Analysis of what a theocracy truly is and how government and religion tie together to create and run a working country where some law or cultural norms are influenced by the predominant religion in the country: in this case, Islam. Brief history…
Mahmood brings about the question as to why secularization is not seen as odd despite the fact that more people practice a religion than not. Mahmood states, “The experience of modernity, furthermore, has rarely been one of ‘tolerance, civility and reason’ for large numbers of people around the world,” (Mahmood 1). She also claims that fundamentalism is essentially the delayed response to European colonialism in the region, and that fundamentalism is used to move the region back to a more authentic regional culture. Finally, despite the West’s negative interpretation of fundamentalism, the West is actually a key contributor. Fanatical groups in Pakistan received a plethora of money in aid in order to fight in Afghanistan. Also when certain groups are opposed to modernity they are considered fundamentalist by the West but when Western allies such as Saudi Arabia replicate these same beliefs they are still viewed as friends. Mahmood argues that this double standard as well as the broad term of the word makes the term fundamentalism unreliable, despite the intensive work and research by other authors such as John…
Throughout human history, man has found himself fascinated with the Gods and the mysticism that surrounds them. The idea of praying to a higher power has always appealed to the ethos of mankind, as a way of comfort. Divine intervention has led to the construction of grand temples, churches, and mosques while, the rest of the people lived in shacks battling destitute poverty. Religion has ignored many problems of the human condition in favor of the fantasy of revelation and salvation. It has led to vicious wars, disenfranchisement of entire groups of people all because of the sweet promise of salvation. In John D. Caputo's essay, Caputo highlights the divisive nature of religion and how the promises of revelation and salvation result ultimately lead to further perpetuate the lies and violence that religion has brought…
Religion in much of the world is not in a state of general decline or public evisceration. In contrast, religion is being reshaped, challenged, and in some senses threatened by the processes of emerging late modernity (Brent Plate, 2002). Nation-states, for example, find their sovereignty is being challenged both from below and above, by pervasive alienation from the political process, new courtship rituals, scientific advances…
As Daniel Bell states, religion is a method to deal with the fear of death. (Bell 224) The fear of death rather arises through the political conflicts; especially in terms of the Cold War since it claimed the lifes of thousands of people. Religion normally offers empathy for those suffering and palliative care supports the believer on his death-bed. During the last decade the fear of death has increased because the individual, rather than the mass, is offended by everyday disputes. The only solution political religion offers to this problem is to “emphasiz[e] the omnipotence of a movement” as Daniel Bell claims. (Bell 225) Therefore, confronting the current political conflict or movement rather than suppressing it offers a solution to deal with…
The world is formed by connections, both positive and negative ones. A relationship is the manner by which at least two ideas, protests, or individuals are associated, or the condition of being associated. Connections come in numerous appearances, for example, family enrollments, fellowships, insinuate connections, on a bigger scale, common undertakings, similar to the Unified Countries, and some more. Likewise, interests are a tremendous segment to connections; an ordinarily known intrigue as well as disputable subject are religion. Religion has united individuals (and annihilated individuals, candidly and physically) since the very beginning.…
Pipes, Daniel. Militant Islam Reaches America. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002. Print.…
A discussion of religion can branch into any number of topics, over any number of denominations and sects, about its effects on law and politics, and its role within society. However, mention religion today, and one subject arises universally: Danish cartoons. Out of context, this sounds ridiculous, but within a sound framework, the subject broaches religion at every possible entry. Perhaps no event in recent history, excluding 9/11, has provoked such a universal and rapid backlash. Retaliation against the publication of these comics stunned and shocked the world and led to the mass proposition of one question: Why? This line of thought sprung many queries. Why are Muslims so offended? Why did the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publish the comics in the first place? Why is Islam seemingly out of control? Simple minds propose that Islam just can 't handle a few jibes, and that the religion produces lunatics. However, sift through the misconceptions and the prejudices, and a more complex answer lies within, one that includes surprisingly little Islam and a far greater amount of oppression and subjugation. The heart of these protests lies not within Islam, but in the molding of the ignorant by power and the makings of history.…
Although Christianity and Islam have been and are dominating the scene it is necessary to place both in their proper perspective taking into account human history of faith in the supernatural or something beyond our five senses. Side by side with this awe mixed fear of the unknown is the feeling of being cocksure and confident of one’ own power. It is the same of the caveman as of the politicians and financiers strutting around Wall Street and Washington. When this feeling of being sure is coupled with a belief, then ‘ism’ is born. This ism can be anything from belief in money-power to mass-power or god-power. Then is another side to our psychology. We try to foist our beliefs on others. It is in our very psyche. For the purpose of understanding two interviews were carried out. The first person interviewed is Albert Lamb and the second person is Azad Rauf.…
The Middle East was left in turmoil after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1 and its eventual dissolution in 1922, initiated by the Allies. The Ottoman Empire was a multinational, multilingual empire and the official state Dīn of the empire was Sunni Islam, although there was a hegemonic power of Muslim control over the non-Muslim population, non-Muslim communities in the Ottoman Empire had been granted state recognition and protection in the Islamic tradition. With the Empires defeat, its partitioning and the loss of its Middle Eastern territories to the French and British, created a void of Islamic representation in the geopolitics of the early 20th century. This void and lack of representation led to multiple Islamist and…
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people" (Marx 260). This statement implies that religion is a powerful concept that encourages people to accept their conditions instead of revolting against their plight. Indeed in the wrong hands, it can be perverted to justify countless atrocities and so be used as a tool of oppression. In her novel, The Handmaid 's Tale, Margaret Atwood portrays a dystopian society, a fictional republic called Gilead, whose rulers use the power of religion to validate their terrifying personal agenda. She satirizes the political system that uses faith to validate its mandate, and justify its more questionable laws. Clearly the use of religion for political purposes is one of the central themes of the novel; Atwood takes a set of fundamentalist religious beliefs followed by certain fringe elements in contemporary society and takes them to their logical end to highlight their true despotic nature.…
This book aims to bring together a diverse range of multidisciplinary ideas to explore the degree of radicalism within the ongoing…
Every religion has its own set of rituals and ceremonies, the implementation of which sometimes provides feedback with something secretly. We can find a lot of facts when people saw or felt something strange during praying or just being in the saint place. Also some believers keeps in touch with spirits and gods, who help to make right decisions and answer some complete questions.…
A growing concern to many is the possibility of a civil war across countries between Sunnis and Shiites, in which “countries are divided along sectarian lines” (International Business Times). This would lead to a crisis, weakening the borders between countries as a result of a collapse of existing nation-states. The implications of this would be terrible - “goods, people, and weapons will move more easily” between many countries in the Middle East. Religion can cause people, such as Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East, to do irrational things, from discrimination to murder, in order to assert their opinion that their specific beliefs are more correct and more right than the beliefs of others. Religion causes people to do this because…
Modernism and industrialism have brought many advantages to society, but also they are some of the biggest enemies that every religion in the world is affronting. Every day there are fewer and fewer religious people in the world because religion is decreasing its power and legitimacy. This process is called secularization. Secularization affects both genders, however males have proven to be more susceptible to it than women.…