Zekirija Sejdini, Professor für Islamische Religionspädagogik am neuen Institut für Islamische Theologie und Religionspädagogik an der Universität Innsbruck, im Gespräch über Integration, ambivalente Religionen und religiöse Vielfalt als Chance. (more…)
Gewalt im Namen Gottes ist auf das Schärfste zu verurteilen, Konflikte gehören allerdings zur Wahrheitsfindung. Diese Ansicht vertrat der bekannte Innsbrucker Theologe Raymund Schwager bereits in den 90er Jahren. Sein Schüler und wissenschaftlicher Begleiter Józef Niewiadomski im Gespräch über Schwagers Theorien zum Thema Religion und Gewalt und mögliche Auswege. (more…)
Ein Pergament der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen konnte dank naturwissenschaftlicher Methoden auf das 7. Jahrhundert zurückdatiert werden
Ein Koranfragment aus dem Bestand der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen ist überraschend auf das 7. Jahrhundert datiert worden, die Frühzeit des Islam. Experten untersuchten drei Proben des Pergaments der Handschrift und kamen zu dem Schluss, dass dieses mit einer statistischen Wahrscheinlichkeit von 95,4 Prozent aus den Jahren 649-675 n. Chr. stammt. Es wurde somit nur etwa 20 bis 40 Jahre nach dem Tod des islamischen Propheten und Religionsstifters Mohammed hergestellt. Die Datierung solch früher Koranhandschriften ist weltweit eine Rarität, da bisher nur sehr wenige Handschriften mit neuen naturwissenschaftlichen Methoden untersucht wurden. (more…)
The uncertainties surrounding the long-term prospect of democracy being fully embraced by North African nations embroiled in the Arab Spring rebellions are the focus of a fascinating new book.
The book, called ‘Party Politics and the Prospects for democracy in North Africa’, explores whether traditional political parties have adapted in response to growing demands for democracy in the region in recent years.
Author Dr Lise Storm, a Middle East expert from the University of Exeter examines whether a less authoritarian approach has been integrated, or whether existing parties have simply reinvented themselves to meet today’s expectations. (more…)
Asian Indians are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, and roughly half a million people of Indian ancestry live in California — more than any other state. Individuals from this group are strongly predisposed to obesity-related conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, due in large part to physical inactivity, diets low in fruit and vegetables, and insulin resistance.
Among other racial and ethnic groups, research has shown that religious practices and religiosity have been associated with obesity and greater body weight, but no one had studied this potential link among Indians. (more…)
Q: You were Catholic, then you became a Baha’i. Will you please tell us what encouraged you to do it?
Sascha: There is one religion of God, which is renewed in every age according to the needs of the time. God´s plan unfolds by unique and holy Persons – the Manifestations of God or Prophets of God. They work hand in hand. Among these Manifestions of God are Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muhammad, the Báb and of course Bahá´u´lláh, whose teaching of the unity of mankind attracted me from the start. I became a Baha’i, as I understood that Bahá´u´lláh´s message is divine and that the same spirit that animated Jesus Christ also animated Bahá´u´lláh. Through the teachings of Bahá´u´lláh I understood that the Prophets are all one and that the teachings of Christ applied to a certain time. The teachings of Bahá´u´lláh are directed to the needs of humanity today. I am happy to work with many people – may they be Bahais or not – for the old dream of a unified and happy mankind. (more…)
For Devin Naar, the Sephardic Studies Initiative is not just a valuable historical archive; it has also been a personal journey revealing an untold family story from the years of the Third Reich.
Naar’s part of the story began about 10 years ago, when as an undergraduate at Washington University he grew interested in the history of Turkey and Greece, which for centuries until World War I was part of the Ottoman Empire. His family comes from Salonica, a port city in Northern Greece. (more…)
One of the largest and longest studies in a traditional African society sheds light on religious practices and cuckoldry. Genetic data suggest religious patriarchy is directly analogous to the mate-guarding tactics used by animals to ensure paternity.
Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the June 4, 2012 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In an interdisciplinary collaboration, a group of researchers around biological anthropologist Beverly Strassmann from the University of Michigan and University of Arizona geneticist Michael Hammer analyzed genetic data on 1,706 father-son pairs in a traditional African population – the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa – in which Islam, two types of Christianity and an indigenous, monotheistic religion are practiced in the same families and villages. (more…)
