He leaned forward. “What do you think about Shi’ias? I really don’t understand them.” His brow was furrowed and his face, surprisingly, bore no malice, despite his malicious question.

I come from Pakistan, a country where Shi’as are persecuted, where too much blood is shed in the name of difference, where the notion of unity is a forgotten founding pillar of the nation. My views on Islam, on the other hand, are catholic and my practice idiosyncratic. I was flummoxed. How does one respond in a dignified, conciliatory manner to an egregiously prejudiced question, on the subway, no less? I found myself channeling my five-year-old son. “We’re all one, aren’t we!” I mused, stating the obvious. “Hindus, atheists, Buddhists, Shi’a, Sunni, you, me: We’re all made of the same stuff.” Who am I to talk religion? I’m no authority on the matter.

The man remained silent, then shook his head, grinning. “That is truly a great answer!” he stated without irony, as the train pulled into Times Square. I offered a pinched smile in return as I stepped out onto the crowded platform, confused, still shaken. Here was a man who’d turned to Islam in New York City but had adopted and inherited in the conversion someone else’s regional history of sectarian prejudice and hate. Here was I, a secular Muslim, turned accidental ambassador of my faith on the R train.

— Humera Afridi writes some “Ramadan Meditations” in Open City magazine. 

pewresearch:

New report out today from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life: Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths.  This is the first comprehensive look at the nation’s fastest growing race group and their religious affiliation and traditions.  Among the key findings:

• Asian Americans have been largely responsible for the growth of non-Abrahamic faiths in the U.S., particularly Buddhism and Hinduism (accounting together for about the same share of the U.S. public as Jews – roughly 2%). 
• Most Asian Americans belong to the country’s two largest religious groups:  Christians and people who say they have no particular religious affiliation. 
• Each or the six largest subgroups of Asian Americans displays a different religious complexion.  For example, a majority of U.S. Filipinos are Catholic, while a majority of Korean Americans are Protestant.  See our slideshow on religious affiliation.  http://pewrsr.ch/PlLgqq
• The Asian American community is a study in contrasts, from groups that are highly religious to highly secular; 76% say religion is not too important or not at all important in their lives, compared with 58% among unaffiliated U.S. adults as a whole.  See our Beliefs and Practices slideshow: http://pewrsr.ch/LuGGRQ
• Asian Americans as a whole are less likely than Americans overall to believe in God and to pray on a daily basis, but these measures may not be good indicators of religion’s role in this population that includes Buddhists and others from non-theistic traditions.  

I have struggled in recent years to reconcile my long-standing faith, to my relatively more recent feminist commitments. And it is precisely because of the Black Church’s continued willingness to advocate problematic, violent, hierarchical stances against women and gay people that I continue to struggle.

— When the Church Fails Its Women: 7 Truths We Need to Tell About Creflo Dollar, Black Daughters and Violence « The Crunk Feminist Collective (via tballardbrown)

Rev. Fred Luter Jr. [is] poised to become the first African American president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination when convention delegates vote next week in New Orleans.

It’s a big step for a denomination that was formed out of a pre-Civil War split with northern Baptists over slavery and for much of the last century had a reputation for supporting segregation.

— This is quite significant, considering the history of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

A Hasidic recruit at the Police Academy had his dream of becoming a city cop dashed Friday — by the fuzz.

Fishel Litzman, who was just a month away from receiving his shield, got the boot after he refused to trim his scraggly beard, insisting it would violate his religious beliefs.

(via Hasidic NYPD recruit fired over beard - NY Daily News)

via tballardbrown

"The grapes of rap."

“Hip-hop’s new love for Moscato is a boon for one kosher winemaker. And the grape itself couldn’t be more Jewish.”

(Source: @adamserwer.)

Black. Liberal. Mormon.

From @shani_o.