Religion Focus

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Focus on Religion

Recent & Selected Articles

This is a small sampling of articles related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more articles, books, films, and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

The Myth of Muslim Conquest (January 13, 2010)
It’s easy to mistake the high visibility of Islam in the West for a massive return to piety in Muslim communities. But for the last 20 years religious observance has stagnated, even slightly waned.
Connexions Archive seeks a new home (November 18, 2009)
The Connexions Archive, a Toronto-based library dedicated to preserving the history of grassroots movements for social change, needs a new home.
Rabbis Take on Settlers (October 21, 2009)
Away from the media spotlight that focuses on the widening chasm between Israelis and Palestinians, a group of Israeli humanists is quietly working to break down barriers with their Palestinian neighbours.
How not to understand Islamist politics (October 17, 2009)
Which side are you on? (October 17, 2009)
The women’s question has haunted the Islamic regime from the start. The Islamic Republic has been in continuous conflict with the women’s liberation movement, which has grown considerably in the past decade in opposition to the misogyny and gender apartheid of the Islamists. Despite brutal assaults on this movement, the regime has not succeeded in silencing it.
How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraqi gays (September 13, 2009)
Iraqi militias infiltrate internet gay chatrooms to hunt their quarry – and hundreds are feared to be victims.
On Islam And Gender Equality (August 18, 2009)
A review essay on Salbiah Ahmad's book Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia.
'Take me to your leader' (April 23, 2009)
Say It Loud, Say It Proud: There is No God (2009)
Why make a fuss about the murder of a brown-skinned Muslim girl? (December 16, 2008)
History gives us numerous examples of social movements which come, over time, to adopt positions directly opposed to the principles on which they were founded. It appears this has happened to the 'feminists' who seek to silence those who speak out about violence against Muslim women.
The OIC does not speak for Muslims (September 17, 2008)
Tarek Fatah says that "To suggest that any criticism of Islamism, the political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Ayatollahs, is anti-Islamic is a bogus and fraudulent position. I would contend that my religion Islam demands that I stand up to these bullies and take away from their right to put padlocks on poetry and chastity belts on independent thinking."
The “Honor” Killing of Aqsa Parvez (2008)
Feminists and reformist left have for the most part met the spate of “honour” killings within Canada with disgraceful silence.
The Theology of Respect (September 22, 2006)
What the new theology demands is, in fact, not respect but obedience. 'You will only say or do what we think is acceptable' has become the credo of the multiculturalist censor. It is an attitude that turns the notion of respect on its head.
Manifesto of the Third Camp against US Militarism and Islamic Terrorism (August 16, 2006)
The human and genuine solution to the problem of nuclear weapons, to Islamic terrorism and its horrific crimes against the people of the world, and to the militaristic bullying of the US and Western governments lies in the hands of us people.
Sharia "Socialists" (January 6, 2006)
It is mind-boggling that self-styled leftists would champion a campaign by the most reactionary, anti-woman forces in the Muslim community to have their religious law backed by the authority of the capitalist state.
Born in Bradford (2005)
Multiculturalism transformed the character of antiracism. By the mid-1980s the focus of antiracist protest in Bradford had shifted from political issues, such as policing and immigration, to religious and cultural issues: a demand for Muslim schools and for separate education for girls, a campaign for halal meat to be served at school, and, most explosively, the confrontation over the publication of The Satanic Verses. Political struggles unite across ethnic or cultural divisions; cultural struggles inevitably fragment.
The Islamophobia Myth (2005)
Pretending that Muslims have never had it so bad might bolster community leaders and gain votes for politicians, but it does the rest of us, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, no favours at all. The more that the threat of Islamophobia is exaggerated, the more that ordinary Muslims come to accept that theirs is a community under constant attack. It helps create a siege mentality, stoking up anger and resentment, and making Muslim communities more inward looking and more open to religious extremism.
Religion, The Golden Rule, and Revolution (2004)
Why is it that all of the world's great religions, though disagreeing greatly about theology, nonetheless concur on the Golden Rule? The explanation must be that there is something common to all human beings that is captured by the Golden Rule and reflected in all of these religions.
Women Enslaved by Islamic Reaction (April 13, 2001)
There is nothing progressive or “anti-imperialist” about being shrouded in the veil. Nor is it, as some liberals would maintain, a quaint cultural attribute. You wouldn’t think you would have to be a communist to see that wrapping a woman in a veil and secluding her in the home is a hideous oppression crying out to be wiped from the face of the earth. The veil is a physical symbol of the submission of women to men and the imposed affirmation of their inferior status.
Religion is Part of the 'Lumpenism' in Society (June 13, 1999)
Liberation theology is the name for Christian priets who are prepared to say something against Latin American dictators. This is what they call liberation theology, but by definition no theology is liberating. Theology is the antithesis of liberation. It signifies keeping people ignorant, obstructing their independent thought and consigning them to an unknown creator and world. Liberation theology is nonsense.
Iran will be the Scene of a Mass Anti-Islamic Offensive (1999)
We have seen in the last 20-25 years the emergence and considerable development of political movements that have organised themselves under the banner of Islam. There are a series of extremely Right-wing, anti-human and violent movements in North Africa, the Middle East and today, in all countries in which the so-called official religion is Islam or which have significant Muslim minorities. Their conduct is primarily in the form of opposition to the freedom of women, women’s civil liberties, freedom of expression in the cultural and personal domains and the enforcement of brutal laws and traditions against people, and even killing, beheading, and genocide of people from young children to the elderly.
Islam and De-Islamisation (1999)
Islam, Children’s Rights, and the Hijab-gate of Rah-e-Kargar (1997)
It has been proved time and time again that pushing back religiosity and religious reaction is not possible except through unequivocal defence of human values against religion. It has been proved time and time again that preventing religious barbarism does not come about through bribing it and trying to give it a human face, but through the fight against reactionary religious beliefs and practices.
1992 The Theology of Self-Discovery Offers Hope (1990)
The Self-Discovery campaign does not confine itself to the struggles of Indigenous People but addresses the concerns of all social and racial groups who have experienced social/cultural destruction under the yoke of colonialism.
The Fusion of Anabaptist, Indian and African as the American Radical Tradition (1987)
The native American radical tradition, originating ultimately in the radical religious currents who "lost" at the very dawn of capitalism, and their meeting with the non-Western peoples--Indian and African--who shaped early American culture as much as white people, might have something very unique to contribute to the current and still completely unresolved crisis of the international revolutionary left.
Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization? (1930)
Bertrand Russell's 1930 critique of religious morality and metaphysics.
Socialism and Religion (1907)
In declaring that religion is a private matter, we do not mean to say that it is immaterial to us, what general conceptions our members hold. We prefer a thorough scientific understanding to an unscientific religious faith. But we are convinced, that the new conditions will of themselves alter the religious conceptions, and that religious or anti-religious propaganda is unable to accomplish or prevent this.
Socialism and The Churches (1905)
Social-Democracy in no way fights against religious beliefs. On the contrary, it demands complete freedom of conscience for every individual and the widest possible toleration for every faith and every opinion. But, from the moment when the priests use the pulpit as a means of political struggle against the working classes, the workers must fight against the enemies of their rights and their liberation. For he who defends the exploiters and who helps to prolong this present regime of misery, he is the mortal enemy of the proletariat, whether he be in a cassock or in the uniform of the police.

Selected Websites and Organizations

This is a small sampling of organizations and websites concerned with education and children in the Connexions Directory. For more organizations and websites, check the Connexions Directory Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

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Search Connexions

Connexions Library

Connexions Directory of Associations & NGOs

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Quotes

Connexions Resource Centre Focus on Religion

Connexions Directory
of Associations & NGOs

Selected Resources by
Subject Area

Connexions Resource Centre
Focus on Religion