Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Americans hold somewhat schizophrenic views on Muslims and Islam, according to a new poll.
For example, more than half (54 percent) agree that Muslims are an important part of the American religious community, but 47 percent also say that Islam is at odds with American values. And a whopping 30 percent believe American Muslims are bent on instituting Sharia law on these shores.
Another study says that people who participated in religious activities after 9/11 were more apt to experience positive emotions and less likely to ruminate about the attacks or develop physical health problems.
Izzat why some folks are so agitated over NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s decision not to invite clergy to speak at the 9/11 ceremony on Sunday? The ceremony at Washington National Cathedral will surely have a few clerics on hand, if they’re looking for other options.
The NYPD investigated 250 mosques in New York and New Jersey following 9/11, according to the AP, putting huge numbers of innocent people under scrutiny as they went about their daily lives.
A cousin of Nidal Malik Hassan, the Army psychiatrist accused in a shooting rampage at an Army post in Texas, has created a Muslim charity that denounces violence in the name of Islam.
The pastor at Michele Bachmann’s Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota denounced Mormonism in a 2007 sermon titled “Raise Your Religious IQ – Investigating Mormonism,” according to the Deseret News. Here’s an excerpt:
“I very respectfully push back and I say (to Mormons) you have taken something extra and added it to (God’s word) to make all of it untrue. Think of it this way: what does your car need to run properly? It needs pure, refined petroleum – it needs gasoline. And what happens when you dilute the gasoline with something like water? The car doesn’t run. I think that’s a good analogy for what our Mormon friends have done with God’s word. … The whole thing is diluted, and honestly it just doesn’t work.”
An evangelical voter in South Carolina interviewed by the LA Times was even harsher. “The devil wrote only one Bible,” said Stan Craig, a Baptist preacher, “and Joseph Smith found it under a rock.” You’d think the Author of Lies would be more prolific.
Incoming Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput says the cafeteria is closed. The archdiocese’s high school teachers went on strike. Let’s see if Rerum Novarum is followed to its letter.
The Village Voice is counting down the 25 worst Scientologists. Are they upset about all the attention showered on the New Yorker?
The neo-Calvinist Sovereign Grace Ministries is facing an identity crisis after the departure of its charismatic pastor, who confessed to “various expressions of pride.” A similar admission by the rest of us would shut down half of Facebook.
Three men were hanged in Iran for having gay sex, which is forbidden in the Islamic theocracy, according to AFP. The Taliban and the Afghan army are having a peeing contest over who are better Muslims.
Did you know that Tony Blair is the Godfather to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter? Turns out, in England Godparenting is less about spiritual guidance and more about power, influence, and networking. And starworshipping.
Yr hbml aggregator,
Daniel Burke
