Podcasts about Sectarianism

A sudden outbreak of violence in Syria sparked headlines around the world raising questions about the targeted killing of minority groups - including Christians. But with so few independent journalists on the ground, what really happened? War correspondent and writer Hollie McKay shares her sources directly from Syria, and explains why this conflict has the potential to have worldwide impact. WHAT IS HTS? https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/hts_fto.html SUPPORT OUR MISSION   Shop our gear!  If you'd like to help support SmartHER News' mission of a free, independent, nonpartisan press – here's how you can become a SCOOP insider: https://www.scoop.smarthernews.com/get-the-inside-scoop/    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarthernews/  Website: https://smarthernews.com/  YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/smarthernews 

What is a nation? And who does it belong to? In India, the far-right project aims for a nation defined by Hindutva, a single language – Hindi – and a tight control on what we eat, think, who we can marry, and a hierarchy based on religion and caste when it comes to rights, freedoms and resources. There is no space for cultural diversity. Sectarianism, casteism and authoritarianism have inflicted a tear in India's social fabric, which will take a very long time to repair – if at all it can be. But democracy, multiculturalism, the rule of law, equality and the idea of India as envisaged when it gained freedom are worth fighting for. This is the final episode of the All Indians Matter series on the rise of the right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded Thursday, 5 December 2024. Three days before the Assad regime's fall. An episode for Syria & Lebanon. Hosted by Ralph Baydoun (founder of Influeanswers) with George Wardini (director of PolyBlog) and Ronnie Chatah (host of The Beirut Banyan). Ralph Baydoun leads the discussion and posits 'resistance'-focused counter narratives to neutrality and sub-state disarmament discourse. The conversation includes the potential for Israeli settlements in southern Lebanon, communities allegedly abandoned by the state, liberation as a so-called just means for continued armed struggle, the Lebanese army's limits in offensive and defensive measures, and how ideology and misinformation leads to false assumptions. Make sure to check out and support Ralph Baydoun's Patreon channel: https://www.patreon.com/Perspectiveleb Follow Ralph Baydoun on IG: [at]perspectiveleb and George Wardini on IG: [at]polyblog.lebanon The podcast is only made possible through listener and viewer donations. Please help support The Beirut Banyan by contributing via PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/walkbeirut Or donating through our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/thebeirutbanyan Subscribe to our YouTube channel and your preferred audio platform. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter: @thebeirutbanyan And check out our website: www.beirutbanyan.com Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:48 Up to the Litani 30:02 Indefensible borders 37:13 Abandoned by the state 42:27 Sectarianism & sacrifice 51:45 The Syrian regime 53:47 Foreign involvement 1:00:21 Expansion & retreat 1:03:51 Liberation in itself 1:07:14 In the name 1:11:59 Warlike reasons to fight 1:14:45 The Lebanese army 1:16:41 A winning argument 1:21:51 Resistance

Air Date: December 3rd of 2024    Description: In today's episode, we cover the topic of "Sectarianism and Modern Day Monasteries."  Even though this sounds like a difficult and complex topic, it is very simple and applicable to the church and Christians today.  Are we in the world?  Are we of the world?  Are we for the world?  Check out this episode to learn more... and enjoy some laughs.     Please Subscribe and Share!   More Episodes: www.3p1s.com

There are 18 recognised religious "sects" in Lebanon, including various Christian denominations, Shia and Sunni Muslims, the Druze and Jews. Sects in this context does not refer to a kind of cult but rather different religious groupings. How did the Lebanese republic organise itself and how did the sectarian system contribute to the bloody civil wars fought in the mid to late 20th century?Find out in part two of a two-part series for Kalam Shorts about sectarianism in Lebanon, available exclusively for our Patreon subscribers. Sign up at patreon.com/kalampodcast for just $3/month. For continuous updates on the podcast and content about Palestine and the Middle East, follow us on Instagram @kalampodcast Please subscribe to Kalam Podcast in whatever podcast application you're listening to right now - and give us a rating. It helps other people find out about us.

There are 18 recognised religious "sects" in Lebanon, including various Christian denominations, Shia and Sunni Muslims, the Druze and Jews. Sects in this context does not refer to a kind of cult but rather different religious groupings. How is it that such a diverse religious and ethnic mix of people came to live in so close proximity to each other in and around Mount Lebanon? And why did the French colonial authorities decide to organise their mandate in Lebanon by dividing the country across "sectarian" lines?Find out in part one of a two-part series for Kalam Shorts about sectarianism in Lebanon, available exclusively for our Patreon subscribers. Sign up at patreon.com/kalampodcast for just $3/month. For continuous updates on the podcast and content about Palestine and the Middle East, follow us on Instagram @kalampodcast Please subscribe to Kalam Podcast in whatever podcast application you're listening to right now - and give us a rating. It helps other people find out about us.

Bhante Sujato (Anthony Best) urodził się 4.11.1966 r. w Perth (Zachodnia Australia). Wychowywał się w liberalnej, katolickiej rodzinie, uczęszczał do szkoły Christian Brothers. Zafascynowany naukową wizją świata, a w szczególności teorią względności, odrzucił chrześcijaństwo, gdy był jeszcze nastolatkiem.Studiował literaturę i filozofię na Uniwersytecie Zachodnioaustralijskim, ale po dwóch latach zrezygnował z dalszej nauki i zaczął grać rock'n'rolla. Założył z Peggy van Zalm zespół Martha's Vineyard, formacja grała indie rocka, odnosząc sukcesy w późnych latach 80-tych. Zespół jednak rozpadł się, zanim w pełni rozwinął swoje możliwości.Po latach działań związanych z muzyką alternatywną Bhante Sujato pozbył się iluzji dotyczących kariery muzycznej i potrzebując gruntownej zmiany, udał się do Tajlandii. Mimo że wcześniej nie był związany z buddyzmem, znalazł dla siebie miejsce w świątyni w Chiang Mai. Zaczął poszukiwać umocnienia i głębszego zrozumienia praktyki buddyjskiej. Po roku udał się do Wat Pah Nanachat, międzynarodowego klasztoru leśnego prowadzonego przez anglojęzycznych mnichów w tradycji, z której wywodził się Ajahn Chah. Tam przyjął święcenia nowicjusza, a w następnym roku (5 maja 1994) – pełne święcenia mnicha (bhikkhu).Spędził trzy pory deszczowe (vassa), ucząc się u Ajahna Brahma, w Klasztorze Bodhinayana oraz kilka lat w odległych pustelniach i jaskiniach, w Tajlandii i Malezji. Na początku 2003 r., po powrocie do Australii, przybył do posiadłości znanej wtedy jako Citta Bhavana Hermitage. Podjęto wtedy decyzję, by świątynię rozwinąć w klasztor, w którym mogłyby się odbywać nowe święcenia, i zmieniono jej nazwę na Santi Forest Monastery. To spowodowało znaczne postępy, klasztor zaczął się gwałtownie rozwijać. Wynikiem było pierwsze święcenie nowicjusza (sāmaṇera) 9 marca 2008 r. oraz liczne upasampadā (przyjęcia do Saṅghi) bhikkhów. Zgodnie z życzeniem Bhante Sujato, w 2012 roku Santi zostało klasztorem mniszek, a on sam powrócił do Bodhinyana.Ajahn Sujato napisał kilka książek, między innymi "A Swift Pair of Messengers", "A History of Mindfuless", "Sects & Sectarianism", oraz we współautorstwie z Ajahnem Brahmalim "The Authenthicity of Early Buddhist Texts". W 2005 roku Bhante Sujato wraz z Rod'em Bucknell'em oraz John'em Kelly współzałożyli buddyjską stronę Internetową SuttaCentral, by zapewnić dostęp do wczesnych buddyjskich tekstków, zarówno w oryginale jak i tłumaczenia we współczesnych językach. Po tym jak nie udało się zapewnić przekładów wolnych od praw autorskich, Bhante Sujato przeniósł się na wyspę Chimei na wybrzeżach Taiwanu i żył tam od 2015-1018 roku, oddany zadaniu by przetłumaczyć wszystkie cztery nikaje. Te przekłady od tamtego czasu są publikowane na stronie SuttaCentral oraz jako darmowe książki.W 2019 roku Bhante Sujato przeniósł się do Sydney by założyć Lokanta Viharę, inaczej "Klasztor na Końcu Świata", by wraz z jego uczniem Bhante Akaliko eksplorować co oznacza podążanie za naukami Buddy w erze zmian klimatycznych, globalnego konsumeryzmu oraz politycznego niepokoju. Niedawno jego uczeń opuścił Viharę by realizować swój projekt "Little Dust", a Bhante Sujato kontynuuje swoje działania stacjonując w Lokanta Vihara.Nagranie mowy Dhammy i sesji medytacyjnej odbyło się 25.06.2023 w ramach comiesięcznych spotkań z Australijską Sanghą BSWA. Tworzymy związek wyznaniowy, dowiedz się więcej na stronie Sangha.plMożesz nas też posłuchać na tych serwisach podkastowych -Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sasa…1592163368?uo=4Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/039TDu6Pil0s4jutio5VeARSS: www.spreaker.com/show/5199898/episodes/feedWspomóż prace Sasany: patronite.pl/sasanaplPomóż nam tłumaczyć teksty źródłowe: patronite.pl/TheravadaPLTłumaczenie: Piotr Płaneta (www.youtube.com/c/Sunyanando)

Talking about Islam is a dangerous business, but talk about it we must. The West is facing a civilisational moment, and tensions between Islamism and Western liberal democracy may well determine its future. Joining Will in these murky waters is GB News Presenter and the founder of the online video platform Reasoned, Darren Grimes.Follow Will Kingston and Fire at Will on social media here.Read The Spectator Australia here.Subscribe to Reasoned here.

☪☪On this popular replay from 2020 (can you believe it's been that long?!?!?!), podcaster mom, Farheen Raza @freeniraza, shared Shia history, practice, and whether or not sects make a difference in America. During this time of division and change in our nation, it DOES matter when we have schisms within Muslim America. Let's close those gaps together. A lot has changed for Farheen since we recorded this, so follow her and find out what that is.☪☪Part 2 of this conversation was aired in June 2020, and we encourage you to follow up with that one next. This week, tune in at 6pm EST on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music, or head to our website and listen on the landing page. Share this episode with your Muslim friends who you never thought to ask about their sect (and thank goodness you didn't!).Links:Musings of a Modern Muslim podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/musings-of-a-millennial-muslim/id1489441261On IG: @freenirazaDid you know you can send us a text? Feedback, questions, or recommendations welcomed!Support the Show.1. Web: www.mommyingwhilemuslim.com2. Email: salam@mommyingwhilemuslim.com3. FB: Mommying While Muslim page and Mommyingwhilemuslim group4. IG: @mommyingwhilemuslimpodcast5. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrrdKxpBdBO4ZLwB1kTmz1w

(0:00) Introduction to Khatam-e-Bukhari Ceremony(5:28) Luckiest First Badge of Madrasa Al-Hussain, Indiana, US (Receiving Sanad from Mufti Sb)Key Hadiths and Their Explanations:(6:41) Bukhari Shareef's Last Hadith: Justice on the Day of Judgment(8:41) Bukhari Shareef's First Hadith: Actions Depend on Intentions (Connecting First and Last Hadith: Knowledge in Action)(10:06) Insightful Explanation of an Interesting HadithDiscussion on Qayamat and Knowledge:(12:25) Why Will Deeds Be Weighed on the Day of Judgment?(13:22) True Knowledge is Passed from Heart to Heart(15:04) How to Treat Disbelievers?Significant Hadith and Lessons:(16:30) Hadith 7558: Two Statements Beloved to the Most Merciful, Light on the Tongue, Heavy on the Scale(17:56) Three Ways to Develop Courage for Difficult Tasks:(19:40) Motivation for Muslims(20:06) Importance of Authentic Hadith(20:43) Principle of Love(20:51) Increase Your Value by Reciting This(22:24) Reward for Difficult Tasks?(24:51) Virtues of These Words(25:35) Virtue of These Two Words in ShariahPraising Allah and His Attributes:(26:32) Two Ways of Praising: Saying ‘SubhanAllah'(27:44) Attributes of Allah in Ayat-ul-Kursi(28:33) The Good Traits of Pakistanis (7 Days Rest)(29:09) Praising by Saying ‘Alhumdulillah'(30:46) Question: Did Allah Love Hazrat Musa (AS) More Than Other Prophets?(31:42) Human Nature: Love for a Beautiful Voice(32:32) Allah's Beautiful Speech(33:10) Allah's Response to Musa (AS)'s Request(33:38) When Allah's Manifestation Descended on Mount Toor(34:15) Allah's Power: Creating Seven Heavens and Earth(35:07) Allah's Response to the Objection of the Jews!(36:20) Tasbeeh and Tehmeed: Beloved to Allah(36:52) DuaIslamic Education and Hadith Science:(37:06) Excellence of Education in Madaris(37:47) Arabic Grammar(38:44) Arabic Literature(39:11) Knowledge of Hadith (Books on Virtues and Issues)(40:09) Tafseer of the Qur'an(40:36) Mufti Sb's Tafseer Lectures(40:51) Comparison: Today's Scholars Citing Hadith from Google vs. Graduates from Madaris(43:52) Principles of Fiqh (Deriving Rulings from Qur'an and Hadith)(44:06) Fiqh (Knowledge of Halal and Haram)(47:09) Mufti Sb's Advice to StudentsMiscellaneous Topics and Conclusion:(53:22) Hadith from Sahih Bukhari(54:02) Greenery in Pakistan vs. USA(54:44) Knowledge vs. Action(57:15) The Greatest Sadaqah-e-Jaria?Reflections on Envy and Jealousy:(59:17) Prophet ﷺ's Saying: (Envy is Permissible Only for Two Types of People)(59:31) Joys of Traveling in India/Pakistan? (Light-Hearted Remarks)(1:01:08) Who Are Beyond Envy?(1:03:30) Difference Between Rashk (Admiration) and Hasad (Jealousy)?(1:03:55) The Dangers of Befriending an Envious Person(1:06:02) Who is Worthy of Admiration Among the Wealthy?(1:07:50) Mtm's Teaching at Jamiatur Rasheed: A Founder's Sadaqah-e-Jaria(1:08:24) Cooperating with MadarisUnity and Sectarianism:(1:08:48) A Scholar Who Doesn't Spread Sectarianism?(1:09:44) Example: Difference in Offering Two Combined Prayers(1:13:36) Mufti Sb's Consistent PresenceCredit for the timestamps goes to @mrs.masroor8476 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Engineer Muhammad Ali

Episode 287 of RevolutionZ has various interviewees describe to Miguel Guevara their debates and ensuing resolutions that arrived at RPS shared vision evan as they also steadfastly rejected sectarianism and rigid dogma. From Feyerabend's anything goes, to Chomsky's values are essential and enough, to RPS's we also need core institutional goals, to developing the latter for polity, kinship, and community, in this episode Guevara interrogates more of the Next American Revolution's experiences and lessons. Hear what these future revolutionaries thought and felt, what they did and what they chose to not do. Decide is their story plausible or fanciful? Could we follow our own version of their path into a better future? What would you change or retain? Is this fiction to make real? Reality to refine? Or what? Maybe my brief interjections while presenting it will help or irritate. Three more NAR episodes to come. Support the Show.

William Massey, leader of the Reform Party, and Sir Joseph Ward, leader of the Liberal Party, had spent an agonising four years in coalition together. They hated it, and once the First World War was over and they were back in New Zealand, they tried to tear each other down. But the political scene in New Zealand had turned nasty in their absence. Sectarianism was surging, and the political value of prejudice had never been higher. There was also a new kid on the bloc - the New Zealand Labour Party. Send in questions about the Wars of the Three Kingdoms to https://bit.ly/RevQA Join the Mailing List! Join the Patreon House of Lords for ad-free episodes! Go to AirwaveMedia.com to find other great history shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a Text Message.This week Marcus speaks with Mira Shaib about her film 'Arze', a Lebanese production that explores universal themes of family, abandonment, and societal issues. Mira discusses the World Premiere of the film at the Beijing International Film Festival, the upcoming North American premiere at Tribeca on June 11th (Village East) followed by Cairo International, and the importance of translating the story for an international audience. She also shares her inspiration for quest stories like “2 Days 1 Night” from the Dardenne brothers, and their documentary-style approach to filmmaking. Mira talks about her journey as a filmmaker, influenced by her brother and her love for movies. She emphasizes the value of authenticity in storytelling and the challenges of addressing sensitive topics in Lebanese cinema.  The journey of creating her movie was a long and challenging one, However, she persevered and the movie is now being screened at major festivals around the World. TakeawaysThe film 'Arze' explores themes of financial struggles, abandonment, and sectarianism in Lebanon.The filmmaker aims to present these issues authentically and without sugarcoating.Authenticity is valued in filmmaking, and the film strives to be authentic in its storytelling and performances.Addressing sensitive topics in Lebanese cinema can be challenging due to the fear of controversy and backlash.The film 'Arze' is a step forward in addressing these issues and presenting a more realistic portrayal of Lebanese society. Authenticity in filmmaking involves drawing inspiration from real stories and experiences.Telling stories of women's empowerment and social issues is important to Mira Shaib.Collaboration and trust are key in the process of directing actors.The journey of financing and producing a film can be challenging but rewarding.Mira Shaib is excited about the distribution of her film and has plans for future projects.Like, subscribe and follow us on our socials @pastpresentfeature

Paul Embery joins Tom Slater and Fraser Myers to discuss Tory defections, the local elections and the councillor who screamed ‘Allahu Akbar'. This episode is sponsored by the Munk Debates. Get a 10 per cent discount on a ‘supporter' membership package with the promo code: SPIKED10 https://munkdebates.com/  Find out more about spiked's internship programme: https://www.spiked-online.com/interns  Donate to spiked: https://www.spiked-online.com/donate/  Work for spiked: https://www.spiked-online.com/jobs/  Sign up to spiked's newsletters: https://www.spiked-online.com/newsletters/  Check out spiked's shop: https://www.spiked-online.com/shop/

Week 7 - Mark 2:23 - 3:30 -- The Sabbath; Religious traditions; Sectarianism; Apostles; Some of the most misunderstood words of the Bible - The Sin against the Holy Spirit.

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP President Lara Friedman speaks with Saudi researcher and analyst of Saudi foreign policy Aziz Alghashian about the impact of Israel's now more than 4-month-long war on Gaza on the political calculations and policies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Aziz is a fellow at Sectarianism, Proxies & De-sectarianisation (SEPAD) and at the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO). He earned his PhD from the University of Essex, where he taught International Relations, Politics and Middle Eastern Studies. And most important for the purposes of today's podcast, the focus of Aziz's current research and writing is Saudi policy towards Israel, and Arab-Israeli relations. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.

Featuring Ussama Makdisi on how Western colonialism and Zionism exploited, exacerbated, and imposed sectarianism across the Arab Middle East. This is the SECOND of a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Contact Spotify and tell them: stop hiding The Dig! Why is The Dig so hard to find on Spotify? support.spotify.com/contact-spotify-support/ Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.com Buy The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger at versobooks.com Buy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible

Featuring Ussama Makdisi on how Western colonialism and Zionism exploited, exacerbated, and imposed sectarianism across the Arab Middle East. This is the SECOND of a two-part interview.Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDigContact Spotify and tell them: stop hiding The Dig! Why is The Dig so hard to find on Spotify? support.spotify.com/contact-spotify-support/Check out our newsletter and vast archives at thedigradio.comBuy The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger at versobooks.comBuy War Made Invisible thenewpress.com/books/war-made-invisible Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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In this episode the guys have Steve Meister and Robert Briggs in the Coffee House, the two Pastors of Immanuel Baptist Church in Sacramento. They discuss the modern Reformed Baptist scene, the problems that we face with sectarianism and other issues, and how we ought to move forward as Baptists confessing the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.Support the Show.Contact Broken Wharfe Tweet us @Brokenwharfe Find us on Facebook at BrokenWharfe Follow us on Instagram at BrokenWharfe Email us at info@brokenwharfe.com Thanks for listening!

Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor's Chair at the University of California Berkeley. Professor Makdisi is the author of several books including, The Culture of Sectarianism, Artillery of Heaven, Faith Misplaced, and his latest, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.   The post The Age of Coexistence in Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Lebanon, caught in Hezbollah-Israel crossfire, is a sobering case study of how much damage a country can do itself by embracing bad ideas like constitutional sectarianism & proportional representation. In Ep 1331 of Cut The Clutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta talks about why Lebanon is a failed state, its curse of “Confessionalism” and lessons for India  ----more----   Christians in Lebanon: A short history of the Maronite Church: https://aleteia.org/2020/09/10/christians-in-lebanon-a-short-history-of-the-maronite-church/ 

In this episode J.J. and Dr. Simkovich dig into the differences between the Pharisees and the Saducees, and air some more second temple laundry. Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich is the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and the director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016), and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018), which received the 2019 AJL Judaica Reference Honor Award. Simkovich's articles have been published in the Harvard Theological Review and the Journal for the Study of Judaism, as well as on online forums such as The Lehrhaus and the Times of Israel. She is involved in numerous local and international interreligious dialogue projects which help to increase understanding between Christians and Jews.

A surprise deal between golf's two main tours and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund sent shockwaves through the world of men's professional golf at the start of June. It came as increasing numbers of players move to Saudi Arabia's football league, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has become a more visual presence on the sporting scene, hosting Formula 1 races and high-profile world title boxing bouts. The controversial purchase of Newcastle United was further evidence of a growing interest in using sport to project Saudi Arabia to a wider audience. But human rights campaigners say Saudi Arabia is trying to sports-wash its poor human rights record. On the Real Story this week, we examine the reasons behind Saudi Arabia's increasingly prominent presence on the international sporting scene. How does it link to the domestic and geopolitical ambitions of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? And what impact could it have on international sport going forward? Shaun Ley is joined by: Dina Esfandiary, advisor to Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa Program on research, analysis, policy prescription and advocacy. Matt Slater, a senior football news reporter with the sports website and podcast, The Athletic. Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi foreign policy analyst and a fellow at the Sectarianism, Proxies and De-Sectarianisation project at Lancaster University. Also featuring: Dan Roan, BBC sports editor. Lina al-Hathloul, Saudi activist and head of monitoring and communications for ALQST, a non-profit organization promoting human rights in Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Al-Ittihad officially present Karim Benzema as their new player, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - 08 Jun 2023. Credit: EPA)

Sectarianism and segregation remain endemic in Northern Ireland. Can it get better?   Host Ciarán Dunbar is joined by political journalist Aoife-Grace Moore and political activist Richard Garland.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge.” - Henry David Thoreau / no dogmatism - rather, question from all angles / step back and see how Vyasadeva is framing his message / Understand the progression in Vedic thought through hardcore - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Sick of it All, Shelter / Give your heart to a deeply realized soul SB 5.12.12

1 Corinthians 1:1-13 - Lesson Notes

“In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of sectarianism. It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge.” - Henry David Thoreau / no dogmatism - rather, question from all angles / step back and see how Vyasadeva is framing his message / Understand the progression in Vedic thought through hardcore - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Sick of it All, Shelter / Give your heart to a deeply realized soul SB 5.12.12

0:00 Intro 4:01 Thirty years ago 8:52 Today's ceiling 19:07 Inaccessible 23:24 Production house 38:22 A step back 44:01 Retraction 48:42 Sectarianism & March 14 59:40 What destroyed Lebanon? 1:04:25 Q&A 1:27:52 The role that we play We're with Diana Moukalled for Episode 356 of The Beirut Banyan, recorded live at Aaliya's Books. Click to watch: https://youtu.be/Tz1NGf2FR2Q We discuss the evolution of Daraj Media into a competitive media outlet, recent journalist summonings and attempts at lawyer censoring, state retractions as a result of public pressure, and today's journalism ceiling compared to the initial post-civil war years. Our conversation includes a look back at Diana's career in Future TV, hesitation on identifiers like 'alternative media', and a brief debate on why March 14's momentum withered. Diana Moukalled is a celebrated journalist in her own right and cofounder of Daraj Media. Special thanks to Samer Beyhum for his audio-technical support. Help support The Beirut Banyan by contributing via PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/walkbeirut Or donating through our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/thebeirutbanyan Subscribe to our podcast from your preferred platform. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter: @thebeirutbanyan And check out our website: www.beirutbanyan.com

Join us as we read from V. I. Lenin, W. Z. Foster, Earl Browder, and others on the necessity of building broad coalitions in the fight against fascism. This is a very important class that we want all our comrades to pay close attention to and implement in their work. Connect with PSMLS: https://linktr.ee/peoplesschool Sign up to join the PSMLS mailing list and get notified of new Zoom classes every Tuesday and Thursday: http://eepurl.com/h9YxPb Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Sectarianism and its Consequences 2:15 Reading from Lenin's "Left-Wing Communism", chapter 6 3:35 The CPUSA and the LaFollette Movement 4:40 Reading from W. Z. Foster's "History of the CPUSA", chapter 15 6:35 Q&A 1 15:15 Coalition Building - The People's Front Against Fascism 16:45 Reading from Browder's "The People's Front", chapter 10 18:40 The French Communist Party's "Outstretched Hand" 21:15 Q&A 2 34:45 The Popular Front in Practice 35:05 Reading from "The Communist International, Volume III" 37:55 Q&A 3 50:25 Conclusion

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Avraham Bornstein recorded on Clubhouse on March 24th 2023. This week's Torah portion is Vayikra. Vayikra is a call to action. In every generation we are admonished to imagine ourselves overthrowing the Pharaoh of our day and liberating the People of Israel.  Today we'll survey haggadot that take this challenge to heart and re-imagine the Haggadah in their time and for their time. As Israelis take to the streets, we challenge ourselves to join this tradition and write a new Hagaddah. Sefira Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/475511  Transcript on episode web page: https://madlik.com/2023/03/23/protest-haggadah/ 

Lawson Speaks Truth is a fiery and inspiring creator and community leader guiding men in biblical masculinity, fatherhood, and courtship. His content is challenging in a way that calls men to a higher standard. But he doesn't just call men to that higher standard, he works hard to embody it himself. He lives like his beliefs are true. His faith touches the ground, and roots itself firmly in the Earth, even against the opposition of an institution. In our conversation we discussed: Homebirth vs. Hospital Birth Men Being Emasculated By the System How To Lead Your Wife In Crisis Hardening Yourself Against the World Faithfulness in the Small Things Denominationalism, Sectarianism, and Eschatology The Two Sides of Christ and God. MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST "The Business of Being Born" "Medical Mafia" book CONNECT WITH LAWSON https://www.instagram.com/lawsonspeakstruth/ https://linktr.ee/LawsonSpeaks DIGITAL CONFERENCE SERIES An all-day event exploring six vital virtues of masculinity. Featuring: Will Knowland, Ryan King, Nathan Spearing, John "King" David Haskins, Lawson Speaks, and Mike Pantile Saturday, March 25 LIVE via Zoom 9am-5pm PST Tickets: https://renofmen.com/conference Code: podcast – for $5 off tickets RENAISSANCE MEN'S RETREAT If interested in the first ever Renaissance Men's Retreat, email info@renofmen.com to set up a call to see if there's a fit to join the squad. RENAISSANCE MENTORSHIP The world says masculinity is toxic. Everything the world says is backwards. That means masculinity is medicine. Find out more: https://renofmen.com/mentorship THE RENAISSANCE OF MEN https://www.renofmen.com https://www.instagram.com/renofmen/ https://twitter.com/renofmen https://youtube.com/@renofmen

One of the most confusing aspects of Islam that converts go through is identifying authentic Islam through the various sects in the Muslim world claiming to be on the right path. How do we navigate through all these different Muslim groups, and how do we ensure we are best suited to stay on the straight path? 

This Sarde is brought to you by our incredible patrons at www.patreon.com/sardeafterdinner. Without you guys, there is no Sarde (after dinner). Thank you.   Saudi writer, journalist, and researcher specialized in MENA politics, Islamic movements, and the development of religious discourses Hasan Almustafa joins Médéa and Mouin in this #sardeafterdinner to talk about:    - How can we understand the roots of the sectarian conflict between Sunnis & Shiites? - What is “Al Islam Al Awwal”?  - Can secularism bring the Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict to an end?  - Why did Islamic discourses stray far from the original teachings of Prophet Muhammad?  - Where do you draw the line between freedom of speech & islamophobia: Charlie Hebdo                          __________________   ينضم حسن المصطفى، الكاتب السعودي والصحفي والباحث المتخصص في سياسة الشرق الأوسط والجماعات الإسلامية ومراحل التطور الديني لميديا ومعين في هذه #السردة حيث يناقشون المواضيع التالية:    - كيف يمكن فهم جذور الصراع المذهبي بين السنة والشيعة؟ - ما هو الإسلام الأول؟ - هل العلمانية قادرة على حل الخلاف المذهبي السني - الشيعي؟ -لماذا ابتعدت الخطابات الإسلامية عن تعاليم النبي محمد الأصلية؟ - لماذا أصبحت الطائفية ملازمة لخطاب الجماعات الإسلامية؟ - أين يقع الحد بين حرية التعبير والإسلاموفوبيا: مجلة "شارلي هيبدو"   Sarde (noun), [Sa-r-de]: A colloquial term used in the Middle East to describe the act of letting go & kicking off a stream of consciousness and a rambling narrative. The Sarde After Dinner Podcast is a free space based out of the heart of Beirut, Lebanon, where Médéa Azouri & Mouin Jaber discuss a wide range of topics (usually) held behind closed doors in an open and simple way with guests from all walks of life.   سردة (إسم) سَرْدَةْ : مصطلح بالعامية يستخدم في منطقة الشرق الأوسط للدلالة على الاسترخاء وإطلاق سردية. يشكّل بودكاست سردة بعد العشاء مساحة حرّة من قلب بيروت، لبنان، حيث تناقش ميديا عازوري ومعين جابر عدّة مواضيع (لطالما) تمّت مناقشتها خلف أبواب مغلقة وذلك بطريقة بسيطة ومباشرة مع ضيوف من شتّى المجالات.   SARDE EVERY SUNDAY with NEW EPISODES released WEEKLY! 9:00 PM

Join Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz recorded on clubhouse on February 2, 2023. The Torah declares that the Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt “Hamushim” חֲמֻשִׁ֛ים , a word related to Hamesh, the number five. According to many commentaries this word implies that only some of the Israelites left Egypt … armed and ready to fight. This is the first time that distinctions are made between one set of Jews and another. So, as divisions begin to surface within the ranks of the Israelites, we raise our hand to identify and call out the birth of Jewish sectarianism.... A sepcial extended episode with live interaction with clubhouse friends of Madlik. Sefaria source sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/463446 Transcript on episode web page: https://madlik.com/2023/02/01/high-five/ 

In today's episode of coffee and prayer, our devotions are found in first Corinthians, chapter 1 and Joshua chapter 12. Today I share about missing my flight, having my flights canceled and driving home to California on Christmas Eve. In our studies we discuss Sectarianism, why we don't have to dress up the gospel and some food for thought on obedience.

Susan Hayward, associate director of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School, leads the conversation on religious literacy in international affairs.   FASKIANOS: Welcome to the final session of the Fall 2022 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website, CFR.org/Academic if you would like to share it with your classmates or colleagues. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Susan Hayward with us to discuss religious literacy in international affairs. Reverend Hayward is the associate director for the Religious Literacy and Professions Initiative at Harvard Divinity School. From 2007 to 2021, she worked for the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), with focus on Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Columbia, and Iraq. And most recently serving as senior advisor for Religion and Inclusive Societies, and as a fellow in Religion and Public Life. During her tenure at USIP, Reverend Hayward also coordinated an initiative exploring the intersection of women, religion, conflict, and peacebuilding, partnership with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and the World Faith Development Dialogue. And she coedited a book on the topic entitled Women, Religion and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen. Reverend Hayward has also taught at Georgetown and George Washington Universities and serves as a regular guest lecturer and trainer at the Foreign Service Institute. And she's also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. So, Susan, thank you very much for being with us today. Can you begin by explaining why religious literacy is so important for understanding international affairs? HAYWARD: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Irina. And thanks to the Council on Foreign Relations for inviting me to be a part of this webinar. And I really appreciate you and the invitation, and I appreciate all of you who have joined us today, taking time out of what I know is a busy time of year, as we hurdle towards final exams and cramming everything into these last weeks of the semester. So it's great to be with all of you. I am going to be—in answering that broad question that Irina offered, I'm going to be drawing on my work. As Irina said, I worked at the—I work now at Harvard Divinity School's Religion and Public Life Program. And what we seek to do here is to do here is to advance the public understanding of religion in service of a just world at peace. And we do that, in part, by working with professionals in governments and foreign policy, and in the humanitarian sector, as well as working with our students who are seeking to go into vocations in those professional spheres. And then my fourteen years with the Religion and Inclusive Societies Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace. So I'll say a little bit more about both of those as we go along, and those experiences, but I'm also happy to answer any questions about either of those programs when we turn to the Q&A. And I should say that I'm going to be focusing as well—given that a lot of you all who are joining us today are educators yourselves or are students—I'm going to be focusing in particular on how we teach religious literacy within international affairs. So I wanted to begin with the definition of religious literacy, because this is a term that is increasingly employed as part of a rallying cry that's based on a particular diagnosis. And the diagnosis is that there has been insufficient deep consideration of the multiple and complex dimensions of religion and culture that impact international affairs at all levels across the world. And that the result of that lack of a complex understanding of religion in this arena has been the—the hamstringing of the ability of the international system to operate in ways that are effective in bringing justice, peace, democracy, human rights, and development. So I'm going to circle back to that diagnosis in a bit. But first I want to jump to the prescription that's offered, which is to enhance religious literacy using various resources, trainings, courses, and ways that are relevant for foreign policymakers and those working across the international system, as well as those students who are in the schools of international affairs, or other schools and planning to go into this space, into this profession. So the definition that we use here at Harvard Divinity School—and this is one that has been adopted by the American Academy of Religion, which is the scholarly guild for religious studies—defines it in this way: Religious literacy is the—entails the ability to discern and analyze the fundamental intersections of religion and social, political, and cultural life through multiple lenses. So specifically, one who is religious literate will possess a basic understanding of different religious traditions, including sort of fundamental beliefs and practices and contemporary manifestation of different religious traditions, as well as how they arose out of and continue to be shaped by particular social, historical, and cultural contexts. And the ability to discern and explore the religious dimensions of political, social, and cultural expressions across time and space. So this gets broken down in two different ways—three, according to me. But that definition focuses on two in particular. One is often referred to as the confessional approach or the substantive approach. So that's looking at understanding different religious traditions and their manifestations in different places. That's understanding something fundamental about the difference between Theravada Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism, for example. Or how Islam is practiced, and dominantly practiced in Nigeria, versus in North America, for example. The second approach is the religious studies approach. Which is sometimes also called the functional approach. So that's the ability to be able to analyze the ways in which religions in complex ways are really intersecting with social, and political, and economic life, even if not explicitly so. But in implicit, embedded ways shaping different kinds of economic systems, social systems, and political systems, and being able to analyze and see that, and so ask particular questions and consider different kinds of policy solutions—diagnoses and solutions that can take that into account. And then finally, I add the religious engagement approach. That particularly comes out of my work when I was at USIP and working with foreign policymakers in the State Department and elsewhere. To some extent, overseas as well, those in the diplomatic sector. Which I understand is determining whether, when, and how to engage with specifically defined religious institutions, actors, and interests, including on issues related, for example, with religious freedom, in ways that are inclusive, just, strategic, and, importantly for the U.S. context, legal. So abiding by the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Now, all three types of religious literacy defined here depend on three principles or ideas. So the first is that they understand religions as lived, as constituted by humans who are constantly interpreting and reinterpreting their religious traditions. This means that as a result they are internally diverse, sometimes very internally contradictory. They'll have different religious interpretations with respect to particular human rights issues, particular social issues, issues related to gender, and so on and so forth. That they change over time. That that sort of complex interpretive process that is going on within religious traditions also leads to kind of larger normative changes within religious traditions over history in different temporal contexts. And that they're culturally embedded. So as the question I was asking earlier, how is Islam, as it's understood and practiced in Nigeria, different from how it's understood and practiced in North America, for example. There are ways in which the particular religious interpretations and practices of a tradition are always going to be entangled with specific cultural contexts in ways that are near impossible to disentangle at times. And that means that they just manifest differently in different places. And this—these ideas of religion as lived pushes against an understanding of religions as being static or being monolithic. So that then leads us to ensure that there's never—that it's always going to be a problem to make sweeping claims about entire religious traditions because you'll always find somebody or some community within those religious traditions that don't believe or practice according to the claim that you just made about it. And that applies to situations of violent conflict and with respect to human rights, on global issues like climate and migration. This idea, the internal diversity in particular, is what is at play when you hear the phrase “Ambivalence of the Sacred” that was coined by Scott Appleby in his—in this very influential book by the same name. I'll throw in here a quote from Scott Appleby from that book, this idea that religions are always going to show up in ambivalent or contradictory ways across different places, but also sometimes in the very same contexts. So I think we can see that, for example, in the U.S. right now, and that there's no one, let's say, religious position with respect to reproductive rights, for example. There's a great deal of internal plurality and ambivalence that exists across religious traditions and interpretations within the Christian tradition and beyond about that specific issue. Moreover then, what religion is, what is considered religious, what is recognized as religious and what isn't, and how it manifests in different contexts depends on just a complex array of intersecting factors. I'm going to come back to—that's kind of meaty phrase just to throw out there, so I'm going to come back to that in a minute. So the second principle or idea of religious literacy that I want to highlight here is the idea of right-sizing religion. This is a phrase that Peter Mandaville used quite a bit when he was in the State Department's Religion and Global Affairs Office under the Obama administration and has written about. So I'll turn you to that article of his to understand more about it. But the central idea is that we don't want to over nor underemphasize religion's role in any given context. So just by way of a quick example, in looking at the Rohingya crisis or the ethnic cleansing of Rakhine State in Myanmar, one could not say it was all about religion, that it was about Buddhist nationalists who are anti-Muslim wanting to destroy a particular religious community. Nor could you say it had nothing to do with religion, because there were these religious dimensions that were at play in driving the violence towards the Rohingya and the larger communities' acceptance of that violence against the Rohingya community. But if you were to overemphasize the religious roles, the religious dimensions of that crisis, then your policy solutions—you might look at religious freedom tools and resources to be able to address the situation. And that would address the situation in part, but obviously there were other economic and political factors that were at play in leading to the Rohingya crisis. And including certain economic interests with oil pipelines that were being constructed across lands that the Rohingya were living on in Rakhine state, or the political conflict that was taking place between the military and the National League of Democracy, and so on. So addressing the crisis holistically and sustainably requires that we right-size the role that religion is playing in that particular crisis. And that goes across the board, in looking at conflicts and looking at the role of religion in climate, and addressing climate collapse, and so on and so forth. We need to always neither under nor overestimate the role that religion is playing in driving some of these issues and as a solution in addressing some of these issues. OK. So with that definition and principles of religious literacy in mind, I want to go back to the diagnosis that I gave at the—that I mentioned at the top, for which religious literacy is offered as a solution. The diagnosis, if you remember, was that there's been insufficient consideration given to the multiple and complex dimensions of religion and culture that impact international affairs. So I'm going to demonstrate what it means to apply the religious studies approach to religious literacy, or the functional approach to religious literacy, to help us understand why that might be. And remember, the religious studies approach is seeking to discern and explore the religious dimensions of political, social, and cultural expressions and understandings across time and place. So this approach, in trying to answer that question and consider that diagnosis, it would invite us to look historically at the development of the modern international legal and political systems in a particular time and place in Western Europe, during the European Enlightenment. As many of you may well know, this came about in the aftermath of the so-called confessional or religious wars. Those were largely understood to have pitted Protestants against Catholics, though it's more complicated in reality. But broadly, that's the story. And the modern state, on which the international system was built, sought to create a separation between religious and state authority. For the first time in European history, this separation between religious and state authority that became more rigid and enforced over time, in the belief that this was necessary in order to ensure peace and prosperity moving forward, to bring an end to these wars, and to ensure that the state would be better able to deal with the reality of increasing religious pluralism within Europe. So this was essentially the idea of secular political structures that was born in that time and place. And these secular political structures were considered to be areligious or neutral towards religion over time, again. In the process of legitimating this sort of revolutionary new model of the secular modern state, and in the process of creating this demarcated distinction that had not previously existed—at least, not a neat distinction of the secular or the political authority and the religious—the religious authority—there was an assertion as part of that ideologically legitimate and support that. There was an assertion of the secular as rational, ordered, and associated with all of the good stuff of modernity. Meanwhile, the religious was defined in counter-distinction as a threat to the secular. It was irrational, backwards, a threat to the emerging order. A not-subtle presumption in all of this is that the new modern state and the international system would serve as a bulwark against archaic, dangerous, religious, and other traditionally cultural, in particular, worldviews and practices in—it would be a bulwark against that, and a support for this neutral and considered universal international law and system—secular system. Now, I realize I'm making some, like, huge, broad historical sweeps here, given the short amount of time I have. But within that story I just told, there is a lot more complexity that one can dig into. But part of what I seek to do in offering religious literacy in international relations theory and practice to students, and to practitioners in this realm, is to help those operating in the system think through how that historically and contextually derived conception of religion and the co-constitutive conception of secularism continues to operate within and shape how we interpret and respond to global events within the system. And this occurs—I see this happening in two dominant ways. One is, first, in thinking about religion as a distinct sphere of life that can be disentangled entirely from the political, when in reality religion is deeply entangled with the political, and vice versa. And scholars like Talal Asad and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd have done really great work to show how even our understanding of the secular and secular norms and so on is shaped by Protestant Christian commitments and understandings. And saying within that, our understanding of what religion is—like, a focus on belief, for example, which has been codified in a lot of religious freedom law, as part of the international system—again, tends to emphasize Protestant Christian understandings of what religion is and how it functions. So that's the first reason for doing that. And then second, in understanding religion to be a threat to modernity, and sometimes seeing and responding to it as such rather than taking into account its complexity, its ambivalence, the ways in which it has been a powerful force for good, and bad, and everything in between, and in ways that sometimes let the secular off the hook for ways that it has driven forms of violence, colonialism, gender injustice, global inequalities, the climate crisis, and so on. So those are the consequences of when we don't have that religious literacy, of those potential pitfalls. And, on that second point, of the ways in which religion continues to be defined in ways that can overemphasize its negative aspect at time within the international system, I commend the work of William Cavanaugh in particular and his book, The Myth of Religious Violence to dig into that a little bit more. So what we're seeking to do, in bringing that kind of religious literacy to even thinking about the international system and its norms and how it operates, is to raise the consciousness of what Donna Haraway calls the situatedness of the international system, the embedded agendas and assumptions that inevitably operate within it. And it invites students to be skeptical of any claims to the systems neutrality about religion, how it's defined, and how it's responded to. So I recognize that that approach is very deconstructionist work. It's informed by, post-colonial critical theory, which reflects where religious studies has been for the last couple decades. But importantly, it doesn't, nor shouldn't ideally, lead students to what is sometimes referred to as analysis paralysis, when there's sort of groundedness within hypercritical approaches, only looking at the complexity to a degree that it's hard to understand how to move forward then to respond constructively to these concerns. Rather, the purpose is to ensure that they're more conscious of these underlying embedded norms or assumptions so that they can better operate within the system in just ways, not reproducing forms of Eurocentrism, Christo-centrism, or forms of cultural harm. So the hope is that it helps students to be able to better critique the ways in in which religion and secularism is being—are being discussed, analyzed, or engaged within international affairs, and then be able to enter into those kinds of analysis, policymaking, program development, and so on, in ways that can help disrupt problematic assumptions and ensure that the work of religious literacy or religious engagement is just. So I'm just going to offer one example of how this kind of critical thinking and critical—the way of thinking complexly about religion in this space can be fruitful. And it speaks back to one of the things Irina noted about my biography, the work I had done looking at women and religion and peacebuilding. So while I was at USIP, in that program, we spent several years looking specifically and critically at forms of theory and practice, and this subfield that had emerged of religious peacebuilding. And we were looking at it through the lens of gender justice, asking how religion was being defined in the theory or engaged in the peacebuilding practice and policy in ways that unintentionally reinforced gender injustice. And what we found is that there were assumptions operating about certain authorities—often those at the top of institutions, which tended to be older, well-educated men—representing entire traditions. Assumptions made about their social and political power as well. When in reality, we knew that those of different genders, and ages, and socioeconomic locations were doing their own work of peacebuilding within these religious landscapes, and had different experiences of violence, and so different prescriptions for how to build peace. So we began to ask questions, like whose peace is being built in this field of religious peacebuilding that was emerging? And the work that USIP had been doing in this space of religious peacebuilding? Whose stories were being left out in the dominant analyses or narratives in the media about religious dimensions of certain conflicts, and what are the consequences of that? So these kinds of questions are grounded in the recognition of, again, the internal diversity, the change over time of religious traditions. And they help ensure that analysis and policy actions aren't unintentionally reproducing forms of harm or structural violence. I'm almost done. So please do bring your questions so that we can engage in a discussion with each other. But I wanted to end by offering a couple examples of resources that I think might be helpful to both enhancing your own religious literacy but also as potential pedagogical tools in this work. So first is Religious Peacebuilding Action Guides that were produced by the U.S. Institute of Peace, in partnership with Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, and the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. There's four guides. They're all available for free online. Once I close down my PowerPoint, I'm going to throw the links for all of these things I'm mentioning into the chat box so you can all see it. But one of the things—I'm just going to dive in a little bit to the analysis guide, because one of the things that I think is useful in helping, again, to help us think a little bit more complexly about religion, is that it takes you through this process of thinking about the different dimensions of religion as defined here—ideas, community, institutions, symbols and practices, and spirituality. So it's already moving beyond just an idea of religious institutions, for example. And it takes you through doing a conflict assessment, and asking the questions related to religion with respect to the drivers of the conflict and the geographic location and peacebuilding initiatives, to help you craft a peacebuilding—a religious peacebuilding initiative. I have used this framework as a means to help students think through the ambivalence of religion as it manifests in different places. So I have an example there of a question that I have sometimes used that has been fruitful in thinking about how these five different dimensions of religion have manifested in American history in ways that either have advanced forms of racialized violence and injustice or that have served as drivers of peace and justice. And there's lots of examples across all of those dimensions of the ways in which religion has shown up in ambivalent ways in that respect. There's also—USIP's team has produced a lot of amazing things. So I'll put some links to some of their other resources in there too, which includes they're doing religious landscape mappings of conflict-affected states. They have an online course on religious engagement in peacebuilding that's free to take. Another resource is from here, at Harvard Divinity School in the Religion in Public Life Program. And we provide a series of case studies that is for educators. It's primarily created educators in secondary schools and in community colleges, but I think could easily be adapted and used in other kinds of four-year universities or other kinds of professional settings, where you're doing trainings or workshops, or even just holding discussions on religious literacy. So there's a series of kind of short, concise, but dense, case studies that are looking at different religions as they intersect with a host of issues, including peace, climate, human rights, gender issues. And it says something about that case study here—the example that I have here is the conflict in Myanmar, pre-coup, the conflicts that were occurring between religious communities, and particularly between Buddhist communities and Muslim communities. And then there's a set of discussion questions there that really help to unearth some of those lessons about internal diversity and about the ways in which religious intersects with state policies and other kinds of power interests and agendas—political power interests and agendas. And then also, at our program, Religion and Public Life, we have a number of courses that are available online, one that's more on the substantive religious literacy side, looking at different religious traditions through their scriptures. Another course, it's on religion, conflict and peace, all of which are free and I'm going to throw them into the chat box in a moment. And we also have ongoing workshops for educators on religious literacy, a whole network with that. So you're welcome to join that network if you'd like. And then finally, we have a one-year master's of religion and public life program for people in professions—quote/unquote, “secular” professions—who want to come and think about—they're encountering religion in various ways in their work in public health, or in their work in journalism. And so they want to come here for a year and to think deeply about that, and bring something back into their profession. And then the final thing, and then I'm going to be done, and this one is short, is the Transatlantic Policy for Religion and Diplomacy, which brings together point people from—who work on religion across different foreign ministries in North America and Europe. And their website, religionanddiplomacy.org, has a lot of really great resources that—reports on various thematic issues, but also looking at religion in situ in a number of different geographic locations. They have these strategic notes, that's what I have the image of here, that talk about, at a particular time, what are some of the big stories related to religion and international affairs overseas. And they list a number of other religious literacy resources on their website as well. So I commend all of that to. And with that, let me stop share, throw some links into the chat box, and hear responses and questions from folks. FASKIANOS: Wonderful. Thank you for that. That was terrific. And we are going to send out—as a follow-up, we'll send out a link to this webinar, maybe a link to your presentation, as well as the resources that you drop into the chat. So if you don't get it here, you will have another bite at the apple, so to speak. (Gives queuing instructions.) So I'm going to go first to the written question from Meredith Coon, who's an undergraduate student at Lewis University: What would be a solution for India to have many different religions live in peace with each other, especially since most religions share a lot of the same core values of how people should live? And how can society prevent the weaponization of religion, while still allowing broad religious freedom? HAYWARD: All right. Thank you for the question, Meredith. And one thing just to note, by way of housekeeping, I'm not sure I can actually share the links with all of the participants. So we'll make sure that you get all of those links in that follow-up note, as Irina said. So, Meredith, I think a couple things. One, I just want to note that one of the assumptions within your question itself is that folks of different religious persuasions are constantly at conflict with one another. And of course, there is a reality of there is increasing religious tensions around the world, communal tensions of many different sorts, ethnic, and religious, and racial, and so on, across the world. And the threat to democracy and increasing authoritarianism has sometimes exacerbated those kinds of tensions. But there's also a lot of examples presently and historically of religiously incredibly diverse communities living in ways that are harmonious, that are just, and so on. So I think it is important—there's a lot of work that supports forms of interfaith dialogue and intra-faith dialogue. And I think that that work is—will always be important, to be able to recognize shared values and shared commitments, and in order to acknowledge and develop respect and appreciation for differences as well on different topics—again, both within religious traditions and across them. But I think that dialogue alone, frankly, is not enough. Because so often these tensions and these conflicts are rooted in structural violence and discrimination and concerns, economic issues, and political issues, and so on. And so I think part of that work, it's not just about building relationships kind of on a horizontal level, but also about ensuring that state policies and practice, economic policies and practices, and so on, are not operating in ways that disadvantage some groups over others, on a religious side, on a gender side, on a racial side, and so on. So it's about ensuring as well inclusive societies and a sense as well of inclusive political systems and inclusive economic systems. And doing that work in kind of integrated ways is going to be critical for ensuring that we're able to address some of these rising forms of violations of religious freedom. Thanks again for the question. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Next question from Clemente Abrokwaa. Clemente, do you want to ask your question? Associate teaching professor of African studies at Pennsylvania State University? I'm going to give you a moment, so we can hear some voices. Q: OK. Thank you very much. Yeah, my question is I'm wondering how peacebuilding, in terms of religious literacy, how would you look at—or, how does it look at those that are termed fundamentalists? How their actions and beliefs, especially their beliefs, those of us—there are those outside who perceive them as being destructive. So then to that person, is their beliefs are good. So they fight for, just like anyone will fight for, what, a freedom fighter or something, or a religious fighter in this case. So I'm just wondering how does religious literacy perceive that in terms of peacebuilding? HAYWARD: Right. Thank you for the question, Professor Abrokwaa. I really appreciate it. So a couple things. One, first of all, with respect to—just going back, again, to the ambivalence of the sacred—recognizing that that exists. That there are particular religious ideas, commitments, groups, practices that are used in order to fuel and legitimate forms of violence. And I use violence in a capacious understanding of it, that includes both direct forms of violence but also structural and cultural forms of violence, to use the framework of Johan Galtung. And so that needs to be addressed as part of the work to build peace, is recognizing religious and nonreligious practices and ideas that are driving those forms of violence. But when it comes to religious literacy to understand that, a couple ways in which the principles apply. One is, first, not assuming that their—that that is the only or exclusive religious interpretation. And I think sometimes well-meaning folks end up reifying this idea that that is the exclusive religious interpretation or understanding when they're—when they're offering sometimes purely nonreligious responses to it. And what I mean by this, for example, let's look at Iran right now. I read some analyses where it's saying that, the Iranian authorities and the Ayatollahs who comprise the Supreme Council and so on, that they—that they define what Islamic law is. And there's not a qualification of that. And in the meantime, the protesters are sort of defined as, like, secular, or they're not—the idea that they could be driven by certain—their own Islamic interpretations that are just as authoritative to them, and motivating them, and shaping them is critical. So being able to recognize the internal plurality and not unintentionally reify that particular interpretation of a religious tradition as exclusive or authoritative. Rather, it's one interpretation of a religious tradition with particular consequences that are harmful for peace. And there are multiple other interpretations of that religious tradition that are operating within that context. And then a second way that the religious literacy would apply would also look at the ways in which sometimes the diagnoses of extremist groups that are operating within a religious frame doesn't right-size the role of religion in that. It sometimes overemphasizes the religious commitments, and drives, and so on. And so, again, we need to right-size. There are religious motivations. And we need to take those seriously. And we need to develop solutions for addressing that. And there are economic interests. And there are political interests. So there's a whole host of factors that are motivating and inspiring and legitimating those groups. And being able to take into account that more holistic picture and ensure that your responses to it are going to be holistic. And then one final thing I want to say that's not with respect to religious literacy as much—or, maybe it is—but it's more just about my experience of work at USIP, is that—and it kind of goes back to the question that Meredith asked before you about religious harmony between multireligious relations and harmony, is that I sometimes finds that engaging with groups that are defining themselves and motivating themselves with a primary grounding in religion, that they're not going to participate generally in interfaith initiatives, and so on, right? And so that's where some of that intra-faith work can be particularly important. I saw this, for example, in Myanmar, when their—when previously the movement that was known as Ma Ba Tha, which was defined by some as a Buddhist nationalist anti-Muslim kind of Buddhist supremacist group. The folks who were most successful in being able to engage in a values-grounded conversation with members of the organization were other Buddhist monks, who were able to speak within the language of meaning and to draw attention to, like, different understandings of religious teachings or religious principles with respect to responding to minority groups, and so on. So I think that's in particular, with addressing those groups, that's where that intra-religious work or intra-communal work can be really critical, in addition to some of that cross-communal work. FASKIANOS: Thank you. So we've seen, obviously, the war in Ukraine and how Christian Orthodoxy is being—or, Greek Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and the division. Can you talk a little bit about that and how it's playing out with Russian identity? HAYWARD: Yeah, absolutely. There's been some really good analysis and work out there of the religious dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. So again, the sort of dominant story that you see, which reflects a reality, is that there are ways in which political and religious actors and interests are aligning on the Russian side in order to advance particular narratives and that legitimate the invasion of Ukraine that—that are about sort of fighting back against an understanding of the West as being counter to traditional and religious values. Those are some of the religious understandings. And then that concern gets linked then to the establishment of an independent or autocephalous Orthodox Church within the Ukraine context. And you see—in particular, what's pointed to often is the relationship between Patriarch Kirill in the Russian Orthodox Church, and Putin, and the ways in which they've sort of reinforced each other's narrative and offered support to it. And there's really great analysis out there and stories that have been done about that. And that needs to be taken into account in responding to the situation and, I would say, that some of the religious literacy principles would then ask us to think about other ways in which religion is showing up within that, that go beyond the institution too. So a lot of the news stories that I've seen, for example, have focused exclusively on—sometimes—exclusively on the clerics within the Orthodox Church and their positions, either in support of or in opposition to the war. But in reality, on the ground there's a lot more complexity that's taken place, and a lot more of the ways in which different individuals and communities on both the Russia and the Ukraine side are responding to the violence, to the displacements, and so on. It paints a more complex and, I think, fascinating story, frankly. And sort of illuminates ways forward in support of peacebuilding. For example, there's ways in which different kinds of ritual practices within Orthodoxy have served as a source of support and constancy to folks who are living in this situation of insecurity and displacement, in ways that have been helpful. There are, of course, other religious traditions that exist within both Ukraine and Russia that are operating and responding in different ways. Like, the Jewish community in Ukraine and the Catholic—the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. So looking at those complexities both within Orthodoxy, but there's many different ways that Orthodox Christians are responding in both countries. There's not one story of Orthodox Christianity and the invasion of Ukraine. But also looking at some of the religious diversity within it. And that helps to ensure, like I said, one, that we're developing solutions that are also recognizing the ways in which religion at a very ground level is serving as a source of support, humanitarian relief, social, psychological support to people on the ground, as well as the ways in which it's sort of manifesting ambivalently and complexly in ways that are driving some of the violence as well. And it also helps to push back against any sort of a narrative that this is about a Russian religion—on the Russian side—this is about a religious war against a secular, non-religious West or Ukraine, right? That that goes back to what I was talking about with the historical sort of contingencies that are baked into this system a little bit. And in defining it in that way, Russia's religious and its motivations are religious, Ukraine's not religious, that's both not true—(laughs)—because there's many religious folks within the Ukraine and within the West generally, but also feeds—it feeds the very narrative that Putin and Kirill are giving of a secular West that is anti-religion, that is in opposition to Russian traditional values. FASKIANOS: It seems like there needs to be some training of journalists too to have religious literacy, in the same way that we're talking about media literacy. HAYWARD: Yeah. FASKIANOS: Probably should be introduced as well. (Laughs.) HAYWARD: Yeah, Irina, it's funny, we did—one of my students actually did a kind of mapping and analysis of stories about the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the religious dimensions of it. And she noted that there was—for example, it was—almost always it was male clerics who were being quoted. So there was very little that was coming from other gendered perspectives and experiences on the ground, lay folks and so on. And again, for that—for that very reason it's sort of—because we know so many policymakers and international analysis are depending on these kinds of media stories, I worry that it creates a blinder to potential opportunities for different kinds of ways of addressing needs and partners for addressing needs on the ground. FASKIANOS: Great. Thank you. I'm going to go next to Liam Wall, an undergraduate student at Loyola Marymount University: With so much diversity within religions itself, how can we avoid the analysis paralysis you mentioned and take in as many unique perspectives as possible, without letting that stand in the way of progress? How does one know that they have enough religious literacy and can now become an effective practitioner? HAYWARD: Well, OK, the bad news is that you will never have enough religious literacy. (Laughs.) This is a process, not an end. There are scholars here at Harvard who have been studying one particular sect of a particular religious tradition for their entire adult lives, and they would still say that they are students of those traditions, because they're so complex. Because so many of these traditions are composed of a billion people or just—just 500 million people. But that means that there's going to be an incredible diversity to explore. And so that's the bad news. But the good news is, one, like, first take the burden off of your shoulders of having to be an expert on any one particular religious tradition, in order to be able to help to develop and enhance your own religious literacy, and those of others, and to operate in ways that reflect the principles of religious literacy, is the good news. As well as there are many different kinds of resources that you can turn to in order to understand, for example if you're going to be working in a particular geographic location, scholarship, people you can speak to in order to begin to understand at least some of the specific manifestations and practices, and some of the disputes and diversity that exists within that particular country or geographic location across religious traditions. But, secondly, I would say, it's almost more important than—like, the substance is important. But what's just as important, if not more important, is understanding what kinds of questions to be asking, and to be curious about these religious questions and their intersection with the political and social. So we sometimes say that religious literacy is about developing habits of mind in how we think about these religious questions, and what kinds of questions we ask about religion. So it's about developing that kind of a reflex to be able to kind of see what's underneath some of the analysis that you're seeing that might be relevant to religion or that might be advancing particularly problematic understandings of religion, or reinforcing binaries like the secular and the religious and so on. And that's just as—just as important. So the extent to which you're continuing to, like, hone those—that way of thinking, and those habits of mind, that will set you up well for then going into this space and being able to ask those particular questions with respect to whatever issues you're focusing on, or whatever geographic location you're looking at. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go next to Mohamed Bilal, a postgraduate student at the Postgraduate Institute of Management in Sri Lanka. HAYWARD: Yay! FASKIANOS: Yes. How does sectarianism influence our literacy? In turn, if we are influenced by sectarianism, then would we be illiterate of the religion but literate of the sect? Thus, wouldn't such a religious literacy perpetuate sectarianism? HAYWARD: Thank you for the question, Mohamed. It's—I miss Sri Lanka. I have not been there in too long, and I look forward to going back at some point. So I would say sectarianism, in the sense of—so, there's both religious sects, right? There's the existence of different kinds of religious traditions, interpretive bodies, jurisprudential bodies in the case of Islam. And then broader, different schools or denominations. The term that's used depends on the different religious tradition. And that reflects internal diversity. Sectarianism, with the -ism on the end of it, gets back to the same kinds of questions that I think Professor Clemente was asking with respect to fundamentalism. That's about being sort of entrenched in an idea that your particular religious understanding and practice is the normative, authentic, and pure practice, and that all others are false in some ways. That is a devotional claim or—what I mean by a devotional claim, is that is a knowledge claim that is rooted within a particular religious commitment and understanding. And so religious literacy in this case would—again, it's the principles of internal diversity, recognizing that different sects and different bodies of thought and practice are going to exist within religious traditions, but then also ensuring that any claim to be normative or to be orthodox by any of these different interpretive bodies is always a claim that is rooted within that religious tradition that we sometimes say is authentic. It's authentic to those communities and what they believe. But it's not exclusive. It's not the only claim that exists within that religious tradition more broadly. And the concern is about—sects are fine. Different denominations, different interpretative bodies are fine and a good and sort of natural thing, given the breadth and the depth of these religious traditions. The problem is that -ism part of it, when it becomes a source of competition or even potentially violence between groups. And so that's what needs to be interrogated and understood. FASKIANOS: So another question from John Francis, who's the senior associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Utah: If you were training new diplomats in other countries to be stationed in the United States, where a wide range of religious traditions thrive, how would you prepare them for dealing with such religious variation? HAYWARD: The same way I would—and thank you, again, for the question. The same way that I would with any other diplomats going to any other—the same way I do with foreign service officers at the Foreign Service Institute, who are going to work overseas. I would—I would invite them to think about their own assumptions and their own worldviews and their own understandings of what religion is, based on their own contexts that they grew up in. So how that shapes how they understand what religion is, in the ways I was speaking to before. So for example, in Protestant Christianity, we tend to emphasize belief as the sort of core principle of religious traditions. But other religious traditions might emphasize different forms of practice or community as sort of the central or principal factor. So recognizing your own situatedness and the ways in which you understand and respond to different religious traditions. I would invite those who are coming to work here to read up on the historical developments and reality of different religious communities and nonreligious communities in the U.S. and encourage them to look not just at some of the—what we call the world religions, or the major religions, but also at indigenous traditions and different practices within different immigrant communities. And I would have them look at the historical relationship between the state and different religious communities as well, including the Mormon tradition there in Utah, and how the experience of, for example, the Mormon community has shaped its own relationship with the state, with other religious communities on a whole host of issues as well. And then I would encourage—just as I was saying earlier—no diplomat going to the U.S. is going to become an expert on the religious context in the U.S., because it's incredibly complex, just like anywhere else in the world. But to be able to have sort of a basic understanding to be able to then continue to ask the kinds of questions that are going to help to understand how any political action is taken or response to any policy issues kind of inevitably bumps up against particular religious or cultural commitments and values. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to take the next question from Will Carpenter, director of private equity principal investments at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and also taking a course at the Harvard Extension School. HAYWARD: Hey! FASKIANOS: I'm going to ask the second part of Will's question. How will the current polarized domestic debate regarding U.S. history, which is often colored by the extremes—as a force for good only versus tainted by a foundation of injustice—impact America's capacity to lead internationally? HAYWARD: Hmm, a lot. (Laughter.) Thank you for the question. I mean, I think the fact of polarization in the U.S. and the increasing difficulty that we're facing in being able to have really deep conversations and frank conversations about historical experiences and perceptions of different communities, not just religiously, not just racially even, but across different—urban-rural, across socioeconomic divides, across educational divides and, of course, across political divides, and so on. I think that—I think that absolutely hampers our ability to engage within the global stage effectively. One, just because of the image that it gives to the rest of the world. So how can we—how can we have an authentic moral voice when we ourselves are having such a hard time engaging with one other in ways that reflect those values and that are grounded within those values? But also because I think get concern—with respect to religion questions in particular—I get concern about the increasing polarization and partisanization of religion in foreign policy and issues of religious freedom, and so on. Which means that we're going to constantly have this sort of swinging back and forth then between Republican and Democratic administrations on how we understand and engage issues related to religion and foreign policy, different religious communities in particular, like Muslim communities worldwide, or on issues of religious freedom. So I think it's incredibly critical—always has been, but is particularly right now at this historical moment—for us to be in the U.S. doing this hard work of having these conversations, and hearing, and listening to one another, and centering and being open about our values and having these conversations on that level of values. To be able to politically here in the U.S., much less overseas, to be able to work in ways that are effective. Irina, you're muted. FASKIANOS: Thank you. (Laughs.) With that, we are at the end of our time. Thank you so much for this. This has been a really important hour of discussion. Again, we will send out the link to the webinar, as well as all the resources that you mentioned, Susan. Sorry we didn't have the chat open so that we could focus on what you were saying and all the questions and comments that came forward. So we appreciate it. And thank you so much, again, for your time, Susan Hayward. And I just want to remind everybody that this is the last webinar of the semester, but we will be announcing the Winter/Spring Academic Webinar lineup in our Academic bulletin. And if you're not already subscribed to that, you can email us at cfracademic@cfr.org. Just as a reminder, you can learn about CFR paid internships for students and fellowships for professors at CFR.org/careers. Follow @CFR_Academic on Twitter and visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Good luck with your exams. (Laughs.) Grading, taking them, et cetera. Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving. And we look forward to seeing you again next semester. So, again, thank you to Susan Hayward. HAYWARD: Thank you, everybody. Take care.

Friday October 14, 2022 Rabi 'al-Awwal 18, 1444   Elevating Our Discourse: Avoiding the Ugliness of Sectarianism

For further details on how to attend the New Culture Forum's Tory Conference Fringe event with guest speaker Nick Timothy in Birmingham on Monday 3rd October, please email: contact@newcultureforum.org.uk On this week's #NCFNewspeak Peter Whittle and Emma Webb discuss: * the Muslim-Hindu sectarian violence that threatens to rip Leicester apart * Britain's obesity crisis, and * PayPal's attack on free speech, as the payment platform freezes the accounts of the Free Speech Union, its founder Toby Young and his Daily Sceptic news site. ------------------- SUBSCRIBE: If you are enjoying the show, please subscribe to our channel on YouTube (click the Subscribe Button underneath the video and then Click on the Bell icon next to it to make sure you Receive All Notifications) AUDIO: If you prefer Audio you can subscribe on itunes or Soundcloud. Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-923838732 SUPPORT/DONATE / JOIN OUR MEMBERSHIP SCHEME The NCF Channel is still very new and to continue to produce quality programming we need your support. Your donations will help ensure the channel not only continues but can grow into a major online platform challenging the cultural orthodoxies dominant in our institutions, public life and media. You can join our membership scheme or donate in a variety of ways via our website: http://www.newcultureforum.org.uk It is set up to accept one time and monthly donations. JOIN US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Web: http://www.newcultureforum.org.uk F: https://www.facebook.com/NCultureForum/ I: https://www.instagram.com/newculturef... Y: http://www.youtube.com/c/NewCultureForum T: http://www.twitter.com/NewCultureForum (@NewCultureForum)

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Episode 194 of RevolutionZ Ruminates on one quotation each from Rosa Luxembourg, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, and Malcolm X diversely addressing issues of social change and revolutionary practice.Support the show

What do recent incidents say about our society and the state of community relations?

Episode 189 of RevolutionZ is the twelfth in the series called Ruminations which takes up whatever issues, thoughts, concerns popup in the course of the session. Unscripted, this goes where spontaneous thoughts  lead...Support the show

Increasing political polarization is real, according to political scientists. To what extent have the powers of the presidency helped drive it? Gene Healy comments. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.