2009 Year in Review: The Muslim Edition
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Date: 13 January 2010
And Now, The Good News
It’s hard to know when, exactly, it started…but somewhere between the anti-Muslim protests in England and the mosque minarette ban in Switzerland, 2009 became a really bad year for Islam in the news. So this week we reflect on the happier, more hopeful news stories that slipped through the cracks. Call it the silver lining of 2009.
Pictured: A Tehran sunset.
Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of Altmuslim.com
The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying
Begins at 22 min 30 sec
Abby Sher's father died when she was ten years old. Then, she began to pray...and couldn't stop. She developed a complex set of rituals to deal with the trauma: obsessively kissing her father's picture, repeating prayers, tracing wallpaper. Sher joins us to discuss how her Judaism became both part of her obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a way to heal it.
Abby Sher, author of Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (Among Other Things)
Attention Dieters: Are Your Spirits Hungry?
Begins at 34 min 16 sec
Dieting has become a major part of American culture, but has it invaded our belief systems as well? In her new book, Michelle Lelwica argues that women's devotion to weight loss functions as a kind of secular faith, complete with icons, rituals and a sense of meaning. Lelwica explains where the 'religion of thinness' comes from, and how to leave it for good.
Michelle Lelwica, author of The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women's Obsession with Food and Weight
What Freud Got Wrong
Begins at 43 min 28 sec
For Sigmund Freud, religion was an “illusion”, a neurosis with no place in mental health. Nancy Kehoe would beg to differ. A psychologist and Sacred Heart nun, she has revamped her practice to to treat the whole patient -- including religious beliefs.
Nancy Kehoe, author of Wrestling With Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness
