Muslim

The Takeaway speaks with with Roger Bennett, from “Men in Blazers” and “American Fiasco,” about the World Cup. We continued our look at soccer with a discussion of religion and how Muslim players, who will be competing as Ramadan ends, bring their faith to the field. Plus, we have a conversation with Gurbir Grewal, the first Sikh in US history to hold the position of statewide AG; the Yemen Crisis; and our new bi-weekly culture roundup, where we’ll be discussing notable or surprising moments of the week in TV, film, music and more.

You can connect with The Takeaway on Twitter, Facebook, or on our show page at TheTakeaway.org.

Abortion. Right to die. Stem cell research. Modern bioethical issues confront an ancient religion.

Caught between wanting to service, and frustration. Rumana Ahmed shares her story with Rupa.

Coming up on today’s show:

President Trump’s executive order banning Syrian refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations sparked confusion and outrage this weekend, as travelers were left stranded at airports, protesters took to the streets and a federal judge ruling prompted the White House to roll back part of the order. Attorney and former immigration judge Eliza Klein examines the order and where it stands now.

In a restructuring of the National Security Council, Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will face diminished roles while Trump’s Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon will join the national security group. Matthew Waxman, co-chair of the Cybersecurity Center at the Columbia Data Science Institute explains what this means for security.

In the wake of Trump’s refugee ban, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed refugees into his country “regardless of faith.” 
As Trump continues to pursue warming relations with Putin, NATO warns that elevating the Russian president to global superpower status could have negative consequences for the organization. Former deputy commander of NATO Sir Richard Shirreff explains.

Timothy Tyson chronicles the life and death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, whose murder launched the civil rights movement. The new book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” comes out tomorrow.

November 14, 2016:

1. ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Get Ready for a Siege (7 min)

2. Trump Selects White Nationalist Figure As Chief Strategist (5 min)

3. Trump: Chief Global Disrupter? (5 min)

4. The Paris Attacks, One Year Later (3 min)

5. One Muslim Woman Explains Why She Voted for Donald Trump (16 min)

Britain long ruled the waves, and many of its citizens have now voted for it to control its own borders, and make its own decisions, free of EU control. Is this about sovereignty, or identity, or something else entirely? It’s complicated, and often not in the ways you’d expect.

In the wake of major attacks by Islamic extremists, such as those in Paris and San Bernadino, there are frequently calls for moderate Muslims to step up and counter messages of hate espoused by extreme fundamentalists. A group of American Muslims recently launched a new initiative to counter the ideology of radical Islam, called the Muslim Reform Movement.

Journalist and activist Asra Nomani is the group’s co-founder.  When Nomani was working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Pakistan back in 2002, her friend and colleague Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by extremists. Ever since, Nomani has been fighting for what she calls a more inclusive Islam.

Here, the Takeaway talks with Nomani, the author of “Standing Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the Soul of Islam,” about her latest reform efforts.

Nomani’s activism at her former hometown mosque in West Virginia, and the backlash she experienced there, are revisited in “The Mosque in Morgantown,” a documentary coming to America ReFramed, a series co-produced by our partner WGBH.

The series continues tonight on the WORLD Channel with the first of a trio of documentaries that explore many issues American Muslims have been wrestling with since 9/11. The documentary featuring Nomani airs on February 16th. (Check local listings) 

Check out a trailer for “The Mosque in Morgantown” below.

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

In 2006, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales laid out guidelines for the FBI’s use of “confidential human sources,” also known as informants. 

His directives, which are still in force today, prohibit the FBI from recruiting informants through the promise of help on residency or immigration status.

But a new investigation by Talal Ansari, a reporter for BuzzFeed, finds that the FBI breaks its own rules in its recruitment of Muslim-American informants. 

As he tells The Takeaway, “They approach these immigrants at a time where they have not heard back from the immigration department.

“They’re completely in the dark; they’re never informed on why they’re facing an immigration problem,” Ansari continues. “And that’s when the FBI shows up and says, ‘If you want help with your immigration problem, we’re happy to do so—if you spy on your friends, community, family.”