Religious links
A prominent mathematician takes on the logic of religion. But maybe not so well.
Reviewing two books on religion and politics. I have written a review of the first for Policy: I, like Mark Lilla, take the lessons of the Wars of Religion rather more seriously than does the reviewer.
It is now possible to find Muslims who have a more robust opposition to Muslim extremism than many establishment folk. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury says that adoption of elements of Sharia law in the UK is “unavoidable”. Or perhaps that’s not quite what he meant, on reflection. And on his website. The UK Government was unimpressed with any such suggestion. One Muslim writer on why Sharia shouldn’t be given any legal recognition. Another Muslim writer explains why she does want such an “abomination”.
Hitch on Tariq Ramadan: Indeed, on everything from stoning to suicide-murder to anti-Semitism, he argues that the problem is not with the "text" itself, or with Islam, but with misinterpretation of it. How convenient. Ramadan often relies on the ignorance of his Western audiences. He maintained that there was no textual authority for the killing of those who abandon their fealty to Islam, whereas the Muslim hadith, which have canonical authority, prescribe death as the punishment for apostasy in so many words. (Norman Geras wasn't too impressed either.) Unclassified thesis arguing that (pdf) jihad’s basis in Islamic law needs to be taken seriously: There is no factual basis to the belief that the cause the enemy claims is not the cause in fact.
An Afghan journalist has been sentenced to death for distributing “blasphemous “ material on the status of women in Islam.
Mapping the US by which religion is a majority in which county: it comes across as a Baptist (1,302 counties) - Catholic (1,164) - Lutheran (250) - Methodist (219) - Mormon(80) country.
Reviewing two books on religion and politics. I have written a review of the first for Policy: I, like Mark Lilla, take the lessons of the Wars of Religion rather more seriously than does the reviewer.
It is now possible to find Muslims who have a more robust opposition to Muslim extremism than many establishment folk. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury says that adoption of elements of Sharia law in the UK is “unavoidable”. Or perhaps that’s not quite what he meant, on reflection. And on his website. The UK Government was unimpressed with any such suggestion. One Muslim writer on why Sharia shouldn’t be given any legal recognition. Another Muslim writer explains why she does want such an “abomination”.
Hitch on Tariq Ramadan: Indeed, on everything from stoning to suicide-murder to anti-Semitism, he argues that the problem is not with the "text" itself, or with Islam, but with misinterpretation of it. How convenient. Ramadan often relies on the ignorance of his Western audiences. He maintained that there was no textual authority for the killing of those who abandon their fealty to Islam, whereas the Muslim hadith, which have canonical authority, prescribe death as the punishment for apostasy in so many words. (Norman Geras wasn't too impressed either.) Unclassified thesis arguing that (pdf) jihad’s basis in Islamic law needs to be taken seriously: There is no factual basis to the belief that the cause the enemy claims is not the cause in fact.
An Afghan journalist has been sentenced to death for distributing “blasphemous “ material on the status of women in Islam.
Mapping the US by which religion is a majority in which county: it comes across as a Baptist (1,302 counties) - Catholic (1,164) - Lutheran (250) - Methodist (219) - Mormon(80) country.