Malaysian adverts miss the point of Ramadan

August 10, 2011
By

Nazry Bahrawi, The Guardian, Aug.9, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/aug/09/malaysian-adverts-ramadan

The Islamic holy month is a time to connect with, not chastise, non-Muslims. This is lost to some in Malaysia’s media.

To opt for a dry throat and a crooning gut when a mere phone call can get you a decent feast is nothing short of foolhardy. Yet millions of Muslims around the globe choose to do just that when they fast in Ramadan.

Those with purchasing power must surely see this enforced austerity in a world of plenty as something akin to a warped practice: Why live like paupers when you can afford more?

In this very question also lies the spirit of Ramadan: empathy for the “other”, or that which is different from one’s self if we accept the definition provided by the German philosopher Hegel. By way of divine decree, Ramadan has come to denote a month where Muslims who can must not, an act that accords them a chance to feel for the have-nots.

With about 60% of tMalaysia’s population professing Islam, the local broadcaster 8TV ran a trio of 30-seconds clips in the first week of Ramadan aimed at instructing its non-Muslim ethnic minorities about the etiquette of proper conduct appropriate to this Islamic holy month.

The advertisements feature a young Chinese woman behaving greedily, obnoxiously and wearing tight clothings at a Ramadan bazaar to the chagrin of the Muslim Malays around her. Rightly so, the racist undertone has caused a public uproar as multitudes registered their displeasure on the station’s official Facebook page.

Even though 8TV’s advertisements run counter to the Ramadan spirit of hospitality, it is tenuous to read this episode as further proof of Islam’s intolerance. Rather, this is a textbook example of how the humanistic elements of a rich religious tradition have been drowned by the contextual concerns of its practitioners.

More than spell out the exclusive nature of Islam, the advertisements are revelatory of the inability of Malaysia’s ultra-Malay elites to overcome ethnic tensions with the minority Chinese. Ramadan or not, the advertisements suggest that their rose-tinted view of Malaysia is one coloured by race-tinted glasses.

Read the complete article here.

Restrictions on Religion Increased in 23 Countries

August 10, 2011
By

Nathan Black, Christian Post, Aug. 9, www.christianpost.com/news/report-restrictions-on-religion-increased-in-23-countries-53616/

Nearly a third of the world’s population live in countries where restrictions on religious beliefs and practices increased between 2006 and 2009, a new report reveals.

Restrictions, which include social hostilities and government restrictions, rose in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12 percent), decreased in 12 countries (6 percent) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82 percent), the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reported.

Eight countries saw a substantial increase in restrictions while no countries experienced a substantial decrease.

China, Egypt, France, Nigeria, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Kingdom were listed as countries where the religious are finding it more difficult to practice their faith.

The report, “Rising Restrictions on Religion,” found that Christians were being harassed in more countries than any other faith group. Government or social harassment was reported against Christians in 130 countries.

Muslims were also found to be harassed in 117 countries and Jews in 75 countries. Buddhists experienced restrictions only in 16 countries.

Notably, 76 percent of the measured countries provides for freedom of religion in the constitution or in basic laws. Yet in 46 percent of the countries, government interferes with worship or other religious practices.

Read the complete article here.

Vatican engages a Jewish critic

August 10, 2011
By

John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, Aug. 5, ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/vatican-engages-jewish-critic-new-home-ex-anglicans

L’Osservatore Romano normally isn’t the place to seek Vatican criticism, in the same way that no one watches Fox News for satires of the Tea Party, or reads the New York Times for send-ups of snobbish secular liberalism. Whatever their business model, media outlets usually aren’t in the habit of biting the hand that feeds them.

Yet, mirabile dictu, the July 29 edition of L’Osservatore offered one of the most pointed brief critiques of a Vatican statement you’ll ever see. It came from Italian Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, in reply to a July 7 essay by Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, about the “Interreligious Meeting for Prayer for Peace” convened by Pope Benedict XVI and set for Oct. 27, 2011, in Assisi.

On July 7, Koch published an essay laying out the theological and spiritual basis for October’s interreligious summit. He argued that that in a violent world, religions must be agents of peace, and that migration and globalization make interreligious harmony more critical than ever. Perhaps reflecting muscle memory of how Catholic traditionalists blasted the ’86 version of Assisi for promoting relativism, Koch also stressed that dialogue must not come at the expense of truth.

“Naturally,” he wrote, Assisi “should not be misunderstood as a syncretistic act.”

Toward the end, Koch sketched a brief Christian theology of prayer for peace. For Christians, he wrote, the Cross of Jesus “cancels every desire for vendetta and calls all to reconciliation.”

In an arresting image, Koch said the Cross rises above us as “the permanent and universal Yom Kippur,” referring to the Jewish Day of Atonement.

“The Cross of Jesus is not an obstacle to interreligious dialogue,” Koch wrote. “Rather, it indicates the decisive path which, above all, Jews and Christians, but also Muslims and followers of other religions, should welcome, thereby becoming ferment for peace and justice.”

It was that last bit which brought an objection from Di Segni.

Despite Koch’s “fraternity and good will,” Di Segni wrote, his words “reveal the limits of a certain way of doing dialogue on the part of Christians.”

Read the complete article here.

One Nation, One Chicago Strives for Interfaith Understanding

August 5, 2011
By

James Warren, New York Times, Aug.4, www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/05cncwarren.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=Eboo+Patel&st=cse

Utsav Ghandi didn’t know that Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who devours news cycles like a landlocked tiger shark, recently created an Office of New Americans. The office has elicited scant interest in the local press, but the advice of Mr. Ghandi, a chemical engineering student at Illinois Institute of Technology, who arrived a year ago from Mumbai, is succinct.

“Focus on those 12 to, say, 19 years old, the age when they may be most confused about a new world of America,” he said.

Mr. Ghandi, 19, is worth hearing out because of his status as a new immigrant and his involvement in a project called One Chicago, One Nation. Its aim is to improve understanding among the metro area’s various faiths and cultures, especially its estimated 400,000 Muslims. By some counts, that is the largest Muslim concentration in the nation.

One Chicago, One Nation is the product of a post-Sept. 11 effort called One Nation and is largely financed by $200,000 from George F. Russell Jr. of Tacoma, Wash., creator of the Russell 2000 stock index. His aim was to create positive images of a much-caricatured and maligned Muslim population in the United States.

The project here started last year and is led by two locally-based groups, the Interfaith Youth Core and Inner-City Muslim Action Network, which partnered with several other donors, including The Chicago Community Trust. If City Hall’s new office is to be more than a politically correct nod to new immigrants, it should rely on both.

Mr. Ghandi was one of several dozen “community ambassadors” who went through training and oversaw separate interfaith events as part of One Chicago, One Nation. They were offered the prospect of a second grant for projects deemed worthy of expansion.

Mr. Ghandi, a member of the Jain faith, and Mohini Lal, a Texas native and Hindu student at Shimer College, a neighbor of Illinois Institute of Technology, got together to run a day of community service at the Benton House community center in the Bridgeport section. A diverse group of 120 took part in a food drive, painted a gardening shed and created an organic garden — and had fun in a slam poetry contest and other performances.

In a small way, Mr. Ghandi believes, the day improved cross-cultural understanding among the participants. “We need more institutions to stimulate positive discussion,” he said, “not misplaced beliefs, and help stamp out prejudices we all have.”

Read the complete article here.

Unite against religious violence, says Interfaith Network

July 31, 2011
By

Ekklesia, Jul.27, www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/15162

The Interfaith Network in the UK has urged religious groups to unite against violence and prejudice following the murder of 76 people in Norway last week. They condemned the killer’s claim to be motivated by Christianity and his promotion of hostility to Muslims.

The network, which seeks to promote dialogue and understanding between people of different faiths, pointed out that “the individual arrested in the wake of these terrorist acts has offered a rationale rooted in opposition to multiculturalism and to the presence of Islam in Europe. He has claimed a justification based, in part, on what he sees as Christian belief”.

They suggest that incidents such as this have a “direct relevance” to all working for good interfaith relations, because “where terrorists justify their actions with reference to positions which they call religious, this reflects ignorance and breeds suspicion and mistrust”.

The signatories to the network’s statement acknowledge that religious teachings can be used to justify brutal acts of violence. But they insist that such acts “have no place in any society”. They add, “in the United Kingdom, people of different faiths coexist as part of one society”.

The Interfaith Network links 200 member bodies including national representative bodies of the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian faiths.

They concluded, “We are committed, as people of faith, to discerning our shared values and building on these – alongside all people of goodwill – to strengthen our society”.

Read the complete article here.

Ramadan Mubarak! A guide to your Muslim neighbour’s holy month

July 31, 2011
By

Asma Uddin and Shazia Kamal, Washington Post, Jul.29,  www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/altmuslimah/post/ramadan-etiquette-a-guide-to-your-muslim-neighbors-holy-month/2011/07/29/gIQA4bPEhI_blog.html

In the next few weeks, you may come into work and find your co-worker taking a power nap at 9:30am. At break time, you’ll notice she is missing in the discussion about Harry Potter over at the water cooler. At the staff meeting, you will be shocked when she is offered coffee and cookies and refuses ! By lunch time, your concern about her missing at the water cooler compels you to investigate the situation.

Then you remember what she had mentioned last week over a delicious Sushi lunch. Flooded with relief, you go up to her desk, and proclaim with much gusto, “Ramadan Mubarak (Moo-baa-rak)!” Ramadan’s Blessings to you!

The month of Ramadan is a happy occasion; it is the month that the Muslim holy book, the Koran, was revealed to our Prophet Muhammad. Muslims are called by their religion to celebrate the month by coming together in worship, fasting each day for thirty days from dawn until sunset.

While this may seem like a tremendous feat, consider this: Fasting while working is an even greater endeavor. Make it a little easier on your Muslim colleague by following some simple rules.

Read the complete article here.

Palestinian Nonviolence: Muslims, Not Christians, Are the Leaders

July 27, 2011
By

Sami Awad, Huffington Post, Jul.26, www.huffingtonpost.com/sami-awad/palestinian-nonviolence-c_b_905095.html?ir=Religion

Whenever I give talks on the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian livelihood, the status of nonviolence as a means to resisting the occupation, and how I believe nonviolence is the only way to move forward to resolve the conflict and create a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, one of the first and immediate questions I get from foreign visitors to my office in Bethlehem is, “What you said is good, but what about the Muslims? Do they also believe in nonviolence? Do they understand it?” Even if I don’t mention religion in my presentation — and I rarely do — this question always seems to make its way in our discussions.

I have to admit that this question challenges me because within it lies an underlying stereotype, a bias, or at the least a grave misunderstanding of the Palestinian Muslim community — that they are violent people and do not have any understanding of nonviolence. The second challenge is in the biases toward Palestinian Christians. Western Christians simply think and assume that Palestinian Christians must engage in nonviolence and that it is “unchristian” if they use violence.

Even though we never look at it through a religious lens, the reality on the ground is that when it comes to nonviolence in Palestine, it is not Christians but Muslims who are engaging in this tremendous work. It is Palestinian Muslims who are the main leaders, the organizers, the activists and the strategists, and only some Christians are active in nonviolent resistance.

Read the complete article here.

A Baha’i Vision for World Peace

July 27, 2011
By

Jonathan Gandomi, Huffington Post, Jul.26, www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-gandomi/a-vision-for-world-peace_b_906540.html

“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens,” wrote Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith in the mid-19th century. “Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self.”

These simple but potent exhortations provide a blueprint for action for many Baha’is, who represent roughly 2,000 cultures and ethnicities around the world. For some Baha’is, myself included, the principle of the oneness of mankind serves as both a cornerstone of spiritual belief as well as a motive behind one’s work.

Observing the world in all its disarray and then believing — sometimes as an act of faith -3- that there are perhaps better alternatives is not altogether an easy proposition. As individuals, we face a collective action problem, where well-meaning efforts amount to little when not joined by many others. There is also the halting view that life is mostly a zero-sum game, and the benefits enjoyed by some necessarily come at someone else’s expense.

This leads many people to view the prospect of world peace as simply wishful thinking, particularly when held against the evidence of the daily front pages. And who can blame them? The world’s most powerful nations show only tentative signs of wishing to work together for the collective good, while sending clear messages to their citizens and neighbors that national interest must be preserved above all else. Could it be that the end result of human progress over thousands of years is simply to end up with a sub-optimal outcome because we cannot overcome the prisoner’s dilemma?

Read the complete article here.

Belgian Christians divided over banning of Muslim burqa

July 27, 2011
By

Jonathan Luxmoore, ENInews, Jul.25, www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5043

Christian organizations in Belgium have had mixed reactions to a criminal code amendment making the country Europe’s second to ban the Islamic veil, or burqa.

“We’re against this ruling, since it violates basic human rights,” said Kristine Jansone, general secretary of the Brussels-based Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe. “Although I can’t speak on behalf of all our member-groups, I think it’s the general consensus we should oppose a measure which will clearly impede the free practice of religion.”

Jansone said her Council had worked to promote an “open attitude to Islam” within Christian churches, and did not expect ties with Muslim organizations to be affected by the ban.

However, an Orthodox bishop backed the restriction and said Christian doctrine held that “human beings are created with faces” and should be able to look at each other “to be a full person.”

“As Orthodox Christians, we’re experienced in having to respect the rules of the country we live in,” said Bishop Athenagoras Peckstadt, representative of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Belgium. “Most of those who wear the burqa do so because they are obliged to. Isn’t this itself a violation of human rights?”

Meanwhile, the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, deplored the ban as a symptom of “Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudices which continue to undermine tolerance in Europe,” and said it was more likely to “stigmatize” Muslim women and lead them to avoid public places, such as hospitals and government offices.

“We react strongly against any regime ruling that women must be dressed in full-cover veils. This is absolutely repressive and should not be accepted,” Hammarberg said in a 20 July website commentary. “However, the problem is not solved by targeting and penalizing the women.”

“Christian churches should speak up in defense of Muslim rights as a means of self-protection,” said Jansone, who believes greater efforts should be made to “provide a relevant infrastructure for Muslims to participate in society.”

Read the complete article here.

Christians should denounce Norway’s Christian terrorist

July 27, 2011
By

Stephen Prothero, CNN, Jul.26, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/26/my-take-christians-should-denounce-norways-christian-terrorist/

Ideas matter; thoughts have force. This is an obvious truth. It is why pastors preach, why professors profess, and why pundits do whatever they do.

Yet whenever ideas do things we do not want them to do, as they did in Oslo , Norway on Friday, we try to pretend that ideas are powerless.

For the last two decades, Christian students have told me that Christianity had nothing to do with the Holocaust. After 9/11, many Muslims said that the men who flew those planes into those buildings had nothing to do with Islam. When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot, we were told that the crime had nothing to do with our current climate of political hatred.

I think all of us who place ideas into books or blogs or lectures or sermons should be acutely aware of the use to which our ideas might be put. What is obvious is that those who read or listen to us will take our ideas in directions different from what we intended. But that fact does not absolve us of responsibility when they do.

If you devote your life to spewing anti-Islamic hatred, you should not be surprised if someone comes along and kills in the name of that hatred. In fact, you should expect it.  If you insist as a matter of revelation or dogma that the Jews killed Christ then you should not be surprised if Christians come along and kills Jews in the name of Christ. In fact, you should be surprised if that does not happen.

Osama bin Laden was a Muslim terrorist. Yes, he twisted the Quran and the Islamic tradition in directions most Muslims would not countenance. But he rooted his hate and his terrorism in that text and that tradition. So Muslims, as I have long argued, have a responsibility to speak out forcefully against Bin Laden and to look hard at the resources in their tradition that work to promote such evil.

If he did what he has alleged to have done, Anders Breivik is a Christian terrorist.

Yes, he twisted the Christian tradition in directions most Christians would not countenance. But he rooted his hate and his terrorism in Christian thought and Christian history, particularly the history of the medieval Crusades against Muslims, and current efforts to renew that clash.

So Christians have a responsibility to speak out forcefully against him, and to look hard at the resources in the Christian tradition that can be used to such murderous ends.

Read the complete article here.