Exploring how religious and secular forces interact in the modern world.
Ultimately, when you fear violence that is against “the law” yet normalize the violence of “the law,” my safety is not the only casualty. Yours is too.
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The task of answering the questions facing Islamic theology today cannot be met by those who have no attachment to their Islamic roots. It also cannot be accomplished by an individual alone.
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Contending Modernities profiles Catholic Relief Service’s gender and development-focused Dialogue and Action Project (DAP) in the coastal region of Kenya.
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This piece responds to a symposium on Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square. Read the full article »
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Retaining, reconfiguring, and renouncing traditional embodiments of sex, gender, and sexuality. Read the full article »
Read More →The proposed bill on a Charter of Quebec Values, introduced in 2013, generated great tensions, sparking criticism of the Government of Quebec, and igniting public debate on religion, public ethics, and citizenship. However, the proposed bill also served to broaden citizen participation and acted as a catalyst for mobilization and networking across religious associations and institutions. Read the full article »
Read More →There may be examples of a “clash between modernities,” but the recent wave of protests in several Muslim majority countries against the so-called “innocence of Muslims” film was not one of them. Indeed, protests by Muslims should be accepted as part of the process of “negotiating” the appropriate limits of two varieties of free speech. If the movie maker in this case is exercising his right to free speech, so are Muslims who are protesting the excessively vulgar ways in which he expressed his views. But it is equally clear that violence is never justified.
Read More →Believers in a religion such as Islam can scarcely hope to speak for all Muslims, let alone for all humanity. They must accept the authority of a public sphere in which people are free to make their case to their fellow women and men on the basis of culturally normative modes of discourse. This sounds exactly like the manner in which prophets used to operate back in the day. Moses defeated the magicians in pharaoh’s court, and Muhammad outdid the Arab poets on their home turf.
Read More →“If Islam is so great and things are so wonderful back home, why did you come here?” As an international student from Pakistan who had grown up in a relatively privileged household, my transition to college life in America had promised to be seamless. And in many ways it was, at least outwardly. So my culture shock was extraordinarily abrupt. In the course of a midnight conversation on religion and politics, a fellow student had jolted me out of my comfort zone with his jarring question.
Read More →It is just days before the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics. A significant — though usually undiscussed — factor in the success of London’s Olympic bid was the diversity of cultures and faiths in the city, and particularly in east London, where the Olympic Park is located.
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