Religion Dispatches
…ogy that has led to acts of terrorism both within Pakistan and in adjacent India, including the recent attacks in Mumbai. For this reason, a strategy for withdrawal from Afghanistan, and from Iraq, should be a high on the list of objectives for the Obama administration. 4. Become a problem solver not a problem maker. Aside from what is regarded as its military meddling, the other thing that makes the United States appear as an enemy to many Muslim…
Read More
…e large South Asian population in the district, which includes Hindus from India and the West Indies, Sikhs, and Muslims. Jois believes Democrats are ignoring Hindus and other religious minority groups at their own peril. “We all understand that politics works best when everyone’s voice is heard in the process. Yet for far too long, some of the largest-growing groups in New Jersey have been on the sidelines in politics,” he said. “That’s why our c…
Read More
…Jewish foodies. Kashrut comes within a dense, rich, long-standing culture promoting, ideally, upright, prudent, modest living, including, reverence for and balanced coexistence with the natural world. The final, and perhaps greatest irony to the dismissal of kashrut, is that Jews through the ages have adopted the local cuisines and food cultures of all of their homelands—whether Persia, Greece, Morocco, Poland, or India—and adapted them all quite…
Read More…s under Muslim rule, with no mass conversion. Even if we combine Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh again, less than 1/3 of the population is Muslim, for an empire that existed for several centuries, it seems to give lie to your assertion that Muslims are forced to convert people. We can also look at Spain from the 8th-15th centuries, which is considered a golden age for Jews, Christians, and Muslims because no one was forced to convert. There is als…
Read More…st Africans studying Qur’an—and speaking Turkish. Tourists from Indonesia, India, Egypt, and other Muslim societies, finding in Istanbul a cultural touchstone, an inspiring mix of the modern and the pious, challenging the traditional players in the politics of Islamic practice. They all come here for a reason; the visibility of Islamic practice a far cry from where the country was even two decades ago. Turkey offers something fellow Muslim nations…
Read More
…rst, Law’s Company acquired the similarly mismanaged and unprofitable East India and China companies, then slaving companies, then tobacco monopolies, and he even offered to buy up further quantities of the Crown’s bad debt, converting it to stock. Law’s public display of bewildering confidence in the future of his Company finally sold others on his ideas. The big idea man, who was also a consummate big talker, finally succeeded—for increasing pub…
Read More
…lled: “What in the World.” Sandwiched between articles on cows belching in India and a cutesy rumination on nicknames for Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, you’ll find an article about what to call that thing on a woman’s head in various Muslim countries. “What’s That You’re Wearing? A Guide to Muslim Veils,” includes a .gif with seven repeating images of faceless bodies wearing “veils for Muslim women… [of] all sizes, shapes, and colors”; desc…
Read More…ar, and Myra Bronstein, who was required to train her own replacement from India in order to qualify for severance. Greenhouse then provides an overview of what’s going on for workers: One of the least examined but most important trends taking place in the United States today is the broad decline in the status and treatment of American workers—white-collar and blue-collar workers, middle-class and low-end workers—that began nearly three decades ag…
Read More…s decision to appoint Amal Suleiman to the same position a few months ago. India also saw a woman preside over marriages as early as last August. Al-Awani’s appointment and those like it look to be following a wider trend of women playing a more public role in religion. While women have always played a large role in religion by leading halaqas and organizing pilgrimages, these have traditionally been mostly female gatherings that were not highly v…
Read More…xamples that first came to mind started with the letter “I”: Iraq, Israel, India, Indonesia. Of course I quickly thought of exceptions to the rule, like Lebanon, Sri Lanka—and the United States of America. Europeans tell us that they don’t understand why we insist on bringing religion into politics. Their situation is certainly different from ours; according to a 2005 poll, only about half of the people in EU member countries “believe in a god,” a…
Read More