Religion Dispatches
…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…orth, probably Dubai in the south, central Europe in the west and probably India in the east to get this kind of economic power. It doesn’t deserve to be second fiddle to anyone, and with Turkey’s rise, I can see it playing a global role, in the near future, commensurate with its historic one. At the moment I’m overlooking the last stop on the European rail network. From here, you can go all the way to London. There’s another rail station on the A…
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…
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…lar, the knowledge of the early Islamic world, especially as it is used to promote proper behavior, remains in the anecdotal, atomized form, and should only be put into narrative history by those qualified to do so, the educated, religious elite. The first attempt to write a full narrative biography of Muhammad was begun toward the end of the first Islamic century and completed shortly after the centenary of Muhammad’s death (632 C.E.). The author…
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…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…
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…rence in Lucknow in 1911 called for the Christianization of the Muslims of India. More recently, the 9/11 attacks, according to Kidd, “Re-energized those familiar themes of Muslim conversions and Islam’s place in the end times, two themes common in American Christian rhetoric, even before the American Revolution.” And while he doesn’t dismiss the powerful effect of the 9/11 attacks on American public opinion, Kidd takes the long view, tracing the…
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…t as “a fascinating blend of the Western biblical epic and elements of the Indian historical, devotional, and mythological genres.” Karunamayudu even filmically achieves the noted Indian mode of mutual sacred gazing, understood through the term darshan. In other words, this Jesus utilizes a local visual vocabulary to make himself known. Questioning the Sanity of the Saviour From another tack altogether is Man Facing Southeast (1986), written and d…
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…indu group building a leadership platform among Hindu religious leaders in India. In November 2007, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr. Peter Piot, will give the plenary address at the Saddleback Church Global AIDS summit. Certainly, efforts to prevent HIV transmission, to care for infected persons, and to work against stigma reach across many religions, including Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. And, religion, for good or ill, affects the lives o…
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…from 1970 to 2003, Pezzotti was in Brazil, where he worked with the Kayapo Indians. Pezzotti went to Italy in 2003, but returned to Brazil in 2008. A few months later, the man he had sexually abused in the United States saw photos of him on the internet and complained to the church. The priest was quickly sent back to Italy. “Father Vijay Vhaskr Godugunuru was forced to return to India and then was transferred to Italy after pleading no contest to…
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