"In this ground-breaking volume, the authors explore two sides of religion: the ways in which it contributes to violence against women and girls (VAWG) and the ways it counters it. Recognising the very real impact of religion on the lives of women and girls, it prioritises experiences and learnings
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from empirical research and of practitioners, and their activities at grassroots-level, to better understand the nature and root causes of VAWG. Drawing on research done in Christian and Muslim communities in various fragile settings with high religiosity, this book avoids simplistically assigning blame to any one religion, instead engaging with the commonalities of how religion and religious actors influence norms and behaviours that impact VAWG. If the sustainable development goal of ending all forms of VAWG is to be achieved, how should actors in the international development sector engage with religion and religious actors? This book unpacks the nature of religion and religious actors in relation to VAWG, with the aim of giving greater clarity on how to (and how not to) engage with this crucial issue." (Publisher description)
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"The contributions in the form of research articles and essays come from a variety of religious perspectives – Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim, Jain, Hindu, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox. Despite coming from different religious worldviews, the underlying message fundamentally affirms that promoting ecol
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ogical flourishing requires an approach that centers on both praxis and spirituality in order to prevent the task of caring for our common home to become simply a series of dry mechanical calculations, purely theoretical propositions, or clever policy enactments. Religions at their best inspire and infuse external acts that are consistent with authentic interior virtues ordered to the wellbeing of both humanity and the natural environment. In this respect, religions must undergo its own self-examination in order to adequately speak to the present context." (Page 176)
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"This comparative ethnography of a Muslim and a Christian Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon focuses on contrasting social belonging processes through a ritualization approach. Leonardo Schiocchet argues that contrasts emerge out of the intersectionality of religiosity, nationhood, refugeeness and
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politics, and synthesizes academic research on piety and moral self-cultivation and on the everyday-life of religious communities. He contributes to the literature on refugees at large, and Palestinian refugees in special, with the unique dense socio-historical portrait of two refugee camps for which there is almost no recorded literature." (Publisher description)
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"Interreligious dialogues have received attention since they were introduced as a security policy and social pacification measure after the attack on 9/11. This essay examines the development of interreligious dialogue in Germany as well as the influence of media discourses on interreligious dialogu
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e and asks to what extent they affect the motives, goals and modes of communication of both Muslim and non-Muslim participants. This analysis leads to the thesis that the mass media’s frequent security-policy framing of Islam within issues of integration, violence, and threat has developed interreligious dialogue groups as a space of face-to-face coping processes with the imagined religious conflict. Muslims attend it in order to put Islam in a different and positive frame. For the Christian participants this also presents the opportunity to reach a new relevance of religion in the public secular space." (Abstract)
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"Dieses Buch will ein Nachschlagewerk zu den verschiedenen Facetten muslimischen Lebens in Deutschland sein. Es bietet Journalisten – aber auch allen anderen Interessierten – Grundlagen und Hintergrundinformationen und schöpft dabei aus dem reichhaltigen Fundus an wissenschaftlichen Studien, di
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e es zu Islam und Muslimen in Deutschland gibt. Manche Begriffe sind unter Wissenschaftlern umstritten. Das gilt insbesondere für den Begriff der „Integration“, der sich in den medialen und politischen Debatten großer Beliebtheit erfreut. Darunter kann man Unterschiedliches verstehen. Im wissenschaftlichen Diskurs ist dagegen häufiger von „Teilhabe“ und „Partizipation“ die Rede. Ähnliches gilt für Begriffe wie „Islamismus“ oder „politischer Islam“. Viele Fachleute sprechen lieber von „religiös begründetem Extremismus“, um deutlich zu machen, dass dieser keine islamische Spezialität ist. Auch der Begriff „Islamfeindlichkeit“ ist umstritten. Viele Experten aus Wissenschaft und Zivilgesellschaft sprechen eher von „antimuslimischem Rassismus“, den sie als eine Form eines modernen Rassismus betrachten, der Menschen aufgrund ihrer vermeintlichen „Kultur“ oder Religion abwertet." (Vorwort, Seiten 11-12)
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"Is there an inevitable global violent clash unfolding between the world's largest religions: Islam and Christianity? Do religions cause violent conflicts, or are there other factors at play? How can we make sense of increasing reports of violence between Christian and Muslim ethnic communities acro
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ss the world? By seeking to answer such questions about the relationship between religion and violence in today's world, Ziya Meral challenges popular theories and offers an alternative explanation, grounded on insights inferred from real cases of ethno-religious violence in Africa and the Middle East. The relationship between religion and violence runs deep and both are intrinsic to the human story. Violence leads to and shapes religion, while religion acts to enable violence as well as providing responses that contain and prevent it. However, with religious violence being one of the most serious challenges facing the modern world, Meral shows that we need to de-globalise our analysis and focus on individual conflicts, instead of attempting to provide single answers to complex questions." (Publisher description)
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"In the constant deluge of media coverage on Islam, Muslims are often portrayed as terrorists, refugees, radicals, or victims, depictions that erode human responses of concern, connection, or even a willingness to learn about Muslims. On Islam helps break this cycle with information and strategies t
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o understand and report the modern Muslim experience. Journalists, activists, bloggers, and scholars offer insights into how Muslims are represented in the media today and offer tips for those covering Islam in the future. Interviews provide personal and often moving firsthand accounts of people confronting the challenges of modern life while maintaining their Muslim faith, and brief overviews provide a crash course on Muslim beliefs and practices." (Publisher description)
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"Although the age gap in religious commitment is larger in some nations than in others, it occurs in many different economic and social contexts – in developing countries as well as advanced industrial economies, in Muslim-majority nations as well as predominantly Christian states, and in societie
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s that are, overall, highly religious as well as those that are comparatively secular. For example, adults younger than 40 are less likely than older adults to say religion is “very important” in their lives not only in wealthy and relatively secular countries such as Canada, Japan and Switzerland, but also in countries that are less affluent and more religious, such as Iran, Poland and Nigeria." (Page 5)
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"Wie thematisieren Staaten und internationale Organisationen Religion in den internationalen Beziehungen? Wodurch bauen sie Religionskompetenz in ihren Außenbeziehungen auf und wo arbeiten sie mit Religionsgemeinschaften erfolgreich zusammen? Was folgt daraus für Deutschlands Außenpolitik? Diese
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Studie antwortet darauf mit einem Überblick über Hauptakteure und Handlungsfelder mit Fokus auf die Religionen Christentum, Judentum und Islam. Bei den religionsbezogenen Außenpolitiken ausgewählter Staaten dient als Analyseraster der Studie die Untersuchung der wichtigsten Aktivitäten zentraler außenpolitischer Akteure mit dem Fokus auf Außenministerien und internationale Organisationen, punktuell ergänzt durch besondere Initiativen anderer Ressorts und Institutionen. Bei der Betrachtung potenzieller Dialogpartner in Europa, Mittelmeer, Afrika und Asien liegt der Schwerpunkt auf beispielhaften Projekten und Aktivitäten mit deutscher, europäischer oder interreligiöser Beteiligung. Methodisch liefert neben der Akteurs-, Institutionen-, Literatur- und Dokumentenanalyse eine nicht-repräsentative, anonymisierte schriftliche Umfrage bei über hundert Experten, Praktikern, Multiplikatoren unterschiedlicher Ebenen aus (Außen-)Politik, Religion und Wissenschaft ergänzend als Hintergrundinformation ein Meinungs- und Stimmungsbild zu Religion und (deutscher) Außenpolitik." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 6)
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"These are the latest findings from the Ipsos Perils of Perception survey. The results highlight how wrong people across 40 countries are about some key issues and features of the population in their country. Perceptions are not reality… Nearly all countries overestimate their Muslim population, a
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nd many are extraordinarily wrong [...] Nearly every country thinks their Muslim population will grow much more than is projected [...] Every country thinks people are much less happy than they say they are [...] People are often very wrong on how acceptable their fellow citizens find homosexuality [...] Countries are also often very wrong on how acceptable people find sex before marriage [...] (Slides 2-12)
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"With this report we explore how different religious minorities in Iran use the internet to engage with their communities in Iran and around the world. To build a representative picture, we drew on diverse sources, piecing together historical accounts, content analysis, legal frameworks, and the voi
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ces of people within the communities themselves. This approach helped us to understand the communities from several perspectives - of religious minorities inside Iran, of community leaders, and of diaspora content producers." (Page 6)
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