Inter-Culturalism

The Sun Is Setting on the Two-State Solution

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Perhaps recent leaders of Israel might made better choices had they spent more time reading Sherlock Holmes. Of particular use to them might have been The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet in which Holmes says, “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Then they might have realized that the result of making a two-state solution impossible was to make a one-state solution inevitable. Having worked to weaken Palestine, to undermine all Palestinian leaders, to create – in Sharon’s memorable phrase for the settlements – facts on the ground they are now like a go player who having focused exclusively on a specific battle over territory suddenly looks at the bigger picture and realizes he’s lost the game. We are now at that point of realization.

Christianity

Launching my blog posts: A Sufi Look at Genesis, with a Tribute to King James

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When a couple gets married, they traditionally have a wedding. When a child is born, people usually throw some kind of celebration. When a ship sets out on its maiden voyage, it is customary to break a champagne bottle against its bow. A position as a blogger is, of course, nothing compared to those things. What are the opinions of one pundit, compared to a marriage, a new human life, or the ocean-crossing journeys of a ship?

Gender and Sexuality

Bridging Difference

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I think the hardest interactions in my life have been the ones where I expect similarity, and then I’m confronted with difference. This can occur anytime. But in my life, it happens most often when I’m confronted with a man who seems like a touchy-feely guy, and then turns out to be anything but. The problem sometimes happens at the semantic level, where words I think have obvious overtones — whether of judgement, of criticism, or other kinds of negativity — are seen by my counterpart as having no such nuances. Sometimes it happens when the man I assume to be my (feminist) ally turns on me for what seem like (masculinist/macho) reasons.

Humanism

Religion, law, and the politics of human rights

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New at The Immanent Frame: Talal Asad and Abdullahi An-Na’im both stand at the forefront of the challenging and constructive exchange taking place today between European and Islamic traditions of political, legal, and religious thought. At a recent event organized by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, the two scholars traded questions and criticisms concerning the concept of human rights. Moderated by José Casanova, the discussion addressed the intrinsic limitations and historical failures of the language of human rights, as well as its formidable capacity to challenge autocratic and state-centric distributions of power, creating openings for democratic contestation and political self-determination. A short excerpt of the exchange has been posted at The Immanent Frame and a complete transcript is available for download here (pdf). You can also watch video from this event at here & there.

Buddhism

Interfaith Youth Conference: What a Thrill!

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In one room, young Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, secular humanists, and others cluster in a circle to learn strategies for facilitating constructive interfaith discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Down the hall, more young people — bareheaded or wearing headscarves or kippot — crowd together to discuss multifaith intentional living communities, learn about the Baha’i faith, create videos about youth-led interfaith activism, and train to volunteer as advocates for undocumented immigrants. Talk about a rich space for conversation. All this happened during one morning of the Interfaith Youth Core’s 2009 conference, which took place October 25-27 at Northwestern University, just north of Chicago. The conference brought high school and college students engaged in interfaith work together with religious leaders, politicians, and authors interested in interreligious cooperation.

Inter-Culturalism

Black and Jewish teens discovering their shared activist history

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I’ve been hearing for a couple of years from Karen Kalish about this program that takes Black and Jewish teens around the country to  learn about the ways their activist forebears helped each other’s causes. Now teenager Nina Oberman has written us a beautiful piece that tells you what’s happening. Cultural Leadership
by Nina Oberman
In 1963 in Birmingham, teenagers my age walked fearlessly as a torrent of water drove into their bodies, forcing them to the ground. They stared into the menacing eyes of police dogs, at their shredding teeth, their flailing paws, and their tongues slack and thirsty with the blindness of trained attack. 45 years later, I stood on the very same ground that they clung to in determination.

Gender and Sexuality

Borders vs Limits (Part 1)

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Think back to the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. One of the issues that generated a lot of heat was the immigration debate. While the debate touched on several other issues, such as unemployment and national identity, at its heart the debate centered on this: the rights of those who were not U.S. citizens but live within its borders, or of those who do live outside its borders and are trying to get in. After all, borders are there to establish who’s in and who’s out, right? Now, fast forward nearly almost one year.

Culture

Body of the Goddess

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Today an email arrived that bowled me over. It’s from Shailja Patel. I love the synchronicity of its arrival. Balmurli Natrajan has been blogging about Hindu fascism from a secular perspective. Shailja Patel enlarges that point of view by adding a Goddess perspective.

Culture

Zeitoun: You Will Really Love this Book

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Dave (peerless leader) Belden writes: And other Tikkun Daily bloggers, please post about your own recommendations now and then if you have them (tag them “recommended novels” so we can find them when story-hungry later). I’ve got my library card. I’m ready. And that’s an offer I can’t refuse. I’ve already blogged about Robert Wright’s challenging and rewarding “The Evolution of God”, which traces how the concept of the divine described in the Bible and Koran evolves in a manner that correlates strongly with the political situations that the writers were in at the time.

Culture

Get Out The Truth About Glenn Beck

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I just received this from the people at Color of Change (above: photo from their website):
Glenn Beck was just on the cover of TIME magazine. Instead of telling the truth about Beck–that he repeatedly race-baits, lies and distorts the truth–TIME raises the question of whether Beck represents a legitimate voice in American politics. It’s absurd, and it’s not just TIME. In article after article, reporters seem afraid to call out what Beck is actually doing, and they often neglect to mention the very real backlash against Beck, including the fact that more than 62 companies have stopped advertising on his show. You can help.