Religion Dispatches
…r ally Israel. Tragically, a great opportunity has been missed. We cannot afford four more years of naive and politically-correct foreign policy under President Obama.” In other words: I condemn the Egyptian people for voting the way they did. President Obama should stand up for American values and reject Egyptian democracy. How dare they pick the Muslim version of me?…
Read More…w flag at a concert in Cairo. AP reports: Homosexuality is highly taboo in Egypt among Muslims and minority Christians alike, but it is not explicitly prohibited by law. Egypt regularly arrests gay men, with large police raids on private parties or locations such as public baths, restaurants and bars. In practice, they prosecute individuals under such charges as “immorality” and “debauchery.” Egypt arrested at least seven people last week after fo…
Read More
…” in Egypt. One wonders, though, if the commentators actually realize what Egyptian society is really like. Over the past week, Egyptians have piled out onto the streets; by day, many of them are at Liberation Square, protesting against the ruling establishment, and by night, many of them are patrolling their streets and guarding their neighborhoods, in a spontaneous demonstration of civil defense. It was necessary: the Egyptian state had called t…
Read More…ngle church. In essence, the state functions as the church, relying on the Ministry of Endowments, state-linked scholarly institutions such as al-Azhar, and the security apparatus to monitor and maintain politico-religious loyalty. For Ezzat, the struggle of the present moment in Egypt belongs to the larger search for “the church of Islam.” RD contributing editor Austin Dacey will be writing a series of posts in the coming months as part of a join…
Read More…d see that those in Egypt are beginning to argue with those outside of Egypt. A feeling is beginning to spread that there are some inside of Egypt who feel that ideology is driving those outside of Egypt, and that those outside of Egypt are asking people in Egypt to do things they themselves wouldn’t do – like risk their lives by going to Tahrir Square. Inside Egypt, you can also find those who are calling each other traitors for not going to Tahr…
Read More
…Middle East Institute, wrote at Huffington Post about the politics behind Egypt’s anti-LGBT crackdown. All of Egypt’s anti-LGBT campaigns are repetitive in content and application. Government, media, and religious bodies coordinate efforts to publicly expose and humiliate LGBT citizens, raids are made on LGBT-friendly venues, while authorities emphasize their moral justification in the crackdown. And they almost always serve a political purpose—t…
Read More…operating from a place of imagination and possibility, then what can a new Egypt look like? Is it possible to start looking for signs of the truly new? Can we protect these seeds and then start to nurture and grow them in the coming months and years? Can Egypt forge an evolutionary leap when it comes to the tired old nation-state? Is there a role for Islam in the formation of a new state? As we continue to fight, to heal, to celebrate and head bac…
Read More
…nt, and a pledge at the end. A final admonition declares that breaking the Code will result in immediate execution. The Code is illustrated with images pulled from a website promoting the 2007 Swedish film Arn: The Knights Templar. This past spring, copies of the Code were mysteriously distributed across Michoacan. Like La Familia, members of the Knights Templar must refrain from drugs and must commit to routine drug testing, but unlike La Famila…
Read More
…se FedSoc publicly casts itself as a non-partisan debate club, though, the code effectively protects Neil Gorsuch’s sacred right to don a bow tie next time FedSoc conclave rolls around. This ethics code exists largely as a marketing tool for reporters willing to buy what the FedSoc Six are selling, but also as cover for the justices’ clear preferences. Its language, which allows justices to participate in “a nonprofit civic, charitable, educationa…
Read More
…llywood Censored. The code they designed became the Motion Picture Conduct Code, popularly know as the Hays Code after it was adopted by William Hays, a Presbyterian elder who was hired by the major studios to help clean up the industry’s image after it was rocked by a series of scandals. The code, says Black, “was a fascinating combination of Catholic theology, conservative politics and pop psychology—an amalgam that would control the content of…
Read More