Courtesy of Gail Coleman
Abba (Pope) Shenouda III was a good friend and supporter of the Council for the World's Religions (CWR) (root organization of IRFWP).
In 1985 Pope Shenouda welcomed CWR director Frank Kaufmann and senior adviser Francis Clark for an extended stay at is residence in Wadi Natrun.
We pray for Abba Shenouda's glorious ascension.
Egyptians are mourning the death of Coptic Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian community.
Shenouda died on Saturday in Cairo at age 88 after suffering from what the official MENA news agency says was liver and lung disease.
Mourners gathered in the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo to pray and try to get a look at the pope's body. Many wept openly.
The grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent theological institute of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb said, "Egypt has lost one of its rare men at a sensitive moment when it most needs the wisest of the wise..."
Shenouda died on Saturday in Cairo at age 88 after suffering from what the official MENA news agency says was liver and lung disease.
Mourners gathered in the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo to pray and try to get a look at the pope's body. Many wept openly.
The grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent theological institute of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb said, "Egypt has lost one of its rare men at a sensitive moment when it most needs the wisest of the wise..."
Continue reading Egyptians Mourn Coptic Pope Shenouda III.
Marat Shterin writes an important and insightful piece on religious and Muslim radicalization, based on New religious movements, such as those seen in the northern Caucasus, in this case the small republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.
For those for whom religion-inspired violence is a sincere concern, and not a pawn in political, military, and economic interests, it is clear that the path to its resolution is elusive. Plain parochialism, religious bigotry, and finger pointing cannot succeed to diminish this intractable problem.
Shterin does well in this case study to show those variables that participate in emergence of violent radicalism, identifying trends and habits that can me modified and reconsidered.
The lesson of the New Muslims
We can understand a great deal more about new Islamic groups if we approach at least some of them as new religious movements. Their beliefs and practices can find appeal among some, predominantly young, people not only because they are Islamic but also because they are new and provide a basis for creating alternative space for social experimentation and efforts at social change.
These groups generate social tensions and even conflicts. But they do not do so on their own. The reaction of a wider society is a large part of the story. And while these tensions and conflicts can lead to violence, they don't necessarily do so.
My research on the New Muslims movement in the northern Caucasus illustrates these points.
Continue reading The lesson of the New Muslims.
