Reflections from a Subway Platform: Sunando Sen and The Fight To End Discrimination
I can’t stop thinking about Sunando Sen. Two weeks before Mr. Sen was pushed into the elevated tracks at 40th-Lowery St, I stood on that platform, fresh from an evening with a good friend. I love the rhythm and rhyme of that part of Sunnyside. Perhaps Mr. Sen also walked past the Sunnyside mural and [...]
Let there be light
The disturbing recent news about the bloody protests in the Arab world incited by a video defaming the Prophet Muhammad remind me of a story associated with Rosh Hashanah, which begins on Sunday at sundown. When Rosh Hashanah begins, the Jewish calendar will enter the year 5773. According to the tradition, exactly 5773 years ago, [...]
Intimidated of Our Own Scripture
This is a strange thing for a Sikh to confess. I used to be really intimidated by our scripture – the Guru Granth Sahib. I would feel unworthy sitting before the Guru, and I was absolutely terrified of making mistakes while reading from the scripture. And even though I learned to read and speak the language from [...]
CEO of Home Depot: Purchase Advertising on All-American Muslim to replace Lowe’s
These views are my own. I co-wrote this petition with Frank Fredericks of Religious Freedom USA. State of Formation is in no capacity co-sponsoring this petition, nor is the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue. Lowe’s recently pulled its advertising from the popular television show “All-American Muslim,” bowing to the pressure of Isalmophobes. It is unworthy of [...]
Oslo Attack Highlights the Dangers of Islamophobia
The mass-murder in Oslo last Friday was tragic. At least 90 innocents — many of them youth — are already dead, and authorities fear that the death toll may continue rising. Evidence is mounting that a right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, carried out the attack at least in part to spark a “civil war”against Muslim [...]
Islamophobia: Increasingly Ordinary and Therefore Most Terrible
In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” Leo Tolstoy scathingly wrote of a protagonist whose life was “most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” Such may also be said of the ruling put forth by Tennessee judge Robert Corlew, who made the unremarkable determination that “Islam is a religion,” thereby permitting the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro to move [...]
New Beginnings: Fear and Hope
This post (the first of two) reflects on the fears and hopes that mark new beginnings. What is there to fear for a Christian on Easter morning? What is there to fear for a parent of a newborn child? What is there to fear for a student beginning a dissertation? What is the relationship – or the difference – between fear and hope?
Peter King Hearings: A Crystallizing Moment for the Interfaith Movement?
The hearings Representative Peter King recently held on the supposed “radicalization” of American Muslims are widely considered to be the most counterproductive in recent history. They single out the American Muslim community and misuse one of the highest offices in the land to bolster Islamophobia — or at the very least inaccurate generalizations about Islam [...]
Making Sense of Tragedy: Was the Earthquake a “Divine Punishment”?
Over at Religion Dispatches Levi McLaughlin, a professor of religion who specializes in East Asian traditions, writes about Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara describing the tsunami that struck Japan as “divine punishment”: Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, has gained notoriety for his willingness to court controversy, [...]
Contributing Scholars
Christopher FiciI am a Hindu minister/teacher and freelance writer for the Huffington Post, Beliefnet, Elephant Journal, Good Business International, and State of Formation. I am currently working on my Master's degree in Interfaith and Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Jacob KohlhaasI am a PhD student in Systematic Theology at Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA); my BA is from Wartburg College (Waverly, IA), and MA is from Catholic Theological Union (Chicago, IL). A Roman Catholic who spent several years employed by Lutherans, my interests are in Ecumenism, Theological Anthropology, and Environmentalism.
Andy CookAndy Cook, 24, has a longstanding interest in religion, spirituality, and civic engagement. Growing up in the Conservative Jewish tradition, Andy learned from an early age the importance of asking questions, knowing why one believes what they do, and placing importance on the work of improving our world.