Understanding World Religions studies major worldviews in relation to justice and peace: Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Marxist, and Native American. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is given as a case study for how worldviews impact justice and peace. Further chapters explore Christian social teaching, liberation theologies, active nonviolence, and just war theory.
Foreword / David Smock -- Introduction -- Religion : a blessing or a curse? -- After the collapse of Oslo -- The Alexandria Summit and its aftermath -- Grassroots interreligious dialogues -- Educating the educators -- Other Muslim voices for interreligious peacebuilding -- Symbolic ritual as a mode of peacemaking -- Active solidarity : rabbis for human rights -- From personal grief to collective compassion -- Journeys of personal transformation -- Practical recommendations -- Appendices.
The struggle over Israel/Palestine is not just another contest by competing nationalisms or an instance of geopolitical competition. It is also about control of sacred territory that involves local Jews, Muslims, and Christians as well as worldwide faith communities, each with their own interests and stake in what transpires. This balanced introduction to a complex subject presents the multiple positions within the great monotheistic traditions. It demonstrates that the secular discourses in the public square concerning ownership privileges, historical precedence, political rights, and justice that have allegedly replaced religious claims actually coexist with, and often complement, the theological. It explores the century-long tangle of secular and theological debates about Israel's legitimacy. Whether readers support a Jewish state or are resolutely opposed, the serious and substantial scholarship of this well-reasoned and innovative book will contribute to a nuanced and better-informed understanding of this persistent issue that has entered its second century on the international agenda.
"Christianity arose from the lands of biblical Palestine and, regardless of its twentieth century association with the Arab-Israeli conflict, to Christians around the world it remains first and foremost the birthplace of Christianity. Nevertheless the size of the Christian population among Palestinians today living in Israel and the Palestinian territories is now relatively insignificant. Here Samuel J. Kuruvilla argues that Christian Palestinians often employ politically astute as well as theologically radical means in their efforts to appear relevant as a minority community within Israeli and Palestinian societies. He charts the development of a theology of Christian liberation, particularly in the work of Palestinian Anglican cleric Naim Stifan Ateek and Palestinian Lutheran Pastor Mitri Raheb, among others, as part of the Palestinian people's struggle for independence. In doing so, Kuruvilla provides a new perspective of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the role of Christians within it." -- from the publisher's website.
The sequel to the acclaimed Gaza in Crisis from world-famous political analyst Noam Chomsky and Middle East historian Ilan Pappé. Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine. Praise for Gaza in Crisis by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé “This sober and unflinching analysis should be read and reckoned with by anyone concerned with practicable change in the long-suffering region.” —Publishers Weekly “Both authors perform fiercely accurate deconstructions of official rhetoric.” —The Guardian Praise for Noam Chomsky . . . “Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet.” —The New York Times Book Review “One of the radical heroes of our age . . . a towering intellect . . . powerful, always provocative.” —The Guardian . . . and Ilan Pappé “Ilan Pappé is Israel’s bravest, most principled, most incisive historian.” —John Pilger, journalist, writer, and filmmaker “Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappé is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.” —New Statesman
Islamism and secular nationalism -- Situating secular nationalism and Islamism in the Palestinian setting -- Palestinian Islamist mobilization in regional perspective -- Generation dynamics within social movements -- Generational transformation and Palestinian national identity -- The secular-nationalist milieu -- The ethos of Fathawi nationalism -- Social backgrounds -- Factors of mobilization -- Conceptions of the collective : retrievals and alterations -- Conclusion -- The Islamist milieu -- The structures and ethos of the Islamist milieu -- Social backgrounds -- Mobilization : events and structures -- Islamist conceptions of the collective -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-nafs : the struggle for the soul -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-siyāsa : the struggle for politics -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-thawra : the struggle for the revolution -- Conclusion -- Thawra camp : a case study of shifting identities -- Setting, institutions, and ethos of Thawra camp -- Social backgrounds of the interlocutors -- Mobilization : events and structures -- Identity formation in the secular-nationalist milieu -- Identity formation in the Islamist milieu -- Hierarchies of solidarity -- Sheer secularism : al-lībrāliyyīn -- Islamic secularism -- Liberal Islamism -- Sheer Islamism -- Conclusion -- Karama Camp : Islamist-secularist dynamics in the Gaza Strip -- Karama Camp and post-Oslo Gaza -- The camp -- The Gaza Strip -- The Asdudis : social backgrounds and paths of political mobilization -- Conceptions of the collective order -- ʻAbd al-muʼmin's Islamism -- Abu Jamil and "traditionalist nationalism" -- Islam without the Islamists : Latif, Imm Muhammad, and Abu Qays -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- References -- Index.
He then describes the various streams of Zionist thought and how they were transmogrified by events and individuals, and concludes by examining both Zionism's connection with a secular Jewish identity and the nature of the Jewish claim to Eretz Israel.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has raised a plethora of unanswered questions, generated seemingly irreconcilable narratives, and profoundly transformed the land’s physical and political geography. This volume seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the links between the region that is now known as Israel and Palestine and its peoples—both those that live there as well as those who relate to it as a mental, mythical, or religious landscape. Engaging the perspectives of a multidisciplinary, international group of scholars, it is an urgent collective reflection on the bonds between people and a place, whether real or imagined, tangible as its stones or ephemeral as the hopes and longings it evokes.
No conflict in the world has lasted as long, generated as many news headlines, or incited as much controversy as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet, despite, or perhaps because of, the degree of international attention it receives, the conflict is still widely misunderstood. While Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters trade accusations, many outside observers remain confused by the conflict's complexity and perplexed by the passion it arouses. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an even-handed and judicious guide to the world's most intractable dispute. Writing in an engaging, jargon-free Q&A format, Dov Waxman provides clear and concise answers to common questions, from the most basic to the most contentious. Covering the conflict from its nineteenth-century origins to the latest developments of the twenty-first century, this book explains the key events, examines the core issues, and presents the competing claims and narratives of both sides. Readers will learn what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about, how it has evolved over time, and why it continues to defy diplomatic efforts at a resolution.
"Flawless . . . [Makdisi] reminds us of the critical declarations of secularism which existed in the history of the Middle East."—Robert Fisk, The Independent Today's headlines paint the Middle East as a collection of war-torn countries and extremist groups consumed by sectarian rage. Ussama Makdisi's Age of Coexistence reveals a hidden and hopeful story that counters this clichéd portrayal. It shows how a region rich with ethnic and religious diversity created a modern culture of coexistence amid Ottoman reformation, European colonialism, and the emergence of nationalism. Moving from the nineteenth century to the present, this groundbreaking book explores, without denial or equivocation, the politics of pluralism during the Ottoman Empire and in the post-Ottoman Arab world. Rather than judging the Arab world as a place of age-old sectarian animosities, Age of Coexistence describes the forging of a complex system of coexistence, what Makdisi calls the "ecumenical frame." He argues that new forms of antisectarian politics, and some of the most important examples of Muslim-Christian political collaboration, crystallized to make and define the modern Arab world. Despite massive challenges and setbacks, and despite the persistence of colonialism and authoritarianism, this framework for coexistence has endured for nearly a century. It is a reminder that religious diversity does not automatically lead to sectarianism. Instead, as Makdisi demonstrates, people of different faiths, but not necessarily of different political outlooks, have consistently tried to build modern societies that transcend religious and sectarian differences.
