Religion Dispatches
…dismay turned to laughter when I saw immediately below Winters’ screed the code of conduct for comments on National Catholic Reporter. His post is a primer on violating NCR’s own rules for respectful conversation. Maybe someone at NCR can give him a much-needed tutorial. NCR Comment code: Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Use appropriate language. Avoid vulgarities and slurs. Keep to the point. Deliberat…
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…of the Orientalist imagination: they dressed like extras from Lawrence of Arabia; they spoke in broken English or faux-“Arabic”; they were brutal and blood-thirsty fighters; they hated America and American values; and the crowds hated them back. In fact, one of the two most hated wrestlers in the last quarter century was an Arab character in the mold of The Sheik, but with a War On Terror twist: Muhammad Hassan played an Arab-American who was fed…
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…ictions, which were intended to irritate Muslims, has worn thin by now—the Saudis, to take just one example, are once again importing Danish butter. Indeed, the images are readily available online anywhere in the world through a simple Google search, and sites like Mohammed Image Archive make far more offensive images than the dozen Danish cartoons readily available. The cautious reaction by Yale University Press is understandable, but I find the…
Read More…e applied outside of the context in which it was revealed: seventh century Arabia, with all its peculiar good and bad. On the broader scale then, all passages have to be understood in the context of their revelation first. What does this mean at that time? Then, once those implications are clear, and the ways they were applied at the time are verified, then we must look at our current realties and figure out how can we, or even, if we can, achieve…
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…deceive others, how the conscience may slumber in a mixed and middle state between self-illusion and voluntary fraud.” If Islam was a deception, it was among history’s most useful deceptions: Gibbon credits it with wiping out idol worship and human sacrifice, mandating charity, uniting the warring factions of Arabia, minimizing the blood feud as the dominant institution of justice, and exalting the conscience of the believer over the authority of…
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…many and the Mormons rule a Missouri monarchy. I think you could do a much better job than me in explaining the doppelgänger world you created… The Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa are united in a democratic superpower—the UAS—with its capital in Riyadh. Persia, Kurdistan, and Turkey are independent democracies closely allied with the UAS. Israel, as you note, is located in central Europe; the story there is that after the Arabs bea…
Read More…a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” It’s amazing how imperialism and racism are so closely intertwined and persistent, and always under a veneer of civilization. I know Harris thinks he is being original and provocative, but at best he is being derivative and puerile. I am more shocked that Sullivan, with his awareness of British history, not only did not see the connection, but gave it a serious air…
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…and Charles’s uncle seized from them. Tours was, in fact, a power struggle between Christian aristocrats. The Battle of Tours was neither an epic clash between Western and Eastern civilizations, as the influential eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon spun it, nor was it a battle between the Christian West and Eastern invaders, as French nationalists and white nationalists like Steve Bannon have argued. James Palmer, a medieval historian, has…
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…nst Dillard, she defended the letter as divinely inspired—an expression of free speech and freedom of religion. Burkhart had trouble finding doctors for her own clinic, when she started exploring the idea of reopening the practice several years ago. One in-state doctor expressed interest, but after his local hospital learned about it, Burkhart said, they threatened to terminate his contract. An anonymous doctor who will work at the clinic describe…
Read More…agency) issues a rule that requires any organization that offers the poor free meals to include meat on its menu, with the single exception of religious organizations that offer only coreligionists free meals. In the statement announcing the new requirement, the government points out that most people do eat meat, and that most doctors believe meat is good for you in the right amounts, since it provides important nutrients that are difficult to fi…
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