Making Sense of Things

Posts tagged with religion

• 10 October 2010 - Muslim women in Western Society – to veil or not to veil

  

  On Friday night, over dinner, a group of friends started debating the topic of the French Senate recently passing a bill banning women wearing the Islamic veil (Niqab – full body covering) on public streets and other places.  I (CJG) spent some time listening to everyone’s views and soon realised that generally people are either… really confused what to think because they don’t think women should be forced to cover up but don’t feel quite right about a ban on a piece of clothing either.. or… they simply outright agree that the ban is a good thing.

  People who think that the veil should definitely be banned generally argue these points:

  • Wearing the veil stops full integration in society – why go to a Western country, flee the things you don’t like but not embrace the new and keep repressing women? When you enter a new society you should dress

  … Read the rest

• 5 October 2010 - Atheists and agnostics know more about the world’s religions than believers do

  I’m not the one who says that. I’m only repeating the findings of a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and that shocked many with the revelation that atheists and agnostics tend to know more about the world’s religions than believers do.

  Pew researchers asked more than 3,000 Americans 32 central questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions. On average, people who took the survey got half the answers wrong – and many even tripped on basic questions about their own faith.

  According to the study, Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

  A large numbers of Americans are (unsurprisingly?) uninformed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of … Read the rest

• 13 September 2010 - Burning the Koran – more of the same?

  The ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks passed relatively quietly, with – as far as I know – no significant negative events reported. The Pastor Terry Jones, under pressure from various actors cancelled the planned Koran burning by members of his church in Florida. Though some countries experienced protests as a result of his plans, they have for the most part been peaceful.

  However, in a disturbing new development, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka of Kansas, USA, has threatened that it will burn the Koran if Jones fails to do so.  They are apparently not affiliated with any major American Baptist groups.  They however already burned a Koran publicly in 2008, but the event fortunately failed to garner major media attention. It remains to be seen if they will follow through on this most recent threat. I hope someone stops them in time.… Read the rest

• 8 September 2010 - ‘Burn the Koran’ day… what?!

  You’ve probably heard that  Terry Jones, an American pastor, vows to hold a national Koran burning event (see here) to mark the 9/11 events. Although he aims at tackling radical Islam, he doesn’t seem to notice that, by doing so, he doesn’t service tolerance and peace in the world – nor christian ideals!

  As if a pastor – even if heading the so-called ‘Dove World Outreach Centre’ - planning to burn the Koran was not an extremist himself.… Read the rest