Freedom of Music

Somalia radio stations are forced to stop broadcasting music because of new Islamist ruling. Many people are upset about this law as it has been a tradition in Islamic culture for quite awhile now.  Is this going too far?  Is there anything in the Qur’an that says that music is wrong?  I guess I cannot be the judge of that because I do not know much about the Qur’an.  I just want Islamic people to answer their own question?  Why are they doing this and how will it benefit the Islamic tradition? 

I myself have seen music used as an act of worship.  It brings people joy and sometimes sorrow but for great purpose of bringing out emotions that might not otherwise be expressed.  That is why music is a key part of worship in Christians’ faith life as well.  An overwhelming gratitude for God can be expressed through song which is difficult to express any other way for some people.  God uses many different forms of worship to speak to his people and music is defiantly one of them at least from a Christian perspective.  But let the individual person be the judge of that.  It’s such a small issue that Islamic rulers shouldn’t even both spending the time on even thinking about it.  It is like if all of a sudden Christians were only allow to listen to Christian music, well that should be up to the person on whether secular music hinders their walk with God then they can decide if they shouldn’t be listening to it. 

                Then again all cultures are different and one must put that into account.  Their culture is probably less individualist than ours and it is important to come to a mutual agreement  on the subject so one can support one another.  We must remember that what is good for one culture might not be good for another.  I myself have to remember that when I am judging another culture that I am not accustomed to. 
 http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=57150    

Earthquake and ‘Boobquake’?

A bunch of students try to prove theory from Iranian cleric that if many women dress immodestly than the chance of earthquakes will increase as well.  In order to prove that the hypothesis is correct Jen Mcreight is gathering a bunch of followers to on a certain day put on their most scandalous clothing for the day.

Well God has revealed his wrath before; I mean look at the great flood or Sodom and Gomorrah.  God did reveal is discontentment then.  These instances did happen because of the corruption of the people.  Although I doubt God would spend time sending earthquakes to a bunch of women for wearing skimpy clothing.  It just seems too silly to imagine.  There is so much evil in this world there’s no way God would just focus is anger on just one kind of ‘evil’.  I feel this is just something that some parents made up to scare their young teenage girls into dressing more modestly.  Most Muslims are pretty good in that compartment; better than most individuals anyways.  God does not just focus on one kind of sin and then choose to punish those who commit it.  The entire world is full of sin, not one person is free from it.  We all deserve punishment but the final judgment will more severe than an earthquake.  It will be the scariest most frightening disaster on earth.  We should be afraid of it because it will be a sign to us that Jesus has come back and he will decide if our faith lives up to his standards.         

http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=57477

A Sudden Policy Change

A rental car company called Hertz suddenly suspended 34 Somali Muslim shuttle drivers for praying on company time.  The workers said that they were not aware that the policy was changed.  Hertz spokes man said that it wasn’t about getting more money it was about the time limitations at the job and they were not meeting the proper time slots.

Muslims are required to pray at least 5 times a day, at least that’s the observant ones.  What do I have to say about this you may ask?  Well I know one thing if I was in that situation I would just quit.  It’s just like the Christians and asking for Sunday off so you can go to church.  The job just isn’t worth it.

Some of me says hey why can’t they pray and work at the same time.  Well what’s important to me may not be important to you and what’s important to you may not be important to me.  The point I am trying to get across is that each religion has something that is vital to their “faith”.  For Christians we find church very important to our growth; for Muslims it’s prayer although don’t get me wrong Christians use prayer daily as a way to communicate with God. 
 http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=72079  

Religious Freedom

To what extent does religious freedom end?  That is a question on everyone’s mind after the German Government has banned the practice of circumcision on babies.  The claim is that circumcision can causes bodily harm to babies .  They say that the surgery is un-necessary because it is more of a personal preference than an actual emergency where it is necessary for the baby to have a surgery for their own well being.  Many critics of circumcision also mention that the baby does not have choice in the matter of circumcision because they are too young to know if they want to join the Jewish or Muslim faith to begin with.  I myself thing hey if they want to circumcise their children let them do it, they have been doing it for this long.  The other part of me does question the free will thing and I will tell you why in a second. 

This issue reminds me a lot of what the Christian faith calls Infant Baptism.  Many Christians are in great conflict over this subject because just like circumcision, infants have no choice in the matter of being baptized and symbolically being welcomed into the Christian family.  Some may say that infant baptism is just an invitation into the family but the child or adult can still choose to accept or reject it. Is it just a matter of deciding what the symbol means to each individual person? Well maybe it’s just a personal choice that each parent has to make and will they suffer consequences for it, I don’t think so.   Is it just the technical term that is making people upset?  I do know one thing though, I don’t think baptism is causes any bodily harm to the babies.  Well can least rest assure of that.

Article from:  http://www.canadaka.net/link.php?id=75736

Best of Friends

What does a black Christian mayor, a rabbi running for Congress and a Mormon university president have in common?  Not much that is for sure.  This has to be the most interesting article I have encountered since I have started these blog postings.  These men do have one thing in common though, a deep love and respect for each other despite the fact they do not practice each other’s religion.  I was just talking to a friend the other day of what it would look like for all religions to stop fighting but to unite and get along with each other.  Now sometimes I think I do not know what that will look like.  I mean is it the fact that we can say to each other, ‘let’s agree to disagree but I still love you anyways’, or is it much deeper than that.  Well for one maybe we should actually know something about the other religion before we fight against it.  I thought it was pretty cool that as friends with one another they were willing to teach and learn from one another freely, it shows great humbleness.  The article claims that through their friendship they were able to build and interact with more people of that faith if they just saw them walking along the street corner.  There worldview has been widened by being challenged to think about life in a different way then what they are used to.  Religion if devoutly followed changes a person’s way of life but if a person just knows about that way of life how can they step into someone else’s.  They can listen and learn so that they learn how to connect with the rest of God’s people.  God did not intend on everyone living separate lives from one another but full and interactive lives. 
From CNN News Website.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/30/despite-fights-about-its-merits-idea-of-american-exceptionalism-a-powerful-force-through-history/

Religion and Slavery

Religion and Slavery

In this article three of the most popular religions are being critiqued on their stand on slavery.  Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have a controversial history from their founders for not having a clear standing on objecting slavery.  Jesus never expressed his opinion about slavery but most Christians would say that he didn’t have to because the rest of his actions showed that he would never be for such an idea.  Now when it comes to Judaism, in Moses time there were many of God’s people in the Bible that had slaves but they were instructed to not mistreat them.  Did slaves back than mean the same thing as they do now; is it still the same context?  Probably not, I hope this article is not on a outsiders perspective because if one does not study the scriptures in a hermeneutics fashion they might misinterpret what is actually being said.  Same with Muhammad’s teaching, I do not know much about it but can we assume that Muhammad had slaves, not unless we have proof.  Muhammad did say that freeing slaves was an act of piety.

            Maybe the history of slavery was a very rocky slope at the time and maybe it was a symbol back then, a symbol for our slave to sin.  I mean God did say that after we disobeyed him in the Bible that life would get harder and maybe slavery was a part of that.  I do think that God knew that we could get out of it, that with his help we can learn to not be a slave to sin.  All these religion figures that we looked at had one thing for sure in common, they followed God.  So I do believe that Moses and Muhammad tried to follow God and maybe at the time slavery was not ready to be abolished yet.  Jesus on the other had since Christians consider him to be perfect in his deity then he knew exactly what he was doing when he did not say anything about slavery at least in scripture.

Buddha

Buddha

Recently an artifact was discovered from archaeologists searching through the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan.  Surprise it was a stone statue of prince Siddhartha.  If you do not know who that is, it’s the founder of the Buddha faith.  It was said that this statue was a depiction of Siddhartha before he created Buddhism.  His Dad did not want him to see what the real world looked like because he knew his son would be burdened by it.  Sure enough once Siddhartha did adventure out of the palace on his own he was burdened b all the pain people had to go through.  Apparently it was noted that when Siddhartha came back from adventuring out he was pessimistic about the world around him.   

            It is when he abandoned palace life that the real story began.  He became a poor man who only grew more and more in his knowledge of the world that many started to follow him.  Before he founded Buddhism it was said that people followed him like cult worship.  I’m assuming it was a deep respect for Siddhartha that brought people to follow Buddhism in the first place.  People are looking for something to hope in somewhat on their own terms.  Also Buddhism advertises inner strength than relying on someone else that may fail you.
link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47722249

Jewish Jesus

Jewish Jesus

This article was found again on the CNN website, see some consistency here.  The topic today is about Jews reclaiming Jesus as an important element in their Judaism.  For centuries Jews were sceptical of Jesus because other religions believe Jesus to have a divinity, whereas the Jews do not.  That is why in some ways they did not want anything to do with Jesus, and they dismissed him quite a bit from their teaching.  This generation of Jews however want to be better equated with Jesus because they see him as a good example to look at, as Jesus himself was a Jew.  They will not however still accept Jesus deity like Christians do.  A simple way to explain what Christians believe Jesus to be is this: teacher, healer, and savior (son of God).  What the Jews believe is that Jesus was a teacher and a healer but not savior.

            What really stood out to me when I was reading this article was when  this woman,  Levine mentioned that it is important to know what you believe about the religion you claim to be yours.  She said you owe it to people out of respect when you put that kind of religious label on yourself.   It is true for Christians as well, when we call ourselves Christians we need to know about what we claim, we need to know Christ!  Not just know a little about him but know his words, his actions, his commandments for us.  So if anyone asks about what we believe we won’t be stumbling for words but we will know what to say.  I think this is especially true if we are going to wear something like a Jesus shirt.  Actually the other day I saw a group of people in a museum wearing shirts that said, “You Need Jesus”.  Well I think that we don’t need to wear a shirt to say that because it’s almost like we are telling people this but we don’t care enough to just talk to them about it (I hope that was at least part of the intent).  But yes we can’t just wear a t-shirt and hope we did our job on telling people about Jesus.  No I think that shirt doesn’t tell us much about Jesus at all.  
Link:  http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/05/jews-reclaim-jesus-as-one-of-their-own/?iref=allsearch

Ancient Religion Suffers Persecution

Ancient Religion Suffers Persecution

Zoroastrianism, who would of even thought I would have found an article on one of the most ancient and still remaining religions in the world.  Well at least remaining for now, recently it has been brought to the media’s attention of major persecution happening in Iran against Zoroastrianism, specifically in the city of Tehran.  It was the year of 1979, when the Islamic revolution occurred that the freedom of religion for the Zoroastrians was taken under them.  It was that year that Islamic soldiers stormed into their temple of worship during a service and put a picture of the Iran’s new ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in place the picture of Zoroaster, the founder of their religion.  That was only the beginning, all schools being forced to have the pictures Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on their walls, students with high grades not being accepted to State Universities, and Zoroastrian graveyards being disturbed.  There is much more evidence to obvious persecution but I will let you read the article for yourself.

My first reaction to this article was pure sadness and disgust because it does not matter which religion is going through this kind of persecution, it should not happen.  This specific situation is overall just disrespectful especially since Zoroastrianism was there before Islam.  I would react the exact way if I heard a story about Christians being persecuted, these stories overall whether about Zoroastrians, Christians, Buddhists, it doesn’t matter, that is irrelevant to me.  All religions deserve a respect even if we do not agree with what they stand for.  Of course I want others to hear what I know about my Lord Jesus Christ but I must earn their trust before they will hear what I got to say.  If the Muslims in Iran wanted the Zoroastrians to become Muslim then changing their temple of worship to represent Islam does not bring them closer to conversion but actually makes them repel away from it.  If this is not the case they just hate what the Zoroastrians stand for then all they have to do is not associate themselves with them because in my mind this is equal to racism. The thing that got me was when I heard the part about the Muslim officials storming in while a fire ceremony was taken place so they could take the picture down of Zarathustra (the founder).  The fires are considered sacred and an important part of worship.  That I would say would be like someone storming into a Christian church during Lord Supper and taking down our cross.  Although I believe that each religion will be attacked and we will have to be ready to answer questions about what they believe, this is only the beginning of the attacks.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/opinion/choksy-iran-zoroastrian/index.html?iref=allsearch

  

           

Religious but Not Too Religious

Religious but Not Too Religious

Found this story about the same time as the last one although this is a CNN blog posting instead of an actual news report.  I found it very interesting and I wasn’t sure if I would find another bit on the Jewish faith.  I just could not pass up the chance to talk about the Jewish culture.  This woman is from a Jewish community but lives in the western culture with her husband and kids.  Her husband is not Jewish so for her the problem is how does she make she kids feel a part of the Jewish culture without actually having a fully  practicing Jewish family? Judaism does not believe in atonement (Jesus taking away our sins) because they do not believe we were born with a sinful nature.  To have a perfect relationship with God one must live a holy life through repentance, prayer, and acts of kindness.   What this article is about is Laurel's personal experiences of previously failing to implement the rituals and the beliefs of her Jewish faith into her household.  I personally thought it was kind of cute that she wants her kids to be a part of the Jewish culture but than I thought about how  being a Jew is not just a cultural thing, it is an actual religion.  When I thought of it being as cute I did not think of it as being a religion but as something like commparing it to Tim Hortons being a Canadian thing.  They just are not comparable.  I think the reason why we (or maybe it was just me) forgets that Judaism is a real religion is because Judaism is a selective religion, rarely does one just convert to Judaism.  You are a Jew if at least your Mother is a Jew.  In this case this is true which means her children are technically Jewish but because the father is not this could too conflicting to carry on with full force.  Putting that into consideration is she still Jewish even if her heart is not entirely there?  To be honest I do not really know, I have a feeling it is much more complicated than that, being Jewish is about the ansestory as well as the rituals.  I don’t think it is like Christianity where the rituals do not define the religion at all or the ancestory, I think it is quite the opposite so that changes the definition of Judaism or maybe you just say a “practicing Jew”, just like one could say a “practicing Christian”, although the definitions are different.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/13/my-faith-raising-non-kosher-jewish-kids/    

Secret or Sacred

Secret or Sacred?

I just watched a CNN new cast taking a first look into a Mormon temple.  I was quite surprised that this was possible considering Mormon temples and churches are quite privite.  This was a very unique and individual exception since this specific temple was brand new and not yet used to be worshiped in by the Mormons.  The news reporter was able to go in and have tour but was not able to have it videotaped from the inside.  We were however able to see pictures of each room including the one with the baptismal tub where hundreds of baptisms for the dead are taken place.  The baptisms are usually directed towards Mormon ancestors who have not yet chosen the faith after their death.  There has been instances however where people have chosen to baptise those from other beliefs such as Ann Frank, the famous holocaust victim. 

                Now I have heard only bits and pieces of the Mormons practices but no clear understanding even though they are quite open with their evangelizing.  Why such the secret, why are the practices not more publicized?  Well when the news reporter brought up these allegations the response was, “it’s not about secret it’s about sacred”.  This could be very much true but could trying to keep the church sacred stop people from coming to the church in the first place?  Once this temple is opened for worship not even all Mormons are invited unless they have an special recommendation from their local church leader.  There are certain expectations that one must exceed if they want to observe or think about being a Mormon but it seems most religions have expectations.  The man in the interview did explain that they have made mistakes and will get better which is admirable enough to note.  I look at Christianity and see us being in danger of falling into the same rut, that religion is private unless you are willing to be one of us in your behavior and mentality.  Now I’m not saying that I know all about Mormons and maybe they are more open then I think, I am just saying what I heard from others and this news report.  Actually one of my friends almost became a Mormon interestingly enough.  Now compared to other religions maybe Christianity looks lazy, I mean we don’t all where the same thing and we don’t have a temple par say.  At the same time though we all for the most part dress formally and try not to stick out too much.  We often don’t talk about our church life to our co-workers or Christianity in general so I think it’s safe to say we can be quite secretive as well.  If we talk more about our faith and church life maybe people wouldn’t feel threatened to even come as a observer, see what it is all about.  They can know that they are always welcome and that we do not expect anything from them except to just show up. 

Check out the News Cast on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/04/09/tsr-todd-mormon-temple-rare-look.cnn?iref=allsearch 

Honour Killing?

When I starting thinking about what articles and other media I would find on the topic of world religions one article stood out particularly in my head.  It was a few months back when my parents were talking about this article they found in the paper about four women being murdered by their Father, Mother, and brother.  Now I rarely read the news paper but how could one hear about something so tragic and cruel and not want to learn more about it.  Then just today I found a full news cast on the Fifth Estate website titled, “The House of Shafia”.  They call this murder tragedy, “Honour Killing” as the women were said to be bringing disgrace to the Muslim family name.  The children’s behaviour displayed western thinking in the way that they dressed and displayed themselves in public.   I’m not going to give away all the details as the article is posted all over the internet but long story short Mohammad, Tooba, and the brother Hamed were charged for killing these four women by pushing their car off the in a Kingston canal.

                Now I have a Muslim friend and I am a Christian so I have to responsibility to make the right presumptions or to not make them at all because Muslims deserve the same respect and dignity that I do.  So to say that it is the Shafia’s religious views that got them to killing their family members is a big and very dangerous assumption.  Are there some religious undertones in this story?  Yes I believe there is.  Do I think religion is the reason why those girls are killed?  No of course not.  If Muslims truly followed the Qur’an and the teaching of Mohammed then it would be in their very nature to protect their children, not to kill them.  They do however have a responsibility to raise the children in the faith, it is their duty and they take it very seriously coming from a predominantly Muslim country like Pakistan.  This story would be considered a bad representation of the Muslim faith for sure because if one actually spends time with the Muslims or goes to visit the mosque they more than anything are concerned with living pure lives that please Allah.  Much of the reading that a part of a mosque service have to do with finding ways to show love to the family by spending time with them, getting to know them better.  Now I’m sure there are still other stories that show evidence of Muslims being violent or not so pure just as there is evidence of Christians being not so Christ like.  I would argue that they were not Muslim to begin with, just going through the motions.  To associate all Muslims with the actions of one Muslim family is narrow minded and will cost you an opportunity to build valuable relationships with them.