Word: islamic
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...your statement about Blair being "curiously reticent in talking about his own faith ... characteristic of British politicians, not American ones": American politicians who loudly tout their faith are usually touting membership in one of the Christian sects, and rarely Judaism (and even more rarely Islam). The political climate in the U.S. makes it useful to boast about one's belief in Jesus and the Christian God, and political suicide to mention any faith that is focused in a different direction. Can you imagine a candidate for President glowingly referring to an uplifting feeling at a full-moon ritual or celebration...
...your statement about Blair being "curiously reticent in talking about his own faith ... characteristic of British politicians, not American ones": American politicians who loudly tout their faith are usually touting membership in one of the Christian sects, and rarely Judaism (and even more rarely Islam). The political climate in the U.S. makes it useful to boast about one's belief in Jesus and the Christian God, and political suicide to mention any faith that is focused in a different direction. Can you imagine a candidate for President glowingly referring to an uplifting feeling at a full-moon ritual or celebration...
...audience's impatience with the critique format is emblematic of a generational yearning for greater freedom of expression in the cultural sphere. Music's status is contested in Islam, with some jurisprudents arguing that it is halal, permissible, and others insisting that it is haraam, forbidden. Following Iran's 1979 revolution, the new Islamic Republic at first banned all music. Although most classical and traditional music was soon allowed again, it wasn't until moderate President Khatami's term in 1997 that regulations loosened up sufficiently to allow Iranian rock band to spring up in garages across Tehran. Today, even...
...building bridges with his adversaries. His AKP hasn't debated the legal merits of the case against it, saying it is politically motivated. True as that might be, the party has also refused to do anything to allay secular concerns about its ultimate vision on what role, if any, Islam should play in the public life of a rapidly modernizing country on the cusp of Europe and Asia...
...same token, several representatives of the normally tight-lipped judiciary have recently spoken out against the government in ways that seem to flout the limits of impartiality. Neither side appears to see the real danger in Turkey's ongoing clash between political Islam and staunch secularism: that the democratic institutions the country has built up over 85 years might be irrevocably undermined. What Turkey urgently needs is to rally behind the principles of democracy, regardless of how this current saga plays out. For that to happen, both sides are going to have to learn to build a consensus together instead...