–> By Miri – Origins and Way of Life The African Hebrew Israelite Community (AHIC), usually referred to as Black Hebrews, emerged in Chicago at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and formed part of the big array of Black pride political and cultural organisations. Like the Nation of Islam, the […]
By Miri – Druze Religion The Druze are a religious community which emerged around the 11th century from Ismailism, the second largest branch of Shia Islam. The main distinguishing factor from other branches of Islam is constituted in the Druze acceptance of the divinity of Hakim, the third Fatimid caliph of Egypt, which also forms […]
By Miri – Both Islamic feminism, as well as feminism in Muslim dominated societies are often considered oxymorons. In the eyes of many in the West, Islam and Muslim societies are synonymous with gender inequality and oppression. At the same time the need to “liberate the oppressed Muslim woman from her plight” has and continues […]
By Miri – Like most other religions, Judaism is not one static homogeneous belief system. Throughout its history, and throughout the various places that Jews took their beliefs, their practices and culture to, Judaism has changed and developed. From an analytic point of view it may be actually more appropriate to view Judaism as […]
By Miri – These days it is way more fashionable to emphasise the distinctions and the conflicts between Judaism and Islam, as well as between its respective followers. There are however way more similarities between the two religions and its communities than is acknowledged in these days of “clashes of civilisations”. Since both religions, their […]
By Miri – For a Middle Eastern country Israel is as Western as it gets and Tel Aviv is probably the queen of Westernness. And yet, for a person who sets her/his foot for the first time into this place, it can get quite confusing. Shimrit Elisar took it on herself to ease this experience […]
By Miri – As a matter of fact historic Palestine always also was the home of a Jewish community. Hebron is considered to be the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world and thus looks back at a long turbulent history, a history that extends into the present and raises crucial questions about the […]
By Miri Today, May 15th marks Nakba Day. Nakba means “catastrophe“ in Arabic and refers to 1) the events that took place during the war of 1947/1948, usually referred to by the Jewish-Israel discourse as the War of Independence, during which an estimated number of 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and/or fled from their homes and […]
