Interested in religion or folklore? Here's a great twitter thread by Ali Olomi about Middle Eastern and Islamic folklore.  Olomi is a professor at the University of Pennslyvania and produces a terrific podcast about anything to do with Islam and the Middle East. It's called Head on History. Olomi's thread below is about djinn/jinn kings. He notes that djinn are an invisible race of beings "who live in tribes and nations with their own rulers." Thread by @aaolomi: "The djinn/jinn are a race of invisible beings in Middle Eastern and Islamic folklore. While there isn’t a lot written abo ..read more

Ali Olomi, podcaster and history professor, recently posted this fascinarting Twitter thread about the role of angels in Islam. Thread by @aaolomi: "Belief in angels is one of the 6 articles of faith for Muslims. However, angels in Islam are markedly different from angels in Christianity ..read more

Here's a fascinating story students might read about heroism during the Holocaust in the 1940s. Most everyone knows Oskar Schindler, thanks to the book and the movie, Schindler's List. The German businessman saved over 1100 Jews from certain death in the Nazi concentration camps. Fewer people know the Hollywood mogul, Carl Laemmle, who is credited with saving over 300 Jews during World War II. That is remarkable because Laemmle is probably the only Hollywood mogul to even get involved with the German Jews. Laemmle was the president of Universal Pictures. According to this excellent story ..read more

Ramadan, the holiest month for Muslims, begins on Sunday, May 5th and ends on June 4th.  Practicing Muslims fast during the month, abstaining from food and drink during the day. The purpose is to teach self-discipline and restraint. Here are resources that explain why Ramadan is observed and why it's so important to Muslims. BBC iWonder has a terrific interactive website explaining Ramadan. Although it was made for Ramadan in 2016, it still works as a great overview.National Geographic has an excellent essay called Ramadan: Understanding its history and traditionsIslamic Finder, reviews the da ..read more

By InFlamester20 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77961337 Is football a religion? If you watch the clip below, called Idol Worship,  you might think so. Maybe all professional sports possess some elements of religion.  For example, University of Alabama religion professor, Michael Altman,  recently wrote  "A Religious Guide to WrestleMania," for the University of Alabama's Religious Studies Department's blog. Altman reminds us of Johnathan Z. Smith's idea that religious studies do not need to be "limited to things that seem “religious” in the common u ..read more

Thread by @AudreyTruschke: "Alright folks, a little primer on Hindutva or the Hindu Right Wing, to which presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has ties. This is meant for […]" #Hindutva #TulsiGabbard ..read more

Arbaeen is the world's largest gathering, larger than the annual Hajj, and commemorates the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad and the third Shia Imam, Husayn ibn Ali's in 680. It occurs every year in Iraq at the Karbala Mosque following the 40-day mourning period after the religious holiday, Ashura. Millions of Shia converge on Kerbala during the commemoration. According to the Independent, they walk in columns that often stretch over 50 miles and sleep and eat in tents erected along the route. Alex Shams, an Iranian American and Ph.D. student of anthropology, recently returne ..read more

Here's a great Twitter thread about the beliefs and practices of Zoroastrianism by Kainaz Amaria on the occasion of the new movie about Freddy Mercury, known as Queen.  His father was a Zoroastrian. Thread by @kainazamaria: "A few thoughts on @BoRhapMovie As a Parsi Zoroastrian I want to make sure folks don’t think Freddie’s father just came up with the concept o ..read more

Studying Wahhabism? Saudi Arabia recently arrested Saleh al Taleb, a prominent Mecca imam, and a member of the Wahhabi sect of Islam. Ali A Olomi, a scholar of the Middle East and host of the podcast, Head on History, used the occasion to review the history of Wahhabism and its relationship to Saudi Arabia. Thread by @aaolomi: "The arrest of sheikh Saleh al Taleb by Prince Muhammad bin Salman is huge. It is a sign of growing tensions within the alliance at the heart ..read more

Studying Sufism? Here are a couple of introductory clips from Oprah Winfrey and one from the Religion and Ethics News Weekly. The first comes from her series, Belief, and  the second comes from her other series,  Super Soul Sunday. The Religion and Ethics News Weekly has a an excellent short segment  on Sufism here. Reporter, Deryl Davis, discusses the attacks on Sufism from Muslim fundamentalists and talks to scholars like Coleman Barks who has translated many of Rumi's Sufi poems and who here explains Sufi beliefs and the meaning of whiling dervishes ..read more