Middle East

Things may get hot for Miss USA

To tell you the truth, I don’t think there is much to be gained by GetReligion readers if we dwell on the media frenzy surrounding the photos of Rima Fakih dancing in a 2007 pole-dancing contest sponsored by Mojointhemorning.com, a morning show on Channel 955 in Detroit. This update does sound a but ominous, however:


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Quietly awaiting execution

Saudi Arabia isn’t high on anybody’s list for a religious freedom award. But last year there were some hopeful signs for religious liberty advocates when the king dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who had condoned killing owners of television networks that broadcast immoral content. He had also appointed a female deputy minister and changed the makeup of a body of religious scholars — who issue fatwas — to give more moderate Sunnis representation.


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Got news? Got news! PCUSA and Israel

I was all set to make this a “Got news?” post. I had been reading rumblings about an upcoming Presbyterian Church (USA) report in the religious and conservative press, but nothing in the mainstream media. Here’s a sample religious media report and here’s a bit from the conservative Weekly Standard:


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Logical move for a scribe who gets religion

Regular GetReligion readers will know that, in the past few months we have been tempted to fly a white flag of surrender as a tragic number of talented religion-beat reporters and columnists have either moved on to other subjects or hit the exit doors of their newsrooms. It’s almost enough to make you click here.


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Closing the God gap abroad

Earlier in the week I linked to the Washington Post story headlined “‘God gap’ impedes U.S. foreign policy, task force says.” Some readers will be delighted to see that it’s bylined by Godbeat fave David Waters. Here’s the lede:


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What's Christian love got to do with it?

If you’ve heard about the exclusive story that will be in tomorrow’s Haaretz’s Weekend Magazine, the news that for more than a decade a Hamas founder’s son served as a spy to Israel’s security agency, then you’ve almost certainly heard a component of the story that’s two obvious for the media to miss. In fact, this element of the story was its own story — and a good story at that — in 2008.


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From Baptist kid to jihadist fighter

In “The Jihadist Next Door,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Andrea Elliott’s Sunday cover story in The New York Times Magazine, Elliott turns her laser focus on the journey of one American youngster who decides to join a Somali terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda.


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