An ad from the My Jihad campaign. Courtesy myjihad.org
A group of 26 students from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. will perform “America the Beautiful” during the Super Bowl XLVII pregame show.
Our own Lauren Markoe writes that some religious programmers are now producing halftime shows of their own in an effort to tone down the often-raunchy entertainment segment.
The anti-gay, funeral picketing Westboro Baptist Church filed an amicus brief in one of the Supreme Court’s upcoming gay marriage cases, urging the court to “protect” the nation from the “destructive effects of same-sex marriage.”
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that opponents of same-sex marriage are laboring to pay the tab for that epic legal case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Coming to a Metro near you: Muslim activists this week announced that their “#My jihad” ad campaign will adorn D.C. Metro stations. The ads have previously appeared on buses in San Francisco and Chicago. To many Muslims, jihad is a religious struggle, not a call to armed resistance.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will soon reveal 30,000 pages of confidential personnel files without blacking out the names of the church leaders who knew about sexual abuse by priests.
And in Philadelphia, a priest and a former parochial school teacher were found guilty of sexually attacking a former altar boy.
Next Monday, Forverts (The Forward) will resume its daily news website for Yiddish speakers to meet demands from the rise of strict Orthodox Jews. The Forward cut back to weekly Yiddish edition in 1983.
In Israel, those same Orthodox Jews should serve in the army, most Israelis think. The results of last week’s elections may force the issue.
Islamist Hamas authorities plan to expand Hebrew-language classes in the Gaza Strip’s high schools to help Palestinians “know their enemy” in times of conflict with Israel.
The Catholic Diocese of Worcester Mass. rescinded an invitation to Robert Spencer, a Catholic whose work depicts Islam as an inherently violent religion, to speak at its annual Catholic Men’s Conference in March.
More signs of tolerance: A Maryland high school principal has found a way to accommodate Muslim students: She gives those with parental permission and high grades a pass out of class every day to pray.
Omar Sacribey writes about a modeling agency that connects modesty-minded models — both Muslim and non-Muslim — with designers.
Pope Benedict XVI is having his message for this year’s World Day of the Sick published in Arabic for the very first time.
Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s controversial comments on “biblical” marriage last summer did nothing to dampen the Atlanta company’s annual sales, the Journal-Constitution reports.
Hollywood filmmaker Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty) sold his Beverly Hills home, gave away most of his money and made Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn the stars of his latest documentary film, I AM. The film seeks to identify the sources of and solutions to human suffering.
And finally, a North Carolina man is suing his church for encouraging his wife to leave him and helping her move out of their marital home. Legal suits reveal the darndest things: The husband claims the pastor made multiple visits his wife’s residence to play Wii games.
