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NEW YORK, Jun 25 2024 (IPS) – In Part 1, I outlined how our shared existence is challenged not only by simultaneous crisis, but also by the notions – and realities – of perceived ‘holy wars’. I point out that ‘holy wars’ are not only perceptions within, or of, monotheistic faith traditions, but actually enacted by members of diverse belief systems.

I note how these ‘holy war’ dynamics are part of the vicious cycle of polarisation and sorrowful lack of social cohesion in most societies, while also coexisting with an increasing realisation amongst several decision-making entities (governmental, non-governmental and intergovernmental) of how important religions have been, and continue to be.

Religious institutions, religious leaders and religious (or faith based) organisations, are indeed the original social service providers, community mediators, social norm upholders and changemakers, and actually, historically, also the original human rights’ defenders.

I emphasize how the toxic mix with narrow political interests (might that be tautological?) means that in the minds of some who hold decision making positions, and/or have access to arms, and/or control laws and their implementation, and/or impact on beliefs, behaviours and attitudes through unparalleled pulpits (or all of the above), ‘holy war’, is justified.

In the age of ‘holy wars’, we are called upon to understand that part of our social disconnect resulting in the polarisation and significant weaking of our civil societies, may well be furthered by the manner in the current interest in and on religion.

Elsewhere I have argued that appreciating the ‘good’ powers of religious institutions and leaders, and the remarkable reach of religious social services and positive changemakers, is necessary, but by no means enough.

In fact, seeking to emphasize, support and identify the religious as the panacea, is harmful – in the same ways that marginalising the religious as evil, anti-human rights, unhealthy, misogynist, unnecessary, parochial, etc. has been, and remains, harmful, to the very same fabric of the civil societies we all uphold.

It is not all about good religion or bad religion. Rather, it could be about how to generate, nurture, protect, and yes, honour, civil societies.

Neither our governments (including even the elected ones), nor our religious institutions (including those which have survived centuries) nor our corporations (including those with the highest ranking of CSR and ESG) can, alone, change the dramatic junction of our collective human and planetary realities.

The late Wangari Mathai, a Kenyan woman environmental activist who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2004, demonstrated remarkable foresight when she highlighted the interconnectedness of our challenges, thus: “[I]n a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.”

We need to begin to investigate what it will take to identify, understand, and activate, a poetics of solidarity. The Oxford Reference explains that “poetics are the general principles of poetry or of literature in general, or the theoretical study of these principles. As a body of theory, poetics is concerned with the distinctive features of poetry (or literature as a whole), with its languages, forms, genres, and modes of composition.”

If we use the term ‘poetics’ to refer to solidarity, not merely as an aspect of literature and/or theory, but as lived realities, what are the “languages, forms, genres and modes of existence” that this would entail? In the following paragraphs, I do not propose definitive answers. I merely share some thoughts to engender and provoke each of us, to reflect – and to engage.

A poetics of solidarity needs to have as a premise of its existence, an understanding that working ‘alone’ to solve the problems which impact all – whether as a lone multifaceted institution, the United Nations, corporation(s), religion/religious or multi-religious entity, secular NGO or umbrellas of NGOs, judicial actor(s) or bodies, cultural agents or entities, financial or military behemoths, etc., is clearly not enough.

We have landed here in these very challenging spaces and times, even as so many have laboured for so long in almost all domains of human existence, and even after many movements of solidarity succeeded in overcoming and righting and fighting the good fight. Yet, here we are.

A poetics of solidarity needs to hold accountable all our ways of thinking and doing, so far. I am not implying, by any means, that we have all failed. Rather, we all stand on the shoulders of many who have given their lives to make this a better world for all. We must acknowledge that loud and clear and take responsibility for what many are doing, and have done, that contributes to our shared existence.

This alone would be unlike many leaders who take office and make a point of undermining, or worst still, undoing, all that was done before them or by their predecessors. Or those who hold offices and invest so much in decrying, complaining, unravelling, and withering critiques of those trying to work alongside. Or those who claim to be part of a team, but cannot and will not support one another when things get tough.

A poetics of solidary demands that we put our money, and other resources, including activating our so-called values – where our mouths are. It is not good enough to speak about human rights, and/or the glory of our respective faiths and/or “interfaith peacemaking”, or even building edifices to such ‘co-existence’, when we do not contribute to the efforts of those who fight for these rights.

It is hard to justify killing, maiming, criminalising, imprisoning and in other ways, silencing, those who ask for their rights, and struggle for the rights of others. It is also hard to justify those who pretend to fight for the rights of others, when the going is good, and are silent or notably absent, when the going is tough.

What if, rather than undermine, constantly critique, systematically oppose, complain, or even just remaining silent (and hide behind claims that the particular issue at hand is not their business or endeavour), when we see our fellow humans give – what if we praise, give thanks, reach out to share a kind word, and better still, ask how we can help…? What if we give of the ‘little’ we have? Don’t all our faiths say that? You think this sounds too simple?

Did Einstein not say at some point something like the only difference between stupidity and genius, is that genius has its limits, and that everything should be made as simple as possible – but not simpler? Kindness, praise, and giving of what we value, to those we would normally not (want to) see or deign to appreciate, giving to those who speak and work and live differently – but aim for the collective good, is not simple. It is genius. Working together with those who may bear a different institutional flag, rather than seeking to create or consolidate your own, is also genius.

A poetics of solidarity may require us to acknowledge that solidarity is fundamentally about how we relate to one another, with kindness, empathy and willingness to serve – in words and deeds. But it is also to humbly realise that even as some of us try our best to relate and to “support”, “empower”, “engender”, or “enable”, we may well end up hurting one another, and/or even damage parts of our environment that some of us, including future generations, will need, to just survive.

When it comes to the poetics of solidarity in the age of ‘holy wars’, we cannot afford to now see anything ‘religious’ as a saviour, or the only source of our interrelated salvation. Nor can we afford to ignore the religious realms altogether, thinking we know our welfare best, or keep the religious at bay. Instead, we need to take responsibility for the fact that our faiths – including our faith in human rights – demand us to be accountable for ourselves, one another, and our planet.

What we need is a poetics of solidarity which does no harm – but this may well mean sacrificing something dear to us. We have lived – and still do – in an age where we think it is possible to have it all. Perhaps we may just have to come to terms with the fact that we each, and all, need to let go of something valuable to us – and to give, in service, instead.

All our institutions, groups, communities and our individual selves, bear a responsibility. Our long-established religious institutions, faith-based and interfaith initiatives in their mushrooming multitudes, need to be held accountable to what we give of our most valuable, to those who are not religious, those who come from different religions or religious organisations, and especially, to those who uphold all human rights for all peoples at all times.

Secular rights’ bearers and duty holders too, need to take responsibility for how we marginalise even as we ‘advocate’, how we maim as we seek to ‘protect’, and how we silence as we vocalise the ‘like-minded’. We speak of alliances and partnerships, but we walk, and work, in silos, seeking our own profit(s).

A poetics of solidarity may well be about cultivating and deliberately working alongside those we dislike, and giving the best of what we have, and of whom we are.

Professor Azza Karam is President and CEO of Lead Integrity; an affiliate with the Ansari Institute of Religion and Global Affairs at Notre Dame University; and a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.

IPS UN Bureau

The post The Age of Holy War & Poetics of Solidarity – (Part 2) appeared first on Good News!.

By Azza Karam

NEW YORK, Jun 24 2024 (IPS) – “Holy War” is how the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church referred to the Russian war on the Ukraine, and indeed, on “the West”¹ . “Holy War”, aka “jihad” is a foundational principle of “the Base” or “al-Qaeda”, which has grown into a non-state hydra with too many names and atrocities to list here (but if you are curious, one of the hydra faces is ISIS).

In a recent opinion piece published in Foreign Policy, columnist Caroline de Gruyter noted that “Israel and Palestine Are Now in a Religious War”, in her attempt to argue why the Middle East conflict has been getting increasingly brutal, and increasingly hard to solve.

The intersection between holiness and war is even more nuanced in Zvi Bar’el’s Opinion piece in Haaretz, when he notes that “the war in Gaza is no longer about revenge for the murder of 1,200 Israelis or the hostages.

If they all die, along with hundreds of more soldiers, the price would still be justified for the Jewish Jihad waging a war for Gaza’s resettlement” [emphasis added]. Hamas’ own name –the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement) – needs no elaboration. Neither does Lebanon’s Hizbullah (Party of God).

In India, a report by the Indian Citizens and Lawyers Initiative (in April of 2023), entitled “Routes of Wrath: Weaponising Religious Processions”, notes

Indian history is rife with instances of religious processions that led to communal strife, riots, inexcusable violence, arson, destruction of property and the tragic deaths of innocent residents of the riot-hit areas. There have been horrific riots and bloodletting caused by other factors too, most prominently the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 and the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, but no cause of interfaith riots has been as recurrent and widespread as the religious procession. This is as true of pre-Independence India as during the 75 years since we became a free nation…Post-Independence, we have faced numerous communal riots in diverse parts of India, under different political regimes, and the vast majority of these have been caused by the deliberate choice of communally-sensitive routes by processionists, and the pusillanimity of the Police in dealing with such demands, or even their collusion and connivance in licencing such routes.²

Already back in August of 1988, in an article entitled “Holy War Against India”, explicitly speaks of “Sikh terrorism” in the Punjab, noting that it “took about a thousand lives in 1987 and more than a thousand in the first five months of 1988.

If it continues at the present rate, Sikh terrorism in the Punjab will have cost more lives in two years than the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland has cost in twenty.” ³ Speaking of Northern Ireland, the marching season remains a flashpoint among Catholics and Protestants.

Politicised religion, or religionised politics – whence religious discourse is part of political verbiage, tactics, expedient alliances, sometimes informing foreign policy priorities, occasionally used to justify conflict – are not new phenomena. In fact, they may well be one of the oldest features of politics, governance – and warmaking.

The Crusades against Muslim expansion in the 11th century were recognized as a “holy war” or a bellum sacrum, by later writers in the 17th century. The early modern wars against the Ottoman Empire were seen as a seamless continuation of this conflict by contemporaries. Religion and politics are the oldest bedfellows known to humankind.

What is relatively new, is that after the 100-year war in Europe, and the subsequent moves towards secularisation or the so-called ‘separation of Church and State’ (again, really only in parts of Europe), provided a false sense of the dominance of secular governance in modern times.

Yet, even in the citadels of secular Western Europe, a relationship binding Church and State always existed, for the religious institutions and their affiliated social structures, remain critical social service providers – and humanitarian actors – till today. A reality now understood to be relevant in all parts of our world.

Nevertheless, what we are seeing today is a resurgence of religious politics, and the politics of religion, in almost all corners of the world. Before the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed its “holy war” narrative, the reference to religion and politics almost always focused on Muslim-majority contexts, specifically on Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Other realities would often go unnoticed, or somehow deemed as ‘odd’ or one-time phenomena – for instance the fact that the 2016 US elections delivered a Trump administration with full and public backing by a significant part of the Evangelical movement (many of whom are backing a potential comeback of him now); or the fact that related Evangelical counterparts backed Bolsenaro’s rise to power in Brazil; or the fact that religious arguments against abortion remain a key US electoral feature for decades; or the fact that a number of right-leaning anti-immigrant political discourses and blatant white supremacist politics have religious backing in parts of Europe and Latin America.

Was it perhaps that since these took place in ‘white’ and Christian-majority polities, somehow set these aside from being factored as part of the global resurgence of religious politics?

Whatever the case may be, it is time to smell that particularly strong brew of coffee, now. And as we do so, we are also obliged to note that it is no coincidence that this ‘brew’ is taking place at a time of remarkable social and political polarisation in many societies.

Indeed. we speak of multiple and simultaneous crisis (e.g. climate change, catastrophic governance, wars, famines, rampant inequalities, soaring human displacement, nuclear fears, systemic racism, rising multiple violence, drug wars, proliferation of arms and weapons, misogyny, etc.) and we also acknowledge the wilting multilateral influence to confront these. But as we acknowledge these, we must also recognise that social cohesion is a lasting and tragic victim.

Some governmental, non-governmental and intergovernmental entities have turned to religion(s) as a possible panacea. Religious leaders are being convened in multiple capitals (at significant cost) in almost all corners of the world.

Regularly touting the peacefulness and the unparalleled supremacy of their respective moral standpoints. Religious NGOs are being sought out, supported and partnered with more regularly to help address multiple crisis – especially humanitarian, educational, public health, sanitation, and child-focused efforts.

Interfaith initiatives are competing among each other, and with other secular ones, for grants from governments and philanthropists in the United States, Europe, Africa, many parts of Asia (with the notable exception of China), and the Middle East. Engaging, or partnering with religious entities is the new normal.

But just as the largely secular efforts we lived through (and some of us served for decades) in the 1960s to the 1990s, did not realise a brave new world, religious ones, on their own, cannot do so either. Especially not with the kind of historical baggage and contemporary narratives of holy war, we are living with now.

It is time we re-consider, re-engage and re-envision a poetics of solidarity rooted an abiding adherence to (and re-education about) all human rights for all peoples at all times. What would that entail?

¹ https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/88aug/obrien.htm
² Connor O’Brian, https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/routes-of-wrath-report-2023-2-465217.pdf
³ Connor O’Brian, https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/routes-of-wrath-report-2023-2-465217.pdf

Part 2 follows.

Dr. Azza Karam is President and CEO of Lead Integrity; a Professor and Affiliate with the Ansari Institute of Religion and Global Affairs at Notre Dame University; and a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.

IPS UN Bureau

The post The Age of Holy War & Poetics of Solidarity – (Part 1) appeared first on Good News!.

#nyc #israel #israelparade #israel2024

The post NYC Israel Day Parade 2024 appeared first on Good News!.

Sing with Global Hatikvah Now!

Global Hatikvah is a virtual choral movement to unite the Jewish community and friends of Israel around the world through the unique power of music.

Participants—like you!—from around the world will submit videos of themselves singing “Hatikvah” in a show of solidarity and allyship.

Join the Global Choir for this Opportunity!

The post THE DEADLINE FOR GLOBAL HATIKVAH IS TOMORROW—DON’T WAIT TO SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO! appeared first on Good News!.

It’s easy

[Verse 3] (Love) There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
(Love) Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
(Love) There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easy

IMPORTANT GOOD NEWS PROGRAMMING NOTE:

Our company, Milestone Broadcast Corporation, MBC, is now reaching out to TV, Cable, Websites and APP Networks to share our Good News Content.  Wish us luck, as:

OUR CONTENT IS YOUR CONTENT

MBC is celebrating our 39th year as a Tech-Enabled Disruptive Multicultural Content, Products and Service Company.  We are proud of our past multicultural marketing efforts working with Citibank, American and Delta Airlines, Citibank, Sprint, US Postal Service, Western Union and major Ad Agencies.  Then our www.youtube.com/goodnewsbroadcast starting in 1998, also our www.goodnewsplanet.TV and our nonprofit 501 C 3 Corporation, Good News Corporation, est. 2002, with our www.pausetheworldforpeace.org outreach.

I, Paul, am celebrating my 54 years in the TV business. 14 years with CBS and PBS/Channel 13 TV, working on over 150 Network Shows including:  All in the Family, Carol Burnett, Sonny and Cher, Price is Right, Captain Kangaroo, Love of Life Soap, Sinatra on CBS and the Nature and Brain Series on PBS/Channel 13. Lucky me!

Please put a hold on our Times Square Events:  4/22/24 Earth Day TBD with Focus on Water and Climate Conditions and 9/21 International Day of Peace.

Lastly, HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR … WE ARE BLESSED, STAY WELL, HEALTH IS WEALTH.

“All we are is what we are with each other.”  Zeal

With Respect. Love and May Peace Prevail on Earth,   For Information Contact:

Reverend Paul Sladkus, All Faiths and Spiritual,

Founder, Good News Corporation 501 C 3 212 647 1212 paul.sladkus@goodnewsbroadcast.com and our Good News and Peace Worldwide Team who make our Peace Day 9/21 happen.

www.pausetheworldforpeace.org, www.goodnewsplanet.com, www.we.net (We the World, Rick Ulfic) www.unify.org

Social Networks:  www.Facebook.com/PaulSladkus, LinkedIn Paul Sladkus, Twitter Good News to Go, Instagram PausetheWorld 

LET’S GROW TOGETHER.  GOOD NEWS MOTTO:  ALL WE ARE IS WHAT WE ARE WITH EACH OTHER. ZEAL

For more information contact: 

Paul Sladkus 212 647 1212

New York, NY, Montauk, NY

PS – SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR FRIENDS AND MEMBERS:  Looking for a vacation rental, SHORT TERM, in Montauk, here is our listing https://goodnewsplanet.com/montauk-manor-rental-suite-403-paul-sladkus/ call me. Paul 917 687 1790

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#marriage #armymarriage #husbandwife #goodnews

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We speak to Shane Granot, Hostages Families Forum

It’s been 111 days and unfortunately, our work isn’t over.

*Over the past couple of months, we realized our community is seeking one platform that gathers everything together – as such, we have created our website: https://www.hostagesforumny.com/*

Here, you will find everything you need to know about the Families Forum and our Bring Them Home campaign in the New York area. You will learn of the actions you can take, how to donate, and learn about past and future events.

Please feel free to visit, subscribe and share with your friends and family, *until they are all home*
We have a fantastic group of volunteers behind it, and if you have experience with the Wix platform, graphic designing, or marketing writing skills, please feel free to contact me to join us.

Holy See: ‘Unimaginable suffering’ in Gaza must end

In a speech to the United Nations Security Council, the Holy See’s UN representative says “it is essential to avoid an entire population paying the consequences of a heinous act of terrorism.”

By Joseph Tulloch

Pope Francis feels “deep concern” over the war in Gaza, and is renewing his call for a ceasefire.

That was the message delivered by Archbishop Gabriele Gaccia, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

“Unimaginable” hardship in Gaza
The Archbishop underlined that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is of extreme gravity” and causing “unimaginable suffering”.
Stressing Pope Francis’ repeated condemnations of the 7th October terrorist attack in Israel, the Italian Archbishop said that is is “essential to avoid an entire population paying the consequences of a heinous act of terrorism.”

“Any action taken in self-defense must be guided by the principles of distinction and proportionality,” he said, “and comply with international humanitarian law.”

“It is deplorable,” Archbishop Caccia added, “that hospitals, schools and places of worship, all of which are a last resort for those fleeing the violence in Gaza, are being used for military purposes and consequently attacked.”

“Such military activity by all parties must cease and these sites must be guaranteed the protection accorded to them under international humanitarian law.”

A ceasefire, Archbishop Caccia said, “would allow space for dialogue, however difficult it may be, in order to secure the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza and to facilitate the distribution of much-needed humanitarian aid.”

The Italian Archbishop drew his speech to a close by noting that “every human being, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people or religion, is sacred, precious in the eyes of God, and has the right to live in peace.”

He reiterated the Holy See’s stance that the most viable method for achieving such peace remains the two-state solution, with an “internationally guaranteed special status for the City of Jerusalem.”

It is vital, Archbishop Caccia concluded, that the international community, “together with the leaders of the State of Palestine and the State of Israel”, pursue this solution with “renewed determination”, so that “humanity may prevail over hardness of heart.”

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-01/holy-see-united-nations-palestine-israel-gaza-ceasefire.html

#missingfamily #missingfamiliesforum #israelifamilies #israelifamily #gaza #freedom #shanegranot #hostages

The post MISSING FAMILIES FORUM ISRAELI FAMLIES HOSTAGES IN GAZA PLEA FOR FREEDOM – We speak to Shane Granot, a very smart and kind woman appeared first on Good News!.

#judges #angelatodd #sin #war # idolatry #judgement #seduction #oppression #death #joshua #caleb #samson #israel #othniel #ehud #deborah #gideon #abimelech #jephthah

The post JUDGES A TV Series interview making by Angela Todd. Sin, War, Judgement, Death and more yikes! Based on the Book of Judges. appeared first on Good News!.

The Quiet Feminism of Norman

Lear’s Middle-Aged Women

In loving memory of Robin

Williams and the America

Flag!!!

2.     The Universal Declaration of Rights says it all. Good News is featured in an event to celebrate the 75^th Anniversary of the Declaration this weekend. We were honored to be included and we interviewed Derren Luo, a young man with super brilliance and talent. 

A New Perspective on Human Rights Education Can Make a Great Future. Good News!

3.     Lastly, we share a Chanukah Lighting of a Menorah created from Bombshells sent into Israel by Hamas. Terrorism has no place in our world, either does a stabbing in a schools, shooting in a store, LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME. 

LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH

AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME.

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