President Barack Obama has filled the post for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. On June 16, the White House sent Suzan D. Johnson Cook's nomination to the Senate for confirmation. William Wan and Michelle Boorstein, posting on The Washington Post's religion blog, "On Faith," commented on her nomination.
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Announcements, events, and opportunities related to topics of interest to TIF readers are posted here. Additionally you may find round-ups of news items and brief commentary on current events.
For a listing of all of the events announcements, click here.
For a listing of announcements regarding books, click here.
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Spain moves to ban burqa
by Aaron WeinsteinIn the most recent European attempt to prevent radical Islam's spread, Spain's Senate voted this past Wednesday in favor of prohibiting Muslim women from donning the burqa---the traditional Islamic veil which covers a woman's entire body except her eyes. New York Times columnist Raphael Minder suggests that the country's sudden---and, some would say, unexpected---decision to follow fellow EU members like France and Belgium, was precipitated by upcoming regional elections in Catalonia later this year, in which immigration and Islam are two politically charged and contested issues.
June 25, 2010
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The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam
by Jake AlterHaroon Moghul reviews Sean Foley's new book: The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam.
June 25, 2010
books
Confronting non-violent Islamism
by Jessica PolebaumIn the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, Marc Lynch reviews Paul Berman's The Flight of the Intellectuals, taking the opportunity to discuss reactions to non-violent Islamism.
June 25, 2010
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Petraeus, Military Anthropology, and Religion
by David WalkerAt PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly site, George R. Lucas Jr wonders whether David Petraeus might “ramp up” efforts in Afghanistan to “enlist the aid of anthropologists and other academic social scientists to advise on ethics and local cultural practices,” as he did in Iraq. Meanwhile, Susan Jacoby, in her Washington Post blog, doubts the degree to which this change in American military leadership will yield meaningful, long-lasting cultural effects. She writes: “Regardless of who is in charge of U.S. forces in that country, the inside story remains the same: this is a society dominated by a toxic mixture of tribal thuggery and radical Islam, both of them based on repression of women.”
June 27, 2010
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Stephen Prothero on inter-religious difference, again
by David WalkerCharles Gelman has already posted here on Stephen Prothero's book God is Not One, but a new interview with the author, published at Religion Dispatches, may be of additional interest. In it, Prothero clarifies his book's location and argument, and he discusses its reception and intended audience.
June 28, 2010
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Gauging irreligion in the heart of Europe
by Jake AlterConventional wisdom states that the Czech Republic is the least religious society in the West. At The Guardian, Dana Hamplová discusses the historical origins of the Czechs' famed secularity, which reach back before Communism, and highlights the abiding forms of religious activity in the former Soviet satellite.
June 28, 2010
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Muslim political history: two views from the West
by Sam HanIn this week's New York Times Sunday Book Review, Max Rodenbeck has an essay on two recent books on Islam: Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East, by Bernard Lewis, and Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, by Fred M. Donner. Rodenbeck suggests that these two works, though both published quite recently, are representative of two very different approaches to the history of Islam.
June 28, 2010
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Carrying the blank banner
by Amanda KaplanFor the first time in over a decade, reports CNN, members of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church marched in NYC's Gay Pride Parade under a blank banner.
June 28, 2010
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Ruling against discrimination
by Amanda KaplanThe Supreme Court ruled against the Christian Legal Society at the University of California's Hastings College of Law, which claimed that the First Amendment protected its right to refuse membership to gay and lesbian students. The Court upheld the college's decision to prohibit such action, ruling "5-4 that the college's decision did not violate the group's First Amendment rights of association, free speech, and free exercise."
June 28, 2010