Religion Dispatches
…e 1930s (Beau Hunks, among others) to Disney’s more recent Aladdin and the Indiana Jones franchise. It is so natural, so expected, that most of us have no idea how it affects us. I’ve asked my college students what they think of when they see a scene from a movie in which they hear the call to prayer and see a minaret or dome. The answer? “Something bad is about to happen.” Islamophobia can remain in latent form until it is triggered by economic,…
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…s a terrorist of suspect color and dangerous “associations,” the nation of India launches a mission to the Moon today—a telling juxtaposition of national circumstance. It seems long, long ago that Walter Cronkite, lifted by awe and humility, looked at the astronauts’ television pictures of Earth as seen from the moon and stammered, “There she is, floating in space.” In stark contrast, today’s talking heads achieve neither awe nor humility. There a…
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…eartless terrorists who gunned down hundreds of innocent people in Mumbai, India. Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what’s happening right now in our cities? Oh, I know the homosexual “rights” demonstrations haven’t reached the same level of violence, but I’m referring to the anger, the vehemence, the total disregard for law and order and the supposed rights of their fellow citizens. I’m referring to the in…
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…mbai attacks were reportedly carried out by Lashkar-e Taiba, which targets India over the dispute in Kashmir, and not al Qaeda. Perhaps in his mind it was all jihad on the news! Well, when I was fifteen you know I had a, I was—I made [a special prayer for guidance] about whether I should you know… should go you know and make jihad in a different country or to make like an operation here you know like, something like Mumbai. You know, it would be s…
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…Travel to other places in the world, like the Persian Gulf, Turkey, China, India, Brazil, and so on and so forth, and people are hungry with ambition, eager to embrace the economic opportunities that our country’s desire for globalization enabled and sustained in the first place. Now, we are turning away; we are scared of monsters whose shadows stretch across the planet. But let me end with a note of hope. Consider that, for most Americans, Shari’…
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…tion that dates, according to a brief history, to the late 19th century in India. Capitalizing on the moment “mindfulness” is having, “heartfulness” seems designed to fit easily onto the menu of Western spiritual aspiration. Moreover, a post from the Heartfulness Facebook page seems to base heartfulness’ worth in its potential value to capitalism, boasting statistics of increased productivity and decreased absenteeism when workers at a Detroit fir…
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…tions were normal within Tibetan cultural practices and that the video was promoted by Chinese agents and sympathizers in order to impeach his character in the West. Indeed, according to Vice, professor of China studies Timothy Grose believes that “the interaction is being weaponised by sympathisers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” In other quarters, accusations of pedophilia, “grooming,” and sexual assault flooded comment boards. In a matte…
Read More…oatian, Farsi (Persian), Fijian, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi (Fiji), Hindi (India), Hmong, Ilokano, Indonesian, Kosraean, Laotian, Malagasy, Malay, Marshallese, Mongolian, Navajo, Palauan, Papiamento, Pohnpeian, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Tahitian, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yapese I’ll also be thinking about local translators sitting in their home countries, relaying…
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…olars have often patronizingly collapsed the distinctions between African, Indian, Asian, and Pacific “indigenous beliefs.” How will westerners react when finally forced to confront these religious systems on their own terms? Stephen Prothero has pointed out that the traditional African religion of Yoruba is one of the world’s largest faiths and in his brilliant new book One Nation under Gods Peter Manseau has shown how the crucial role African re…
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…cropped the Ingres painting to make it more mysterious and suggestive. The Indian edition also has a lovely cover, a painting by Raja Ravi Varma of an Indian woman covered in jewelry and smiling seductively. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why? Sure: Anna Karenina. Or The Eustace Diamonds. Or Alice in Wonderland. I always wanted to write a novel, and did write one once, but it was awful (I showed it to some of my fri…
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