faith diplomacy

August 3, 2010

Newt Gingrich, his doctorate notwithstanding, has offered us an illogical and ahistorical context to the ugly dispute about building an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Manhattan's Ground Zero

During the most violent years of the Iraq war, American commanders believed that neighboring Iran was behind insurgent attacks, as a way to keep the country unstable. As U.S. forces slowly depart Iraq, officials say Iran is moving toward a more soft-power approach, trying to influence politics, social services and the economy.

The recently opened Tushanwan Museum features a contrast that is pure Shanghai: a 1930s advertising poster of a sultry, qipao-clad siren next to an austere painting of Jesus. Both are legacies of the city's Jesuit Tushanwan Orphanage and its attached arts and crafts academy, which helped to introduce Western art into China.

Education and inter-faith dialogue is the best way to remove Islamophobia, Professor Liyakat Takim has said. “Until today, many Americans think that Allah is a moon god and Muslims are required to kill non-Muslims, these misconceptions have to be corrected through proper education and Muslims need to reach out to non-Muslims,” McMaster University professor told the Mehr news agency.

The Dalai Lama is on Twitter, and he's taking questions. Or he was, at least. For 90 minutes today, the spiritual leader of Tibet, who joined the social networking site in February, held an online conversation with the aim of reaching people inside China via Twitter.

May 13, 2010

Billed as the biggest center of faith and worship in Asia, the sprawling 10,000-hectare complex in Parañaque is El Shaddai's global headquarters. A lay Catholic group, El Shaddai—God in Hebrew—is among the largest of the new-generation Christian movements in the Philippines. It claims a fast-growing membership of more than eight million...

Since the fall of Communism, Czechs have been discovering the world through travel and the exploration of new ideas, including spiritual ones. One such exploration is taking the form of a budding Buddhist center, arising from an old farm in the Czech Republic’s southern countryside.

Religious diplomacy can and must become an effective promoter of political and economic peace between nations. This is the bottom-line message of the second World Summit of Religious Leaders, to be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on April 26 and 27.

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