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Sam Harris Says Qur’an “Not That Good”

…shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” It’s amazing how imperialism and racism are so closely intertwined and persistent, and always under a veneer of civilization. I know Harris thinks he is being original and provocative, but at best he is being derivative and puerile. I am more shocked that Sullivan, with his awareness of British history, not only did not see the connection, but gave it a s…

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American Buddhism: Beyond the Search for Inner Peace

…ks that Occupy Faith has set itself are: to ally with unions and others to promote fair wages for all, especially low-wage workers  to work for fair tax policy  to join coalitions supporting constitutional change to get money out of politics and limit the power of corporations  to participate in events and initiatives organized to promote justice and fairness  to take nonviolent, direct action to the streets and halls of corporate and government p…

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What To Do When Fred Phelps Arrives in Your Neighborhood

…are not limited to hating “fags.” Wikipedia, for example, claims they hate India. And, Phelps’ church itself is pretty darn sure God Hates America (for a variety of reasons like American tolerance of “fags”). And yet, Westboro Baptist is pretty darn fond of the American Constitution since March 2, I suspect.   March 2, of course, was not the first—and certainly not the last—time the Supreme Court has taken or will take a position on picketing. In…

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A Church Group, a Lawsuit, and a Culture of Abuse

…it her analysis of the global implications of the gang rape and murder of Indian medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey, purity culture, whether in India or America, casts “women’s bodies [as]…primarily for procreation or male pleasure… a culture in which women must cover up or be threatened is a rape culture.” [Emphasis mine] If, as Graff writes, purity culture is rape culture, then the submission culture that exists in many conservative evangelical…

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When Bad Weeks Happen to Good People

…neering.” Other folks seem to trend in the other direction: humans (or at least the ones with Y chromosomes) are basically and ineluctably violent. War, murder, and rape are just part and parcel of being a (hu)man. This, too, has repercussions; if there is no point in trying to reduce incidences of violence through policy, we should just accept it as an everyday reality and leave individuals alone to prepare accordingly. Think: women must cover up…

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On the Ethics of the Tibetan Self-Immolations

…f great moral courage. Drawing from earlier scriptures, the fourth-century Indian Buddhist master Asaṅga speaks of a threefold classification of “giving” that includes giving material goods, spiritual counsel, and life. Of these three, Asaṅga considers offering up one’s life to be the highest form of giving. That said, Indian and Tibetan texts also set forth stringent conditions that must be met before an individual is allowed to offer up his or h…

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How Robert Bellah (1927-2013) Changed the Study of Religion

…ovements were emerging in other traditions in other parts of the world. In India, for example, bhakti movements of social rebellion were erupting throughout the subcontinent, eschewing Brahmanical authority for the fellowship of devotees of a new breed of eclectic saints and teachers who could be outcastes, blind, female, or partly Muslim. Elsewhere in Asia, what has been called a “Protestant Buddhism” was appealing to the masses in the way that a…

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“Burka Avenger”: Pakistan’s Middle Class Gets a Feminist Cartoon

…mics study (PDF) documented an upswing in gender equality and education in India after the arrival of cable television. “Introducing cable increases the likelihood of current enrollment for girls by 3.5 percentage points,” the authors wrote, describing a shift over four times larger than the 0.83% increase created by the Pakistani government between 2005 and 2011. The show could have the same effect in Pakistan, particularly if public interest sta…

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Sikh Prof Attacked on Heels of New Study

…only about 20% can identify the country of origin of the Sikh faith (it’s India). 49% of Americans believe “Sikh” is a sect of Islam, and most Americans identify the practice of turban-wearing primarily with the figure of Osama bin Laden, a fact that makes it more believable that in 2008 alone fully 9% of New York City Sikhs said they had been assaulted because of their religion. But it’s not just association with radical Islam and the resulting…

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Two Women and a Mosque: A Convert Community Grows in Panama City

…s. Throughout the twentieth century, Panama received Muslims from Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and West Indian countries such as Jamaica. Each group worked to establish their own religious institutions and the support systems necessary to flourish as religious minorities in a Catholic country. In the 1960s and 70s, Lebanese immigrants collected money from their growing business enterprises to create their own mosque, cemetery and Arabic school in Col…

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