AUTHOR
Nicky Baker
Audiovisual artist & producer, singer/songwriter, actress, writer for TV and film and dedicated mother, plus advocate of human rights and good sense.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
This is how it played out: At around midday on November 22, a passenger sitting in the train pulled out his phone to film an incident occurring in front of him. The footage (which immediately went viral) reveals a man reading passages from the Bible out loud to a young boy wearing a yarmulke, sitting beside him.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
My reaction was so physically apparent that my daughter took one look at me and asked: “Why’s your face all red?!” That flushed complexion was, of course, a physical reaction triggered by the emotional experience.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
Tolerance of one’s fellow man, including his race, his nationality and his creed, is an essential part of everyday life.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The origins of Islam in the U.S. today trace back to one simple concept, one word, three syllables: sla-ve-ry. When Ilhan Omar joined Rashida Tlaib in the House of Representatives at the beginning of January, 2019, wielding a huge copy of the Quran, she became the first Somali-American in Congress. A person of color and a Muslim, Omar fled Somalia as a child and emigrated to America at the age of 13.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Isn’t that one of the key reasons religion exists? Besides recognizing and enhancing the spiritual aspect of humankind, its staple values are solidarity and succor.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Just like in any Disney movie, the villain always loses in the end, winding up with egg on his or her face. Visibly, this Leah character hasn’t yet understood that: to this day she has insisted on rehashing the same old “bad guy” role.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
Millions of people across the world, including myself, followed this saga as it unfolded with bated breath.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
My purpose here isn’t to examine and comment on #MeToo per se—social media and the press are doing a good job of that. My premise is to put one particular worm under the microscope—a “maggot named Haggis.”
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The dead were also removed from view, literally, when Reformation iconoclasts whitewashed hundreds of colorful religious murals inside Medieval churches to remove any trace of Catholicism.
TOLERANCE
Nike’s decision to launch a lightweight hijab for athletes, accompanied by the tagline “Sports is for everyone,” may seem a godsend or pure provocation, depending on which side of the fence one sits.
