September 7, 2010 | 10:04 am

Iraqi porn as a litmus for social change

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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You might remember that absurd Los Angeles Times editorial advocating Israeli-Palestinian peace through porn. If not, read it, and then click here to read about how the prevalence of porn in Iraq has tracked with the reconstruction effort:

The nude women on the DVD cover in a Baghdad street stall say it all: Change, whether you like it or not, is afoot in Iraq.

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The porn, in an odd way, has told the story of Iraq’s security and political situation since Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003. It emerged in the anything-goes atmosphere that erupted in the vacuum immediately following the U.S. invasion — then went back into hiding amid the anarchy when armed militias roamed the capital through 2008, targeting those they saw as immoral.

Its reemergence since then reflects how security has improved but also how the fragile government is busy with more pressing issues than spicy videos.

That story is from the Associated Press. And my GetReligion colleague Sarah Pulliam Bailey goes media critic on it here.

September 6, 2010 | 4:17 pm

Former Pearl Fellow abducted, tortured

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Rob Eshman has tragic news from the ideological war front. In Pakistan, a former Pearl Fellow (seen above speaking in Los Angeles) was abducted and tortured. Fortunately, Umar Cheema, a News International journalist, was ultimately released and lived to tell the tale.

According to the news portal, a group of men covered his face and took him to a building 45 to 50 minutes drive while he was returning home after meeting his friends.

“A few unknown men wearing uniforms of Elite Force came up to me, saying I crushed a man at Zero Point and drove off and then these men forcibly took me along with them,” Umar Cheema said. “I was held in illegal captivity for 6 hours during which I was continuously tortured and humiliated in nude. They stripped me out of my clothes, hanged me upside down and shaved off my head and moustaches,” the senior reporter of the country’s leading English daily recounted.

Café Pyala, a blog that follows the news from Pakistan and Pakistani media wrote that Cheema was “stripped naked, hung upside down and beaten severely before his head and moustache were shaved off.” According to the blog, Cheema, who is an investigative reporter for The News International, was “taken and dumped on the Islamabad Motorway with warnings not to make the incident public.” The captors had also warned Cheema to stop writing against the government.

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September 6, 2010 | 8:37 am

Brothers, NFL defenders, Muslims

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Good story from ESPN about the Abdullah brothers, a pair of NFL safeties fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Actually, great story. Reporter Rachel Nichols doesn’t really get into the importance of Ramadan, but she demonstrates the challenge of fasting during it. And I’d loved hearing that Hamza likes “Cupcake Wars.”

I discussed a story about Husain Abdullah over at GetReligion last month. An excerpt:

I’ve always wondered why more religion writers don’t seek out this exact storyline when writing about Ramadan. It’s there for the taking, and I’ve seen it a few times in the past five years. That was when I wrote a similar story about a high school Muslim football player going through the same physical strains and spiritual discipline of Abdullah.

His name was Hytham Elsherif. And as interesting as Hytham’s story was, I find the story behind the story of equal interest. It demonstrates how religion reporters can hunker down long before the holidays come around to ensure that they won’t get stuck with another mundane it’s-Ramadan-the-time-that-Muslims-fast story. I’ve been there on years when I got caught on my heels, and, trust me, it was better for everyone when I had a storyline in mind — even if I didn’t know the subject through whom I would tell it.

Ramadan in 2005 began in early October, and I had traveled the previous month to Miami for the Religion Newswriters Association’s annual meeting of the minds. There I sat in a workshop where an instructor — Steve Buttry? — encouraged us to come up with one story we wanted to write, regardless of whether we knew the story actually existed.

Remembering a year in the ’90s when Ramadan came during the winter and one of Islam’s NBA legends, Hakeem Olajuwon, was overwhelmed by a combination of fasting, the rigors of professional basketball and the altitude of a game at the Utah Jazz, I wanted to find a local Muslim experiencing a similar struggle. California’s Inland Empire lacks much in terms of professional sports (sorry, Quakes and 66ers), but it has plenty of high schools and it was football season.

I had my mission: find a high school Muslim football player. But, first, our instructor wanted us to write out a rough fictional lede that we could use for our dream story.

At the risk of evoking comparisons to Stephen Glass, my fictional lede was similar to the details I captured of Hytham’s experience and worked into the lede to his story

Hytham’s story can be read here. It’s still one of my favorites from five years on the Godbeat.

* Updated: Hamza Abdullah made the Cardinals’ roster. But a very frustrating thing about ESPN.com is that they disable their embeddable videos after a short while, and there is no online story containing Rachel Nichols’ report.

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September 5, 2010 | 10:46 am

God or gravity—what agent was responsible for creation?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

It’s difficult to understand why this is a story. Frankly, when I saw the headline that Stephen Hawking had said God had no role in the creation of the universe, I assumed a very old story had accidentally been republished online. But it wasn’t. And now there are stories about religious leaders responding (and blog posts about those stories):

“Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” he wrote.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going.”

But the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, told the Times that “physics on its own will not settle the question of why there is something rather than nothing.”

He added: “Belief in God is not about plugging a gap in explaining how one thing relates to another within the Universe. It is the belief that there is an intelligent, living agent on whose activity everything ultimately depends for its existence.”

We’ve been down this road before. In general, scientists and theists will differ on whether they think there is a place for both God and science in our understanding of the world in which we live. Some scientists, like Francis Collins and Kenneth Miller, see no tension between the two.

I think that Hawking and Williams are just going to have to agree to disagree.

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September 4, 2010 | 6:17 pm

Cheech’s violent priest in ‘Machete’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Politics aside, “Machete” looks entertaining, and the reviews have been good. But I’m really wondering about the role played by Cheech Marin, the shotgun-toting Catholic priest. I can only assume he is coming out on what he thinks is the side of good. Then again ...

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September 4, 2010 | 9:26 am

Farewell to Heeb magazine’s print edition

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I guess Heeb has gotten rid of that still-not-dead subscription card. All those funny cover photos, and at times distasteful art, will no longer be appearing in print.

From a post at HeebMagazine.com, which is now the only Heeb home, titled “So Much for Controlling the Media”:

The good news is that Heebmagazine.com will continue to provide trenchant analysis of world events, cultural critique of all that is Jewish and Goyish and countless photos of scantily-clad Israeli models under the leadership of newly named editor-in-chief, Erin Hershberg, culture editor, Jonathan Poritsky, creative director (former music editor), Arye Dworken, humor editor, David Deutsch and comics editor, Jeff Newelt.

The bad news is that we are suspending the print edition of Heeb Magazine.

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Heeb Magazine has never been about making Jewish “cool.” What we are big believers in, however, is making Jewish fun. We believe that in a world in which Jewish periodicals outdo themselves in attempting to highlight just how endangered Jews are, there should be one Jewish media outlet that actually makes its readers smile. So whether online, or in print, we like to think that we can all still have a little fun—and don’t worry, Ahmadinejad will still be waiting when we’re done.

Keep smiling with Heeb here.

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September 2, 2010 | 10:45 am

A Rosh Hashanah Jewish Treat

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The High Holidays begin next week with Rosh Hashanah, and the Jewish Treats crew offers this spoof of “Gold Digger” for the Jewish New Year. Personally, I prefer “The Shabbat Song.”

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September 1, 2010 | 10:42 pm

The dirty Jordan River and holy sh—

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Lots of good stuff in here about religion from “The Colbert Report.” Jump to the 2:57 mark.

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