Religion Dispatches
…uinto? When some Iranian leaders suggest Israel has no place in the Middle East, do they really mean Israel has a right to all of the Middle East? When they say they’re the resistance axis, do they mean they’re the compliance cartel? Or does Mr. Graham mean they’re always lying about everything, to the point of contradiction? Ladies and Gentlemen, we need to know. We need to know when we’re being lied to. Is everything Iran does simply ‘taqiyya,’…
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…al government should do more to secure the Southern border and that Middle Eastern refugees pose a terrorist threat. In the second figure [below, right], we see a similar trend, but in the opposite direction. The more strongly Americans disagree with the statement “People need to be more careful with language to avoid offending people,” the more likely they are to hold xenophobic views about refugees from the Middle East and to want stricter borde…
Read More…those in need. During World War I, American missionaries across the Middle East were key protagonists in forming the Near East Relief, which administered aid to millions displaced by war and conflict. Into the mid-twentieth century, missionaries and faith-based organizations were at the forefront of addressing global refugee crises following World War II and subsequent civil conflicts such as the migration from the Horn of Africa in the 1990s. The…
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…For example, within the evangelical world—which, let’s remember, includes between 30% and 40% of all Americans—there is a split between postmillennialists, who believe that Christ’s peaceful reign on Earth will follow a gradual improvement in human life, and the more familiar premillennialists, who believe that Christ will suddenly come back, destroy the current order, and replace it with a new one. From a progressive perspective, both of these…
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…fortunes that were never really his. There are rich analogies to be drawn between this wonderful little story and the immediate aftermath of the Bush era. Dostoevsky plays endlessly on the distinction between two kinds of money-lust: the sort of profit motive capitalism he thinks of as preeminently German, and the no-holds barred running of insane risk he sees as Russian to the core. The narrator tells us pretty clearly which form of madness he p…
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…their own political and moral views. But there’s a difference with Middle Eastern Studies, which split over a subject in which the different sides could at least claim professional competence. In the Biblical Studies case, on the other hand, the topic on which they claim to stake the future of the field is not one in which most of the scholars were hired to teach or research—and not one in which their opinions, however heartfelt, necessarily carr…
Read More…r, it carries the hope that European citizens of Islamic faith can mediate between “East” and “West”, serving as brokers of peace and reconciliation. Balkan Muslim leaders and theologians have claimed a representative status for “their” Islam, a centuries-old presence on European soil. As far back as the 19th century, the Muslim elite in the region sought to formulate a “local Islam,” compatible with Western modernity. Today, the well-institutiona…
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…or by means designed to bring about a violent escalation in the relations between Jews and Arabs. After long years of studying Jewish terrorism in Israel, and in light of our journey to many of its focal points, we must conclude in a pessimistic tone. Despite the fact that in recent decades an almost absolute correspondence is evident between Jewish terrorism and the territorial conflict with the Palestinians, this is not a guarantee that this de…
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…one of the most hotly contested theological issues in ecumenical dialogue between East and West, right up there with papal primacy and the filioque (the “and the son” part of the Nicene Creed)—two issues that helped drive the split in the first place. In light of this history, consecrating two countries with overwhelmingly Orthodox majorities to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, particularly in response to a prophecy that one of those countries will…
Read More…of his family — a cousin attempting to curry favour with his new masters — betrayed him to the militants. Such betrayals are common. The attitude now if you are gay and trapped inside is ‘trust nobody’,” says Elmo. “Not your mother, nor your closest friend. The only difference between all the factions is that some will torture you before they kill you if you are outed and caught.” Among those McDougall interviews are young people fleeing across th…
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