Faith Digest

Change in airport security screenings welcomed. Muslim and Sikh groups praised the Transportation Security Administration for rolling back screening rules on passengers arriving from 14 primarily Islamic countries, even as some worry that profiling will continue. The new rules had been enacted after a Nigerian Muslim man tried and failed to explode a bomb onboard a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Detroit on Christmas Day. Civil liberty groups said the rules amounted to ethnic and religious profiling. Under revamped policies announced by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, international passengers will be compared against intelligence data based on physical descriptions or travel patterns. Passengers who are flagged for extra security may face “explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams or pat-downs” prior to boarding flights for the United States, Napolitano said. Religious groups welcomed the change, saying the old system was ineffective and arbitrary.

Pope and president lead press coverage. Pope Benedict XVI and President Obama dominated religion news in the American media last year, according to a new study. The Obama administration’s faith-based initiative accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused stories, while two of the top 10 focused on Pope Benedict XVI, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life noted. The study found religion-related stories accounted for 0.8 percent of the mainstream media news hole—the total space or time available for news content in newspapers, television and other media. The Pew Forum reported that religion-related topics appeared through new media platforms, such as blogs and social media entries, more than traditional press outlets, such as newspapers, television and radio.

‘Million Dollar Bill’ tracts legal. A federal judge has ruled Secret Service agents violated the constitutional rights of a Texas-based evangelical ministry when they seized thousands of ‘Million Dollar Bill’ gospel tracts without a warrant. Judge Jorge Solis also ruled the ministry, the Great News Network, did not violate federal law by distributing the dollar-sized tracts the U.S. Treasury Department viewed as counterfeit currency. Secret Service agents arrived unannounced at the ministry’s headquarters in Denton on June 1, 2006, and demanded officials hand over the tracts, which are printed to look like a $1 million dollar bill, with an image of President Grover Cleveland on the front. The reverse side of the tract features “The million-dollar question: Will you go to heaven?” The U.S. government does not print a million-dollar bill; notes no longer are printed in any amount larger than $1,000. Despite protests from ministry officials, the agents seized 8,300 copies of the tract with no warrant. The judge ruled the tract “is designed to look like U.S. currency at first glance, but not designed to fool anyone into believing that it is real U.S. currency,” and never was used by “an individual trying to pass it as legal tender.”

Want services in Quebec? Unveil. The Canadian province of Quebec has introduced unprecedented legislation that effectively would bar Muslim women from receiving or delivering public services while wearing a niqab, or face-covering veil. According to the draft law, Muslim women’s faces would have to be visible in all publicly funded locations, including government offices, schools, hospitals and daycare centers. Fully veiled women in the niqab or burqa, for example, would not be able to consult a doctor in a hospital or attend classes at public schools or a university. The province will hold public hearings on the draft legislation but it is widely expected to pass.