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Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Remember the "Ground Zero mosque" that wasn't just a mosque but actually a community center but still had people enraged back in 2010 because they thought it would be a victory monument to terrorism?

We hadn't really thought about it much recently, either -- until today, when we heard that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the original religious leaders behind the project, would be involved in a new local effort: campaign finance reform.

Tomorrow, religion and politics are mixing at an event hosted by a local good government group that is pushing to get campaign finance reform underway this year in the state -- and as part of their efforts, they're bringing together high-profile religious figures to discuss politics.

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This Easter Sunday was not free from politics and controversy for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who in addition to giving a sermon at Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral today, appeared in a segment that aired on CBS' Face The Nation. In the interview Dolan weighed in once again on the nation's contraception debate and the president's coverage mandate. "I don't think religion should be too involved in politics," he said. "But I also don't think the government and politics should be overly involved in the church. And that's our problem here. You've got a dramatic, radical intrusion of a government bureaucracy into the internal life of the church. That bothers me."

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Aryeh Ralbag, the Brooklyn rabbi who also leads Amsterdam's Jewish community, might soon get booted from his Netherlands position for recent comments on homosexuality.

Problems came to a crux for Ralbag, who has held the long-distance post for six years, in January, according to the Jewish Telegraph Agency.

At the time, Ralbag got suspended from his role in the Orthodox community for co-signing a declaration which described "homosexuality as a curable condition."

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Uproar over Barack Obama's Health and Human Services mandate, which basically requires that insurers provide contraception, has hardly come to an end, and a major pro-religion advocacy group has taken the battle against the birth control clause to court.

This law firm, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is also hosting a rally today at the Federal Hall National Memorial, located at 26 Wall Street.

The Washington, D.C.-based organization has organized before upcoming arguments over Obamacare in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Rebecca Wald

When the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced that it would investigate the death of an infant who got herpes during a controversial circumcision practice, many decided to revisit the tradition, and ask whether it still has a place in modern society.

Now, this particular case deals with a very rare technique called metzitzah b'peh -- which is when the individual performing the procedure, the mohel, uses his mouth to suck blood away from the baby's penis.

Metzitzah b'peh tends to take place only in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, but New York has nevertheless tried to educate parents about the health risks of the practice: The New York Times reports that in 2003 and 2004, three cases of circumcision-linked herpes were reported to the City, one of which resulted in death.

Runnin' Scared caught up with Rebecca Wald, founder of Beyond the Bris, a multimedia forum for anti-circumcision Jews. Wald talked to us (and our sister paper!) about the practice and how this case has affected American Jews.

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The Associated Press reported Friday that the NYPD kept tabs on Muslim-owned businesses based on the religion of owners, second- and third-generation Americans. As this became just one more known element of the NYPD's surveillance, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly met with Muslim leaders in the city. Though NY1 reported that members of the community who met with Kelly said "he assured them that the NYPD was obeying the law," groups gathered outside NYPD headquarters where the meeting was taking place to protest. Meanwhile, though the AP reported that Jews and Christians were excluded from the monitoring, the New York Daily News reported that the NYPD was not always discerning. [AP, NY1, NYDN]

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Sam Levin

The loud critics of the New York Police Department's practice of spying on Muslims are speaking out because it's good publicity.

That's what Mayor Mike Bloomberg said this morning on his weekly radio show with John Gambling.

"You know, it's a made-for-television thing. It gets you publicity. If you want to talk, there's somebody willing to stick a microphone or a camera in front of you and put it on the air. I don't know how much of it's that," said the mayor, who has continued to shoot down criticisms coming at him from different places, including other governments, civil rights groups, and universities.

These latest comment comes on the heels of Attorney General Eric Holder calling the surveillance "disturbing," and announcing that the Justice Department is beginning to review the practice.

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Scott Stringer

The Associated Press surveyed some of New York's expected 2013 mayoral candidates on the topic of the NYPD's controversial surveillance of Muslim students in the city and across the Northeast. While Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Comptroller John C. Liu took a measured approaches to their responses, staying wary of the tactics but not condemning them outright, newspaper publisher Tom Allon claimed full support.

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via

Data rating 18,000 New York City teachers was released Friday, but not without strong caveats as both teachers and education leaders warned of flaws. Teachers are evaluated based on how much value they add as evidenced by change in student performance on standardized tests relative to measurement of how the student should perform when taking into account demographics. The margin of error is, however, wide: 53 percentage points for English teachers and 35 for math. "I think it's extremely important that we not denigrate our teachers based on the reports. This, as I have indicated, is just one piece of information. It's dated information, it's two years old," Chancellor Dennis Walcott said. News organizations had requested the information under the Freedom of Information Law. [NYT, NYDN, NY1]

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Sam Levin

Pastor Sal Sabino, left, will be allowed to lead worship inside schools this Sunday.

Thank God!

That's what Pastor Sal Sabino did today when he heard the news that he and other churches may be able to worship in schools this Sunday after all.

The drama around religious groups renting public school space reached new heights today when a federal judge decided to block the city Department of Education from enforcing its ban on churches using schools for worship services. Federal Judge Loretta Preska officially granted a 10-day injunction to the Bronx Household of Faith, which has opposed the city's evictions -- alongside around 60 other churches that would be kicked out under the ban.

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