Religion Dispatches
…h Christian faith. You talked loud about giving more funding to religious (code-word Christian) organizations performing social services and backed it up with little real money. (David Kuo opened my eyes to this.) This is just one example of the way you wooed Christians with good rhetoric and failed to fulfill your promises. Using religious faith as a political tool is what history’s villians have done, and I am afraid you may be closer to that th…
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…tities and prophets” under articles 98, 160, and 161 of the Egyptian Penal Code. According to Egypt News Daily, the prosecution first sought to charge him in connection with disseminating Innocence of Muslims but when this accusation was proven false, they revised their strategy to target the content of Saber’s video blog. Though sentenced to three years and released on bail he was subsequently locked up due to a clerical error before being releas…
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…ation practices took place in a community of aspirants abiding by a common code of conduct and observing a shared set of rituals. While deemed necessary for liberation, meditation practices like mindfulness were not sufficient. The accompanying rules and relationships were just as important. Modern-day mindfulness takes this twentieth-century shift to lay meditation one step further, sanctioning meditation as a technique developed in the midst of…
Read More…e traditional stand on marriage”. “I’m glad the Rainbow Coalition are here today. We need to share. But nobody is trying to take their rights away. Every right I have, they should have,” Mr Hunt said. “Marriage should be between man and woman, but they should never be discriminated against. I know what it’s like. I came up in this country during hard days. But at the same time, I am here today.” According to Preserve Marriage, the group has a task…
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…death, her use of the word “cult,” and what her spiritual life looks like today. ** Did it make a difference to his followers that Sri Chinmoy was from India? Did it give him extra authority? In the late 1960s, there was a trend to look to the East for alternatives to Western religions and philosophies. Many people felt that the ancient traditions of the East might hold the answers to their modern longings. As a result, there were many gurus, yog…
Read More…ators on health issues. The materials aim to dispel gender stereotypes and promote relationships based on respect, reports Abantika Ghosh in The Indian Express: The legality of homosexuality may still be an open question for the judiciary and the Government is yet to change the law but resource material prepared by the Health Ministry for adolescent peer educators has taken a step in the sensitive direction. It tells young people that it is all ri…
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…ors to the region. Ravi Chopra has noted that for the careful observer of Indian weather patterns of the last two decades the intensity of the flooding should not have come as the utter surprise that it did. These broader trajectories underlie what is happening now. From the safety of my office, as I read the news and engage with observers online, I am observing two opposite trends developing: gratitude and praise for countless examples of huma…
Read More…hich are contrary to their faith. Nor do we require evidence that schools ‘promote’ other faiths. “Instead, inspectors must ensure that pupils are able to express views which are neither intolerant nor discriminatory towards others. Tunisia: Trans Person Sparks Debate with TV Appearance Al Arabiya news reported on Sunday that a trans person appeared on a popular Tunisian television talk show. Born “Leila”, but going by the name “Jalel,” the transs…
Read More…ndustry were Muslims. On the other hand, during the trade of goods between India and New England, some of America’s trading partners were South Asian Muslims. These two economic factors helped keep the young country afloat in the first decades of the nineteenth century. (Check Kambiz GhaneaBassiri’s A History of Islam in America for the whole story.) So, Mr. Dennis, yes the founding fathers were not Muslims, but they depended on Muslims — whether…
Read More…rstood and felt empathy for the PFLAG members and for the LGBT community.” India: Recriminalization of homosexuality leaves gays vulnerable to violence, blackmail Reuters reports that thousans of LGBT Indians have faced persecution since the country’s high court reinstituted the colonial-era sodomy law in 2013. The article recounts the story of a gay man whose attackers filmed the sexual assault and threatened to tell report him to police. “What i…
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