Top U.S. Commander Says Taliban Winning Communication Initiative

By Dr. Frank Kaufmann on September 26, 2009 9:22 PM | No Comments

Tragically, organizations responsible to maintain the successes and momentum of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP) dropped the ball, leaving the world more dangerous, and less equipped to manage current geopolitical challenges.

Hollbrooke's longing for authoritative religious figures to mediate the ideal of reconciliation was a design and achievement of the IRFWP 2o years ago. The US military has little access, understanding, or credibility in this community that is indispensable to the larger work of dissolving the unique challenges in Afghanistand and Pakistan.

Holbrooke has repeatedly complained that the Taliban has communicated more effectively than the United States. In June, he told a House subcommittee there was a need to refine the coalition's message and use new ways to reach Afghans, suggesting cell phones, radio and other means, the Post reported.
McChrystal said one way to accomplish this is to "disrupt and degrade" the insurgent networks. He suggests getting authoritative figures, such as religious leaders, to deliver messages "so they are credible," the Post reported.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/26/commander-says-taliban-winning-communication-initiative/

Rational approach to Islam suggested

By Dr. Frank Kaufmann on September 16, 2009 4:36 PM | No Comments

This is an article from the Gulf Times published in Abu Dabi

You can read the entire article here:

Abu Dhabi: A scholar sees potential for a new rational school of Islamic thought which borrows from scientific advances from Western societies and incorporates rational ideas.

Dr Ahmad Bin Mohammad Ahmad Al Eisa, President of Al Yamamah University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, says this new rational school is not a compromising approach between fundamental and secular movements in the Arab world. ...

"New Islamic rationalism should have an independent philosophy and not just a compromising approach between fundamental religious movements on the one hand and secular movements on the other," Dr Al Eisa told the majlis.

"While it should be based on the fundamental values of Islam and ideas of Muslim intellectuals and scientists, a new rational school of Islamic thought can borrow and integrate with scientific advances of Western societies and eventually contribute to the making of the future."

Related to this are such studies as

Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists

by Michael Hamilton Morgan

Reviewed here

The Muslims Who Saved The Jews

By Dr. Frank Kaufmann on September 6, 2009 7:56 PM | No Comments

This article highlighted below is the transcript of an interview with Norman Gershman.

Remarks:

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112384539&ft=1&f=1009http://api.npr.org/transcript?id=112384539

Host Liane Hansen speaks with photographer Norman Gershman about his book Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II, which is also the subject of a documentary called God's House. Greshman spent five years collecting stories of Albanian Muslims who harbored Jewish refugees during World War II.

During the Nazi occupation of Albania and Kosovo during the second World War, Jews facing persecution and death had a small group of seemingly unlikely allies - Muslims. Sixty-five people managed to save some 2,000 Jews, and have been honored by the Jewish Holocaust Memorial as righteous among nations.

Photographer Norman Gershman spent five years taking photos of them and collecting their stories. They've been published in a new book, "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II." Mr. Gershman joins us from Aspen Public Radio in Colorado. Welcome.

Concept of heritage opens positive interfaith horizons

By Dr. Frank Kaufmann on September 6, 2009 7:15 PM | No Comments

This collection of excerpted passages below comes from the full NYTimes piece that explains the restoration of Jewish sites in Egypt.

The opening passage shows the reflexive hate for Jews in the region, but the article goes on to explain the history of Jews in the country, and the devotion to preserve this contribution in the name of Egypt's heritage.

This collection of excerpted passages below comes from the full NYTimes piece that explains the restoration of Jewish sites in Egypt.

The opening passage shows the reflexive hate for Jews in the region, but the article goes on to explain the history of Jews in the country, and the devotion to preserve this contribution in the name of Egypt's heritage.

Remarks:

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/world/...

Egypt's Public Embrace of a Jewish Past

Khalid Badr, 40, is pretty typical in that regard, living in a neighborhood of winding, rutted roads in Old Cairo, selling snacks from a kiosk while listening to the Koran on the radio. Asked his feelings about Jews, he replied matter-of-factly. "We hate them for everything they have done to us," Mr. Badr said, as casually as if he had been asked the time.

Later in the article Slackman tells of the Hawass's many projects for the restoration of Jewsih sites in Cairo and elsehwere

"If you don't restore the Jewish synagogues, you lose a part of your history," said Zahi Hawass,

Egypt has slowly, quietly been working to restore its synagogues for several years.

It is a historic one, actually, named after Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, a physician and philosopher who is considered among the most important rabbinic scholars in Jewish history. He was born in Córdoba, Spain, in 1135, moved to Alexandria and eventually to Cairo.

There are fewer than 100, some say fewer than 80, Jews left in Egypt today, making the preservation projects all the more important, Rabbi Baker said.

Arabs move into Jewish towns

By Dr. Frank Kaufmann on September 5, 2009 2:34 PM | 2 Comments

This is not purely or technically an article on religion, but it does have some religious flavor, and provides a fascinating twist on an area that often is seen as an arena for interreligious tensions. Here it looks more like a question of a little air conditioning in the heat.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-israel-changing-jerusalem,0,7669413.story?track=rss

Holy city twist: Upwardly mobile Arabs moving into neighborhoods built for Jews

This July 30, 2009 photo shows Israelis sitting in a coffee shop as Arab women walk past in the French hill neighborhood of northern Jerusalem. A small but growing number of Arabs is moving into Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Most come for the better services and reasonable rents,

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Yousef Majlaton moved into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev for such comforts as proper running water and regular garbage pickup.

The hillside sprawl of townhouses and apartment blocks was built for Jews, and Majlaton is a Palestinian.

Pisgat Zeev is part of Israel's effort to fortify its presence in Jerusalem's eastern half which it captured in the 1967 war.

It wasn't so much the politics of this contested city that drew Majlaton to Pisgat Zeev, however; it was the prospect of escaping the potholed roads and scant municipal services he endured for 19 years while renting in an Arab neighborhood.

"You see that air conditioner?" he said, pointing to the large wall unit cooling his living room. "In the Arab areas, the electricity is too weak to run one that big."

September 2009 Archives