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A muslim professor in Germany has decided that the Prophet SAW did not exist.*
I understand the need and right of academia to perform critical examination of religion, but this seems a pretty quixotic agenda. It seems like he’s more intoxicated with his own status as academic freethinker than performing any serious academic inquiry. There’s far more evidence for Mohammed’s SAW existence than there was for Jesus AS.
*astaghfirullah.
Study: Religion repressed in third of all nations holding 70 percent of the world’s population.
People living in a third of all countries are restricted from practicing religion freely, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, “Global Restrictions on Religion.”
That amounts to 70 percent of the globe’s population, since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous.
Of the world’s 25 most populous countries, citizens in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India live with the most restrictions when both measures are taken into account, the study found.
“Where those two come together is where it’s most intense,” said Brian Grim, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The United States, Brazil, Japan, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least amount of restrictions on religious practices when measured by both government infringement and religion-based violence or harassment, according to the study.
America does religious freedom right: new mosque to be built in shadow of 9-11 Ground Zero.
Switzerland, are you paying attention?
Switzerland votes today on the minaret ban.
UPDATE: and the ban is approved.
Mikey Weinstein (who apparently is most known for advocating for Jewish members of the U.S. armed forces) of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is calling for investigation into reports that Nidal Hasan was harassed over his religion and ethnicity in the military.
Weinstein, who spent 10 years in the Air Force as a military attorney, or JAG, said he also doesn’t believe reports that Hasan’s colleagues hesitated to report his changes in behavior because of political correctness. In fact, he claimed, Hasan’s superiors would have been sympathetic to hearing such charges because of their strong Christian beliefs.
Weinstein would like to see military leaders make an “unadulterated clarion call” that Americans shouldn’t “paint all of Islam with a broad brush” and emphasize a “zero tolerance policy” of any religious harassment.
A 1977 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, from where his two sons and daughter-in-law also have graduated, Weinstein argues that Jews, Muslims and most members of the military who are not an evangelical Christian face a hostile environment from what he says are “fundamentalist Christians” who dominate the armed forces and are constantly trying to proselytize others.
In Azerbaijan, the government is forcibly closing mosques, citing extremism and security.
US Religious Freedom Report Hits Speech Curbs
By David Gollust
State Department
26 October 2009U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report 2009
The U.S. State Department’s annual report on world-wide religious freedom, released Monday, was critical of what it says are international efforts to limit free speech in the name of combating defamation of religion. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC, has been pushing such anti-defamation measures in U.N. bodies.The State Department report says the United States deplores actions that show disrespect for religious traditions, including Islam.
But it says the broad anti-defamation measures being sought by the Islamic Conference would have the effect of curbing debate about religious issues and should be discarded in favor of outreach and government defense of religious freedom and free speech.
The Karamanli people: a religious tolerance case study in Turkey. Josh notes that secularism has created a strange paradox of identity indeed.
Malaysia and Turkey make for an interesting case study comparison, in terms of how they approach the West.
This piece on Turkey’s approach to religious tolerance is also relevant; would be interested in a similar assessment for Malaysia. Any suggestions?
stupid manufactured issue of the day: the “Bible Bill” which will designate 2010 as the “Year of the Bible”.
Baptism by proxy: During the 2008 Presidential campaign, someone in the Mormon Church in Provo, Utah posthumously baptized Stanley Ann Dunham, Barack Obama’s mother.
Time and Seasons explains that the Church has tried to limit baptisms by proxy except where requested by direct descendants. Dunham’s name was apparently submitted to the church’s FamilySearch.org genealogical site multiple times by at least three different people in three states. The proxy rites were performed in June of 2008, presumably without the knowledge of anyone in the Obama family.
Apparently this has been going on for awhile with Holocaust survivors. I’m not even sure how to tag this: religious freedom? religious tyranny? forced conversion after death? religious appropriation? religious colonialism?
over at secular right my co-blogger john derbyshire wrote a post arguing against gay marriage on secular grounds. now, contrary to what some mentally ill people might imply (you know who you are) i personally support the right of homosexuals to marry. but i also think that we’re at a point in the united states where there isn’t a strong consensus in either direction, though the data suggest that over the long term those who oppose gay marriage are fighting a futile battle. i find it interesting that many of the comments imply those who oppose gay marriage are ipso facto bigots. in any case, these sorts of instances illustrate to me the validity of winnifred sullivan’s thesis in the impossibility of religious freedom, and the operational sham that is classical liberalism.
the taha abdul-basser story in forward:
Abdul-Basser’s e-mail was circulated through an e-mail list and subsequently posted April 3 on the blog Talk Islam, from which it was picked up by several other blogs. On April 14, The Harvard Crimson, a student-run daily, published an article about the controversy. One week later, on April 21, it remained the paper’s most viewed, most commented-upon article online.
they quote aziz….
On the listservs, there is an uproar developing over comments made by Harvard Muslim Chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser (his blogger profile here) in response to an email query about apostasy stating that apostates should be killed – though they can only be killed by a legitimate “Muslim governmental authority and can not be performed by non-state, private actors.”
Concerned Muslims who are Harvard alums (or not) are being encouraged to write to Harvard and complain. Some are calling for his removal. Below the fold, the message fragment that is being forwarded around:
Why don’t the Baha’i get as much attention as Palestinians do? Is it because of who they aren’t? Or because of who their oppressors aren’t?
In response to Rabbi Brad Hirschfield’s atrocious mischaracterization of Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s thoughtful piece on muslim anti-Semitism, I argue that Jewish Islamophobia is counter-productive.
Mosques in Germany: confrontational architecture. I have some related thoughts on mosques in Europe as barometers of religious freedom.
regarding the forced ritual flogging of young boys –
the issue really serves to highlight the necessity of governmental oversight of religious practice. Not to define what religious practices are “correct” or not, but rather to simply be blind to religion when evaluating issues against the law. The question of whether self-flagellation is an authentic Islamic or Shi’a practice is a (bloody) red herring – the question is simply whether the actions violated Law. And they did, so Mr. Zaidi needs to be prosecuted accordingly. Bringing this issue into the domain of religious freedom only serves to cloud the issue, and taint the entire muslim community, Sunni and Shi’a alike.
good discussion at Deenport, also, particularly this comment:
apart from the (elected) government, who else can provide public safeguards when religious practices veer into problematic areas, for instance where they are forced upon those who are uncomfortable with them, or simply don’t accept them as ‘correct’ religious practices?
I do believe that ultimately, these safeguards protect religious minorities even while they impose limits on public manifestations of religion. Do we need protecting from ourselves? I think that sometimes we do…
The state’s need to define ‘religion’: The trial of a man who whipped himself during a ritual ceremony and then allegedly forced two teenage boys to do the same, has begun in Manchester.