Jan 5, 2019 05:26 AM
After Three Year Wait, Satanists Will Deliver Invocation in Sahuarita, Arizona (Friendly Atheist): In 2016, the Satanic Temple of Arizona asked a couple of city councils for the opportunity to deliver an invocation. In Scottsdale, after initially getting a yes, the city council reversed course. Mayor Jim Lane even said, publicly, “We’ve decided to send this Satanist sideshow elsewhere.” The Temple leaders, including attorney Stu de Haan and group leader Michelle Shortt, pushed back by filing a lawsuit against the city this past February. It has yet to be resolved.
In Phoenix, Shortt was able to give an invocation… and then the city council moved to end the practice of invocations altogether. (Success!)
It was a very different story in the city of Sahuarita....
The Satanic Temple of Arizona Will Give Sahuarita’s Council Invocation (intro): The Satanic Temple Arizona chapter will give the invocation at the meeting of the Sahuarita Town Council some three years after they submitted their request to do so. The Tucson, Arizona chapter of the TST had submitted the request in the initial months of 2016. When they applied, the official response was in the negative. They were told the list was full.
The Tucson branch (TST-AZ) nevertheless submitted the application and then waited since the invocation ceremony is generally rotated among different local faiths. After being turned down by a number of other cities like Scottsdale and Phoenix, the members of the Tucson chapter were unsure they’d ever get a date. They were suddenly informed about the availability by an email sent by the Town’s clerk Lisa Cole.
The Satanists are naturally ecstatic. “We’re very pleased that Sahuarita honored our request. We’re pretty excited about it,” said Stu de Haan, the media liaison and lawyer of TST-AZ.
Although it is insisted that the invocations be non-secular, most get to read prayers and invoke a Christian God or Jesus. The September 9 invocation will be the maiden one for Arizona coming from the The Satanic Temple....
What I learned teaching Islamic studies in Texas
https://religionnews.com/2019/01/04/what...-in-texas/
EXCERPT: As far as I know, I was the first Sikh hired to teach Islamic studies at an American university. I loved every minute of it, especially because my employer, Trinity University, was located in my beloved hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
[...] I was surprised (though I probably shouldn’t have been) by the hate aimed at me in my job. People were angry when I spoke out about a 14-year-old Muslim boy in Texas who had been wrongfully accused of bringing a bomb to school. Local law enforcement handcuffed, detained and questioned him for 90 minutes without permitting him to see his parents. My tweet of solidarity with the boy became part of the story on “Good Morning America” and CNN International. Some called our university president’s office demanding I be fired.
My university supported me, as it did when I got a credible death threat and had to involve authorities. And the time right-wing outlets published defamatory pieces that confused me with another Sikh man, landing me on the notorious Professor Watch List. In this sense, what I learned by teaching Islamic studies will always be with me. I can only hope that other universities won’t have second thoughts about hiring me because I’ve appeared on an academic watch list.
But this stays with me too: the wonderful students, colleagues and administrators who welcomed me and listened when I shared my darker lessons as I have here. The sharing of our experience helps others see realities that would be hard to imagine otherwise. Through my own stories I hope they too saw what our Muslim neighbors and every minority goes through in trying to overcome the racial and religious supremacies so deeply embedded in the world around us....
MORE: https://religionnews.com/2019/01/04/what...-in-texas/
In Phoenix, Shortt was able to give an invocation… and then the city council moved to end the practice of invocations altogether. (Success!)
It was a very different story in the city of Sahuarita....
The Satanic Temple of Arizona Will Give Sahuarita’s Council Invocation (intro): The Satanic Temple Arizona chapter will give the invocation at the meeting of the Sahuarita Town Council some three years after they submitted their request to do so. The Tucson, Arizona chapter of the TST had submitted the request in the initial months of 2016. When they applied, the official response was in the negative. They were told the list was full.
The Tucson branch (TST-AZ) nevertheless submitted the application and then waited since the invocation ceremony is generally rotated among different local faiths. After being turned down by a number of other cities like Scottsdale and Phoenix, the members of the Tucson chapter were unsure they’d ever get a date. They were suddenly informed about the availability by an email sent by the Town’s clerk Lisa Cole.
The Satanists are naturally ecstatic. “We’re very pleased that Sahuarita honored our request. We’re pretty excited about it,” said Stu de Haan, the media liaison and lawyer of TST-AZ.
Although it is insisted that the invocations be non-secular, most get to read prayers and invoke a Christian God or Jesus. The September 9 invocation will be the maiden one for Arizona coming from the The Satanic Temple....
What I learned teaching Islamic studies in Texas
https://religionnews.com/2019/01/04/what...-in-texas/
EXCERPT: As far as I know, I was the first Sikh hired to teach Islamic studies at an American university. I loved every minute of it, especially because my employer, Trinity University, was located in my beloved hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
[...] I was surprised (though I probably shouldn’t have been) by the hate aimed at me in my job. People were angry when I spoke out about a 14-year-old Muslim boy in Texas who had been wrongfully accused of bringing a bomb to school. Local law enforcement handcuffed, detained and questioned him for 90 minutes without permitting him to see his parents. My tweet of solidarity with the boy became part of the story on “Good Morning America” and CNN International. Some called our university president’s office demanding I be fired.
My university supported me, as it did when I got a credible death threat and had to involve authorities. And the time right-wing outlets published defamatory pieces that confused me with another Sikh man, landing me on the notorious Professor Watch List. In this sense, what I learned by teaching Islamic studies will always be with me. I can only hope that other universities won’t have second thoughts about hiring me because I’ve appeared on an academic watch list.
But this stays with me too: the wonderful students, colleagues and administrators who welcomed me and listened when I shared my darker lessons as I have here. The sharing of our experience helps others see realities that would be hard to imagine otherwise. Through my own stories I hope they too saw what our Muslim neighbors and every minority goes through in trying to overcome the racial and religious supremacies so deeply embedded in the world around us....
MORE: https://religionnews.com/2019/01/04/what...-in-texas/
