Secularism

Charleston, WV (Special to Informed Comment) – I’ll be 90 on my next birthday. My long life is sinking, shrinking, slip-sliding away. My wife is worse: bedfast, under Hospice care. Soon, our world will end, not with a bang but a whimper. Looking back over nine decades, I’m proud and pleased because secular humanism – […]

religion

Did Rise of Non-Religious ‘Values Voters’ Help tip the Election to Dems?

The Conversation

By Phil Zuckerman | – The voting patterns of religious groups in the U.S. have been scrutinized since the presidential election for evidence of shifting allegiances among the faithful. Many have wondered if a boost in Catholic support was behind Biden’s win or if a dip in support among evangelicals helped doom Trump. But much […]

Christianity

In this Election, make no Mistake: White Evangelicals Lost, as “Nones” and Religious Liberals saved the Day

James A. Haught

Charleston , W. V. (Special to Informed Comment) – Donald Trump taught America a great lesson. He showed that this nation has a huge number of racist, sexist, jingoist, gay-hating, Muslim-hating, Hispanic-hating bigots – those Hillary Clinton called a “basket of deplorables.” Trump attracted them by millions through his endless attacks on blacks and other […]

Iran

Secular Shift: In Iran’s Islamic Republic, do only 40% even Consider themselves Muslims?

The Conversation

By Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ammar Maleki | – Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a defining event that changed how we think about the relationship between religion and modernity. Ayatollah Khomeini’s mass mobilisation of Islam showed that modernisation by no means implies a linear process of religious decline. Reliable large-scale data on Iranians’ post-revolutionary religious […]

Featured

Revolutionary, Muslim-Majority Sudan Declares Separation of Religion and State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) The transitional government of officers and civilian revolutionaries in Sudan has separated religion and state. In an agreement signed Thursday in Addis Ababa with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), Sudan’s prime minister Abdullah Hamdok agreed that Sudan would not establish any particular religion. The agreement included the language, “The state […]

Featured

Are Young Arabs Abandoning Religion?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Arab Barometer in partnership with the BBC has interviewed a weighted sample of 25,000 people in the Arab world. One of the survey’s findings is the rapid decline in self-reported religiousness. About 30% of Tunisians say they are “not religious” in 2019, nearly doubling since 2013. The youth are […]

Featured

Why Israeli Gov’t May Fall: Like US, Secularists and Fundamentalists are Polarized

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – We’ll know later today whether prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will succeed in forming a government. If not, Israel will have snap elections in September. In parliamentary systems, coalitions are often made after the election. In the US, the two big parties have already made their coalitions before the election. The […]

Islam

You’ve Got Veil: Secular Tajikistan Gov’t sends Millions of Texts imposing Hijab Ban

contributors

RFE/RL’s Tajik Service | – – DUSHANBE — Private mobile-phone companies in Tajikistan have begun sending out text messages to millions of citizens, reminding them to obey a new law that makes Tajik national clothing obligatory at “traditional” gatherings such as weddings and commemorative ceremonies for the dead. The legislation is widely seen as an […]

Featured

Rebuking Fundamentalists, Funeral for Palestinian-Israeli Istanbul Victim draws Thousands

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – One of the thirty-nine victims of the Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) shooting at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Layan Nasser, 19, was buried on Tuesday in her home town, Tira, in central Israel. Roughly a fifth of Israeli citizens are of Palestinian heritage, the majority of them […]