What do critics of Islam have in common with bin Laden? They both have a reductive, prescriptive understanding of religion and they use it to assert superiority over others.
The recently launched Musawah Movement reckons with the Qur’an and Sharia to ensure that women aren’t subject to hostile and unequal treatment by their communities or families.
The people of Aceh have been resisting foreign domination for decades, and the territory has long been torn by violence. In the wake of the tsunami a theology—and a politics—of peace is taking root.
After spending a year exploring life in digital Islamic communities, a new project finds that people are building new narratives to find ways to coexist; their report even includes a policy recommendation for the Obama administration’s diplomacy efforts in the Middle East.
The numbers are in and you, the reader, have chosen your favorite RD stories of the year; from Rick Warren to AIPAC, Sarah Palin, Creationism 2.0 and the fabled “death” of the religious right.
What we are witnessing in Iran is a coup against elements of the establishment deemed insufficiently committed to a radical reading of Islam. Unable to handle the messy outcome of democracy is the regime in serious trouble?
In a small town in Spain, a yearly festival celebrates the hybrid racial and cultural identities, both Christian and Muslim, of the local populace—a ritual of reconciliation.
In the midst of a global financial crisis one sector has yet to suffer the fate of the rest. Islamic finance, or Sharia-compliant banking, offers strict moral guidelines for dealing with money. Trading debt and risky speculation are off-limits, as is investment in immoral enterprises like gambling, prostitution, and war profiteering. It might be time to get the muftis on the phone.
