)

Muslims studying American religion (Shari Rudavsky, 6/22/2003, Boston Globe)

Voices rose in agreement and dissent. Hands gesticulated to make a point. At first glance, the 40 people in the Hebrew College classroom could all have been Talmudic scholars, arguing over the fine points of the tale of the sacrifice of Isaac.

But only about half of the heads sported kippahs, the skullcaps observant Jews wear, and 16 of the participants had never before studied Torah, the sacred Jewish text. Rather, they were Muslim scholars on a four-week mission to learn more about the United States' religious practices.

Hosted by Boston College's Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, the 16 academics spent one recent weekend, for example, attending Saturday services at Temple Shalom in Newton and heading the next day to the New Covenant Church in Mattapan, an African-American charismatic church.

Khaldun Malek, a participant from Malaysia reared on a steady diet of Walt Disney, ''Sesame Street,'' and ''The Brady Bunch,'' found the contrast simultaneously dizzying and edifying. ''America from looking at the outside is something you can easily grasp, but from the inside it's one of the most diverse countries that I have ever encountered,'' said Malek, a Muslim who teaches political theory at the University of Malaya.

But even from inside there's no explaining the Brady Bunch... Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2003 5:36 PM