Got a privilege to be hostile, a Revealer favorite, points us to this overlooked AlterNet story: Swiss citizen Tariq Ramadan, one of the world’s most important Muslim scholars, was invited to teach at the University of Notre Dame but the U.S. government revoked his work visa on the grounds that he is a terrorist threat. Ramadan’s work argues for a modernized Islam that favors pluralism, tolerance, feminism, and educational achievement.

Brigham Young or Notre Dame? Heavenly mandates begin at home, folks.

Steve Gushee: “A benign role for religion in politics is no longer possible despite the naive efforts of an interfaith group. Tough, honest debate of religion’s place in public policy is past due….Still, the Interfaith Alliance of 150,000 members from 75 faith traditions wants candidates for office to be sensitive to the role of religion in politics…They are perfectly good recommendations for a gentler time but today amount to fiddling while Rome burns.”

Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Atoosa Rubenstein has added a faith section to the girls’ publication, which claims to appeal to all faiths, printing Bible verses, quoting Muhammad, the pope and the Dalai Lama. Rubenstein told the AP that reader response has mostly been positive, though a few of the “more religious readers” have complained about testimonials from skeptics.

“They don’t seem to have any real agenda except to undermine the separation of church and state.” Composer Philip Glass, speaking yesterday at a counter-convention screening of The Fog of War.

France’s ban on religious symbols, including head scarves, took effect peacefully yesterday as the country awaits word on two journalists being held by Iraqi militants opposed to the ban. Elaine Sciolino of The New York Times reports.

Tomorrow’s missionaries: Children at a Christian summer camp in Virginia are trained to circumvent the entry regulations of countries hostile to mission work by playing a camp game in which they are admitted to an auditorium with the password “Soccer” instead of “God,” theSBC Baptist Press reports. The rationale, as camp counselors explained to the campers was that: “‘There are a lot of countries in the world today that won’t let people in just to talk about God. But they will let people in to play sports. Christians can share the love of God and share Jesus by playing and teaching sports in these countries.'”