Word: islamic
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...great religions were also intimately associated with the growth of trade and human contact. "For all the horror it visited upon people," wrote Chanda, "missionary activity had the effect of shrinking the world. The spread of proselytizing faiths brought dispersed communities into contact." Coffee, for example, traveled with Islam (which forbade the consumption of wine), spreading from Yemen throughout the Arab world, then into Turkey and Europe. The constant back-and-forth of Buddhist scholars between India and China nourished the Silk Road as an avenue of commerce. Sometimes religious divines explicitly advanced the process of globalization long before anyone...
...inspiring though such tales may be, Blair will not find his work easy. Religion is not an uncontroversial matter in the developing world-witness the Catholic Church's doctrine on abortion and contraception or the discrimination that women face in many Islamic societies. Moreover, in many nations, the legacy of the "war on terror" and the invasion of Iraq-both of which Blair is deeply associated with-have soured the environment for anything that looks even remotely like Western Christian proselytizing. That is why the foundation stresses that it hopes to work with groups from six faiths: the Abrahamic trinity...
...wants to dedicate the rest of his life to decrying the concept of a clash of civilizations." Bono told me that Blair once gave him a copy of the Koran, at a time when Blair was reading a passage from the holy book every night to try to understand Islam better. Eboo Patel, a young Muslim from Chicago who is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, hopes Blair will bring a new dynamism to an interfaith movement that can sometimes seem to consist of the same people meeting endlessly to discuss the same issues...
...girls from the triumphant Noor-Ul Iman School see things differently. In their interpretation, Islam allows girls to play basketball in college. The New Jersey team has been playing for five years, and often before a mixed audience. "As long as we have our hijabs and are dressed in loose clothing, it's all right to play in front of men," says Asma Saud...
...amid feuding Lebanese factions. His priority has been to preserve the integrity of the Lebanese army, widely regarded as almost the only functioning state institution. Suleiman's profile rose considerably last summer when the army engaged in a bloody three-month battle against the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam faction in north Lebanon. But during the recent street battles in Beirut, Suleiman studiously avoided deploying the army against the warring parties, worried that the military could unravel along sectarian lines...