Religion Dispatches
…ng edge of the “other” anti-Semitism. (Even though most Muslims are not of Arab descent, Muslim means Arab in the popular imagination.) An inveterate stigma-monger who has done everything he can to demonize Islam, Pipes suggests that Obama is lying about his Muslim identity. Should we impugn the honesty and integrity of Conversos, Marranos, and “New Christians,” that is, Jews who protected themselves from the Spanish Inquisition by pretending to b…
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…ling-down on a failed security-centric approach to counterterrorism in the Arab and Muslim world. That disastrously overly-militarized approach to militant salafism, combined with federal support for de facto anti-Arab and anti-Muslim CVE programs at home, only help groups like ISIS make the case that America is, contrary to all public statements to the contrary, at war with Islam. These points are worth considering. But as Li points out it would…
Read More…speech wasn’t so much aimed at Americans. He was being careful of how the “Arab Street” would interpret his remarks. Any hint of gloating or happiness might be rubbing it in the face of some of the crazies in the Arab World and heaven forbid we get them upset! How dare we Americans look like we’re celebrating his death! The travesty of it all! Give me a break. Isn’t it time to stop catering to thugs? There’s your answer to Gushee’s last question….
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…li and more broadly in Sudan? The issue is complex and has more to do with Arabization: some Arabs imposing their own culture on black people, refusing, denying other black cultures. In some learning institutions and schools in Sudan, there is little or no history of black people; what children learn is history from Arab perspectives. We do not have big problems with Muslims in most parts of South Kordofan, only in a few places, especially in the…
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…rre exaggeration. In fact, the administration is also focusing on what the Arab countries should be doing: moving toward normalized ties with Israel. And even were those demands not being made, the idea that a nation with far more military power than any of its neighbors is being “driven to its knees,” simply because people want them to stop expanding settlements (which are illegal in the first place) seems out of touch with reality. And, to be pr…
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…ed Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UN Women, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). On the same day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke at the High Level LGBT Core Group Event t…
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…request for a permit by saying they could not guarantee activists’ safety United Methodist Church: Bishops create commission to avoid schism over sexuality issues The United Methodist Church, whose global policy-making body met May 10-20 in its quadrennial General Conference, is “struggling to avoid a split over gay rights,” according to Associated Press religion writer Rachel Zoll. The church has 12 million members worldwide, 7 million of those…
Read More…ith good intentions, but these critiques ignore the fact that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim feminists have been working on these issues for generations, focusing on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationalism. Their work is ignored by North American feminists who claim to advocate for a “global sisterhood” but are disillusioned to discover that women in the U.S. military participated in the acts of torture at Abu Ghraib. W…
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…ns that the parents of Shivy, an 18-year-old transgender man living in the United States tricked him into visiting India on a holiday, took his passport and green card, and tried to forcibly marry him to a man. He says he fears for the safety of transgender activists who sheltered him after he ran away from his home; he said men posing as police officers showed up at the activists’ home. He has asked the Delhi High Court to help him get his passpo…
Read MoreWhen a fundamentally punitive position is embraced by both candidates, you can pretty much bank on voters choosing the more cruel of the two. And with both presidential candidates running on asylum crackdowns and increasing border militarization, the anti-immigrant movement was well positioned to influence policy no matter the outcome of yesterday’s presidential election. Still, the movement’s favored candidate undeniably won. In a press release…
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