Archive for the ‘Islam’ Category
Mar 15 2010  |
Common sense says one size does not fit all in approaches to human relationships. This may be particularly true in the more subjective experiences of the transcendent. Yet whether it is the emotionally charged subject of human sexuality or the culturally charged subject of women in Islam, there is a reluctance to give ground on our own social and political views to allow for different approaches and ways of understanding. Three recent studies provide insights into diverse data on subjects from AIDS education in Africa to teens’ response to Christian music to the reasons U.S. women convert to Islam. Some of the results may surprise you.
[Read Full Column...]Nov 19 2009 |
True or false?
1. Islam and Christianity share a similar history of connections between religion and violence.
2. Muslims in countries where they are the majority want more political participation, freedoms and rule of law.
3. Forbidding female students from wearing head coverings in public schools lowers the possibility of religious violence.
If you answered true, true and false, congratulations. You agree with some of the top scholars in religion offering their perspectives in a timely effort by the Association of Religion Data Archives to widen access to the best of international religion scholarship.
Aug 7 2009 |
Forgive President Obama his misstatement that America has one of the world’s largest populations of Muslims. He was only reflecting a larger lack of knowledge of world religion that has allowed some in the fields of religion, academics and the media to promote the ethnocentric idea that the United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world. The problem is, like many other claims of American triumphalism from the left or the right, it is just not true.
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