Download or read book Religious Freedom in the Near East Northern Africa and the Former Soviet States written by Edward P. Lipton and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human rights, of which the freedom of religion is a crticial componenet, are promised by most governments on Planet Earth. But promises are promises, are promises. In real life, religious liberty is far from a universal fact. This book surveys the countries of Africa based on U S State Department reports and is augmented by a current bibliography and a useful index.
Download or read book A Sacred Space Is Never Empty written by Victoria Smolkin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Bolsheviks set out to build a new world in the wake of the Russian Revolution, they expected religion to die off. Soviet power used a variety of tools--from education to propaganda to terror—to turn its vision of a Communist world without religion into reality. Yet even with its monopoly on ideology and power, the Soviet Communist Party never succeeded in overcoming religion and creating an atheist society. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty presents the first history of Soviet atheism from the 1917 revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews with those who were on the front lines of Communist ideological campaigns, Victoria Smolkin argues that to understand the Soviet experiment, we must make sense of Soviet atheism. Smolkin shows how atheism was reimagined as an alternative cosmology with its own set of positive beliefs, practices, and spiritual commitments. Through its engagements with religion, the Soviet leadership realized that removing religion from the "sacred spaces" of Soviet life was not enough. Then, in the final years of the Soviet experiment, Mikhail Gorbachev—in a stunning and unexpected reversal—abandoned atheism and reintroduced religion into Soviet public life. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty explores the meaning of atheism for religious life, for Communist ideology, and for Soviet politics.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan written by P. R. Kumaraswamy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-30 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook presents a broad yet nuanced portrait of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, its socio-political rifts, economic challenges, foreign policy priorities and historical complexities. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has traditionally been an oasis of peace and stability in the ever-turbulent Middle East. The political ambitions of regional powers, often expressed in the form of territorial aggrandisement, have followed the Hashemites like an inseparable shadow. The scarcity of natural resources, especially water, has been compounded by the periodic influx of refugees from its neighbours. As a result, many—Arab and non-Arab alike—have questioned the longevity and survival of Jordan. These uncertainties were compounded when the founding ruler, King Abdullah I, became involved in the nascent Palestinian problem at the end of World War II. The annexation of the eastern part of Mandate Palestine or the West Bank in the wake of the 1948 War transformed the Jordanian demography and sowed the seeds of an uneasy relationship with the Palestinian component of its population, citizens, residents and refugees. Though better natural resources and stronger leaders have not ensured political stability in many Arab and non-Arab countries, Jordan has been an exception. Indeed, since its formation as an Emirate by the British in 1921, the Kingdom has seen only four rulers, a testimony to the sagacity and political foresight of the Hashemites. The Hashemites have managed to sustain the semi-rentier model primarily through international aid and assistance, which in turn inhibits Jordan from pursuing rapid political and economic reforms. Though a liberal, multi-religious and multicultural society, Jordan has been hampered by social cleavages especially between the tribal population and the forces of modernization.
Download or read book A New Vision a New Heart a Renewed Call written by David Claydon and published by William Carey Library. This book was released on 2005 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Religious Freedom in Islam written by Daniel Philpott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since at least the attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the most pressing political questions of the age has been whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Daniel Philpott examines conditions on the ground in forty-seven Muslim-majority countries today and offers an honest, clear-eyed answer to this urgent question. It is not, however, a simple answer. From a satellite view, the Muslim world looks unfree. But, Philpott shows, the truth is much more complex. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Of the other countries, about forty percent are governed not by Islamists but by a hostile secularism imported from the West, while the other sixty percent are Islamist. The picture that emerges is both honest and hopeful. Yes, most Muslim-majority countries are lacking in religious freedom. But, Philpott argues, the Islamic tradition carries within it "seeds of freedom," and he offers guidance for how to cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large. It is an urgent project. Religious freedom promotes goods like democracy and the advancement of women that are lacking in the Muslim-majority world and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Further, religious freedom is simply a matter of justice--not an exclusively Western value, but rather a universal right rooted in human nature. Its realization is critical to the aspirations of religious minorities and dissenters in Muslim countries, to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries or under secular dictatorships, and to relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this thoughtful book, Philpott seeks to establish a constructive middle ground in a fiery and long-lasting debate over Islam.
Download or read book Young Islam written by Avi Max Spiegel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the competition for young recruits is creating rivalries among Islamists today Today, two-thirds of all Arab Muslims are under the age of thirty. Young Islam takes readers inside the evolving competition for their support—a competition not simply between Islamism and the secular world, but between different and often conflicting visions of Islam itself. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research among rank-and-file activists in Morocco, Avi Spiegel shows how Islamist movements are encountering opposition from an unexpected source—each other. In vivid and compelling detail, he describes the conflicts that arise as Islamist groups vie with one another for new recruits, and the unprecedented fragmentation that occurs as members wrangle over a shared urbanized base. Looking carefully at how political Islam is lived, expressed, and understood by young people, Spiegel moves beyond the top-down focus of current research. Instead, he makes the compelling case that Islamist actors are shaped more by their relationships to each other than by their relationships to the state or even to religious ideology. By focusing not only on the texts of aging elites but also on the voices of diverse and sophisticated Muslim youths, Spiegel exposes the shifting and contested nature of Islamist movements today—movements that are being reimagined from the bottom up by young Islam. The first book to shed light on this new and uncharted era of Islamist pluralism in the Middle East and North Africa, Young Islam uncovers the rivalries that are redefining the next generation of political Islam.
Download or read book Worst of the Worst written by Robert I. Rotberg and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and World Peace Foundation publication Repressive regimes tyrannize their own citizens and threaten global stability and order. These repositories of evil systematically oppress their own people, deny human rights and civil liberties, severely truncate political freedom, and prevent meaningful individual economic opportunity. Worst of the Worst identifies and characterizes the world's most odious states and singles out which repressors are aggressive and, hence, can truly be called rogues. Previously, determinations have been based on inexact, impressionistic criteria. In this volume, Robert Rotberg and his colleagues define the actions that constitute repression and propose a method of measuring human rights violations. They offer an index of nation-state repressiveness, classifying "gross repressors," "high repressors," and "aggressive repressors" or "rogues" on a ten-point scale. Based on arms and drug trafficking, support of terror, possession of weapons of mass destruction, and crossborder attacks, this valuable diagnostic tool will guide the international community in crafting effective policies to deal with injustice in the developing world. The repressors and rogues profiled include Belarus, Burma, Equatorial Guinea, NorthKorea, Syria, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. W orst of the Worst offers a transparent way to decide which repressive and rogue states are most deserving of strong policy attention. Explicitly measuring and labeling these highly repressive states is the first step toward improving the well-being of millions of the poorest and most abused peoples of the globe. Contributors include Margarita M. Balmaceda (Seton Hall University), Mary Caprioli (University of Minnesota Duluth), Priscilla A. Clapp (Safe Ports, LLC),Yi Feng (Claremont Graduate University), Gregory Gleason (University of New Mexico), John Heilbrunn (Colorado School of Mines), Clement M. Henry (University of Texas at Austin),David W. Lesch (Trinity University),
Download or read book The Middle East in the World written by Lucia Volk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-11 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle East in the World offers students a fresh, comprehensive, multidisciplinary entry point to the broader Middle East. After a brief introduction to the study of the region, the early chapters of the book survey the essentials of Middle Eastern history; important historical narratives; and the region's languages, religions, and global connections. Students are guided through the material with relevant maps, resource boxes, and text boxes that support and guide further independent exploration of the topics at hand. The second half of the book presents interdisciplinary case studies, each of which focuses on a specific country or sub-region and a salient issue, offering a taste of the cultural distinctiveness of the particular country while also drawing attention to global linkages. Readers will come away from this book with an understanding of the larger historical, political, and cultural frameworks that shaped the Middle East as we know it today, and of current issues that have relevance in the Middle East and beyond.
Download or read book Church and Society written by Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2009-08-25 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the leading theologians of our time, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., has written and lectured on a wide range of topics across his distinguished career, and for a wide range of audiences. Integrating faith and scholarship, he has created a rich body of work that, in the words of one observer, is “both faithful to Catholic tradition and fresh in its engagement with the contemporary world.” Here, brought together for the first time in one volume, are the talks Cardinal Dulles has given twice each year since the Laurence J. McGinley Lectures were initiated in 1988, conceived broadly as a forum on Church and society. The result is a diverse collection that reflects the breadth of his thinking and engages with many of the most important—and difficult—religious issues of our day. Organized chronologically, the lectures are often responses to timely issues, such as the relationship between religion and politics, a topic he treated in the last weeks of the presidential campaign of 1992. Other lectures take up questions surrounding human rights, faith and evolution, forgiveness, the death penalty, the doctrine of religious freedom, the population of hell, and a whole array of theological subjects, many of which intersect with culture and politics. The life of the Church is a major and welcome focus of the lectures, whether they be a reflection on Cardinal Newman or an exploration of the difficulties of interfaith dialogue. Dulles responds frequently to initiatives of the Holy See, discussing gender and priesthood in the context of church teaching, and Pope Benedict’s interpretation of Vatican II. Writing with clarity and conviction, Cardinal Dulles seeks to “render the wisdom of past ages applicable to the world in which we live.” For those seeking to share in this wisdom, this book will be a consistently rewarding guide to what it means to be Catholic—indeed, to be a person of any faith—in a world of rapid, relentless change.
Download or read book Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2007 February 2008 110 2 Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Possibility of Religious Freedom written by Karen Taliaferro and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A theory of religious freedom for the modern era that uses natural law from ancient Greek, Jewish, Christian and Islamic sources.
Download or read book Prioritizing International Religious Freedom in U S Foreign Policy written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Foreign Relations of the United States written by United States. Department of State and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 1578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book State of the World s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010 written by Preti Taneja and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A decade into the new century sees religious minorities confronting serious violations of their rights around the globe. Following the violent attacks of 11 September 2001, governments of every political hue have used “war on terror” rhetoric to justify the repression of religious communities. Other religious minorities have faced a violent backlash, often unjustly accused of siding with belligerents. In Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, armed conflict and land seizures have forced minority and indigenous communities away from locations central to their religious beliefs. Europe has witnessed gains by extreme right-wing political parties which are targeting religious minorities with their inflammatory language. In Central Asia, governments have introduced tough new registration requirements for religious communities and prevented the building of places of worship. In State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010, Minority Rights Group International offers a comprehensive overview of the situation faced by minorities in a world increasingly divided along religious lines. It includes: - An analysis of government initiatives that contribute to the marginalisation of religious minorities, such as religious profiling and registration laws. - First-hand accounts, from around the world, of the discrimination and exclusion faced by those belonging to minorities who wish to exercise their right to freedom of religion and belief. - An exploration of grassroots efforts through interfaith dialogue to ease tensions, overcome conflicts, and promote peaceful and equitable development. - An overview of the human rights situation of minorities and indigenous peoples in every major world region. - The unique statistical ranking and analysis, Peoples under Threat 2010. An invaluable reference for policy makers, academics, journalists and everyone who is interested in the human rights situation of minorities and indigenous peoples around the world.
Download or read book Department of State Publication written by and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 1570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book Religious Freedom and the Constitution written by Christopher L. Eisgruber and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-10 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion has become a charged token in a politics of division. In disputes about faith-based social services, public money for religious schools, the Pledge of Allegiance, Ten Commandments monuments, the theory of evolution, and many other topics, angry contestation threatens to displace America's historic commitment to religious freedom. Part of the problem, the authors argue, is that constitutional analysis of religious freedom has been hobbled by the idea of "a wall of separation" between church and state. That metaphor has been understood to demand that religion be treated far better than other concerns in some contexts, and far worse in others. Sometimes it seems to insist on both contrary forms of treatment simultaneously. Missing has been concern for the fair and equal treatment of religion. In response, the authors offer an understanding of religious freedom called Equal Liberty. Equal Liberty is guided by two principles. First, no one within the reach of the Constitution ought to be devalued on account of the spiritual foundation of their commitments. Second, all persons should enjoy broad rights of free speech, personal autonomy, associative freedom, and private property. Together, these principles are generous and fair to a wide range of religious beliefs and practices. With Equal Liberty as their guide, the authors offer practical, moderate, and appealing terms for the settlement of many hot-button issues that have plunged religious freedom into controversy. Their book calls Americans back to the project of finding fair terms of cooperation for a religiously diverse people, and it offers a valuable set of tools for working toward that end.
