► Interfaith
Cooperation Begins with Tackling Life’s Adversities
Jahan Ara Begum
The Indian city of Hyderabad has periodically witnessed communal
violence between its Hindu and Muslim citizens since the country’s
independence in 1947. An organization in the city that has attempted
to bring members of both communities together on a daily basis is
the Henry Martyn Institute (HMI). The communal tensions that rapidly
increased in the 1990s after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in
the town of Ayodhya in December 1992 prompted the initiation of
HMI’s interfaith community development work in the areas of the city
that had been sensitive to communal clashes.
The author, the coordinator of HMI’s community development team,
shares the stories in this article of two struggling families who
have been assisted with their problems through their everyday
interaction with people from the other faith community. [Read
more]
► A
Reflection on Violence and Tools for Realizing Justpeace
So Nasier
A School of Peace (SOP) alumni in Cambodia shares his thoughts about
steps that need to be taken to foster justpeace in conflicts that
afflict our local communities and nations. [Read
more]
► Religiously
Motivated Violence Is Not Religious
Inayah Rohmaniyah
The author, an academic at a university in Indonesia, explains that
violence in the name of Islam is not based on a proper reading of
the Qur’an nor an accurate understanding of the faith, including the
teachings of such Islamic religious movements as Salafism and
Wahhabism. [Read more]
►
Poisoned Minds Fuelling the Massacre
of Shias in Pakistan
Saba Imtiaz
In an article published by the Jinnah Institute, another attack on
members of the Shia community in Pakistan prompts the author to
question the longstanding link between the perpetrators and the
State. [Read more]
► Another
Priest Killed in the Philippines
Religious Discernment Group
Fr. Fausto Tentorio, a Catholic priest, became the latest victim of
extrajudicial killings in the Philippines—a widespread phenomenon
that began under the country’s former president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
in 2001 and that has sadly continued under the current president,
Benigno Aquino III, since he took office in June 2010. Fr. Tentorio
now joins a long list of Christian priests, pastors and lay people
in the Philippines who have been crucified by a bullet instead of a
cross for trying to live out their faith. This list includes Bishop
Alberto Ramento, Fr. William Tadena and Brother Benjamin Bayles of
the Philippine Independent Church; the Rev. Isaias Sta. Rosa of the
Methodist Church; and 18 members of the United Church of the
Philippines, among whom are the Rev. Edison Lapuz, the Rev. Raul
Domingo, the Rev. Andy Pawican, the Rev. Felomino Catambis, Noel
Capulong and Joel Baclao. [Read
more]
► Israelis
and Palestinians Refusing to Be Enemies
Haggai Matar
The title of this article reflects a “central theme in the fight for
peace and democracy” in the Middle East, notes this Israeli author,
who himself refused to serve in his country’s armed forces 10 years
ago because of his strong disagreement with the occupation of
Palestine. In this article, he also highlights a recent movement for
social justice in Israel that extends the notion of security to
include education, employment and housing for both Arabs and Jews,
but he cautions that this new movement will most likely face the
same difficult choice he did a decade ago. [Read
more]
► Former
Palestinian Prisoners—Future Peacemakers?
Robi Damelin
In spite of the loss of her son to a sniper’s bullet, an Israeli
mother shares her belief in this article about the possibility of
more than 1,000 new Palestinian peacemakers on the occasion of their
release from prison in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit
in October. [Read more]
►
Lebanese Women Fight Revolution
through Football
Juul Petersen
Some women in Lebanon, the author explains, are beginning to
challenge social norms in their country that retard gender equality.
The arena for this social revolution is the football pitch. [Read
more]
► A
Prayer for the Times of 9/11
Rev. Dr. Sylvia Casberg
This pastor shares her reflections of where she was and what she was
doing in Denver, Colorado, when the tragedy of Sept. 11 in 2001
disrupted the lives of people in the United States and its aftermath
of those around the world. In response, she offered this prayer
whose poignancy has not diminished with the passage of this past
decade. [Read more] ► A
Song Whose Title Is ‘No More’!
Bhagwan Maaji, Meghnath, Sunil Minj and Vinod Kumar
This song captures the feelings of India’s Adivasis, or indigenous
people, to what those outside of their community and spirituality
view as development. The title was added by the editor. [Read
more]
► Understanding
the Hajj
With the hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca in Saudi
Arabia taking place in November, this web site—<http://www.iqrasense.com/hajj/hajj-pilgrimage-rituals-of-hajj.html>—offers
information about the history, rituals and other details of this
pillar of Islam.
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