Religion Dispatches
…of course food, glorious food. This was a perfect occasion for me to fix a turkey dinner. Once again, I bring my culture into the living cultures of Islam. We also like to go to a pancake restaurant for brunch. The idea of eating the first meal of the day as late as you can, you might imagine, has a special appeal. The most uniform part of the celebration for both ‘Ids is the prayer, or worship. It consists of two units of rakaat, with an extra si…
Read More…assistance of the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK) in establishing peace with Turkey. Because the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the US government, the Court ruled that the HLP was aiding and abetting terrorism. Under the Court’s decision, then, anyone who preaches peace/nonviolence may be subject to charges of supporting terrorism. David Cole, a Law Professor at Georgetown University, wrote in the New York Times that: In the past, the…
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…ournalist who parses other people’s words for a living, Thomas should know better. But more substantively, Thomas knows that Israel is a legitimate nation-state created by the United Nations, the only international body we have. Her comment was not about “the occupation,” it was about the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. And that legitimacy is not merely a “Jewish claim” (though it is that also); it is an international declaration. Israel did not…
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…would be a bold man who would account by such agencies for the differences between a dray- and race-horse, a greyhound and bloodhound, a carrier and tumbler pigeon. One of the most remarkable features in our domesticated races is that we see in them adaptation, not indeed to the animal’s or plant’s own good, but man’s use or fancy… We cannot suppose that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and as useful as we now see them; indeed, in…
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…roblem of human suffering is, “I don’t know.” “I hope.” “Love unto death.” I would rather be in uncertainty than a false fixity, as painful as that is. To have an answer to meaninglessness, or to the mystery of suffering, is a little disgusting. It betrays those who have been betrayed. It betrays the innocent who have suffered. It betrays abused children. It betrays children who were born with horrible diseases and will only suffer and die. It bet…
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…rge. When the occupier pulls back, the toxic politics of collaboration and betrayal will be lessened. The civil strife in Iraq is going to play itself out no matter what the U.S. does. But the U.S. set it off and we are refueling it every day we remain. In the past two years the U.S. has, in effect, created a Sunni Army. The fate of this entity trumps a long list of daunting variables in Iraq. Sunni leaders protest constantly that the nation’s int…
Read More…mic, civilizational wars. Most recently, there’s been a remarkable synergy between both mens’ comments about the revolutions unfolding in the Middle East. For example, on February 7, 2011, at the height of the Egyptian uprising, Hagee wrote in his weekly update, “The American media, with the exception of FOX News, is presenting the Muslim Brotherhood as moderate and lovers of democracy. This is utter nonsense. This is the hysterical jabber of our…
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…lots of money, and a long-range plan to establish their “Father’s Kingdom” between the Turkish border and Iran. Since the time of its arrival in Northern Iraq, Servant Group International has widened its presence, establishing bases in Turkey, Liberia, Indonesia, Germany, and Norway. Can you describe how Servant Group International operates? What is especially distinctive about SGI—and its partners—is its development of a military model of evangel…
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…wn, well then Ides of February seem to make it harder to draw a sharp line between pagan and Christian, between homoerotic and heteroerotic forms of passionate romantic love. How then—given this vast confusion of Greco-Roman and hagiography and martyrs’ lists—how has this day come to be celebrated as the global holiday for lovers, unmarried and married alike? Geoffrey Chaucer seems to have been one of the first to write about Saint Valentine’s Day…
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…d that is simultaneously a very literal experience of transcendence. “Wild Turkey is the holy water,” he says, of swilling whiskey from the bottle with the tattoo artist. The filthy, mercury-riddled room becomes, temporarily, “the sanctuary” just as the tattoo needles serve as “reliquaries.” The producers of S-Town gained access to video footage of this “church” in session, audio of which is played, a buzz and a moaning, a shifting register of ago…
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