AIDemocracy.org | religion

Understanding the Rights of the Marginalized: Haiti’s LGBT Community

February 13, 2012 by Tiffany Leave a Comment

By Carly James In the wake of the second anniversary of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, much of the world is directing its attention to the social, economic, and political progress that Haiti has made. Since that historic moment in Haiti’s troubled history, considerable strides have been made in terms of rubble removal, medical assistance, and resettlement of displaced persons. In fact, the country was proud to inaugurate the ultra-modern Roi Henri Christophe University, currently one of Haiti’s largest buildings, in mid-January. Secretary … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Sex and Justice Tagged With: discrimination, Haiti, human rights, LGBT, minority, religion

Let us not forget

July 19, 2011 by Anton Leave a Comment

This year is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We here, at AIDemocracy have launched a campaign called Be2021 (www.be2021.org) around this anniversary. We are actively collecting visions from young people of what they think the world should look like in another ten years. However, there is another event that is happening on the 10th anniversary, the 9/11 New York memorial is opening up on 9/12/11 to the general public. It will be open to the victim’s families on 9/11/11. The website managing reservations to see the memorial has already received over 42,000 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: 9/11, Barack Obama, Be2021, community, democracy, dialogue, Europe, Islam, Israel, Muslim, Muslim American, religion, youth

Peace Loving or Peace Destroying?

July 13, 2011 by Anton Leave a Comment

For the past few weeks now, humanitarian ships are trying to travel to Gaza, but this year it is not only one, but several. Twelve countries in Europe and one ship from the US will be traveling to Gaza in order to alleviate the blockade that Israel is imposing. The European ships carry members of parliaments and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that he will continue to impose the blockade on Gaza and that these ships will be returned back to where they originated from. This rhetoric is quite similar … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: aid, democracy, EU, Europe, Government, Greece, humanitarian aid, IMF, Israel, law, Middle East, Palestine, Peace, religion, sanctions, security, Turkey, war, water

Freedom of Speech or Freedom of Hate?

July 1, 2011 by Anton Leave a Comment

In our country we have something called Freedom of Speech. Americans enjoy this freedom because they can speak their mind on just about any subject: sports, cars, politics, and defaming a religion. Yes, I said it, defaming a religion! Since 9/11 happened, Americans believe that is what Islam is: full of hate, attacking American freedoms and values, and that Muslims are plotting to taking over. Remember though that it was not Muslim Americans that attacked us on 9/11 but rather Muslims that were from overseas that became radicalized for a cause they … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less Tagged With: 9/11, diplomacy, discrimination, Gender, Islam, Muslim, Muslim American, policy, Politics, race, religion, women

Freedom of Religion: Except if you’re a Muslim

June 21, 2011 by Anton 2 Comments

Radicalization? Jihad? Shari’a? This is the rhetoric that keeps occurring in the mainstream media. Now being anti-Muslim seems the way to get votes in presidential race since Presidential hopeful Herman Cain said that he would not feel comfortable for a Muslim to serve in his cabinet. Many people actually agree to that. Cain believes that a Muslim should in other words take a loyalty test for America if they do want to serve. These politicians do not need to look to far in history to see that we did this to the Japanese. I guess these politicians have … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less Tagged With: aid, dialogue, diplomacy, Government, Homeland Security, Islam, law, Middle East, Muslim, Muslim American, Obama, race, religion, security

Yemen and “The Arab Spring”

June 12, 2011 by Anton Leave a Comment

The Arab Spring has now taken over Yemen. President Saleh’s opposing tribe known as the Al-Ahmar attacked the presidential palace and injured President Saleh. Saleh has now escaped to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. Yemeni’s are now celebrating in the streets and are hoping he does not return. However, his family is still in Yemen, which means they still have great influence in the country. Why does this matter? The average age in Yemen according to the CIA fact book is between the ages of 15-64. Also, Yemen is the 32nd biggest oil exporter … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: democracy, foreign policy, Government, Middle East, religion, US Government, war, Yemen

Pastor Jones & The Burning of The Koran

March 23, 2011 by Jennifer Piatt

As my profile indicates, I am currently a second year law student. Most students know all too well that you often end up taking a class because it works best with your schedule versus actually being interested in the topic. That’s how I ended up in Employment Discrimination (Sorry Professor!). I won’t expand upon the law school experience here, though, if you’re interested, there sure are plenty of blogs out there from my fellow students. My point for mentioning the class is that we are coming up to the “discrimination based on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: global peace and security, religion, US-Muslim World Relations

Dispatches from Peru: Climate Change in Peru and Andean Cosmovision

March 21, 2011 by Alma Raymer

Hello again AIDemocracy network! I write to you again from Cusco, Peru. Since the last time I wrote, I have really gotten into the rhythm of classes, which has been really nice, and I have really enjoyed some of the seminars we have listened to, as well as my daily Quechua classes. Yesterday was our final day of Quechua as well as our exam. For the exam, we went to a town outside of Cusco about an hour away. Each of the three Quechua classes had to speak in Quechua with a family in Qhorqa to find out information about their family. Some of the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Climate Change, Featured Less, Hunger Tagged With: climate, climate change, Peru, religion, sustainable agriculture, sustainable development

McCarthyism in 2011: King’s Commissions

March 13, 2011 by Jennifer Piatt

I never really understood the effects of the “McCarthy trials” or the implications of “McCarthyism” until Rep. Peter King announced his crusade against American Muslims. Setting aside the Equal Protection claims and the illegitimate use of a Congressional Office to pursue a course for reelection: Rep. King’s Commissions jeopardize our American soldiers abroad, create a volatile and unsafe situation for American Muslims, eviscerate America’s attempts at promoting Democracy and violate one of this nation’s fundamental principles … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: 9/11, Al Quaeda, Congress, diplomacy, discrimination, global peace and security, Issue Analyst, Muslim, national security, Peace, religion, US military, US-Muslim World Relations

The Silent Sufferers

December 7, 2010 by Richard Lim

The Burmese regime’s dramatic release of Aung San Suu Kyi has been cause for celebration worldwide. Buried underneath the front pages of the mainstream media, however, is the story of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman and mother of five who was sentenced to death November 8th for committing blasphemy against Islam. Bibi’s case dates back to June 2009 when, as a farm worker in Ittanwali, Pakistan, she was asked to fetch water from a well. After returning with the water, she was refused by Muslim women who said the water was unclean after … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Less, Security Tagged With: Islam, Muslim, Pakistan, religion