…donesia’s conservative Aceh province has enacted a strict Islamic criminal code, local government officials said late on Friday, criminalizing adultery, homosexuality, and public displays of affection outside of a legally recognized relationship. Aceh is the only province in the Muslim-dominated country to adhere to sharia, Islamic law, which puts it at odds with other provinces where the vast majority of the population practices a moderate form o…
…ions, fostering an uncritically positive version of Christian history, and promoting the idea that the United States is an essentially Christian nation. This year’s streamlining process—officially described as an effort to “produce fewer and clearer standards that are teachable in the time allotted without diluting the rigor of the standards”—constitutes the first revision of the social studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, often pro…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…gion may be the only guiding principle, the only social, moral, even legal code to abide by. Somalia, for example, has been a “failed state” since 1991; this is a place where the presence of the state and accompanying service provision is virtually nonexistent. Griswold shows how the story of the rise of al-Shabaab—an Islamist militia currently wreaking havoc with horrific efficacy across Somalia and now outside its borders (the group claimed resp…
…b used jihad as a purifying force to eliminate foreign influences from the Arab heartlands. In 1830, Emir Abdelkadir, the Algerian Sufi, conducted jihad as a war of resistance against French colonists, defending his homeland from invasion. The idea of defense of faith and land rests at the core of jihad for years. In the 20th century jihadism coalesces as a distinct ideology through the writing of thinkers like Sayyid Qutb and Abul A’la Maududi. F…
…y nights are his liveliest. As he dances in his regular spot, you can hear Arabic dialects from all over the region. For at least one night a week, Arab Christians, Sunnis, atheists and others dance to the same beat. “There is freedom in Istanbul, but not much,” concludes Sami. “I want to go to a place far away.” Malaysia: Prime Minister says LGBTs not included in country’s Islam-based view of human rights Prime Minister Najib Razak said that the…
…ical component to race? Saher Selod: Muslims are incredibly diverse in the United States. They’re white, they’re Arab, they’re South Asian, they’re African-American. It is not to say that Muslim has become a racial category. It’s just that a Muslim identity has been racialized. It has imposed newer racial meaning to these bodies of people who already occupy a specific racial category. I think the strongest case is when a white convert—for example,…
…altar, a British Overseas Territory located off the southern tip of Spain. United Kingdom: Former Tory leader opposes ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools Lord Norman Tebbit, a former Conservative Party chair, spoke out against “promotion” of homosexuality in the schools, saying “I think it is damaging to children to introduce uncertainty into their minds.” Kenya: Activist profiled The Star’s Lydia Matata wrotes about gender non-conforming acti…
…s like the newly-minted Pope Francis would agree that the “Christian moral code” involves a commitment to peace and social justice, which Eberstadt seems to ignore in favor of questions of sexual morality. (To be fair, Simon didn’t ask her about such issues.) But the heart of Eberstadt’s argument is demographics, and just about every piece of social research released in the few years undermines that argument. For example, while it’s true that Cath…
…nisia, punishable by up to three years in prison. Article 230 of the penal code criminalizes “homosexual acts” by both men and women in the Arabic text and “sodomy” in the French version. Despite the recent move to legalize an LGBT organization in Tunisia, the continued criminalization of homosexuality in Article 230 still severely threatens sexual minorities in the North African country. In the 9 days since Shams’ received its authorization, loca…
