Norway attacks show why you can’t #blamethemuslims

July 27, 2011
By

Khalid Latif,  CNN, Jul.25, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/25/my-take-norway-attacks-show-terrorism-isnt-muslim-phenomenon/

In the immediate aftermath of 1995’s Oklahoma City bombing, much of the news media rushed to suggest that a Muslim, or at least a Middle Eastern connection, was behind the attack.

News reports on television and in print featured Middle East terrorism experts claiming the Oklahoma City attack echoed a World Trade Center bombing two years earlier and that it contained parallels to recent Mideast attacks.

The FBI picked up Ibrahim Ahmad, a Jordanian American, for questioning in an initial dragnet.

Does ‘Christian fundamentalist’ label fit Norway terror suspect?

Of course, it turned out that the attacker was homegrown and named Timothy McVeigh, not a Muslim.

Sixteen years later, not much has changed.

The tragic events that took place in Norway on Friday provoked initial accusations against Muslims worldwide. Of course, that proved to be the farthest thing from the truth.

Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed bomber and shooter in this horrendous act, was not motivated by the teachings of Islam, but by the teachings of those who oppose Islam.

A 1,500-page manifesto that appears to be written by Breivik is an anti-Islamic tirade.

Who is Anders Behring Breivik?

“Since the creation of Islam in the 7th century and to up to this day, the Islamic Jihad has systematically killed more than 300 million non Muslims and tortured and enslaved more than 500 million individuals,” it says.

“Since 9/11 2001, more than 12, 000 Jihadi terrorist attacks have occurred,” it continues. “… This trend will continue as long as there are non-Muslim targets available and as long as Islam continues to exist.”

An inappropriate response to Norway’s acts of violence would be the condemnation of Christianity, or a claim that religion itself breeds violence and hatred, though the manifesto repeatedly invokes the defense of Christianity as a primary reason for violently defeating multiculturalism and combating the “Islamic colonization” of Europe.

The expectation shouldn’t be that white Christian males should now be scrutinized at airports or profiled by TSA workers. It’s wrong when it happens to Muslims and it would be just as wrong if it happened to anyone else.

Read the complete article here.

Why did so many “experts” declare the Oslo attacks to be the work of Islamic terrorists?

July 27, 2011
By

Christopher Hitchens, Slate, Jul.24, www.slate.com/id/2299959/

Having had 16 years to reflect since Oklahoma City, we should really have become a little more refined in our rapid-response diagnoses of anti-civilian mass murder. Rather than make it more difficult, the number of contrasting features in the most recent case of Norway actually makes this task fractionally easier. The fruit bat and troll population of the recent scenery of catastrophe, enriched with Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell characters, permits a wider view of the various fields of fire and a greater variety of arguable motives for analysis.

Here is a secular Scandinavian social democracy, which is currently contributing forces to Western military efforts in Afghanistan and Libya. This consideration was what originally led some more orthodox conservatives to descry a “link.” (Even though, for example, it is unclear whether the jihadist groups in Norway identify with Muammar Qaddafi or his recent calls for suicide efforts against NATO.) Moreover, the lethal attacks were launched against the youth movement of Norway’s ruling party, that stout bulwark of multi-culti good feelings and outreach to Muslim immigrants. This might not have been the first objective of a terror faction striving to take Norway off the military chessboard.

Then again, the prime suspect in the pogrom, Anders Behring Breivik, seems to come complete with a Jared Loughner reading list of his own, as well as a background in white power Nordic enthusiasm. I was touched to see that a flirtation of his with Freemasonry was counted as “right wing” in some quarters. In the old days, Catholic fascism hated Masons almost as much as it did Jews. (Chilean President Salvador Allende was a Freemason, for example, in a tradition of leftist anti-clericalism that I am sad to see dying out.) And finally—though in this wilderness of mirrors it probably isn’t finally—Breivik has apparently declared himself a passionate pro-Zionist as well as a sworn foe of all sorts of Islamization. More attention should be paid to that last aspect: The true “neo-Nazi” gangs in Europe have violent anti-Semitism in common with their ostensibly deadliest Islamist foes, whereas anti-immigrant populists of the Geert Wilders stripe in Holland seek respectability by standing up for Israel, very often against criticism from the multi-culti left.

Read the complete article here.

Anders Breivik is not Christian but anti-Islam

July 27, 2011
By

Andrew Brown, The Guardian, Jul.24, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2011/jul/24/norway-anders-behring-breivik-beliefs

The Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who shot dead more than 90 young socialists at their summer camp on Friday after mounting a huge bomb attack on the centre of Oslo, has been described as a fundamentalist Christian. Yet he published enough of his thoughts on the internet to make it clear that even in his saner moments his ideology had nothing to do with Christianity but was based on an atavistic horror of Muslims and a loathing of “Marxists”, by which he meant anyone to the left of Genghis Khan.

Two huge conspiracy theories form the gearboxes of his writing. The first is that Islam threatens the survival of Europe through what he calls “demographic Jihad”. Through a combination of uncontrolled immigration and uncontrolled breeding, the Muslims, who cannot live at peace with their neighbours, are conquering Europe.

But these ideas, however crazy, are part of a widespread paranoid ideology that links the European and American far right and even elements of mainstream conservatism in Britain.

Read the complete article here.

Muslims feel sting of initial blame

July 27, 2011
By

Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times, Jul.23, www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norway-blame-20110724,0,5844311.story

In the immediate wake of the bombing and mass shooting in Norway that left at least 92 people dead Friday, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg declared that it was too early to say whether terrorism was involved.

Some interpreted the statement to mean it was unclear whether Muslim extremists were behind the attack.

Then Anders Behring Breivik, described by police as a “right-wing Christian fundamentalist,” was arrested in connection with the attacks.

Within the Muslim community, there was a sigh of relief that it wasn’t someone connected with their religion, but also a sting at being initially scapegoated — not unlike what occurred immediately after the Oklahoma City bombing by right-wing American extremists in 1995.

“This is predictable and something that we have come to expect, but it is sad,” said Safaa Zarzour, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America. “For most Muslims, it is a confirmation of how they already feel, that they are guilty until proven innocent.”

He said despite the perception of Muslims being always at odds with others, the fight is actually between the mainstream and the extreme of every religion.

Read the complete article here.

Religions as instruments of peace

July 15, 2011
By

Theodore Gill, Ekklesia, Jul.14, www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/15103

‘Religions as instruments of peace’ is the subtitle of a 2011 summer course on ‘Building an interfaith community’. Twenty-three students from more than a dozen nations have assembled at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland for the course which runs from 4 to 29 July.

One of the early lecturers admitted that many observers today see religions not as instruments of peace but as reasons for conflict. “Our hands as religious leaders are not clean,” said Rabbi Richard Marker of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations.

The experience of too many nations and their governments, he added, “is that religion is a cause of divisiveness that works against shared values.”

Now in its fifth year, the institute’s summer course on interfaith relations brings together students of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions for a time of study, shared experience of one another’s sacred spaces and reflection on their own cultures, spiritualities and worldviews.

The student body is made up of nine men and fourteen women. Ten are Christian, seven are Muslim and six are Jewish.

Read the complete article here.

Giving up religion for individual faith

July 15, 2011
By

Frank Raj, Washington Times, Jul.9, communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/no-2-religion-yes-2-faith/2011/jul/9/giving-religion-individual-faith-there-difference/

Somewhere in my journey of faith, other people ceased to be religious brands. I see no profit in allegiance to any religion and am skeptical about them all.  Every major religion is tainted with blood, and every one of them will gladly control your mind for life.

Should there be one common message every religious believer needs to hear, perhaps it could be something like this:

“If Christ cannot be glimpsed in the followers of Christianity, they should admit their religion is a mistake and stop faking it; Muslim’s should not advocate Islam until Muslim against Muslim carnage ends and Salaam Aleikum becomes a reality in true submission to God’s will; If Hindus want to prove their religion is the Sanatan Dharm, why not break free from Samsara by revolting en masse against India’s caste system? That will eliminate a far more insidious form of apartheid than South Africa’s, because the caste system persists in the guise of religion.”

Read the complete article here.

Mother Teresa made me a better Hindu

July 15, 2011
By

Ruih Bose interviewed by Deborah Arca, Patheos, Jul. 11, www.patheos.com//Resources/Additional-Resources/Mother-Teresa-and-Me-An-Interview-with-Ruma-Bose-Deborah-Arca-07-12-2011.html

As a little girl, Ruma Bose fell in love with Mother Teresa through the colorful stories her mother told her every night about the “Super Angel.” Years later, when she learned that the Saint had survived a heart attack, a 20-year-old Bose packed a bag, flew to Calcutta and showed up on the Mother Teresa’s doorstep, determined to meet one of her heroes. Now, nearly twenty years later, Bose, a successful entrepreneur and businesswoman, is drawing on her experience with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity for a new book on leadership principles called Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership.

“Although Mother Teresa was a Catholic missionary, she would say: “If a Hindu is a better Hindu, or a Muslim is a better Muslim, or a Buddhist is a better Buddhist as a result of my example, then how can I be upset about that?” She transcended religion. I’m Hindu, I’m not Catholic, but she had such a tremendous impact in my life and I hold her in the highest regard.

I am a better person today as a result of her influence in my life. Religion provides me with a source of faith and a set of values by which to practice my daily life, and Mother Teresa, by her example, helped me understand different ways to practice my own faith and be a better and more spiritual person.”

Read the complete article here.

Christians should learn how to be a ‘minority’ from Muslims, bishop says

July 12, 2011
By

Tim Ross, Daily Telegraph, Jul.12, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8631059/Christians-should-learn-how-to-be-a-minority-from-Muslims-bishop-says.html

The Rt Rev Nick Baines, the Bishop of Bradford, said some parishes in his diocese were 95% Muslim but that this should not be seen as “a problem”.

“This is a fantastic opportunity,” he told the General Synod, the Church of England’s national assembly, in York.

“It is a challenge, yes, but it’s an opportunity to rethink what it means to be a Christian community. We often ask Muslims to learn what it is to be a Muslim as a minority culture.

“Maybe we could benefit from learning some of the same lessons in some of our cities.”

Read the complete article here.

Church of England: respect faith in workplace

July 12, 2011
By

Tim Ross, Daily Telegraph, Jul.11, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8628918/Church-of-England-bishops-meet-ministers-over-chilling-effect-of-equality-laws.html

Some employers see quiet displays of religious belief by their staff as being offensive “almost by definition”, the Church’s national assembly, the General Synod, has been warned.

Senior Anglicans have raised their concerns in meetings with government ministers and expect practical measures to safeguard Christian rights in response.

A series of cases in recent months have seen Christians face disciplinary action and even the law courts for expressing their beliefs, or displaying symbols such as the cross, at work.

Senior bishops including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, have raised their concerns over the pursuit of “equality” at the expense of religious freedom with government ministers, including David Cameron.

Read the complete article here.

Confucius and Martin Buber: Understanding Goodness

July 12, 2011
By

Rodney Taylor, Huffington Post, Jul.10, www.huffingtonpost.com/rodney-l-taylor-phd/confucius-and-martin-bube_1_b_890515.html

The central Confucian virtue of jen, most often rendered as “goodness,” defines the proper relation of one person to another, a relationship always articulated for Confucianism in ethical terms. Its core foundational meaning is best understood in terms of the Confucian virtue of shu, reciprocity, defined by Confucius as: “Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you” (Analects 15:23).

Let me suggest a way of understanding Confucian “goodness” through an unlikely comparison — Confucius and Martin Buber.

One of the great Jewish theologians of the 20th century, Martin Buber (1878-1965) proposed a unique way of describing relationships within humanity and between humanity and God. He used two descriptions that have become emblematic of his teachings and theology in general — “I and Thou” and “I and It.”

Buber’s concern was to take notice of the condition in which people live their lives, largely alienated from both humanity and God. Beginning with humanity, we relate to others, but we relate in ways that for Buber never moves beyond regarding the other person as an “object,” an “It.” Because of this form of relationship, the result is a failure to fully experience the “other” for what her or she actually is fully as a human being: a caring, nurturing and loving being who seeks meaning and purpose in life just as we seek such goals for ourselves. Because of this failure to fully experience the “other” as we would want ourselves experienced, in depth and meaning, there is a fracturing between oneself and others.

The message to contemporary society from two different religious perspectives is the necessity of acting through moral reflection in how one interacts not only with others, but also ultimately with one’s source of religious authority, be it God or T’ien, Heaven.

Read the complete article here.