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Preventing Religious Bias through Dialogue 2019

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Article submitted to NEA RI for publication

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Article submitted to NEA RI for publication

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How to be an ally to our Muslim friends.

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Become an Ally

By publicly and vocally speaking about the American Muslim children and families they know, allies-leaders as well as everyday people who are not American Muslims themselves-have done an enormous amount to promote understanding of American Muslims' lives.

An ally can show support for American Muslim friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, family members and others in a wide variety of ways.

The best way is to take every opportunity to speak publicly and vocally - through letters to editors, Op-Eds, interviews, speeches, etc. - about the lives, contributions, hopes and dreams of American Muslim families and children they know.

Allies

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By publicly and vocally speaking about the American Muslim children and families they know, allies-leaders as well as everyday people who are not American Muslims themselves-have done an enormous amount to promote understanding of American Muslims' lives. An ally can show support for American Muslim friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, family members and others in a wide variety of ways.

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Don't let hate and anti-Semitism win. Join us in Fighting Hate for Good!

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Dating back to the Bible Riots of the mid-1800s, the role of religion in public schools has been one of the most hotly disputed-and most frequently misunderstood-religious freedom issues in America. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has long made clear that the Constitution prohibits public school-sponsored prayer or religious indoctrination, violations remain rampant in many parts of the country.

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The whirling dervishes: A gentle face of Islam | Focus on Europe

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War memorial or religious symbol? Cross fight reaches U.S. high court

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War memorial or religious symbol? Cross fight reaches U.S. high court

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BLADENSBURG, Md. (Reuters) - When Fred Edwords first drove by the 40-foot-tall (12 meters) concrete cross that has stood for nearly a century on a busy intersection in suburban Maryland outside the U.S. capital, his first reaction was, "What is that doing there?"

To Edwords, who believes there should be an impermeable wall separating church and state, the location of the so-called Peace Cross - a memorial to Americans killed in World War One situated on public land, with vehicles buzzing by on all sides - seemed to be a clear governmental endorsement of religion.

"It's so obviously part of the town and a centerpiece. It just popped out at me. There was nothing about it that made me think it was anything other than a Christian cross," Edwords, 70, said in an interview.

Edwords and two other plaintiffs filed a 2014 lawsuit challenging the cross as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion and bars governmental actions favoring one religion over another.

The conservative-majority court will hear arguments in the case next Wednesday, with a ruling due by the end of June.

While the Establishment Clause's scope is a matter of dispute, most Supreme Court experts predict the challenge to the Peace Cross will fail, with the justices potentially setting a new precedent allowing greater government involvement in religious expression.

The Peace Cross, now aging and crumbling a bit, was funded privately and built in Bladensburg in 1925 to honor 49 men from Maryland's Prince George's County killed in World War One. The property where it stands was in private hands when it was erected, but later became public land.

Its supporters include President Donald Trump's administration and members of the American Legion veterans' group, who hold memorial events at the cross. At a recent gathering at a nearby American Legion post, veterans and their relatives said the monument has no religious meaning despite being in the shape of a Christian cross, calling the lawsuit misguided and painful.

To Mary Ann Fenwick LaQuay, 80, the cross respectfully chronicles the war sacrifice of her uncle Thomas Notley Fenwick, one of 49 honored.

"It hurts people who have family members there. Every time I go by there, I think of my uncle. It hurts to think people would take it away," she said.

Stan Shaw, 64, a U.S. Army veteran, said it appeared the challengers were going out of their way to take offense.

"If you don't want to see it, take another route," Shaw added.

Aside from its shape, the cross has no other religious themes or imagery. At its base is a barely legible plaque listing the names of the dead. Every year, ceremonies with no religious content are held at the site, lawyers defending the cross said.

Edwords, who is retired, is a long-time member and previous employee of the American Humanist Association, which advocates for the separation of church and state. He and his fellow challengers said they support veterans and that the lawsuit concerns only the symbolism of the cross, not the fact that it honors war dead.

The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the cross was unconstitutional, reversing a Maryland-based federal judge's decision allowing the monument.

The Supreme Court will hear appeals by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the public agency that owns the cross, and the American Legion, which is represented by the conservative religious rights group First Liberty Institute.

TEN COMMANDMENTS

The Supreme Court has sent mixed messages about the extent to which there can be government-approved religious expression, including in two rulings issued on the same day in 2005.

In one case, it ruled that a monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol building depicting the biblical Ten Commandments did not violate the Constitution. But in the other, it decided that Ten Commandments displays in Kentucky courthouses and schools were unlawful.

More recently, the court in 2014 ruled that government entities do not automatically violate the Constitution when they hold a prayer before legislative meetings.

In some other recent cases, the court has taken an expansive view of religious rights. In 2014, it ruled that owners of private companies could object on religious grounds to a federal requirement to provide health insurance that included coverage for women's birth control.

It ruled in 2017 that churches and other religious entities cannot be flatly denied public money even in states whose constitutions ban such funding. In a narrow 2018 ruling, the court sided with a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, citing his Christian beliefs.

The American Legion's lawyers are asking the court to decide that government endorsement of religion is not the appropriate test in the Peace Cross case. Instead, they said, courts should conclude that the government violates the Constitution only when it actively coerces people into practicing religion.

Such a ruling would give public officials "carte blanche to have symbols anywhere," said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania expert on law and religion who joined a legal brief supporting Edwords.

Edwords conceded that the lawsuit could end up backfiring on his side with a ruling against him but stands by his decision to challenge the cross.

"We are not trying to be revolutionary here," Edwords said.

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judicial process / court cases / court decisions

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War memorial or religious symbol? Cross fight reaches U.S. high court

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BLADENSBURG, Md. (Reuters) - When Fred Edwords first drove by the 40-foot-tall (12 meters) concrete cross that has stood for nearly a century on a busy intersection in suburban Maryland outside the U.S. capital, his first reaction was, "What is that doing there?"

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The 4th annual Born This Way Prom is hosted by Interweave at Channing Church, Newport, RI.

The Prom, with all the trimmings, is for LGBTQ students and their allies.

The proceeds benefit Youth Pride Inc. in Providence, RI.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch? Register for a user account.

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The 4th annual Born This Way Prom is hosted by Interweave at Channing Church, Newport, RI. The Prom, with all the trimmings, is for LGBTQ students and their allies. The proceeds benefit Youth Pride Inc. in Providence, RI. The views expressed in this post are the author's own.

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School Prayer in Cranston West High School

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School Prayer in Cranston West High School

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New York Times article

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"Our Heavenly Father," the prayer begins, "grant us each day the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful." It goes on for a few more lines before concluding with "Amen."

For Jessica, who was baptized in the Catholic Church but said she stopped believing in God at age 10, the prayer was an affront. "It seemed like it was saying, every time I saw it, 'You don't belong here,' " she said the other night during an interview at a Starbucks here.

Since the ruling, the prayer has been covered with a tarp. The school board has indicated it will announce a decision on an appeal next month.

A friend brought the prayer to Jessica's attention in 2010, when she was a high school freshman. She said nothing at first, but before long someone else - a parent who remained anonymous - filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union. That led the Cranston school board to hold hearings on whether to remove the prayer, and Jessica spoke at all of them. She also started a Facebook page calling for the prayer's removal (it now has almost 4,000 members) and began researching Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious freedom.

Last March, at a rancorous meeting that Judge Ronald R. Lagueux of United States District Court in Providence described in his ruling as resembling "a religious revival," the school board voted 4-3 to keep the prayer. Some members said it was an important piece of the school's history; others said it reflected secular values they held dear.

The Rhode Island chapter of the A.C.L.U. then asked Jessica if she would serve as a plaintiff in a lawsuit; it was filed the next month.

New England is not the sort of place where battles over the division of church and state tend to crop up. It is the least religious region of the country, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But Rhode Island is an exception: it is the nation's most Catholic state, and dust-ups over religion are not infrequent. Just last month, several hundred people protested at the Statehouse after Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, lighted what he called a "holiday tree."

In Cranston, the police said they would investigate some of the threatening comments posted on Twitter against Jessica, some of which came from students at the high school. Pat McAssey, a senior who is president of the student council, said the threats were "completely inexcusable" but added that Jessica had upset some of her classmates by mocking religion online.

"Their frustration kind of came from that," he said.

Many alumni this week said they did not remember the prayer from their high school days but felt an attachment to it nonetheless.

"I am more of a constitutionalist but find myself strangely on the other side of this," said Donald Fox, a 1985 graduate of Cranston West. "The prayer banner espouses nothing more than those values which we all hope for our children, no matter what school they attend or which religious background they hail from."

Brittany Lanni, who graduated from Cranston West in 2009, said that no one had ever been forced to recite the prayer and called Jessica "an idiot."

"If you don't believe in that," she said, "take all the money out of your pocket, because every dollar bill says, 'In God We Trust.' "

Raymond Santilli, whose family owns one of the flower shops that refused to deliver to Jessica, said he declined for safety reasons, knowing the controversy around the case. People from around the world have called to support or attack his decision, which he said he stood by. But of Jessica, he said, "I've got a daughter, and I hope my daughter is as strong as she is, O.K.?"

Jessica said she had stopped believing in God when she was in elementary school and her mother fell ill for a time.

"I had always been told that if you pray, God will always be there when you need him," she said. "And it didn't happen for me, and I doubted it had happened for anybody else. So yeah, I think that was just like the last step, and after that I just really didn't believe any of it."

Does she empathize in any way with members of her community who want the prayer to stay?

"I've never been asked this before," she said. A pause, and then: "It's almost like making a child get a shot even though they don't want to. It's for their own good. I feel like they might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I'm defending their Constitution, too."

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Rhode Island City Enraged Over School Prayer Lawsuit

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"Our Heavenly Father," the prayer begins, "grant us each day the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful." It goes on for a few more lines before concluding with "Amen."

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THE RHODE ISLAND STATE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

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THE RHODE ISLAND STATE COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

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Religious Freedom Paper FORMATTED for GB action 02-02-2017

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Judaism 101 or "Jew FAQ" is an online encyclopedia of Judaism, covering Jewish beliefs, people, places, things, language, scripture, holidays, practices and customs, written from a traditional perspective in conversational language you can understand.

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jewish beliefs basic judaism 101 judaic introduction introductory jewfaq jewish holidays women jewish beliefs hebrew orthodox traditional judaism chasidism chasidic mitzvah mitzvoth commandments judaism 101 judaic jewfaq jewish jew

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Judaism 101 or "Jew FAQ" is an online encyclopedia of Judaism, covering Jewish beliefs, people, places, things, language, scripture, holidays, practices and customs, written from a traditional perspective in conversational language you can understand.

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Teaching about Religions in Public Schools

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Teaching about Religions in Public Schools

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presented by Susan Douglas

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Current Issues Facing American Muslims 4-25-19

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Muslim American featured in a sit com on Hulu. 

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Muslim American featured in a sit com on Hulu. 

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I watched this and it is very good.

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Ramy Youssef on bringing a Muslim American story to Hulu's new comedy 'Ramy'

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When Ramy Youssef was a young goof-off growing up in New Jersey, he never dreamed of a career in Hollywood....

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Newspaper article that can be used to introduce the idea of teaching religion in the public schools. This article makes for a great debate in the classroom (take-a-stand).

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Teachers as Activists: Combating Anti-Religious Bias April 25th 2019

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Teachers as Activists: Combating Anti-Religious Bias April 25th 2019

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Click "box"  to view resources for Susan Douglas's Presentation

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Click "box"  to view resources for Susan Douglas's Presentation

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A daily list of headlines about Islamophobia
compiled by the Bridge Initiative

Each day, the Bridge Initiative aims to bring you the news you need to know about Islamophobia. This resource will be updated every weekday at approximately 11:00 AM EST.

Today in Islamophobia: India's government weighs implementing its own Muslim Ban, while Facebook purges several British far-right groups from its platform. A man in Texas hurls verbal abuse against a Muslim employee, while an op-ed details how Islamophobia made school experience "a nightmare." Our recommended read for today is by Sabrina Siddiqui and titled "Trump's attacks on Ilhan Omar aim to stoke fears ahead of the 2020 election." This, and more, below:

United States

United Kingdom

India

China

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Today in Islamophobia: April 19, 2019 - Bridge Initiative

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Each day, the Bridge Initiative aims to bring you the news you need to know about Islamophobia. This resource will be updated every weekday at approximately 11:00 AM EST. Today in Islamophobia: India's government weighs implementing its own Muslim Ban, while Facebook purges several British far-right groups from its platform.

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News about Religion and Belief, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

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Southern Poverty Law Center

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Subscribe to the https://soundslikehate.org/">Sounds Like Hate podcast to learn more about hate groups like the Proud Boys.​

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Don't let hate and anti-Semitism win. Join us in Fighting Hate for Good!

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FBI Releases 2017 Hate Crime Statistics

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program serves as the national repository for crime data collected by law enforcement. Its primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management. Reported yearly, the 2017 data, submitted by 16,149 law enforcement agencies (up 5.9% from 15,254 agencies in 2016), provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes. Of these agencies, 2,040 reported 7,175 hate crime incidents involving 8,437 offenses.

The table and graphs below provide a high-level overview of some of the data. The full report can be viewed here: https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017.

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FBI Releases 2021 Hate Crime Statistics

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program serves as the national repository for crime data voluntarily collected and submitted by law enforcement. Its primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management. The 2021 hate crimes data*, submitted by 11,834 law enforcement agencies, provide information about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of hate crimes. Of these agencies who submitted incident reports, there were 7,262 hate crime incidents involving 8,673 offenses.

*This is the first year the annual hate crimes statistics are reported entirely through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). As a result of the shift to NIBRS-only data collection, law enforcement agency participation in submitting all crime statistics, including hate crimes, fell significantly from 2020 to 2021. Law enforcement agencies that did not transition to reporting crime data through NIBRS were not able to submit hate crime statistics to the FBI. Several of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies, as well as some states, did not make the transition to NIBRS in time to submit data prior to the reporting deadline, and are not included in the 2021 reported totals. As more agencies transition to the NIBRS data collection with continued support from the Justice Department, hate crime statistics in coming years will provide a richer and more complete picture of hate crimes nationwide.

Victims of Hate Crime Incidents

7,074 single-bias incidents involved 8,753 victims

In 188 incidents, a total of 271 victims were targeted because of more than one bias

Go to description of image

Offenses by Crime Category

Known Offenders

Location Type

Among the 8,673 hate crime offenses reported:

Crimes against persons: 66.7%

Crimes against property: 30.0%

Crimes against society: 3.3%

Of the 6,312 known offenders:

56.1% were White

21.3% were Black or African American

13.5% race unknown

Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders.

Of the 4,884 known offenders for whom ethnicity was reported:

7.6% were Hispanic or Latino

8.9% were in a group of multiple ethnicities

28.1% ethnicity unknown

Of the 5,757 known offenders for whom ages were known:

82.3% were 18 years of age or older

Law enforcement agencies may specify the location of an offense within a hate crime incident as 1 of 46 location designations.

Most hate crime incidents, 32.2%, occurred in or near residences/homes

16.9% occurred on highways/roads/alleys/streets/ sidewalks

8.1% occurred at schools/colleges

7.0% happened in parking/drop lots/garages

2.8% took place in restaurants

2.7% occurred at parks/playgrounds

The location was reported as other/unknown of 4.2% of hate crime incidents

The remaining 26.1% of hate crime incidents took place at other or multiple locations.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer

The FBI's Crime Data Explorer (CDE) aims to provide transparency, create easier access, and expand awareness of criminal, and noncriminal, law enforcement data sharing; improve accountability for law enforcement; and provide a foundation to help shape public policy with the result of a safer nation. Use the CDE to discover available data through visualizations, download data in .csv format, and other large data files. The CDE also features hate crime statistics (see the "read more" link below).

Visit the 2020 and 2019 Hate Crime Statistics pages to view FBI hate crimes data for 2020 and 2019.

Description of images on this page

Bias Motivation Categories for Victims of Single-bias Incidents in 2021: This is a pie chart showing the percentage of bias motivation categories for victims of single-bias incidents in 2020. They are as follows:
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Single-bias Incident Bias Motivations by Category: This is a bar chart showing the 2021 data for bias motivation categories for single bias incidents. They are as follows:
Back to the image

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The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program serves as the national repository for crime data voluntarily collected and submitted by law enforcement. Its primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management.

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A lesson that builds community and promotes  peace is one that asks students to envision peace. 

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A lesson that builds community and promotes  peace is one that asks students to envision peace. 

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When you close your eyes and think of peace, what do you see? 

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Teaching Tolerance Article: Standing Up Against Hate

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Teaching Tolerance Article: Standing Up Against Hate

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Educators have many responsibilities. Three have been heightened in the past year:

Stand up against hate and intimidation, so schools stay safe for learning;

Engage the facts;

Protect the right to learn.

We've always had those responsibilities; they're just more necessary now than ever.

The past year has been fraught for students, teachers and schools. We've seen a spike in incidents of hate and bias on K-12 and college campuses nationwide. It's becoming obvious that every insult overheard on the nightly news, every tweet forwarded on social media and every slur scrawled on a building can have mounting consequences for students and schools. Public figures are explicitly threatening many students' rights and communities. Students are repeating these threats and claims to one another, sometimes without fully understanding them.

And simultaneously, some educators are getting labeled "partisan" if they simply challenge hate or bullying on their own campuses-or engage students in dialogue about real, controversial issues, or just affirm that all students have the right to learn safely in school.

This reality places a burden on educators, to be sure. But no matter our "politics," standing up against hate-and for learning-is the basic work of education. And who better than us to facilitate it?

Stand Up Against Hate and Intimidation

We're in an era of escalating hate and threat toward many of the young people and communities we serve. Undocumented and refugee students have been told that the president wants them out. The federal government is sending the message that schools don't have to honor LGBT students' identities. Boys have heard that disrespecting girls is OK. We've all heard racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic talk become more commonplace, accompanied by targeted policies. These sentiments get repeated on our campuses. Hate-filled violence is on the rise.

And as educators, it's our job to denounce hate and intimidation where we work, to make sure students feel safe to learn.

The U.S. Constitution protects a range of free expression rights in schools. Freedom of speech protects us all, so we don't simply outlaw all "offensive" ideas from our schools. But we don't allow true threats of harm in schools, either, because schools must remain safe for learning. Our civil rights laws also require educators to protect public school students from harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion or disability because a school has a responsibility to maintain a safe and nondiscriminatory learning environment for all students. When hostile environments impede student learning, educators must take action to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring.

Put these points together, and we see that schools are places where hateful speech and action, harassment and violence are supposed to be challenged, not ignored. As educators, we are both legally and morally responsible for fostering learning environments where people aren't denigrated and threatened so that students can participate in and benefit from school.

Educators must always model what it looks like to be an upstander: to stand up in the moment to challenge hateful speech and call instead for learning and respect. And the primary antidote to hate is preventive speech: continually talking about how to respect and value other human beings every day.

The triage work of educators is to challenge hate-to ask speakers to respect and value others so all can learn. The longer-term work is to prevent hateful activity on campus. And the longest-term, most powerful work is to make our resistance to hate routine, by consistently asking whether the most ordinary words we use in schools and society distort, misunderstand, misrepresent, denigrate or devalue people.

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Educators have always had the responsibility to stand up to hate and bias-but it's more necessary now than ever.

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

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Prince Among Slaves biography lesson for 6th grade ELA

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Prince Among Slaves biography lesson for 6th grade ELA

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Lesson featuring community guest, Wendy Ibrahim Manchester

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The    following 10 dos and don'ts are o   n how to respond to youth on immigration and Muslim ban. These recommendations are for teachers/educators working directly with students. Please note that school leaders should provide collective responses to support teachers and students’ emotional needs on these issues.

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The    following 10 dos and don'ts are o   n how to respond to youth on immigration and Muslim ban. These recommendations are for teachers/educators working directly with students. Please note that school leaders should provide collective responses to support teachers and students’ emotional needs on these issues.

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Videos on Islam at the Unity Productions Foundation

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Videos on Islam at the Unity Productions Foundation

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Unity Productions Foundation - Peace Through the Media

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UPF is a non-profit that works to create peace through the media, to empower citizens with greater understanding and to nourish pluralism in America.

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Dr. King had a dream to make the world a more peaceful place where our differences are something celebrated not segregated.

We have a chance everyday to make a real change in our lives and in the lives of our friends at DMS.

This is why we study the Principles of Kingian Nonviolence.

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Six Principles Nonviolence Lessons for building a Beloved Community

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Guidelines and suggestions

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Teacher's Guides | Religions of the World | Religions of the World | Photo Collection | PBS LearningMedia

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The Religions of the World Photo Collection contains striking photographs individually selected from the Getty Images for use by PBS LearningMedia's Teachers and Students. It includes lesson guides that may be used by educators to supplement coverage of world religions for grades 6-8 and grades 9-12.

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Overview,video clips/additional resources

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Three of the world's major religions -- the monotheist traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- were all born in the Middle East and are all inextricably linked to one another. Christianity was born from within the Jewish tradition, and Islam developed from both Christianity and Judaism.

While there have been differences among these religions, there was a rich cultural interchange between Jews, Christians, and Muslims that took place in Islamic Spain and other places over centuries.
A brief history of Judaism
Judaism is the oldest surviving monotheistic religion, arising in the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C.E. Abraham is traditionally considered to be the first Jew and to have made a covenant with God. Because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recognize Abraham as their first prophet, they are also called the Abrahamic religions.

While there was always a small community of Jews in historic Palestine, in 73 C.E. the Roman Empire dispersed the Jews after an insurrection against Roman authority. Most Jews then lived in Diaspora, as minorities in their communities, until the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

When Jews from all over the world came to settle in modern Israel, they found that various subcultures had developed in different areas with distinctive histories, languages, religious practices, customs, and cuisine.

Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe were known as Ashkenazim (from "Ashkenazic" the Hebrew word for Germany). Yiddish, a fusion of German and Hebrew, was the spoken language of the Ashkenazi. In Europe, Jews had tended to be segregated -- voluntarily or not -- from the Christian population. From the late 19th and through first half of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews came to Palestine to escape the persecution and discrimination they faced because of their religion.

Sephardic Jews trace their ancestry to the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal; "Sephardic" comes from the Hebrew word for Spain). They once spoke Ladino, a mixture of Hebrew and Spanish.

Mizrahi Jews (from the Hebrew word for Eastern, also sometimes called Oriental Jews) trace their origin to North Africa and Asia. Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish communities tended to be integrated into their respective societies.

There is great difference of opinion among Israeli Jews over the role Jewish religious law should play in the state. Until recently, Orthodox Judaism was the only form of the religion formally and legally recognized in Israel. Although less conservative branches of Judaism now have partial recognition, Orthodoxy remains dominant politically and legally.

Many Israeli Jews describe themselves in terms of their degree of observance of Jewish law. About half call themselves secular; about 15 to 20 percent see themselves as Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox; and the rest describe themselves as traditionally observant, but not as strict as the Orthodox.

In the United States, debate over the necessity of observing Jewish law has led to the development of three major movements. Orthodox Jews believe that Jewish law is unchanging and mandatory. Conservative Jews argue that God's laws change and evolve over time. Reform and Reconstructionist Jews believe that these laws are merely guidelines that individuals can choose to follow or not. In addition, there are many Jews in the United States who are secular or atheist. For them, their Judaism is a culture rather than a religion.

Jews believe in one god and his prophets, with special respect for Moses as the prophet to whom God gave the law. Jewish law is embodied in the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch) and the Talmud (collected commentary on the Torah completed in the fifth-century C.E.).

Judaism is more concerned with actions than dogma. In other words, observance of rules regulating human behavior has been of more concern than debates over beliefs in the Jewish tradition. According to Orthodox Judaism, Jewish law, or halakhah, includes 613 commandments given by God in the Torah, as well as rules and practices elaborated by scholars and custom. Jewish law covers matters such as prayer and ritual, diet, rules regulating personal status (marriage, divorce, birth, death, inheritance, etc.), and observance of holidays (like Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; and Passover, the feast celebrating the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt).

Jews do not believe in the prophets after the Jewish prophets, including Jesus and Muhammad. Therefore, they do not subscribe to the idea that Jesus was the Messiah and the son of God, nor do they believe in the teachings of Islam.
A brief history of Christianity

Christianity started as an offshoot of Judaism in the first century C.E. Until the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 324 C.E., early Christian communities were often persecuted. It was then that the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, and its capital relocated from Rome to Constantinople (formerly Byzantium and now Istanbul). The development of Christian groups derived from major and minor splits.

The Orthodox Church and its patriarch split away from the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope in 1054 C.E. because of political and doctrinal differences. In the 16th century, Martin Luther, upset at the corruption of the Catholic papacy, spearheaded a reformation movement that led to the development of Protestantism.

Christian missionaries proselytize all over the world, and there are large populations of Christians on every continent on Earth, although the forms of Christianity practiced vary.

Many early Christian saints lived in the Middle East. The tradition of asceticism (denial of physical pleasures in order to come closer to God) developed first in the Middle East, and the monastic tradition has its roots there.

Christians in the Middle East today include Copts, Maronites, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholics, Assyrians, and Protestants. These groups have different liturgical languages, rituals, and customs, and different leaders who direct their faith.

The Coptic Church, the dominant form of Christianity in Egypt, arose from a doctrinal split in the Church at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Egyptian government supports the Copts' rights to worship and maintain their culture, but there has been some violence against the community by extremist Muslims.

The Maronite Church was started in the fifth century by followers of a Syrian priest named Maroun. The Maronite Patriarch, based in Lebanon, guides his followers in the teachings of Maroun and other saints. Maronites are still one of the most powerful political communities in Lebanon.

There are also Christian communities of different sects living today in Syria (10 percent of the population), Jordan (6 percent), the West Bank (8 percent), and Iraq (3 percent), with smaller percentages in other Middle Eastern countries.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Christians from what is now Syria and Lebanon (then the Ottoman Empire) emigrated to the United States and other countries. Although Christians are a minority in the Middle East today, more than 75 percent of Americans of Arab descent are Christian.

Christianity developed out of the monotheistic tradition of Judaism; Jesus, its founder, was a member of the Jewish community in Roman Palestine. Its holy scriptures are the Old Testament (the Jewish Torah with additions), and the New Testament (written by the followers of Jesus after his death and containing the life story of Jesus and other early Christian writings).

Christians believe that God is revealed through three dimensions: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is considered the son of God, born to the virgin Mary and come to Earth to offer redemption for mankind's sins. After Jesus was crucified and executed by the Romans, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. This event is celebrated at Easter, while the birth of Jesus is celebrated at Christmas.

Christians believe in an afterlife where those who have lived a good life will reside in heaven with God, and those who have lived an unrepentant life of sin will be punished in hell.

Although Christianity developed out of Judaic texts, Christians do not follow Jewish law. Instead, they believe that the ritualistic Jewish law was abrogated in favor of a universal gospel for all of humanity and the Christian teaching, "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

Relationships between Jewish and Christian communities have often been difficult, particularly in Christian Europe. There, Jewish communities were often subject to discrimination and violence at the hands of Christians.

Christianity has also had a problematic relationship with Islam. Christians do not accept Muhammad as a prophet. While many Christians in the Middle East converted to Islam during and after the seventh century, the Church hierarchy in Rome and Constantinople considered Islam to be both a political and theological threat. The Crusades were an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the Islamic conquest of the eastern Mediterranean and the holy places of all three monotheistic religions.
A brief history of Islam

Islam arose in the early seventh century C.E. in the settled desert community of Mecca (in present-day Saudi Arabia). It developed from both the Judeo-Christian tradition and the cultural values of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of Arabia.

Islam expanded into areas controlled by the Byzantine Empire (largely Greek-speaking and Orthodox Christian, but with a diverse population) and the Sassanian Empire (officially Zoroastrian and Persian-speaking, but also diverse). By the mid-eighth century, Islam had spread west into North Africa and Europe, and east into Central Asia. Over the centuries, Islam continued to grow in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

As Islam expanded, the new Islamic societies adapted and synthesized many of the customs they encountered. As a result, Muslims in different areas of the world created for themselves a wide array of cultural traditions.

Islamist v. Islamic (3:06) Watch

The culture of Islamic Spain, for example, was so cosmopolitan that some Christian and Jewish parents complained that their children were more interested in developing their knowledge of Arabic than in learning Latin or Hebrew, respectively. Many elements of Islamic society became integral parts of medieval and Renaissance European culture, like the notion of chivalry, and certain forms of music (the lute, the arabesque) and poetry.

On the eastern end of the Islamic world, many Indonesians converted to Islam between the 15th and 17th centuries. Preexisting animist beliefs were often incorporated into the local practice of Islam.

Within Islam, there are many different communities. Many of these divisions, like the Sunnis, Shiis, Ismailis, Alevis/Alawites, and Druze, originate in political and doctrinal differences in the community. Adherents of Islam may be more or less observant, conservative or liberal.

Sufism is the mystical tradition of Islam, where direct experience of the divine is emphasized. The 13th-century poet Jalaluddin Rumi is a well-known Sufi figure whose work has become popular in the United States today. Whirling dervishes are dancers who are entranced in their experience of Sufism.

Muslims believe that Allah (the Arabic word for God) sent his revelation, the Quran, to the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century C.E. to proclaim it to mankind. The Quran contains verses(surahs) in Arabic that tell Muslims to worship one god, and explains how they should treat others properly.

Another historical text, the Hadith, written by scholars after the death of Muhammad, describes Muhammad's life as an example of pious behavior, proscribes law for the community based on the Quran and the example of Muhammad, and explains how certain rituals should be performed.

Observant Muslims practice five principles (pillars) of Islam: orally declaring their faith (shahadah); praying five times a day (salat); fasting in the daylight hours during the month of Ramadan (sawm); giving a share of their income for charity (zakat); and making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime if they can afford it (hajj). Many Muslims also observe dietary rules, in origin similar to those of Judaism, that forbid certain foods (like pork), outlaw alcohol, and dictate how animals should be slaughtered for food.

The Muslim calendar is lunar, and shifts in relation to the solar calendar. Just as Christians count years starting with the year of Jesus's birth, Muslims count years beginning with Muhammad's move from Mecca to Medina in 622 C.E. Muslim years are labeled as A.H., Anno Hegirae, or "year of the Hijra."

Major Muslim festivals include Id al-Fitr (the Fast-Breaking Festival, celebrated at the end of Ramadan) and Id al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice, the commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmail which takes place during the month of pilgrimage).

Muslims believe in a Day of Judgment, when righteous souls will go to heaven and wrongdoers will go to hell.

Islam sees Judaism and Christianity as earlier versions of Islam, revelations given within the same tradition by Allah but misunderstood over time by their followers. Muslims see Islam as the final, complete, and correct revelation in the monotheistic tradition of the three faiths.

The Islamic tradition recognizes many of the Jewish and Christian prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (although he is not considered to be the son of God). Many non-Muslims mistakenly believe that Muhammad is the equivalent of Jesus in the Islamic tradition; in fact, it is the Quran that stands in the same central position in Islam as Jesus does in Christianity. Muhammad himself is not divine, but a prophet chosen by God to deliver his message and an example of piety to emulate.

Jews and Christians are specifically protected in the Quran as Peoples of the Book, reinforcing their spiritual connection to Islam by virtue of having been given revelations from God. The Islamic legal tradition has upheld the rights of Jews and Christians to maintain their beliefs and practices within their communities in Islamic lands, and this policy of tolerance has generally been upheld.

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Related sites

Inside the Kingdom - Part II:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east /jan-june02/saudi_2-15.html
NewsHour explores the debate over Islam, education, and culture in Saudi Arabia.

Christians in the Middle East:
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm ?PrgDate=04/23/2002&PrgID=5
Talk of the Nation looks at the role of Christians who live in Israel and the West Bank. This story was aired during the military standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

The Pope's Journey:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/ jan-june01/pope_5-8.html
NewsHour conducts a discussion on Pope John Paul II's journey of reconciliation to Greece, Syria, and Malta.

Islam: Empire of Faith:
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/index.html
The companion Web site for Islam: Empire of Faith, a PBS film about the world's fastest growing religion

Observing Islam:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/ july-dec01/islam_11-16.html
Islamic scholars discuss the future of Islam as Ramadan begins amid curiosity and concern. (Novemeber 2001)

Inside Out: Revolutionary Islam:
http://insideout.wbur.org/documentaries/revolutionaryislam/
This radio documentary examines the manifestations of political Islam around the world.

Guide to Religions of the World:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people /features/world_religions/
A guide to six world religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism

Beliefnet Web Site:
http://www.belief.net/
A Web site on religion

Judaism 101 Web Site:
http://www.jewfaq.org/index.htm
An online encyclopedia on Judaism

Lexicon of Israeli "English":
http://www.iyba.co.il/lexicon.htm
A glossary of Israeli terms, acronyms, and abbreviations found in English-language publications

Exploring Religions:
http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/religionet/er/default.htm
Information on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism

Who Are Eastern Christians?:
http://www.arimathea.co.uk/whoare.htm
The origin and definition of Eastern Christianity

Syria and Christianity:
http://atheism.about.com/library/world/KZ /bl_SyriaChristianity.htm
The history of Eastern Christianity in Syria

Islam:
http://www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_islam.html
An encyclopedia entry on Islam

Islam: A Worldwide Religion:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/crossroads/russell/islam.htm
Islam's impact on Southeast Asia

Persian Poet Top Seller in America:
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/11/25/us/us.3.html
An article on the popularity of mystic Islamic poet Jalaluddin Rumi

Historical Maps of Islam:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~brvs/pages/maps.html
Historical maps of Islam

Islam in Iran:
http://www.pbs.org/visavis/islam_in_iran_mstr.html
Vis à Vis explores the origins of Islam and its evolution in Iran.

Saudi Time Bomb?:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/
Frontline investigates the hidden undercurrents of Islamic extremism, its far-flung reach, and its threat to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Religion & Culture:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/classroom/lp5.html
Students will consider the theme of religion and culture as they learn about the Hindu-Muslim conflict in the province of Gujarat, India.

Understanding History, Religion, and Politics in Jerusalem and Beyond:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/promises/intheclassroom.html
Students will acquire historical knowledge of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the region, learn how to interpret a conflict from multiple perspectives, advocate for a point of view, and develop greater conflict resolution skills.

Gender Issues in Islam:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/muslims/
Students will compare and contrast the roles of men and women with regard to various topics in the six countries featured in the film.

Great Thinkers and Accomplishments of Islam:
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/lesson4.html
Students will learn about the diverse accomplishments of great Islamic scholars.

God Fights Back: 1978-1992:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/teachers/tggod.html
In the 1970s, alienated Iranians flock to the promises of Islamic fundamentalism and Egyptians and Algerians soon follow. In the 1980s, alienated Americans flock to the promises of Christian fundamentalism.

The Fascinating World of Islam:
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/lesson2.html
Students will research the people, places, and events that have shaped the history of Islam.

An Introduction to Islam and Muhammad:
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/lesson1.html
Students will compare the major monotheistic belief systems of the world.

Middle East: Crossroads of Faith and Conflict (map):

Supplement to National Geographic, October 2002

Culture: A Rich Mosaic

Geography: An Ancient and Modern Crossroads

How were modern nation-states of the Middle East created?

What is religious militancy and its relationship to terrorism?

Middle East Religion, Ethnic Groups, and Language Distribution

Muslim Population Worldwide

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Three of the world's major religions -- the monotheist traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- were all born in the Middle East and are all inextricably linked to one another. Christianity was born from within the Jewish tradition, and Islam developed from both Christianity and Judaism.