Religion Dispatches
…s an overly simplistic understanding of the complex history of violence in India, and between India and Pakistan, fostering a global narrative that ignores local events and local causes. Indeed, what strikes me most about the horrific events in Mumbai is the local sense of place that that the terrorists tried to destroy. In the Mumbai attack, the violence mirrored Mumbai itself: sprawling, horizontal, through the sea and then on the ground. No one…
Read More…ople at a gay bar in May. Or to the decisions taken by a newly independent India under prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that made strong strides to be recognised as a prominent voice on human rights and non-violence. The final vote tally showed India breaking away from countries such as France, Germany, United Kingdom and many Latin American nations, exposing the fact that New Delhi’s loud proclamations about being an international player didn’t ex…
Read More…territory: East and West Pakistan, separated by over one thousand miles of India. Unsurprisingly, the two halves of Pakistan fell to bickering, then fell apart, their quarrels supported by an Indian regime that was interested in maintaining a weak neighbor to its north, and the predictable civil war that began in 1971 resulted in the creation of an independent Bagladesh. Since then, India and (West) Pakistan have fought two major wars of territori…
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…awaiting trial, for a rainbow-themed paint job that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Vice charged was promoting “emblems of homosexuality.” Taiwan: Marchers hope for marriage equality in near future Reuters reported that on July 11, “[t]housands of gay rights supporters marched through Taipei…months ahead of elections that are likely to usher in a pro-gay party and could make Taiwan the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marria…
Read More…ow, Box Turtle Bulletin’s Jim Burroway points out: the provisions barring ‘promoting homosexuality’ would potentially punish even lawyers who defend LGBT people in court. Uganda’s legal fraternity is expected to point out that the proposed law would be completely unfair. To them. With the world’s eyes turned upon Japan as it recovers from its natural disasters – and works to prevent an all-out nuclear disaster – the Ugandan Parliament may finally…
Read More…mately come from secular authorities, rather than religious organizations. Uganda: Foreign Minister says anti-gay law no hindrance at UN Last week Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa, who was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly last year over the objections of gay-rights activists, mocked his opponents during remarks with journalists. “No matter how much noise the frogs make, they cannot stop a cow from drinking wa…
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…Florin HIlbay asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a challenge to the Family Code ban on same-sex couples marrying. The government’s lawyer said the petition was flawed because Jesus Nicardo M Falcis III, the gay man who filed it could not show “injury in fact” from the law and had not included Congress in his petition. Falcis also said that homosexuals, like heterosexuals, can also fulfill the essential marital obligations laid down by the Family C…
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…o women. There is also a bill in Parliament to revise the current criminal code, which was basically translated from the Dutch criminal code. The latest version apparently does have a sodomy article. So we actually face the criminalization of homosexual acts.” Somoa: Prime Minister Says ‘Christian Country’ Will Never OK Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage Prime Minister Tuilaepa Seilele Malielegaoi said in a radio interview that Samoa is a Christian count…
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…convincing was this product launch, complete with Facebook ad campaign and promotional website including a promo video that went viral, that a number of customers were disappointed and angry to find out that it was a fake. Part of the confusion seems to have been that the launch occurred on March 28, not the customary April 1. But just as important was consumer demand. Enough people were convinced by the slick product rollout that they actually wa…
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…nity, and it also made an appearance in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s 1899 Jesus in India. As Oddbjørn Leirvik has shown, it rose to even greater prominence after the 1907 publication of the English translation by Longsdale and Laura Ragg. Within a year, it was translated from English into Arabic (1908), and within a decade, from Arabic into Urdu (1916). These translations gave the GBarn wide circulation. Not all Muslim scholars accept its authenticity, al…
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