30 Good Minutes – Melissa Rogers – Free Exercise for All

This is what people are seriously concerned about? Fortunately, the article points out that if they don’t “Middle Eastern terms,” they should stop using “alcohol.” ‘Haboobs’ Cause a Storm of Complaints in Arizona – NYTimes.com. “I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling this kind of storm a haboob,” Don Yonts, a resident of Gilbert, Ariz., wrote to The Arizona Republic after a particularly fierce, mile-high dust storm swept through the state on July 5. “How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?”

I haven’t excerpted anything because the piece is just so powerful, I didn’t know what do pull out as a highlight. Religion News Service | Blogs | Omid Safi – What Would Muhammad Do? | The prominent Muslim cleric offering prayers at the Democratic National Convention.

The Case for Calling Them Nitwits – Magazine – The Atlantic. They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones?