On Thursday evening I had the privilege of hearing a lecture by Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na'im, an expert on shari'a law and constitutionalism, and one of the foremost intellectuals in the Islamic world.

The professor who introduced an-Na'im did so in a G-rated manner, highlighting his distinguished academic career. An-Na'im, who is from Sudan, obtained degrees from the Universities of Khartoum, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, and has taught at a number of universities in the US, including Emory Law School where he is currently the Charles Howard Chandler Professor of Law. He also served as Executive Director of Africa Watch (a division of Human Rights Watch) from 1993-1995. He is the author of numerous books, including The Future of Shari'ah, which was the subject of his talk.

Since I was having Marvin L. Zimmerman, the author of The Ovum Factor, on my radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro you can hear the podcast of the interview there), it meant that I was obliged to peruse the novel that was sent to me by his publicist. The Ovum Factor arrived at my home, and before I got a chance to look through it, my wife picked it up first and wouldn’t let go of it for three days. During that time my dinner was late, I had to do the vacuuming (the dogs are shedding), and I had no real conversation with her as her head was behind the novel. When she finished it, she just looked at me and said “Wow”. That meant only one thing… I had to read it.

A few weeks ago I received the news that my old coach and math teacher, Craig Newell, had died. I haven't written about it till now because I've been thinking of him since then. He was an odd man, spare and lean, with the whippet body of a greyhound, and he had a way of cocking his head when he looked at you which was inevitably parodied every year when the seniors did their annual play.

I spent five years around him, in high school, a boarder in an all boys school. It was an excellent school, well run, with fair rules and no brutality, but I hated the place and was miserable most of the time, though still happier there than I would have been at home. Mr. Newell was my grade 9 math teacher, but I didn't really make a connection with him till a few months into the year.

http://www.shambhala.org/community/sns/index.php?id=329

Apr 17, 2008

The Sakyong, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, is deeply concerned with the unfolding crisis affecting Tibetans and many others worldwide. He earlier asked that we dedicate our practice for the benefit of all those affected. In order to assist individual practitioners as well as all those leading practices at Shambhala Centres and groups, he would like each session to begin with the reading of the following short dedication. This dedication would follow the opening gongs and precede any opening chants.

Prior to sending this message to the Shambhala community the Sakyong asked the President of Shambhala to confer with the Office of Tibet, who confirmed that this dedication is in accordance with the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and carries his blessings.

Protesters arrive by bus to join an anti-Scientology demonstration outside the Church of Scientology in London. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Observer - They came, they shouted, they handed out cake. And then they played Rick Astley's Eighties hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. More than 300 members of the secret internet-based organisation Anonymous, which campaigns against the Church of Scientology, protested outside the latter's headquarters in the City of London yesterday.

The maverick, at times surreal, protest saw the group's members, who wore masks like the one worn by the main character in the cult film V for Vendetta, hold up placards attacking the controversial sect, whose supporters include Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Anonymous alleges the church is a profit-obsessed organisation that practises a policy of 'disconnection' by seeking to prevent its members from communicating with friends and family. The claims are denied.

• Pope Warns About Loveless Sex In the 71-page document "God is Love," Benedict explores the relationship between the erotic love between man and woman (January 2007).
  
• Pope rejects condoms for Africa, says AIDS should be tackled through fidelity and abstinence (June, 2005). Then...
  
• Catholic Church to Ease Ban on Condom Use Vatican preparing a document on condom use (April, 2006).
  
• Pope Benedict Says Buddhist Meditation Is Masturbation, likens it to spiritually self-indulgent eroticism (March 1997).
  

http://z15.invisionfree.com/The_Living_Room/index.php?showtopic=436

Amanda Hamedany | Washington | April 10

IPS - In an age when suicide bombings and religious and ethnic riots comprise the bulk of the evening news, it seems as though compassion and compromise are more elusive than ever.

Buddha said that there are three poisons in this world: greed, anger, and ignorance. These poisons have the capacity to destroy individuals -- and societies -- unless they are checked by justice (the cure for greed), compassion (the cure for anger), and knowledge (the cure for ignorance).

Knowledge is perhaps the strongest -- and most difficult to wield -- weapon in the modern age. However, as vicious stereotypes increasingly replace truths and individuals are more likely to fear than to learn from others, it is the one of which society is in most need.

On Tuesday, the Muslim call to prayer could be heard from within the sanctuary of the Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, DC. Inside, men in kipahs and women in hijab sat with their families learning about interfaith dialogue. The means of their education was a play entitled "Noor" by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic Studies at American University, former high commissioner of Pakistan, and one of the world's foremost teachers of interfaith dialogue.

The Geography of Faith and its Wars Across History

Barbara Crossette | April 7

IHT - The recent outburst of Tibetan rage against the Chinese government not only demonstrated once again the fear and anger among Himalayan Buddhists living under the cultural insensitivity of Beijing, it also illuminated the crucial role of the Dalai Lama, navigating skillfully between restive Tibetan exiles and an Indian government under Chinese pressures to stifle their protests. What will happen when he is gone?

The West is about to get its first glimpse of that possible future.

In mid-May, a serious young man of 22 who is revered as the 17th Karmapa - now the second-most-important figure in Tibetan Buddhism - will make his first visit to the United States. The trip comes eight years after his dramatic flight to India from a monastery near Lhasa at the end of 1999, when he was just 14 years old. This is the first time that a skittish India has allowed him permission to travel abroad. His flight from Tibet was a considerable embarrassment to China.

The Karmapa Lama, spiritual head of the Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism, is now the only major Tibetan lama recognized as a reincarnation of his lineage by both the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government since it overran Tibet in the 1950s. The Panchen Lama, the third of a triumvirate and previously the second-highest ranking among the three lamas, vanished into Chinese custody as a boy in 1995 and has been replaced by Beijing's own political appointee.

Dalai Lama | April 6 | Phayul.com

While extending my warm greetings to all the Tibetans in Tibet, I would like to share some of my thoughts.

1. Since March 10 this year, we have witnessed protests and demonstrations in almost all parts of Tibet, even in a few cities in Mainland China by students, which are the outburst of long pent-up physical and mental anguish of the Tibetans and the feeling of deep resentment against the suppression of the rights of Tibetan people, lack of religious freedom and for trying to distort the truth at every occasion, such as saying that Tibetans look towards the Chinese Communist Party as the "Living Buddha", is an ultra leftist statement and smacks of Han chauvinism. I am very much saddened and concerned by the use of arms to suppress the peaceful demonstrations of Tibetan people's aspirations that have resulted in unrest in Tibet, causing many deaths, and much more causalities, detention, and injury. Such suppression and suffering are very unfortunate and tragic which will reduce any compassionate person to tears. I, however, feel helpless in the face of these tragic incidents.

Jill Drew | Beijing | April 5

WaPo - Arjia Rinpoche was 47 years old and a senior Tibetan abbot when he first signed a document denouncing the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader.

It was 1997, and about 50 Communist Party workers had come to his monastery to conduct what is called a "patriotic education" campaign -- 45 days of instruction in the Chinese version of history and a requirement that all monks sign a document accepting Chinese rule in Tibet and rejecting the Dalai Lama as a "separatist." For many followers, that amounts to painful renunciation of their religion's central figure.

"It was not our wish, not our thought, but we don't have choices," Arjia said. "We have fear."

April 2

Press TV - Indonesia has said it will ban YouTube unless the website removes an anti-Muslim film by a Dutch lawmaker within 48 hours.

The government sent a letter to the site informing it of its demand on Tuesday, Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister, Mohammad Nuh, said.

and Richard Reoch, Laura Simms and distinguished speakers

http://www.cicrtraining.com/

Class Registration Information

Public Talk: Friday June 6, 2008 7pm /$50
With Pema Chödrön

Weekend Program: Fri - Sun, June 6 - 8, 2008
Led by Pema Chödrön
With Richard Reoch and Laura Simms

A panel of distinguished peacemakers on Saturday evneing include:Sandra Dunsmore, Ishmael Beah and Marianne Elliot

($600 before April 30 / $650 after April 30 - includes Friday Talk)

Hosted by the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, world-renowned Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön with Richard Reoch and Laura Simms will conduct a weekend seminar on how to remain effective and compassionate in situations of intense conflict and chaos. Hailed by O Magazine as "one of the wisest women living in the world," Pema - accompanied by a team of distinguished mentors and leaders in human rights - will explore the roots of aggression in the human heart and the antidotes for peace. She will present practices that enable us to transform our personal lives and the troubled world in which we live. The Friday Evening Talk is open to the public and there are a limited number of seats available. The full weekend program will also include meditation instruction, group discussions as well as several talks by Pema and her colleagues.

Books

Holy Man

What does the Dalai Lama actually stand for?

by Pankaj Mishra March 31, 2008

New Yorker

The Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, in 2003. Photograph by Brigitte Lacombe.

Last November, a couple of weeks after the Dalai Lama received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush, his old Land Rover went on sale on eBay. Sharon Stone, who once introduced the Tibetan leader at a fundraiser as “Mr. Please, Please, Please Let Me Back Into China!” (she meant Tibet), announced the auction on YouTube, promising the prospective winner of the 1966 station wagon, “You’ll just laugh the whole time that you’re in it!” The bidding closed at more than eighty thousand dollars. The Dalai Lama, whom Larry King, on CNN, once referred to as a Muslim, has also received the Lifetime Achievement award of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. He is the only Nobel laureate to appear in an advertisement for Apple and guest-edit French Vogue. Martin Scorsese and Brad Pitt have helped commemorate his Lhasa childhood on film. He gave a lecture at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Washington, D.C., in 2005. This spring, in Germany, he will speak on human rights and globalization. For someone who claims to be “a simple Buddhist monk,” the Dalai Lama has a large carbon footprint and often seems as ubiquitous as Britney Spears.

By Dr. Michael Parenti

Global Research, November 18, 2007

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7355

Michael Parenti Politcal Archive - 2007-01-02

Expanded and Updated Version

I. For Lords and Lamas

Along with the blood drenched landscape of religious conflict there is the experience of inner peace and solace that every religion promises, none more so than Buddhism. Standing in marked contrast to the intolerant savagery of other religions, Buddhism is neither fanatical nor dogmatic--so say its adherents. For many of them Buddhism is less a theology and more a meditative and investigative discipline intended to promote an inner harmony and enlightenment while directing us to a path of right living. Generally, the spiritual focus is not only on oneself but on the welfare of others. One tries to put aside egoistic pursuits and gain a deeper understanding of one’s connection to all people and things. “Socially engaged Buddhism” tries to blend individual liberation with responsible social action in order to build an enlightened society.

Neil MacFarquhar | Lodi, Calif. | March 26

IHT - Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty and began studying at home.

Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.

"Some men don't like it when you wear American clothes - they don't think it is a good thing for girls," said Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles, or about 110 kilometers, east of San Francisco. "You have to be respectable."

Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases, as in Bibi's, the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.

Tom Heneghan | Paris | March 24

Reuters - The Easter baptism of an Italian Muslim by Pope Benedict was a provocative act that raises questions about the Vatican's approach to Islam, a leading participant in Christian-Muslim dialogue said on Monday.

Aref Ali Nayed, a key figure in a group of over 200 Muslim scholars launching discussion forums with Christian groups, said the Vatican had turned the baptism of Egyptian-born journalist Magdi Allam into "a triumphalist tool for scoring points."

He said the Vatican should distance itself from a searing attack on Islam that Allam published on Sunday in the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, where he is deputy director.

March 21

SpiegelOnline - Last month, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had revised the so-called "Good Friday Prayer for the Jews" which forms part of the Tridentine Mass, often referred to as the Latin Mass. The new version, translated, reads:

"Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men."

The new wording is similar to the original version of the prayer, which reads:

"Let us pray also for the faithless Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord."

This original version was toned down at the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council which introduced many far-reaching reforms of the Catholic Church, including replacing the Tridentine Mass with vernacular liturgies. The Good Friday Prayer then became:

"Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant."

...In the opinion of a leading German rabbi,Walter Homolka, Pope Benedict, by choosing the wording himself, has made an important, precedent-setting change and has given it his personal seal of approval. In doing so, he deprives the acceptable 1970 form of the prayer of its credibility.

...Spiegel interview follows...

MORE

Jesus's kingdom was very specifically not of This world

I was just watching Franco Zeffirelli's telling of Jesus's story and listened again to Jesus's disclaimer to Pontius Pilate that if his kingdom were of this world, his followers would not have let them take him away.

To implement Jesus into the workings of the empire was to go against his will and rather toward that of the empire.

Connie Schultz | March 19

PD - After all these years of wrestling and wrangling with my pastors over what it means to be a Christian, it turns out I was supposed to agree with everything they said or plant my posterior in a different pew.

What? Do I have the wrong Bible? Again?

If I always agreed with my pastors, that would mean I would have a better relationship with Pastor Kate and Pastor Woody than with the children I've raised, the friends I've made and the man I married.

I dunno. There's something wrong with this theory - starting with how it began. Yes, I'm sorry, that means we have to talk about the presidential race again.

Ohilip Pullella | Vatican City | March 10

Reuters - 'Social sins' represent a danger zone for the modern soul, powerful archbishop says

Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation.

Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

(It seems the manufacturers of sin have been busy lately)