News and Analysis (4/24/16)

As in Western countries that prohibit the sale of alcohol (or other drugs) , the punishment for non-Muslims is jail time, but this Christian women elected to be treated equally with Muslim offenders in the “only province in the country that punishes … boozing … with lashes”:

• Jail or a Public Beating? In this Indonesian Province, Non-Muslims Who Violate Sharia Get a Choice (PRI)

“[I]t was the first time Muslim clerics [in Indonesia] have broken Jewish Matzah bread with Jews in Hamotzi (blessing) ceremony. Cleric Zawawi Suat said all religions should avoid threatening others’ rights to practice their beliefs”:

• In Muslim-majority Indonesia, Jakarta Jews Mark Passover in Low Key Celebration (Jerusalem Post)

“If London were [Muslim], the population would bathe regularly, have a better-dressed dinner for [its] money, and prefer water to wine or brandy, gin or beer” — British diplomat David Urquhart:

• Lindsay Lohan, Winston Churchill, and the Long History of Flirting with Islam (Washington Post)

“You probably already knew that Islam was having a scientific golden age during Europe’s middle ages…. (Which is why we use words like “algebra.”) But you might not know that some of the earliest proto-science fiction came from the Islamic world”:

• The Islamic Roots of Science Fiction (io9)

For founding the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, he “was convicted of inciting people to breach public order, insulting the judiciary, defaming the kingdom’s senior religious clerics and establishing an unlicensed organization”:

• Saudi Human Rights Activist Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison (AP / abc News)

The Elmwood Park Board of Education’s president has confirmed that the Board w:ill accept the resignation of the member who urged Muslims to “stay in your desserts (sic) and follow your religion in your own countries”:

• New Jersey School Board Member Quits over Anti-Muslim Comments (RNS)

“So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the death of Rezaul Karim Siddique … [and] accused him of ‘calling to atheism’. But his daughter Rizwana Hasin told the BBC that her father believed in God, and that she had no idea why he was targeted”:

• Rezaul Karim Siddique: Murdered Bangladeshi Professor ‘Not an Atheist’, Daughter Says (BBC)

“[W]hen atheists disassociate from people like Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins and then are quick to connect all Muslims with some outspoken and firebrand Mullah, it appears they have forgotten a lesson they learned for themselves”:

• Why Atheists Caricature Islam: An Insiders Perspective (Patheos)

Beyond interfaith dialog is interfaith action. “Muslim and Christian women will work together sprucing up the dining room at First Step’s domestic abuse shelter this month”:

• Muslim, Christian Women Build Friendships, Community (Hometown Life)

ImadadDean