Teaching the World's Religions

These creation myths, from two different cultures, consider how the world came to be.

After growing up in foster care, Ashley, a young Native-American Caucasian woman, converts to Islam in hopes of finding structure in a life where it never existed. However, with that decision comes the risk of losing one of the few biological connections she still has.

“The desert-dwelling Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians were uprooted from their ancestral lands. For decades, they were cheated of the property rights deeded to them by the U.S. government, and then subject to restrictive deed provisions. Not until the 1980s were they able to develop their own land in Palm Springs, and only recently have they begun to restore the springs revered by their ancestors. Tribal council member Anthony J. Andreas III battles the severe mental health problems that afflict the traumatized tribe by reviving ancestral practices. Traditional Bird Songs and pottery help today’s youth draw strength from the tribe’s sources of spiritual resilience.”

In this poem, Smith recounts her experience at a Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters’ show and the love she, and every other audience member, was shown.

When Leonard Peltier thinks of the massacre at Wounded Knee, he hears the screams of women and children. Although the vehicle for killing has changed, Peltier explains how American Indians are still being killed off in the modern day.

In this interview from National Public Radio, host Terry Gross speaks with Imam Rauf about his dream to build a place where Muslims and people of different refligions can go to learn from each other and coexist.

This radio segment looks at a workshop, led by law professor Ramzi Kassem, offering guidance to Muslims on how to respond in the event that they find themselves under surveillance in terrorism investigations.

"Hope, Despair and Memory" is an address given by Elie Wiesel on December 11, 1986, the date Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel is an author and humanitarian and is known for writing about his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust.

In this poem, the speaker represents all Native Americans or individuals labeled as Other and persecuted as a result.

Although her husband died in the September 11 attack, Arissa is targeted for being Muslim. In this excerpt, she is held up by a group of men who berate her and threaten to kill her until they realize she is pregnant.