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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.
Naming an Enemy
After the horrific Orlando shooting on June 12, media coverage quickly turned to reports that the killer was Muslim, and just as quickly, a political spat erupted over whether to attribute the attack to “radical Islam.” Even President Barack Obama weighed in, saying he thinks the phrase plays into the recruitment campaigns of terror groups like ISIS. So do words really matter? We speak with two experts about language, perception and politics. Featuring John L. Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University and Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World.
LGBTQ and Muslim
Following the tragedy in Orlando, many LGBTQ Muslims stood in solidarity with the larger LGBTQ community. We check in with Parvez Sharma, a Muslim gay rights activist and documentary filmmaker of A Jihad for Love and A Sinner in Mecca He speaks to the treatment of homosexuals in Muslim-majority countries and touches on his own experience with religious bigotry.
Reflecting on the Orlando Massacre
Maureen reflects on the tragic events of Orlando, noting the double discrimination against LGBTQ Muslims. She also examines how different religious communities are addressing violent hatred, particularly against members of the LGBTQ community. You can read more of Maureen’s commentaries at the National Catholic Reporter. Read here Reza Aslan’s open-letter to American Muslims following the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage.
