Religion Dispatches
…d I am still a relative stranger, having moved to my present location from Indonesia only a few months ago. Thus, I go to be with people. Not to be in retreat from them. I’m clear on this and I thought I should be clear with you. This makes last night just the cream on the cake; or is that cream of the crop? Icing on the cake? Anyway. I wanted to call this entry “The World’s Tallest Muslims” in honor of my brother Ibrahim and his son Isa, but I re…
Read More…pastor who had planned to burn Qur’ans on 9/11 has instigated protests in Indonesia and the threat of a flag-burning protest in Great Britain. Indian officials have called for a media blackout of the event. Meanwhile, his own daughter has joined the list of folks condemning the event. She called his church a “cult” that uses “mental violence.” Not to be left out in denouncing things, Angelina Jolie also condemned the plan. President Obama called…
Read More…and I am grateful. Finally, and of course unique for this year, I learned that it is possible to blog your way through Ramadan, sharing many ideas along the way, and yet still keep some things between you and Allah alone. The idea to do this one hundred-day blog came to me on my recent return from Indonesia. While there, my friends said hajj would be a challenge because of gender restrictions. Then a friend described people doing tawaf, or circum…
Read More…years—the first 17 years of his life—off the American mainland, in Hawaii, Indonesia and Pakistan, with multiple subsequent journeys to Africa. Because, as we all know, Hawaii isn’t America? Apparently not. And Obama doesn’t understand the founders’ intentions: A good way to discern what motivates Obama is to ask a simple question: What is his dream? Is it the American dream? Is it Martin Luther King’s dream? Or something else? It is certainly not…
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…ded, except for jet lag. I am not completely reversing my pattern like for Indonesia; what I have is a ten-hour time difference (Makkah is ahead by ten hours). This means getting up naturally in the early morning for fajr prayer is probably not going to happen. Especially since I want to be at the mosque ahead of the prayer proper. I didn’t mention any of the details of this fantastic hajj package, so let’s see what the big deal is. I was not 100%…
Read More…, New Hampshire, and Iowa) promoting a creationist film called The Genesis Code, and holding fundraising receptions. The moralistic film follows an unbelieving hockey player and a Christian journalism student who struggle with “reconciling their scientific studies and what’s taught in the Bible” as he falls for her and she uses their relationship to “guide” him “toward God.” You can read a “pro-family” review here that warns of sex (kissing) and n…
Read MoreHere at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies in Yogyakarta we were very surprised when a PBS team showed up at our offices to do a story on the Merapi eruptions. The story they told is accurate and reflects the interplay of science and religion in the ways that people here in Yogyakarta understood the disaster — mostly. But I was not happy to hear the word “superstition” used to describe deeply felt religious beliefs or with condes…
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…vendors. There’s been similar anti-Muslim sentiment and disinformation in India as well. In previous pandemics, particularly Ebola, preparations of the dead were seen as a leading cause of viral spread. While care should certainly be taken with the handling of bodies that have passed from Covid, the risk of viral spread is limited, and cremation is not necessary. The continued practice of forced cremation represents a violation of human rights an…
Read More…government—particularly foreign aid and arms—did not directly intervene to promote the narrative of global Christian victimhood. However, under Trump, foreign policy—particularly foreign aid—is increasingly being shaped in a pro-evangelical way. It shouldn’t surprise anyone given Pence’s constant affirmations of being a Christian first, while Pompeo has openly embraced a hardline Christian worldview that maligns non-Christians. Pompeo and Pence al…
Read More…y shrinks and the country has all but been partitioned by sectarianism. In India, a restive young population and dimming economic prospects have helped to fuel the rise of vigilante groups made up largely of Hindu men and tacitly backed by local and state officials from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Even “secular” rulers and political parties have embraced religious institutions when it suited their convenience, tapping into their deep wells…
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