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Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

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Articles

A Decade To Remember, Decades To Come In Peace

31 August 2011 | The Fountain | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Who would not prefer to remember the turn of the millennium with a hopeful memory, such as the dream below: At the turn of the millennium, a delegation from Iraq comes to the World Trade Center in New York to strike a deal with their American partners for an emergency relief organization for the f…

Believers as They Stand Before God

31 August 2011 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

The believer is one who believes and trusts, one with prospects for a secure future who is trustworthy to others. S/he is a monumental figure marked by a special distinction imbued with contrasting colors, one within the other. Throughout their lives, believers bind all their actions to the conside…

An Opportunity to Heal and Make Whole

31 August 2011 | John Bryson Chane | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

How can anyone residing in the United States, or for that matter living in any other part of the world, forget the horror of September 11, 2001, when commercial airliners, piloted by terrorists posing as religious followers of Islam, intentionally crashed into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pen…

The End of Fear, the Beginning of Understanding

31 August 2011 | Robert A. Pape | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

In the decade since 9/11, the United States has: •conquered and occupied two large Muslim countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) •compelled a huge Muslim army to root out a terrorist sanctuary (Pakistan) •deployed thousands of special forces to numerous Muslim countries (Yemen, Somalia, Sudan etc.) •…

9/11: Before and After

31 August 2011 | Ahmet Kurucan | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

I remember the day very vividly, perhaps like each and every person who has been affected by it does. I remember the trauma, panic, and tears in the café of my English language school. The same frames kept rolling on the TV screen which we could not turn our eyes from, hoping that what we saw were…

Masallah

31 August 2011 | Katharine Branning | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Katharine, “Kadriye,” Branning was one of the passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight to New York on September 9, 2011, a flight which could not reach its destination that inauspicious day. Taken from her book Yes, I Would Love another Glass of Tea: An American Woman’s Letters to Turkey, the foll…

The Spirit of Norway

31 August 2011 | Gunnar Stalsett | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

A model of reconciled diversity is the only way to the future in our globalized world. It is indeed a tremendous challenge to come to terms with the perplexity of religion and politics in our time. As acts of terrorism are wreaking havoc in many parts of the world, people turn to religion both to…

Does the Qur'an Sanction War?

31 August 2011 | Eren Tatari | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

In Islamic jurisprudence, no divinely ordained clergy rule on religious matters. There are only scholars, learned people that undertake the extensive study of the Islamic sciences. No official post decides who is eligible to be considered a scholar qualified to give opinions on religious matters. A…

Jihad

31 August 2011 | Amy Wilson | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States of America there is not an Islamic word used more commonly in daily life than jihad. Jihad has appeared regularly in news broadcasts and everyday conversations with the connotation of “holy war.” This widespread understanding of ji…

Rida (Resignation)

31 August 2011 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Resignation means showing no rancor or rebellion against misfortune, and accepting all manifestations of destiny without complaint and even better peacefully. In other words, one should welcome all things and events, even those normally associated with distress and terror. Another beautiful definit…

Rocks or Rainbows: Lessons for Interreligious Dialogue

31 August 2011 | Frances M. Leap | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

More than two decades ago, as a new professor at a small college, I was assigned a course that included a unit on non-Christian religious traditions. Since I had little background myself in this area, my students and I learned together through our own research and field visits. We encountered Juda…

The Art of Living Together

31 August 2011 | Bishop Demetrios Of Mokissos | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

At the onset of the twenty-first century, a new relationship is being forged between my own Greek Orthodox Christian community and the Turkish Muslim community of the United States. That such a dialogue occurs at all surprises some within and beyond these communities, not understanding that such…

The Challenge of Peaceful Coexistence

31 August 2011 | B. Jill Carroll | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

'Peaceful coexistence is the most important project of our era. But we cannot do it alone or in isolation; we must do it together.' The world has become very small. Mass communications, mass travel, and economic interdependence have created a contemporary world in which we as individuals and…

Geography of Friendship

31 August 2011 | Sumeyra Tosun / Kelli Angelone | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Two Poems and Some Thoughts Recently I was reading a book called The Geography of Thought. To my surprise, the author claimed that Eastern and Western people had different types of cognition, meaning that they think differently, perceive the world differently, explain relations of causality differ…

America's Potential for Peace

31 August 2011 | Fatma Yilmaz | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

On the evening of September 11, 2010, nine Christian women gathered in a prayer circle in the basement of a small Midwest church, and were asked to reflect on where they have been spiritually since 9/11. Heavy glances crisscrossed the darkened, candlelit room. More than a few sighs filled the air…

Drinking Water from the Sea: Polymeric Membranes for Desalination

31 August 2011 | Kamil Ezgin | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

One billion people in the world live in water-stressed areas, and RO membrane technology is the leading desalination technology to overcome the problem of insufficient clean water. Today, more than 1 billion people are suffering from the lack of potable water. About 2.3 billion people (41 percent…

Divine Support and Ensuring Its Continuation

31 August 2011 | Hikmet Isik | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Question: God Almighty has graced us with a great deal of possibilities to serve humanity. What would you recommend so that this holy grace and benediction upon us shall not be stopped? I think we all are aware that God has taken each of us-while we were wandering here and there-and made contact…

It's Us Peter, Your Blood Vessels

31 August 2011 | Irfan Yilmaz | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

Dear Peter, the Heart talked about itself so much that we thought it would never let us speak. Yes, the heart functions as a fabulous pump, but it is nothing by itself. We find our value in cooperation; nothing is created to do everything on its own. The heart naturally makes itself noticeable by i…

Is Humanity Dead?

31 August 2011 | Ihsan Orhan | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

"A once-in-a-lifetime event" or "the worst for 60 years" is how the drought in Africa today is being described. Among the most affected countries are Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Over 30,000 children under the age of 5 are already dead and toll is on the rise-at least 1.5 million people are starvi…

Epidermal electronics

31 August 2011 | The Fountain | Issue 83 (September - October 2011)

1- Epidermal electronics Original Article: Kim, D-H et al., Science 333, 838 (2011). We often see patients in hospitals with many cables attached to their bodies. Now there is hope to replace these mobility-limiting settings with something very portable. Engineers have developed an ultrathin, str…

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