Word: secularization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Symbols are tricky. They mean different things to different people. In France, those wearing a head scarf, yarmulke or crucifix see these adornments as symbols of personal devotion to Islam, Judaism or Catholicism. But members of the French political and intellectual establishment regard them as deliberate challenges to the secular nature of the republic. Americans, meanwhile, think of skyscrapers as testaments to the can-do spirit of American capitalism. (The Empire State Building was erected during the Great Depression!) Islamic fundamentalists, as we learned two years ago, see skyscrapers as idolatrous emblems of a society that serves Mammon rather than...
...News borrow from all three factions, but they most resemble the radical liberals. They are defined by their opposition to the war. They are militant on most civil rights and civil-liberties issues, especially support for gay rights and opposition to the Patriot Act. They are overwhelmingly secular. Indeed, they seem to have replaced religion with cybercommunity; the monthly Meetup is their church. One of the strangest but most telling passages in Dean's recent stump speeches comes when he indulges in a romantic vision of 1968--a terrible year when America seemed to be falling apart but a time...
...suspected of having dispatched a dozen radicals from Germany to Iraq to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. troops. More than 5,000 police officers raided locations tied to 1,200 supporters of Germany-based Turkish militant Metin Kaplan. His Caliphate State group, which seeks to replace Turkey's secular government with an Islamic one, has been linked to terrorist plots there. Five people were arrested on weapons, drug and illegal-immigration charges. Meanwhile, Syria has handed over 22 suspects sought by Turkey in connection with the November Istanbul blasts. And French police rounded up four people accused of assisting...
Like there's no chance that the secular state of Iraq and Islamic fundamentalists cohabitate? They both think we're Satan. How about that as a nice point of departure for them car-pooling? I wish there was a country called alQaedia that we could have invaded, but there wasn't. [Saddam was] the only one who had a home address...
...also contributed to a fashion trend: conversation-provoking T shirts, hats and even underwear emblazoned with expressions of secular Jewish pride. At jewishfashion conspiracy.com you can find Lefton's pro-Semitic shirts. Jewlo.com showcases Julia Lowenstein's Hebraic spin on J. Lo, and at jewishjeans.com there are no jeans yet, but there are 21 styles of T shirts with slogans like NICE JEWISH GIRL. The new designers join the popular-clothing company Jewcy in celebrating "kosher-style fabulosity...