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 Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah was entering a mosque in Srinagar Friday when a makeshift bomb exploded
April 8th, 2011
07:42 PM ET
Moderate cleric killed in Kashmir bombingBy Mukhtar Ahmad, CNN Srinagar, India (CNN) - A makeshift bomb exploded Friday at a mosque in the summer capital of India's portion of Kashmir, killing a prominent Muslim cleric who had been a moderate voice in the troubled Indian state. Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah was entering the mosque in Srinagar to lead Friday prayers when an improvised explosive device detonated, Srinagar district police chief Ashiq Bukhari said. Shah was critically wounded and died later in hospital. One other person was injured in the blast, Bukhari said. Shah had spoken out against violence and condemned the stone-pelting of security forces in protests last year as un-Islamic. He was a close associate of the Yasin Malik, the president of the moderate pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
April 8th, 2011
01:19 PM ET
Man hits 31st day of beer-only Lenten fastBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor The story of Iowa newspaper editor and beer blogger J. Wilson, who is drinking only beer and water for Lent, has gained a lot of attention this week. On Friday morning he checked in with CNN Newsroom and explained his fast to Carol Costello. Read Wilson's story here: For Lent, can man live on brew alone? Wilson is 31 days into his fast, with 16 more to go. He drinks four beers a day during the week and five beers a day on the weekend. He told Costello he was enjoying his breakfast brew during the interview, which was conducted by phone.  Bob Jones IV in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2010.
April 8th, 2011
11:14 AM ET
Bobby Jones' grandson on golf as a moral testBy Michelle Hiskey, Special to CNN Golf has been likened to a mystic, spiritual quest, especially after the 1972 publication of "Golf in the Kingdom," by Michael Murphy of the Esalen Institute, and movies like "The Legend of Bagger Vance." But the namesake grandson of golfing legend Bobby Jones takes issue with that interpretation. Robert Tyre Jones IV, an Anglican Catholic priest, views the game more as a moral proving ground. I interviewed Bob Jones IV for a profile timed to this week's Masters in Augusta. I wanted to know: What's it like to forge an identity when saddled with such a famous name. Blessing or curse?  An antiabortion ran in several publications on Thursday.
April 8th, 2011
09:15 AM ET
My Take: Culture war overtakes budget battle
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN Anyone who still believes that the Tea Party is about economics is not paying attention to what Tea Party partisans are drinking. When it comes to money, the difference between the budgets that Democrats and Republicans want are miniscule - a few billion or so in a budget that will eventually come in at roughly $3.8 trillion. So why is this tiny difference worth shutting down the government? Because this game of chicken is not about money. The old Religious Right put its cultural agenda front and center. It staked its identity on resisting the sexual libertinism of the 1960s. So it opposed abortion and homosexuality and stem-cell research. Tea Party partisans have the same cultural agenda, but this incarnation of the Religious Right proceeds by stealth, in this case with riders to a budget bill - riders they know no Democratic president or Senate can ever accept. |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.