Religion Dispatches
…ountries—and other serial offenders such as Egypt and northern Nigeria and Saudi Arabia—is the rise of religious fundamentalism. Persecuted and Forgotten? underlines the rise of militant Islamist aggression against Christianity—and the same concern can be raised regarding Hinduism in India and Buddhism in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.” Perhaps violence against Christians has increased as the report suggests. However, there is a danger in a one-sided re…
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…hey oppose the distribution of condoms in prisons on the grounds that this promotes homosexuality. Supported by the churches, the prison service promotes abstinence as its main prevention approach. Lithuania: Conservative manifesto calls LGBT movement tyrannical A coalition of religious and intellectual leaders released a manifesto that condemned the 2016 Baltic Pride celebration “as an attack on human nature and the public good that follows in th…
Read More…thing tells me that this fatwa will not change the mindset that rejects these issues and meddles in other, less important affairs. While collectivist societies often have a strong sense of community and neighborliness, this story and last week’s arrest and sentencing of an elderly woman in Saudi Arabia for having two younger men in her home while she was alone prove that predominately Muslim countries need less community intervention in their priv…
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…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…
Read More…t “real Islam” is 1) not to be found in Indonesia, but 2) found instead in Saudi Arabia or Iran, where it’s magically “unadulterated,” 3) therefore revealing real Islam as irredeemably toxic. Muslims themselves deploy a similar language, tying Arabness and Islam or Pakistani-ness and Islam, judging any other experience inferior and derivative. But Islam has been in Bosnia for as long as it’s been in much of India, where my family’s from. It’s pos…
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…t elicited a real reaction from the Israeli Ambassador to the US. While in Saudi Arabia, Trump laid hands on a glowing globe and joined in a traditional sword dance. In Israel, the first lady swatted away his hand and he offered a hasty, strangely timed corrective to the press, who, he says “got another story wrong” because he “never mentioned the word Israel” when speaking with Russians in the Oval Office. At the Vatican, Trump paused for a much-…
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…s on human rights—the usual suspects include China (Tibet), Russia (LGBT), Saudi Arabia (women), etc—but why does a resolution from the American Studies Association not address the American sources and causes of the problems faced by Palestinians? Noam Chomsky made this point in an earlier interview about the broader boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS): why stop with Israel? Why not boycott U.S. institutions? The focus on Israel appe…
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…our traditional allies in the region; especially Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia—something Mubarak is well aware of. Because Iran and the resistance it claims to lead has for now stymied our aspirations for Lebanon, we might be tempted to do whatever we can to preserve the “moderate” Arab regimes (here, “moderate” implies a secular dictatorship and nothing more) and make sure our interests suffer no further reversals. It’s all too easy for…
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…Asia and East Africa. For the Malikis in North Africa and the Hanbalis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, ensoulment occurs at day 40, with abortions allowed up to that time. On the basis of Qur’an 2:233, which states that the mother should not be made to suffer on account of the child, many Muslim jurists allow abortion even after the period of ensoulment, particularly if the life of the mother is threatened, since the life of the already living…
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