Sufisim is making a comeback in Somalia, according to this Huffington Post story. It was outlawed for many years while Somalia was ruled by an armed militant Islamic group, called al-Shabab. But now this mystical branch of Islam is coming back. Read more

Here is Ken Robinson at his best, which I found on Open Culture. In this 20 minute talk, Robinson takes on the test-centric culture of American education and argues that it is destroying creativity and curiosity. Read more

In our last Face to Faith video conference for the year, my religion students considered human rights issues important to their lives. One issue they considered with particular passion was women’s rights, especially the right of young women to be treated with the same respect as men when they drink. Why, some students wondered, is it always incumbent on women to be careful? Our facilitator challenged the students to consider what responsibility they had for human rights violations that don’t... Read more

Catholics are making big gains in Asia and Africa, according to this Huffington Post story. In fact,  the story notes,  “Catholic growth in Africa and Asia was almost double the regions’ population growth.”  In his book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Philip Jenkins discusses the implications of this remarkable expansion of Christianity into the global south. Read more

Here is a 2011 Pew research survey, which I saw on the On Being blog, that shows what Muslims in seven different countries think of westerners and then what westerners (from the US, Russia and four other western countries) think about Muslims.  Looks like we’ll need a lot more interfaith dialogue. Read more

Librarians in Timbuktu duped Al Qaeda and saved thousands of ancient manuscripts from destruction. The Associated Press picked up the story earlier this year and now the New Republic has published a more in depth story in its current issue.   An Al Qaeda-linked group ruled Timbuktu for much of last year and, according to the New Republic, did so through terror–“cutting of hands of thieves, flogging women judged to be dressed immodestly, and destroying centuries-old tombs of local saints.”  Residents... Read more

My religions class just completed a seminar on human rights. The collapse of the garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, came up. Sometimes a picture is worth so much more than words. Time Magazine printed the photograph which, it says, “has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image.” Read more

More than half the world’s population lives inside the circle, and yes, most of the circle is water. But it also encompasses China and India. Thanks to Ryan Folmer for tweeting the link. You can read more about the map here. As a Reddit editor noted: “There are more Muslims in the circle than outside of it. There are more Hindus in the circle than outside of it. There are more Buddhists in the circle than outside of it…” Read more

A few boys posted this video of the song “Hello” from the Broadway hit, The Book of Mormon, on Twitter last week. It got over 30,000 hits, according to this Huffington Post story. The Twitter account for the Broadway show saw it  and urged others to create similar videos. Here’s the Broadway version that I found online. Read more

Aren’t Buddhist monks, indeed all Buddhists, supposed to be non-violent?  In Burma and Sri Lanka, they are spewing hate and joining mobs. This  great BBC article explains the trouble. In Sri Lanka, according to the BBC, the issue or flash point is the halal slaughter of animals. That has led to boycotts of Muslim businesses in Sri Lanka.  Fortunately, there has been no violence yet.  But in Burma, the situation is different. A somewhat crazy Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu, who refers to himself as a  Burmese Bin Laden, incites religious hatred. “Aren’t the... Read more