Media Literacy and the Middle East – Primary Source Podcast

Sacred Matters | The Muppets are America. The Muppets offered us biting social commentary when their show began nearly forty years ago. Now, with their videos, they are showing us an antidote to the xenophobia infecting our political and popular discourses. In their videos, they are offering a hopeful and positive vision of America, which includes all of the people living in it — divorced, gay, Muslim, black, etc. — a message that will hopefully be even more explicit in their show.

Hijacking Jihad: Reclaiming Islam’s ‘Personal Struggle’. Over the last two decades, the term “Jihad” has exclusively been defined as a holy war perpetrated by extremists. As such, when the average American hears the term “Jihad,” they conflate Islam with terror. Although the term has been hijacked by extremists, many Muslims in the US and around world don’t recognize Jihad’s contemporary application. For these Muslims, the term, which literally translates to “struggle,” is a personal struggle, or a mission. For example, someone’s “Jihad” could be giving up smoking or to strive to be a better neighbor, friend, husband, or wife.

Adjuncts fight for a living wage | Al Jazeera America. Picture a professor, and you probably don’t think of someone struggling to put food on the table. But that’s the reality for many adjunct faculty, with some earning the equivalent of a fast-food wage.  A recent study says more than 75% of professors are now adjunct. Are they being exploited and how do their working conditions impact higher education?