Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

Hip-Hop and Urban Islam in Europe

BY PETER MANDAVILLE
This is real life, engraved on my pages: families dying from starvation whilst the government’s worried about immigration.
— Blind Alphabetz, ‘Concrete Landz’
Like everyone today, Young British Muslims are carrying around iPods full of the latest tunes. Despite the recent phenomenal popularity of a pop-oriented variant of nasheed devotional music—a key artist would be [...]

Posted by admin on July 6th, 2009 No Comments

Making The Ideal Real: A South Asian Social Movement’s Construction of a Buddhist Cultural Identity

BY JEREMY RINKER
The tension and excitement were palpable. It was October 2, 2006 and thousands of disaffected youth wagged their fists towards the sky from atop the numerous light posts and vehicles that dotted the divided thoroughfare. Crowds of revelers packed the entrance to the giant stupa which marks the hallowed grounds where, in October [...]

Posted by admin on March 20th, 2008 No Comments

Religious Identity, Democracy & the 2007 Nigerian Elections

BY JOHN N. PADEN
Religious affiliation is one of many identities that may be mobilized for political purposes. Succession to leadership in democratic systems is always a political process, and symbol management is an integral part of this process. In pluralistic societies, the ability to balance the ticket, or to convince a multi-ethnic constituency that a [...]

Posted by admin on March 27th, 2007 No Comments

Unsettling Possibilities

BY SALAH A. A. KHADR
The importance of religion is by no means receding in the modern world. The salience of religious movements around the globe, and the substantial torrent of commentary by scholars and journalists that have accompanied them, attest to that fact. Whilst the “resurgence of reli­gion” has been welcomed by many as a [...]

Posted by admin on June 9th, 2005 No Comments

Secular Roots of Religious Terrorism—and What America Can Learn

BY MARC GOPIN
There has been so much talk in recent years about radical religion, but so little talk of its roots often in state-based political calculus. From Iran’s strategic interests in affecting the Middle East through terrorist clients like Hezbollah in Lebanon, to Pakistan’s years of support for the Taliban and violent extremists in Kashmir, [...]

Posted by admin on November 10th, 2004 No Comments