Religion Dispatches
…ccurred to me it would be a very easy to make hajj from there. I bought an airline ticket and was in contact with the family of one of my graduate school friends. They would pick me up from the airport and host me during my stay and the days of ritual. Nice plan. So I went to the embassy to get the visa and was denied because (as an American) I needed proof that I was Muslim. How do I prove I have been a practicing Muslim for a decade? I went to t…
Read More…d liberals. While they certainly play significant and influential roles in Egypt, Egypt is far more Muslim and religious. Judging by independent polls, the overwhelming majority of Egyptians probably want that clause to stay, or something similar. Its not Islamist, but it is conservative—and the ultra-puritanical Muslim preachers, that belong to the minority Salafi trend, made sure that Egypt was reminded of its “Islamic identity.” There were even…
Read More…re” arguments, such as the one recently proffered by Robert D. Kaplan in a New York Times piece about Tunisia’s cultural—and thus revolutionary—uniqueness, titled: “One Small Revolution.” In it Kaplan explains that Tunisia is special because it’s “less part of the connective tissue of Arab North Africa” than a “demographic and cultural island” enjoying “upwardly mobile European aspirations.” He asserts that Tunisia’s cultural superiority is establ…
Read More…to realize it’s not good.” He then goes on to compare what’s happening in Egypt to the Islamic revolution in Iran — a theory that Haroon Moghul has ably debunked here at RD. Then Christian talk radio host and evangelist Michael Youssef announced that he would be appearing on CNN through out the day: “Before you judge the motives of the protesters, you must know who is really behind those young people on the streets,” stated Michael Youssef, Ph.D….
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…rshaled in an effort to justify policies of conquest. In a speech in 1811, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton argued that the complex burial mounds found throughout North America were built not by American Indians, but by members of a “superior civilization” who had been “exterminated” by “barbarians” who later occupied the continent. President Andrew Jackson put this re-interpretation of the archaeological evidence to use when he argued in front of…
Read More…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…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…
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…” 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 MoreThis month, as reported by Reuters, the Egyptian government announced new measures to increase “supervision over all Egypt’s mosques so that they do not fall into the hands of extremists and the unqualified.” The removal of thousands of clerics—numbering 12,000, according to the government’s statement—comes in the context of the ongoing struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military-backed regime. Outside observers of this struggle may…
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…e romance with Eastern spirituality,” Michelle Goldberg wrote last year on newyorker.com. “For well over a century,” she continued, “business-minded Americans have been transforming Hindu and Buddhist contemplative practices into an unlikely prosperity gospel.” Prosperity gospels and contemporary mindfulness practice share a profound belief in the power of the mind. Redirect your faith, prosperity gospel preachers claim, and you will be rewarded w…
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