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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
Christians Only : Europe’s Anxiety about Muslim Refugees
Civil war, persecution and profound poverty have forced a record number of people to flee the Middle East and Africa for Europe. A vast portion of the refugees are Muslim–which is turning out to be a liability. Recently, leaders in a handful of European countries from Bulgaria to Poland openly worried about bringing Muslims into their largely Christian nations. We find out where the Islamophobia is coming from, and talk to a Syrian Muslim about his new home at a refugee camp in the Netherlands. With guests Manar, 26-year-old Muslim refugee from Damascus, Syria; Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs writer for the Washington Post; Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies at American University and author of Journey Into Europe.
Songs, Chants and Prayers from Ancient Syria
The news out of Syria is grim: ISIS is advancing, the death toll is rising, refugees are fleeing. But this week, we’re going to recall the Syria that came before all that. Historically, it’s been a deeply spiritual country, full of Sufi Muslims and Orthodox Christians, whose songs and prayers represent some of the most beautiful examples of religious music in the world. Jason Hamacher recorded some of these sounds, just months before the civil war erupted. From October 2014. With Jason Hamacher, producer of Nawa – Ancient Sufi Invocations and Forgotten Songs from Aleppo.
