Pope Francis encourages “friendship between different religions”

March 20, 2013 Pope Francis wanted to give a strong signal to representatives of other faiths, “the Catholic Church is aware of the importance of the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions” said the Pope. Francis greeted and thanked all those who belong to other religious traditions, “first…

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Saladin Ahmed’s ”Throne of the Crescent Moon” An Arab-American Fantasy Epic

Saladin Ahmed’s fantasy novel “Throne of the Crescent Moon” is inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. In his review, Richard Marcus says the epic adds much needed diversity to the fantasy genre Being a fan of a particular genre of work doesn’t blind you to its flaws. So being an unabashed admirer of both…

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”Young, German, Taliban”: What Causes Radicalization?

How does one explain the phenomenon of Salafism? And what causes young Islamists the world over to take up jihad? Wolf Schmidt offers some answers in his insightful book “Young, German, Taliban”. Albrecht Metzger has read the book The recent riots in the Islamic world triggered by a crude film about the Prophet Mohammed once…

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Gardell: Breivik is not a mystery

June 4, 2012   Mass murderer Breivik is no mystery – are the words of History of Religion Professor Mattias Gardell (Uppsala University). Gardell was a witness called for by Breivik’s defense team on Monday (June 4). Breivik could also tell what formed him into a terrorist. The Swedish Professor (Gardell) analyzed Breivik’s over 1500-long…

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Obama and the Islamic World: One Year after Cairo Speech

By Muhammad Sahimi Aside from the symbolic meaning of that choice –choosing Cairo as a place for delivering his speech-, we need to look at what the President and his administration have done to Muslims and the Islamic world ever since he took over in January 2009. I look at this at the levels of…

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