Word: prophet
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...proliferating across the 17,000-island archipelago. Many are funded by Middle Eastern groups that see Indonesia as fertile ground for spiritual purification. Clerics at these religious institutions preach the Salafi strain of Islam, which advocates a return to the religion as practiced in the era of the Prophet Muhammad. (Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia's strict form of the faith, is considered an offshoot of Salafi Islam.) By contrast, most Indonesians, like other Southeast Asian Muslims, had for centuries practiced a far less orthodox faith, incorporating the Hindu, Buddhist and animist traditions that had flourished before Islam arrived in the archipelago...
...That's not easy. During a recent promotional video shoot for an Israeli record company with other rappers, the former hard partier acted shy about appearing with shimmying women dancers. But he's the one some other rappers find embarrassing. Jeers Corner Prophet's Sieradski, "We look at Jew Da and our eyes roll. Is this the future of Israeli hip-hop? If so, we're in trouble." But Maccabi shrugs it off. "Ninety percent of the kids are listening to hip-hop, so why not give them spirituality too?" Meanwhile, in Gaza, there are signs that...
...principally about religion. Sunnis and Shi'ites may disagree on some matters of dogma and some details of Islam's early history, but these differences are small--they agree on most of the important tenets of the faith, like the infallibility of the Koran, and they venerate the Prophet Muhammad. Despite the claims by some Arab commentators, there is no evidence that Iraq's Shi'ite extremists are trying to convert Sunnis, or vice versa. For Iraqi fighters on both sides, "their sect is nothing more than a uniform, a convenient way to tell friend from enemy," says Ghanim Hashem...
ISLAM'S SCHISM BEGAN IN A.D. 632, immediately after the Prophet Muhammad died without naming a successor as leader of the new Muslim flock. Some of his followers believed the role of Caliph, or viceroy of God, should be passed down Muhammad's bloodline, starting with his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib. But the majority backed the Prophet's friend Abu Bakr, who duly became Caliph. Ali would eventually become the fourth Caliph before being murdered in A.D. 661 by a heretic near Kufa, now in Iraq. The succession was once again disputed, and this time...
...infamous Danish caricature crisis of 2005, one would expect cartooning to be a dicey practice in the Middle East. The scandal, which provoked reprinting and reprisal the world over, and which—according to some reports—led to more than 100 deaths, satirized the prophet Muhammed and broached the contentious permissibility of religious depiction by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. But recently, creative entrepreneurs in the Middle East have sought to recast cartoon strips as productive instruments of cultural change.Combining Western looks—think Spider-Man and Batman—with regional and Islamic lore, these...