Word: secularization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...public school system espouses only a diluted version of secular humanism and a weak idea of tolerance. It has become a moral vacuum. Inspiring teachers are prohibited from discussing their moral or religious convictions with their students, and some students absorb this sour nihilism in dangerous ways. Recently, four teenagers in the Boston area were arrested for plotting a sick, heartless killing spree in their high school. Mass murders, gang activity and violence in public schools are now all too common. When will we learn that students in schools without positive moral aspirations will sink into festering amorality, alienation...
...nevertheless belongs on a continuum that includes, not so far down the line, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan and the relatively moderate states of Egypt and Jordan. Where Muslims have afforded women the greatest degree of equality--in Turkey--they have done so by overthrowing Islamic precepts in favor of secular rule. As Riffat Hassan, professor of religious studies at the University of Louisville, puts it, "The way Islam has been practiced in most Muslim societies for centuries has left millions of Muslim women with battered bodies, minds and souls." (See pictures of how Islam is practiced in Asia...
...gods of paradox. It's an ordeal to travel and yet we do; family reunions can be wildly stressful and yet painful to miss. It was invented by a bunch of Puritans who celebrated freedom by throwing a party, and so bequeathed us a holiday both secular and sacred, with parades and prayers that dare us to reckon with all that has changed, and recognize all that...
...aloof. Shaolin Temple, the film that made Jet Li, remade Shaolin. Suddenly the temple was swarming with visitors?both tourists and wannabe Jet Lis. The Chinese government, now aware of Shaolin's lucrative allure, resolved to rescue it from its exile in ideological ignominy. Crumbled buildings were resurrected. Secular martial-arts training academies sprang up around the temple's walls to cater to the region's flood of aspirants. And the monks?whose ranks had swelled slightly since the end of the Cultural Revolution?were reincarnated as shills for a host of marketing schemes, from coffee-table books and calendars...
...secular-minded General, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has a unique opportunity to show his mettle and invoke the ideals of his nation's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah [PAKISTAN, Oct. 22]. Jinnah believed that the country should be not a theocratic Muslim state but a secular, progressive democracy, that religion should be a personal matter for its citizens and have nothing to do with the administration of the state. Unless Pakistan returns to the ideals held by Jinnah, there will not be peace and harmony in the country. IJAZ A. QAMAR Mississauga...