says the Pew Research Center, accounts for its support of Pakistan and Syria, which both have... Read more
World Refugee Day was June 20th. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHR) noted that “the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people.” The big increase, they say, comes from the war in Syria. But along with Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia make up half of the refugee total. These countries are all war zones. It might be interesting for religion students to research how many... Read more
The Presbyterian Church made two big decisions recently. First, they voted to allow ministers to perform same sex marriages. The CNN video clip above explains. Second, they voted to divest themselves of investments in companies “tied to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.” According to the New York Times, the divestment vote does not deny Israel’s right to exist. “The measure that was passed not only called for divestment but also reaffirmed Israel’s right to exist, endorsed a two-state solution,... Read more
Studying Hindu gods and goddesses? Here’s a living one! Kumari are living goddesses and worshiped by both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal. The newest Kumari is an 11-year old girl, who, according to the Huffington Post, is “considered to be the earthly manifestations of divine female energy, incarnations of the goddess known as Taleju, the Nepalese name for Durga.” People from all over the world come to see her and, notes the BBC in this fascinating story, this young kumari must follow... Read more
World Religions
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