Religion Dispatches
…y with Islam. Either/Or Why do people still think Muslim women must choose between identity as Muslims and identity with freedoms, human rights, dignity and democracy? For the first few decades of my work on gender I refused to accept the label “feminist,” because of the politics of its use in the west. I gave my own title: pro-faith, pro-feminist. I was adamant that I would not bargain one against the other. This is probably because in the contex…
Read More…o ordain women. Should we really support a musician named Sufjan? In Saudi Arabia, two rulings by Muslim authorities have created controversy. First, a cleric who urged grown men to drink breast milk has been removed from the radio airwaves. Meanwhile, human rights advocates are urging authorities not to intentionally paralyze a man as “eye for an eye” punishment for injuries he inflicted in a fight. Drivers in South Carolina may soon be able to p…
Read More…e synagogue in Alexandria, Va., is “the protocols of the learned elders of Saudi Arabia.” Rabbi Moline, named by Newsweek this year as one of the country’s top 25 pulpit rabbis, added, “The integrity of our own Jewish community requires that people speak up critically” about the film. Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, American Jewry’s official umbrella group for domestic issues, termed the content of “Obs…
Read More…the top countries where Christians are persecuted like North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia. Everywhere they are persecuted, Christians are working to change the system, through prayer, protest, or other actions. Yet, they would deny this kind of action to gay and lesbian people simply because we should take our time and stop and “listen” to why the people in Uganda want to kill or imprison us? Believe me, we’ve heard their reasons and th…
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…te in memorial ceremonies for the fetus lost by abortion or miscarriage. Tibetan Buddhists, both in Tibet and in exile, on the other hand, regard abortion as destructive of innocent life and contrary to Buddhist principles. The Dalai Lama has said that abortion is “negative,” but he also said in a 1993 interview that “abortion should be approved or disapproved according to each circumstance.” Similarly, Hindus hold that the destruction of a fetus…
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…t without igniting a horrible civil war, one that Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia would not sit out. The best hope is that Iraqis will decide for integration and sovereignty, but it is up to them to decide whether they want a unitary state, a decentralized federation, three nations, or something else. I don’t want President Obama to make that decision or to commit U.S. troops to one of these outcomes. We must hold the Obama Administration to…
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…hose who argue for further Muslim Reformation are in fact arguing for more Saudi Arabia-like states and more bin Ladens in the world. It is this basic ignorance of tradition that allows people to sound as though they are speaking for a “good,” when they are actually promoting the “bad.” It is not a Reformation we need, but a Renaissance, a rebirth of the scholarly class as arbiters of interpretation. Just as Abd al-Wahhab was condemned by his fami…
Read More…as Muslim equals some 20.3 million people—a population almost as large as Saudi Arabia’s. (More to the point, as one of China’s ethnic minorities, Muslims are not bound to the one-child per family policy.) Notwithstanding the fervid prayers of some Olympic contestants, religion probably won’t be a major story during the Summer Games. But the Pew Forum’s findings are worth remembering: A growing number of urban, educated, 20-something Chinese men…
Read More…t if he were president, he’d be happy to see all homosexuals sent to Saudi Arabia. Santorum wants the end times and the return of Jesus, so others must as well. If there’s something that he can latch on to, like the idea of the Mahdi, then he will. He’ll tell you killing gays is bad when other people do it, but he doesn’t denounce it directly or disavow it himself. And really, Santorum is supposed to be Catholic, but he seems not to understand bas…
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…al closed with his conversion story, and a reminder that since converting, Saudi Arabia, the PLO, and the Muslim Brotherhood had all put a price on his head. All the friendly diversity from Friday night, the warm and smiley openness, had vanished. Love and freedom were convenient catchphrases justifying the identification of nearly one-quarter of humanity with the demonic. It’s one thing to say that you’d like Muslims to convert to Christianity. F…
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