Sightings Articles
Propaganda, Islam, and the Election — Shatha Almutawa
This Ramadan, Muslims and Arabs across the United States have come face to face with questions of identity and portrayal, as 28 million copies of the movie Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West were distributed in fourteen swing states, in ...
October 16, 2008
Another 'God that Failed' — Martin E. Marty
"The Fall: Original Sin & Free-Market Capitalism," "After the Meltdown," and "Government Is Not the Problem: Thirty Years of Bad Economic Policy," by William Pfaff, Charles R. Morris and Jeff Madrick, in turn, highlight a single issue of the Catholic...
October 13, 2008
When is Kosher not Kosher? — Nora Rubel
In my introductory Judaism course, the most common questions my students have relate to confusion over dietary laws. Many are surprised to learn that the actual definition of kosher has nothing to do with food. The slang use of the term ("Something...
October 9, 2008
Popping in on Father Hesburgh — Martin E. Marty
The Wall Street Journal editors had more things on their minds than tributes to great people, given the "whirl is king" world of markets this week. Yet the September 30th issue gave generous and deserved space to the 91-year-old nearly-blind seer Fa...
October 6, 2008
Christian Populism, Then and Now — Robert S. McElvaine
Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin may seem at first glance to have much in common with Christian populist William Jennings Bryan: Both present themselves as representatives of the Common Citizen and claim to believe that everything in the Bibl...
October 2, 2008
Pulpit Freedom from the IRS — Martin E. Marty
Less noticed than its law-breaking advocates hoped it would be, given the economic turmoil of the week, dozens of churches defied federal regulations and used their pulpits yesterday to challenge IRS regulations, which insist that tax exempt organiza...
September 29, 2008
American Islam Enters its Next Phase — Omer M. Mozaffar
Thousands of Muslim mourners flocked to Chicago last week to bury their beloved Brother Imam, Warith Deen Mohammed, who died on September 9. They laid to rest what may be the single most significant legacy in the history of American Islam. Many of th...
September 18, 2008
Subordinate but Not Submissive -- Martin E. Marty
You did not ask to be born into a republic which legally subordinates religion to civil society. You thought that because religion usually makes reference to whatever or Whomever it is that transcends society, society and its laws should come in seco...
September 15, 2008
Examining Hateful Words and Images: The Case of Towelhead -- Melissa Conroy
This past August, Warner Bros. studio faced a dilemma over a new film. The film is currently titled Towelhead, an offensive, derogatory term referring to Arabs and Muslims. The Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic relations (CA...
September 11, 2008
Religion Reporting -- Martin E. Marty
As we hope subscribers noticed, Sightings took off for a month. This week we are back, "full of zest," I'd like to say, recalling the fun of my Septembers in school from 1933 to 1998. This September you might expect us to do some block-busting ...