Bob CollinsAyaz Virji could be forgiven if he’d followed his instinct and moved his family out of Dawson, Minn. Virgji, the medical director of a local hospital, was upset that his community had voted for Donald Trump, spurred on by the candidate’s portrayal of Muslims as terrorists. Virji was the first Muslim to move to Dawson Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Religion
Is there a language that’s too strong to use when condemning white supremacy?
The Southern Baptists thought so this week until yesterday when they formally condemned ‘”every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as of the devil.’ Read more →
As documented here a few years ago, local TV meteorologists historically have been reluctant to take a position on — or even discuss –climate change. Too many viewers were quick to pounce. Paul Douglas has never been a coward on the subject, however, as he showed again yesterday with a single tweet. Read more →
A week or so after USA Boxing decided it would allow Oakdale boxer Amaiya Zafar to box in a sanctioned bout wearing a hijab, basketball’s governing authority has seen the light, too.
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If not for people like Joe Crowley, the Catholic Church’s chronic problem of sexual abuse might never have found its believers.
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Steve Inskeep tried mightily again to get an answer to the question, ‘Does Donald Trump believe Islam is a religion?’ when Sebastian Gorka, the deputy assistant to the president appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition for the second time in a month and got the question again. Read more →
In Hartford, Conn., the archdiocese is urging people to abstain from their phones on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the Hartford Courant reports. Read more →
President Trump reportedly suggests Jews and Democrats are responsible for a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States. Read more →
A prominent ad on the back page of the Star Tribune this morning following bomb scares at two Jewish centers in the Twin Cities and anti-Semitic attacks around the nation. Read more →
However, if you eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day, you’re required to ‘undertake a work of charity, an exercise of piety, or an act of comparable penance on some other occasion during the Second Week of Lent,’ according to Susan Mulheron, chancellor of canonical affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Read more →
Stephen Jones, the school superintendent in Little Falls, Minn., pushed back and pushed back hard this week against criticism that his school system is making accommodations for Muslim students. Read more →
Flags in Minnesota are flying at half-staff today, under orders from Gov. Mark Dayton, who knows a timely lesson when he sees it.
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A new survey says language, not birthplace, is the core of national identity.
The survey, from Pew Research, finds only 13% of Australians, 21% of Canadians, 32% of Americans and a median of 33% of Europeans believe that it is very important for a person to be born in their country in order to be considered a true national — a true American, for example.
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Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas burned nearly to the ground on Saturday night. The cause of the fire isn’t known yet and it could be months before it is. But the people of Texas aren’t waiting. They’re pulling together to get it rebuilt. Read more →
As 2016 exits, we’ll take hope anywhere we can find it.
Today we find it in Bahrain, a Muslim-majority monarchy.
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