Month

Archives: Spirituality

Top 5 things that Make Bangladesh a natural Target for Extremists

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Bangladesh has been plagued by extremist violence for years, but the violence and hostage-taking in Dhaka on Friday and on Saturday morning was…

Spirit and Sensuality in the mystical Sufi poetry of Rumi

By Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee, Translators | (Informed Comment) | - - The poems of Rumi, the thirteenth-century teacher, scholar, and poet known simply as Mowlana in the Muslim world,…

As Glaciers Melt in Ecuador, Pope Francis challenges Technocrats, touts “Keeping” the Environment

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Pope Francis continues to preach environmentalism as he addresses crowds in Latin America, a challenging message in poor countries where over-exploitation of natural…

Vatican recognition of saints symbolic victory for Palestinians

By: Charlie Hoyle BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The grounds of the Carmel Convent in Bethlehem, home to blue-shuttered stone buildings on a hilltop facing the Nativity Church, are adorned with the image of…

A Journalist Journeys to the Heart of the Quran (Muslim Scripture)

By JOSEPH RICHARD PREVILLE and JULIE POUCHER HARBIN for ISLAMiCommentary : Carla Power Great journalists invite us to be companions with them on their journeys to extraordinary places. Carla Power offers such…

Iraq: Why it doesn’t Matter if Ezzat al-Douri was Killed

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) - The currently partly unemployed Iraqi governor of Salahuddin Province, displaced from much of his territory by Daesh (ISIS or ISIL), maintains that former Baath vice…

Is the Qur’an Really Violent? Not if you Read the whole Book!

By Alexander Gaute (Your Middle East) "Analyses tend to misuse the references to the Qur’an, often only citing single verses" Following the advent of the murderous Islamic State (IS), the need to…

The Critical spirit of Islam against the mass insanity of ISIS

By Neslihan Çevik The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), having declared itself a caliphate, is now making a call to all Muslims (especially engineers and doctors) to emigrate to their…

Can the Kabbalah teach us to Repair Climate Change?

By Alexandra Piacenza How can Kabbalah, the system of mystical interpretation of Jewish scripture with roots in the 13th century, have a bearing on modern-day environmentalism? In the Kabbalistic view, God’s very…

5 Most alarming Developments in Iraq

By Juan Cole 1. Airstrikes killed 7 and wounded 30 in Mosul on Sunday. But it isn't clear who was flying the planes! The US denies it was Americans, and the spokesman…

Unitarians divest from Fossil Fuels: Clear Commitment on Climate Change

By Robyn Purchia In some good new in the fight against climate change, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) passed a resolution calling for divestment of their $175 UUA Common Endowment Fund from…

Can Meditation Slow Ageing? One Nobelist thinks So

By Jo Marchant It’s seven in the morning on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The low sun glints off the waves and the clouds are still golden from the dawn. The…

Rumi on the Environment: Behind the Beauty of the Moon is the Moon-Maker

[For more of Rumi see 53 Secrets from the Tavern of Love: Poems from the Rubiayat of Mevlana Rumi -ed. ] By Aisha Abdelhamid Rumi: “Behind The Beauty Of The Moon Is…

Who are Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and What did we Do to them?

By Juan Cole The two great branches of Islam coexist in Iraq across linguistic and ethnic groups. There are Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, Sunni Kurds and (a tiny minority of) Shiite…

Iraq: 450,000 have fled al-Anbar as Gov’t Deploys Militias against al-Qaeda

Euronews reports: "Security slips further in Iraq as car bombs hit Baghdad" Ahmad Hadi gives the background at Niqash.org Members of an extremist Shiite Muslim militia have been recruited to fight Sunni…

“In your Wild Dreams, what are you Looking for?” Rubaiyat of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi

Courtesy Anthony A. Lee, here are four poems from his and the late Amin Banani's translation of the quatrains of the great Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalalu'd-Din Rumi: Jalalu'd-Din Rumi, 53 Secrets from…

Activists in Bahrain denounce anti-Shia Policies

(By Catherine Shakdam) Early last week political activists affiliated with Bahrain’s opposition groups delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon calling for his office to take a stand against…

Pakistani Sufi Anthem: Jhule Lal Dam Mast Qalandar by Nusrat Fateh Ali

Qawwali is the South Asian Muslim equivalent of African-American Gospel music. This particular song celebrates the thirteenth-century Sindhi mystic, Sayyid `Uthman Marwandi, known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (1177 – 1274 AD), a…