Each weekday, the Pew Research Center emails links to top religion headlines. It's a great resource for following news in the world of faith. (Sign up here.)
Today, the top four national headlines (here, here, here and here) and the top three international headlines (here, here and here) all relate to Donald Trump's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
Here at GetReligion, of course, we earlier highlighted five crucial sources for journalists to quote concerning Trump's proposal:
Many of the above links provide relevant and insightful responses to Trump's proposal from politicians, world leaders, constitutional scholars, theologians, refugee officials, ordinary citizens and other important voices.
But I wanted to highlight what I found to be a helpful little story from CNN:
Headlined "The truth about Muslims in America," the CNN piece is told in the ever-popular listicle form — certainly not a bad way to draw attention amid all the noise surrounding Trump and his rhetoric:
(CNN) Donald Trump sparked a firestorm of criticism from liberals, conservatives and those in between when he called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
But while such a ban is unlikely to be implemented in a country with freedom of religion, the cheers that followed his announcement at a South Carolina rally are telling.
"I think that we should definitely disallow any Muslims from coming in. Any of them," supporter Charlie Marzka, 75, told CNN. "The reason is simple: We can't identify what their attitude is."
Indeed, the truth about Muslims in America is perhaps surprising -- but not in the way Trump and his supporters might think.
A look at polls and studies conducted in the last few years shows that Muslims have been crucial in helping law enforcement find terror suspects in the United States. Many have served in the military protecting the country against terrorists. And in many ways, they're a lot like other everyday Americans.
Here's the reality of Muslims in America -- and how it smashes stereotypes:
Without a doubt, there's an element of opinion — or at least analysis — to this approach, but I think it works in this case. CNN clearly attributes all its facts and figures to hyperlinked surveys and studies. That allows readers — if they are so inclined — to do additional digging and research to draw their own conclusions.
As we at GetReligion continually stress, there is no single Islam. Like Christianity, Islam is a diverse faith that runs the gamut from peaceful adherents to radicalized extremists like the husband and wife who killed 14 innocent victims in San Bernardino, Calif., a week ago.
As Muslims once again find themselves in the media spotlight, the CNN report provides valuable and interesting context.