religion

By Saeed Ahmed Khan | – Most Americans say they don’t know a Muslim and that much of what they understand about Islam is from the media. It’s not surprising then to see the many misunderstandings that exist about Muslims. Some see them as outsiders and a threat to the American way of life and […]

Islam

Spirituality without Prophets: Ibn Tufayl and the story of the feral child of philosophy

contributors

By Marwa Elshakry and Murad Idris | – (Aeon) – Ibn Tufayl, a 12th-century Andalusian, fashioned the feral child in philosophy. His story Hayy ibn Yaqzan is the tale of a child raised by a doe on an unnamed Indian Ocean island. Hayy ibn Yaqzan (literally ‘Living Son of Awakeness’) reaches a state of perfect, […]

Islam

Muhammad: an anticlerical hero of the European Enlightenment

contributors

By John Tolan | – Publishing the Quran and making it available in translation was a dangerous enterprise in the 16th century, apt to confuse or seduce the faithful Christian. This, at least, was the opinion of the Protestant city councillors of Basel in 1542, when they briefly jailed a local printer for planning to […]

Qur'an

On how Everything Sam Harris says about Islam is Wrong: Part 2 on “Unbelievers”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is the second installment in a series on Sam Harris’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book, “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Religion” (Norton, 2005). Part 1 is here. On page 31, Harris says, “It is clear, however, that Muslims hate the West in […]

Featured

Why Muslim Survivors of N. Zealand Massacre can Forgive: Islam is about Compassion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I confess that I was weeping uncontrollably as I posted the videos and the AFP wire service story on the memorial service in Christchurch, New Zealand for the 50 shot dead in a horrific Islamophobic massacre. I’m a big Polynesia fan and the Maori music is so haunting and beautiful. […]

Islam

Building Bridges: Juan Cole Interview on Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires

Juan Cole

Andrew C Condon interviewed me in this podcast on my new book abut peace themes in the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Andrew is with the Bridge Initiative, aimed at combating Islamophobia, of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University Building Bridges Interview with Juan Cole […]

Featured

Dear Sen. Anning re: Mosque Shooting: The Qur’an Forbids Murder and Commands Peacemaking

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A far right wing senator in Australia, Fraser Anning, issued a despicable and widely condemned statement after fascist white supremacists from Australia murdered 49 persons at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. He referred to the mass murder merely as “vigilantism,” as though it were an understandable policing of a neighborhood […]

Haredim

On Int’l Women’s Day, Thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Assault Women of the Wailing Wall

Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Thousands of ultra-Orthodox youths violently disrupted a Women of the Wall prayer service, on Friday, forcing the multi-denominational feminist group to move to another location after two of its members sustained injuries near the Western Wall. According to the spokesperson of Women of the Wall, the group was holding an anniversary prayer […]

Christianity

Is the Southern Baptist Sexual Abuse Crisis rooted in Sexism?

The Conversation

By Susan M. Shaw | – Recent media reports have revealed decades of abuse by Southern Baptist pastors. Denominational leaders are offering apologies and calling the sexual abuse “evil,” “unjust” and a “barbarity of unrestrained sinful patterns.” Many Southern Baptist leaders are considering action. As a scholar who has written a book on Southern Baptist […]