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Christoph Zed

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | The rise of Israel's military rabbis - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8232340.stm

war religion

shared by Christoph Zed on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.
  • One of their main duties is to boost soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line.
  • The 19-year-olds I spoke to at the seminary told me religious soldiers like them can make the army behave better and become "more moral".
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The settlement issue could well tear the army apart, he told me, adding that most of his officers were settlers these days.
  • "The morals of the battlefield cannot come from a religious authority. Once it does, it's Jihad. I know people will not like that word but that's what it is, Holy War. And once it's Holy War there are no limits."
glen donnar

Gerd Nonneman: Delicate relationship where national interests and morality often confli... - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...ty-often-conflict-1753013.html

policy intercultural communication east-west

shared by glen donnar on 22 Jul 09 - Cached
  • London's and Riyadh's policies towards each other have been driven primarily by pragmatic considerations of political and economic advantage. Certainly religious and political issues of conviction, matters of pride and intercultural communication have, on occasion, come to the fore – such as King Faisal's decision to impose an oil boycott, the furore in 1980 over the documentary Death Of A Princes
  • s, or the often ill-informed British media commentary about the nature of Saudi politics. On their own, such issues tend not to reorient policy very significantly or for very long. Yet they do have the potential to complicate relations even when neither government wants them to.
Christoph Zed

The Axis of Honour: Honour, Modernity, and al Qaeda « The Sensible Jew - 0 views

sensiblejew.wordpress.com/...-honour-modernity-and-al-qaeda

globalisation terrorism al qaeda values society capitalism pluralism secularisation colonialism moral honor

shared by Christoph Zed on 23 Aug 09 - Cached
  • So many scholars and commentators attribute suicide terrorism to such factors as poverty, foreign occupation, or religion, among many other things.
  • Over the past two hundred years, there has been a global, though highly uneven, shift within the values systems of various societies.
  • One particularly profound transformation has been the relegation of one’s religion to the private sphere, as a matter of purely personal choice.
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  • So societies that have embraced modernity, have effectively “privatised” religion. Indeed capitalism has been the driving force behind secularism because it required the dismantling of the communalist society.
  • Replacing the old communalism is heterogeneity and pluralism. These have eroded not only religious monopolies, but their centrality in various societies. The end result of this is a society’s secularisation.
  • Globalisation, in which western technological and cultural products predominate, is often framed as a form of colonialism.
  • Ironically, the rise of transnational Islamist terrorism is also a product of globalisation.
  • As the power of the nation state diminishes, religious ideology’s mobility allows it to permeate shifting borders.
  • The current face of modernity is therefore ideally suited to –  and an ideal breeding ground for – the creation of suicide terrorist groups.
  • In order to fortify the in group, moral strictures must become ever more rigorous, while condemnation of transgression must become ever more vociferous – and violent, thus intensifying the demarcation between “good” and “bad”.
  • terrorism implies a crisis of legitimacy
  • But can we say that such a crisis of legitimacy applies to transnational terrorists such as al Qaeda?
  • modernity is an attempt to destroy community and communalism…, all those forces which created identity and authority
  • such threats to communalism result in feelings of humiliation amongst those who do not benefit from the new order.
  • humiliation therefore “links the concepts of honor and human rights in an enlightening way, providing a framework both for ideologies and for the transition between them.”
  • Scott Atran identifies the primacy of honour throughout Arab societies, noting that the Arab perception of being humiliated by outsiders is a prime motivator for suicide attacks.
  • There emerges from the collective sense of humiliation something of an obligation to demonstrate outrage and embark on actions – even if they have little chance of success – in order to avenge honour. Martyrdom is one such example.
  • Beit-Hallahmi writes, that under such circumstances, “contemporary martyrdom can be viewed as an uprising against the end of history and the final triumph of liberal capitalism.”
xinning ji

Sudan Court Fines Woman for Wearing Trousers - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...08sudan.html

shared by xinning ji on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200
  • “I will not pay a penny,” she told The Associated Press.
  • The judge had threatened to jail her for one month if she did not pay the fine.
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  • Sudan is partly governed by Islamic law, which calls for women to dress modestly. But the law is vague. According to Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code, anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” can be fined and lashed up to 40 times.
  • She was arrested in July, along with 12 other women, who were caught at a cafe wearing trousers. “I am Muslim; I understand Muslim law,” Mrs. Hussein said in an interview on Friday. “But I ask: What passage in the Koran says women can’t wear pants? This is not nice.”
xinning ji

China Concubines Return Thanks To Increasing Capitalism - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...cubines-return-t_n_269482.html

shared by xinning ji on 06 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Concubines are no longer kept hidden away behind closed doors. In modern China's far more open society, concubines can be seen in the shopping malls and cafes of the cities, especially in the south, where there are thousands of what are known as "er nai" or "second breast".
  • "China's future will be undermined in those corrupt officials' hands," wrote one outraged citizen. Another described the corrupt cadres who keep concubines as "absolutely superfluous, vampires, corrupt scum. They deserve to be killed".
  • xinning ji on 08 Sep 09
     
    I don't know if concubines should be moral issue or not. in traditional China, man had right to re-marry and lived with more than two wivies. today, even though the law doesn't allow re-marry, many men still can find lover outside without marital relationship.
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