Wednesday, February 04, 2015

musical chairs: bass, faces, races in american public spaces


interfaithradio |  A few weeks ago, Duke University quietly announced it would begin broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer from its Christian chapel. It was meant as a gesture of interfaith solidarity, though not requested by Muslim students themselves. A few days later, after an outcry by evangelist Franklin Graham and others, the historically Methodist school decided to pull the plug, saying the idea was “not having the intended effect.” And that’s when the story got kind of crazy.

Two Duke students tell us how all of this got started, then three experts consider the deeper issues: the proper role of Islam in the public square, why the Muslim call to prayer makes some people nervous, and even the wisdom of using one holy space for two different religions.

Rachael Clark, member of Duke's Presbyterian Campus Ministry
Noura Elsayed, member of Duke's Muslim Student Association
Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist
Nihad Awad, Executive Director and Founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

Isaac Weiner, author of Religion Out Loud: Religious Sound, Public Space, and American Pluralism

The Hidden Holocausts At Hanslope Park

radiolab |   This is the story of a few documents that tumbled out of the secret archives of the biggest empire the world has ever known, of...