Religion Dispatches
…website). The governments of conservative Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries, have supported the coup as well, anxious as they are about the democratic “contagion” spreading to their realms. The Gulf countries’ embrace of the avowedly secular Egyptian military and the Azhar elite’s support of the military coup unhinges the usual assumptions about religious and secular alliances in the Arab world. Morsi’s support…
Read More
…ho argue for further Muslim Reformation are in fact arguing for more Saudi Arabia-like states and more bin Ladens in the world. It is this basic ignorance of tradition that allows people to sound as though they are speaking for a “good,” when they are actually promoting the “bad.” It is not a Reformation we need, but a Renaissance, a rebirth of the scholarly class as arbiters of interpretation. Just as Abd al-Wahhab was condemned by his family (a…
Read More
…tries that still use the death penalty quite liberally: among them Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, and Myanmar. Deterrence, Vengeance, Retribution In an increasingly abolitionist global environment, what are the arguments for a continued commitment to the death penalty? There are three main ones. Far and away the most common argument offered in favor if the death penalty is the argument for deterrence. The threat of execution, it is held…
Read More
…al closed with his conversion story, and a reminder that since converting, Saudi Arabia, the PLO, and the Muslim Brotherhood had all put a price on his head. All the friendly diversity from Friday night, the warm and smiley openness, had vanished. Love and freedom were convenient catchphrases justifying the identification of nearly one-quarter of humanity with the demonic. It’s one thing to say that you’d like Muslims to convert to Christianity. F…
Read More
…The Sudan, there are of course strong restrictions around women’s dress in Saudi Arabia. That’s possibly 2 countries for the other side. (In fact, in the whole Muslim world, only two other countries legally mandate the veil: Iran and Afghanistan.) There must be an explanation for why a journalist would make such a broad, unsubstantiated statement, and it returns us to the simple need to define Arabs as either secular (like us) or religious (unlike…
Read More
…e uncovering the face is either prohibited or severely restricted, like in Saudi Arabia itself, for the hajj, the face must be uncovered. Technically, hajj is one long ritual and women are also prohibited to cover the face for the other ritual performances like salah. But what is the idea behind a woman not having any other particular specifications for ihram? Well, honestly I have no idea. It does mean she can wear red, or blue or green if she wa…
Read More
…iens. In space God can hear you scream Maybe you heard, a while back, that Saudi Arabia was training its religious police to fight “black magic,” “magicians” and “sorcerers.” Well that’s because plenty of folks in the Muslim world do believe in such things happening in our human world, though it’s often not humans behind it. And before you get all high and mighty, lots of Icelanders believe in elves. My point being, Islam has no problem with intel…
Read More
…ect. When journalists discuss Islamic politics, they often reach for Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Afghanistan. But that form of Islamic politics, authoritarian and draconian, has been discredited. Mostly by itself, without much need for foreign intervention (but, keep in mind, that doesn’t mean America’s stock has risen). Most of the popular Islamist figures in the Arab world today are all about democracy, although they articulate their interest in demo…
Read More
…uth Sudan in 2010. But the law plays virtually no role in US policy toward Saudi Arabia, given that, for 15 years, the president has waived sanctions on the basis of US national security interests.) More recently, people generally mean that the US should engage “religious actors,” particularly groups on the ground in the Global South. Sometimes these groups are doing humanitarian work and may help implement US development programs. In theory, I’m…
Read More
…nd support as they may deserve. Dozens in Egypt, Morocco, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, France, and the United States gather to protest the recent attacks in the Gaza Strip; American University in Cairo launches a Virtual Newsroom with James Glassman, the US Undersecretary of State of Public Diplomacy, in conversation with eight Egyptian political bloggers who covered the 2008 US presidential campaign; people from around the world join in a pilgr…
Read More