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POPSWhy are feminists like Azar Nafisi called "right wing" "neo cons?"
The quotes in the clip are welcome antidotes to the attitude our Beloved Leader is flacking towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the article itself leads into the story of <p>"a vibrant and beautiful young girl, Neda Agha-Soltan, and not the men who rule over Iran has become a symbol of Iranian people's fight for democracy and pluralism. Her murder, like those of Politkovskaya and Estermirova, gives the lie to the claims of those who vainly tried to silence them, and reminds the rest of us that we neither should or can evade the truth and its consequences."</p> The article is about a journalism award in honor of the Russian journalist, Ana Politkovskaya. She says that it was Politkovskaya's <p>"single-minded commitment to truth, and her demand for justice, that made her so dangerous to the tyrants in her country and inconvenient to leaders of western democracies.</p> More than this, Nafisi takes us on a world historical tour of feminists and feminism.
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POPS"Islam is of the devil": a Gainsville, FL church attracts controversy The photo and the pastor's comments pretty much speak for themselves. I probably wouldn't have clipped this except for the final paragraph in the clip -- "we are definitely trying to open up dialogue." This baffles me. I wonder what they're actually trying to accomplish -- presumably the primary purpose of the sign is illocutionary in nature. To the pastor, I would point out that "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial" (1 Cor. 6.12). Is this beneficial?
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POPSObama Revisionism, Adams and Jefferson, Friends of Islam . . . hostility to religion. Still, as usual, it's fascinating, especially this bit of history that Obama somehow failed to mention this morning when revisiting (or I should say, revisioning) Adams, Jefferson, and that oh-so-warm relationship between the Morocco and the fledgling United States: I believe on the evidence that it was at this moment that Jefferson decided to make war on the Muslim states of North Africa as soon as the opportunity presented itself. And, even if I am wrong, we can be sure that the dispatch of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to the Barbary shore was the first and most important act of his presidency. It took several years of bombardment before the practice of kidnap and piracy and slavery was put down, but put down it was, Quranic justification or not.
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POPSWhat is Shi‘a Islam? Recent scholarship has created a more balanced view of Shi‘ism. Thus, it is now possible to move beyond stereotypical assumptions and reject the view that there is an ‘orthodox’ or ‘authentic’ Islam, from which Shi‘ism is a departure.
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POPSHow I Learned Not to Fear the Anti-God Squad The clipped section has a ring of reason. He goes on to cast doubt on all surveys, blames Obama for atheism coming out of the closet, and I couldn't go on with his crap. Worth a look, if just to see the working mind of a devious simpleton.
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POPSBlews - good/bad/left/right - News ? am not sure if these are good news or not. we, modern society just embarked on a new phase of pluralism of attitudes, open source info-verse and inter-connectivity, may soon end up in a world where ALL is narrowed to be either of blue or of red? is it some kind of "new" black & white ???
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POPSFilms of Hope Eboo Patel, interview at the source, highly recommend. Also check the videos at http://ifyc.org
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POPSGrowing Militancy Another look at this dangerous group of right wing fanatics that plan to take over the US and impose their own brand of hell and brimstone government.
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POPSBuilding bridges between Jews and Latino Pentecostals In L.A., a Jewish group has been mounting outreach efforts to Latino Pentecostal congregations and organizations, including a Spanish-language 'Essence of Judaism" course. The piece suggests the outreach has been pretty successful.
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POPS"Muslim Day at Six Flags" A slightly puffy human-interest story on a recurring event at various Six Flags locations around the country, in which an amphitheater is used as a masjid and halal caterers are brought in.
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POPSZiauddin Sardar on the Quilliam Foundation for ex-jihadis Sardar, whose writing I am only a little bit familiar with, is highly critical of any "lionizing" of former members of Islamic extremist groups, since it implicitly devalues the commitment to peace and pluralism exhibited by most "ordinary" Muslims.
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POPSDo we want a truly liberal society? A liberal society embraces pluralism, in the sense that it does not seek to impose any one vision of what it means to be virtuous or to lead a good life. Within such a society, approval is commonly expressed for John Stuart Mill’s view that “experiments in living” should not be merely tolerated, but actually welcomed and celebrated (Mill 1974: 120). As Max Charlesworth writes, “In a liberal society personal autonomy, the right to choose one’s own way of life for oneself, is the supreme value.” He adds that this includes what he calls ethical pluralism: members of the society are free to hold a wide range of moral, religious, and non-religious positions, with no core values or public morality that it is the law’s business to enforce (Charlesworth 1993: 1). Accordingly, a liberal society makes a sharp distinction between the sphere of personal moral views and that of the law; no one can use the law to impose their beliefs on others (16-20).
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POPSChristophobia An article purposed for the issue of faith on campuses not friendly to Christianity, but applicable to Western culture in general.
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POPSNew blog on religion in american history A pretty diverse bunch of academics blogging on religious themes in American history from a variety of perspectives. Worth checking out. The clip is just a taste of the type of material covered.
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POPSReligious Youth: Bridges or Bombs
Just remember, as people like Janet Penn make do on Scooby snacks, there is a religious extremist out there who is doubling his youth program. He is identifying likely kids for the work of religious bigotry and violence. His recruiters are talking to them right now. They are sending them to training camps where they are being brainwashed in religious hatred, preparing to be deployed to wreak havoc who knows where. And every time that religious extremist entrepreneur asks for money for his youth program, he gets it – to the tune of millions of dollars. There is an interfaith youth movement out there to be built – a movement that can compete for the imagination and energy of the emerging generation. But unless we invest in people like Janet Penn and in programs like Interfaith Action, we will continue to see our headlines dominated by young people killing each other to the soundtrack of prayer instead of young people pointing to a new world of peace and pluralism and leading us the
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