eDigest: To Be or Not to Be Veiled

Epigraph O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters, as well as all [other] believing women, that they should draw over themselves some of their outer garments [when in public]: this will be more conducive to their being recognized [as decent women] and not annoyed. But [withal,] God is indeed […]

A Mighty Girl

Facebook.com Today in Mighty Girl history, Hedy Lamarr, the glamorous movie star from the black-and-white era of film who co-invented a device that helped make possible the development of GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technology, was born in 1914.  Originally from Austria, the mathematically talented Lamarr moved to the US in […]

A History of Religion in 11 Objects

Huff Post: by S. Brent Plate — Humans are needy. We need things: keepsakes, stuff, tokens, tchotchkes, knickknacks, bits and pieces, junk and treasure. We carry special objects in our pockets and purses, or place them on shelves and desks in our homes and offices. As profane and ordinary as the […]

Denmark: Islamists threaten poet Yahya Hassan.

Der Spiegel Since his rise to fame, Islamists have threatened to kill 18-year-old Danish poet Yahya Hassan. They are angered by the portrayals in his writing of his immigrant family background, which he describes as backwards, hypocritical and blinded by religion.  Yahya Hassan has only written one volume of poetry. It’s modern, […]

My father came home from Iraq a monster

Kristi Anne Raspperry, 19, lives with her mother and father, Heather and John Moates, outside Savannah, Georgia. Heather cares full time for her husband, John, an Army veteran who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq. The strain of that, coupled with fights with her husband, prompted the Army […]

On Islam and Feminism

Huff Post: by Sami H. Elmansouri — For those who may use this piece to attempt to demonize over one billion Muslims, know this: I am not your ally. Although there are other communities which have indeed had more advanced conversations on this issue to date, statistically, this is not […]