Canadian Muslim and author of The Trouble With Islam, Irshad Manji, argues against one-dimensional perceptions of Islam, today on NPR’s The Leonard Lopate Show. Listen.

The latest news in God-garb: U.K. company Laceys Footwear has apologized for displaying the sacred Hindu Om symbol — considered to be a manifestation of God — inside its sandals (the part you step on) and is withdrawing the offending product.

One Electorate Under God? A Pew Forum Dialogue on Religion and American Politics will be held this Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Read more.

A Washington Post article on Kerry’s faith starts with what should be a bombshell. The candidate is not only religious, but religiously-obsessed — and yet, he only shares his passion with black churches. The Post tags this devotion as strategy, but ignores its inherent racism. Imagine, for instance, if it was reported that Kerry loves to dance, but only when he’s around black people. The Post would probably try to interview Baryshnikov. When it comes to Kerry, religion, and black churches, they don’t seem to be able to find any theologians, black Protestants, or ordinary believers of any variety to talk to. Instead, the article is simply a meeting in print of usual suspects, Washington “bigs” who know as much about religion as they do soccer — or, at least, soccer moms. With one exception — Amy Sullivan, whose Revealer essay is featured above. And Sullivan takes pains on her own blog to explain why and how thePost got her wrong.

“You can write a story that has no connection whatsoever to Judaism or anything in Jewish culture, but if it’s about someone named Goldberg who once ate a bagel — poof, you have become a Jewish writer. ” A real Jewish writer — novelist Dara Horn — takes stock of a renaissance in waiting. For some reason, there’s a picture of Philip Roth under her name. Read more…

Conservative evangelicals have put serious muscle into bringing the Sudanese disaster to the world’s attention, but they don’t own the issue. Two days ago, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA — which is to say, the grand poobah of proper, mainline, and liberal Christianity — was arrested outside of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington on Wednesday. Chuck Currie runs the pr and links to an interview he’s done with Rev. Edgar.