2008 Conference Articles
The articles below provide information and background on the subject of the upcoming Conference.
A Six-Day War
A Six-Day War: Its Aftermath in American Public Opinion, by Robert Ruby, Senior Editor, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
"It was famously a six-day war, and in varying guises the conflict has so far lasted another 40 years.
For six days, beginning June 5, 1967, Israel battled Egypt, Jordan and Syria. As a result of the fighting, Israel won control of the Sinai desert, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
For all of the 40 years since then, substantially larger numbers of Americans have placed their primary sympathy with Israel rather than with Arab states or with the Palestinians. That support is a near constant in American public opinion about the Middle East, beginning with Israel's creation as a state in May 1948 ..."
Divisions in Our World are Not the Result of Religion
This article, written by Karen Armstrong and Andrea Bistrich, appeared Nov. 14, 2007 at the website countercurrents.org.
Karen Armstrong was a Catholic nun for seven years before leaving her order and going to Oxford. Today, she is amongst the most renowned theologians and has written numerous bestsellers on the great religions and their founders. She is one of the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative of the former UN General Secretary, Kofi Anan, whose purpose is to fight extremism and further dialogue between the western and Islamic worlds. She talks here to the German journalist, Andrea Bistrich, about politics, religion, extremism and commonalities.
ANDREA BISTRICH: 9/11 has become the symbol of major, insurmountable hostilities between Islam and the West. After the attacks many Americans asked: "Why do they hate us?" And experts in numerous round-table talks debated if Islam is an inherently violent religion. Is this so?
KAREN ARMSTRONG: Certainly not. There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam. The Qur'an forbids aggressive warfare and permits war only in self-defence; the moment the enemy sues for peace, the Qur'an insists that Muslims must lay down their arms and accept whatever terms are offered, even if they are disadvantageous. Later, Muslim law forbade Muslims to attack a country where Muslims were permitted to practice their faith freely; the killing of civilians was prohibited, as were the destruction of property and the use of fire in warfare.
God's Country?
God's Country? by Walter Russell Mead (Foreign Affairs, September/October 2006). Religion has always been a major force in U.S. politics, but the recent surge in the number and the power of evangelicals is recasting the country's political scene -- with dramatic implications for foreign policy. This should not be cause for panic: evangelicals are passionately devoted to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach out across sectarian lines.
Know Your Enemy
This commentary, written by Arnaud de Borchgrave, appeared in the Nov. 18, 2007, edition of the Washington Times.
Radical Islam — or Islamofascism, as conservatives are prone to call it — conveys the impression of a political movement. It is no such animal. Al Qaeda's suicide bombers and assorted gunslingers are not individual al Qaeda terrorists, inspired by Osama bin Laden, that have hijacked a religion. Like it or not, the West is fighting a religion "that arose in enraged reaction to the West," writes Fergus Kerr in "20th Century Catholic Theologians."
Religion in Diplomatic History
Religion in Diplomatic History by Walter A. McDougall. The author is Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. This essay, adapted from a special issue of Orbis (Spring of 1998) on the topic "Faith and Statecraft" appeared in the Foreign Policy Research Institute WIRE in March of 1998.
Religion, Politics and Assassination in the Middle East
Religion, Politics and Assassination in the Middle East, a paper delivered by Sonia L. Alianak, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas--Pan American, at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, 29 August-1 September 1996.
Science and the Islamic World -- A Quest for Rapprochement
Written by Pervez Hoodbhoy and appearing on the website Modern Discussion, a "media news cultural tribune to publicize objective and critical dialogues and opinions about the vital issues concerning the secularism, democracy, human rights, women’s rights, development, environment, human heritage in order to build a humane, civil and secular society that guarantee basic political, economic, sociological, cultural rights for humanity. This includes enjoying national, religious, cult, intellectual, and political rights."
This article grew out of the Max von Laue Lecture that I delivered earlier this year to celebrate that eminent physicist and man of strong social conscience. When Adolf Hitler was on the ascendancy, Laue was one of the very few German physicists of stature who dared to defend Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. It therefore seems appropriate that a matter concerning science and civilization should be my concern here.
The question I want to pose—perhaps as much to myself as to anyone else—is this: With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge? To be definite, I am here using the 57 countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) as a proxy for the Islamic world.
The Dignity of Difference
The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations, a talk given by Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks at the 7th Annual Templeton Lecture on Religion and World Affairs (May 21, 2002).
The Sacred and the Profane
The Sacred and the Profane: Judaism and International Relations, the 2001 Templeton lecture on religion and world affairs by Harvey Sicherman, Ph.D., President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and former aide to three secretaries of state.