Islam

The Qur’an castigates the Jews and Christians of the early 600s AD for their exclusivist theories of salvation. Alan Race and John Hick have identified three possible stances by one religion toward the prospects of going to heaven for members of other religions. Exclusivism is the position that only members of your own religion are […]

Islam

Islam: Compassion and Positive Peace in the Qur’an

Juan Cole

One of the early chapters of the Qur’an is “The City,” chapter 90 in the standard version. It gives us a good idea of the verses being recited by the Prophet Muhammad around 613, three years into his ministry, once he started preaching publicly. I discuss this period in Chapter 3 of my new book: […]

Iran

“A Deadly Blow:” Why is Iran Persecuting and Killing Sufi Mystics?

Golnaz Esfandiari

Washington, D.C. (RFE/RL) – Thirty-three-year-old Mostafa Abdi, a member of Iran’s largest Sufi order and editor of a news outlet focused on the Gonabadi dervish community, appears set to spend the most productive years of his life in an Iranian prison. Abdi was reportedly sentenced earlier this month to more than 26 years, and 148 […]

Featured

Muhammad and Islamic Peace Studies: Interview with Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Author Juan Cole Detroit (World Religion News ) – Joseph Richard Preville, American Writer and Book Critic, interviews Juan Cole. Joseph Richard Preville: What problems do historians face when writing about the life and times of Muhammad? What are the principal sources you consulted to write your book? Juan Cole: The problem is that the […]

Sufism

Morocco’s Visitation of the Poor honors Sufi Muslim Saint

AFP

by Hamza Mekouar | – Moulay Driss Zerhoun (Morocco) (AFP) – It’s dubbed the “pilgrimage of the poor” — every summer, tens of thousands of people flood this small central Moroccan town to honour a Sufi saint buried here 12 centuries ago. Moulay Driss Zerhoun, nestled between two hills covered in olive groves, is where […]

Featured

Early Arabic Inscriptions and the Life of the Prophet: A new Source for History

Juan Cole

Among the anecdotes told in the early biographies of the Prophet Muhammad is one about him being harassed by his immediate neighbors in Mecca, in roughly the period 614-622. One way they bothered him was to throw sheep offal through the window of his home in Mecca where he lived with his first wife, Khadija. […]

Islam

Love in the Qur’an: 19:96

Juan Cole

Despite the negative messaging nowadays about the Qur’an (the scripture of the Muslims) among the haters, it is a book replete with love, mercy, warmth and peace (to the extent that Muslims are bewildered by the odd opinions of it among outsiders–most of whom have never read it). My new book, out October 9, explores […]

Featured

Surprise! On how Muhammad never preached “Jihad”

Juan Cole

The word “jihad” has become pervasive in English. The Western Right wing is trying to use the term to replace the Communist Manifesto as the ultimate in the threatening Other. It figures prominently in FBI charges against militants. It is often glossed as “holy war.” People, especially those who dislike Islam, think that it means […]

Buddhism

Army of Buddhist Burma made ‘Systematic’ Crackdown Plan for Muslim Rohingyas

AFP

Bangkok (AFP) – Myanmar’s military engaged in “extensive and systematic” preparations for a bloody crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, a rights group said Thursday, in a damning new report that it says justifies a genocide investigation. A bloody military campaign that started last August forced some 700,000 of the effectively stateless minority over the border into […]