Being Muslim and Working for Peace explores various ways in which religious beliefs, ritual practices and dynamics of belonging impact the politics of Muslim peace activists in Gujarat, and traces how their activism in turn transforms their sense of being. It challenges popular notions about Muslims in India and questions ill-conceived research designs in the sociology of religion. More than a decade after the 2002 riots in Gujarat, this empirical typology sheds light on the diversity of Muslim civil society and Muslims in civil society. Muslim peace activists in post-conflict Gujarat experience the 'ambivalence of the sacred' as a personal dynamic; as faith-based actors, secular technocrats, emancipating women and doubting professionals, they struggle for a better future in diverse and sometimes surprising ways. By taking their diversity seriously, this book sharpens the distinction between ambivalence and ambiguity, and provides fresh perspectives on religion and politics in India today.

In this era of increased knowledge the essence of religious phenomena eludes the psychologists, sociologists, linguists, and other specialists because they do not study it as religious. According to Mircea Eliade, they miss the one irreducible element in religious phenomena--the element of the sacred. Eliade abundantly demonstrates universal religious experience and shows how humanity's effort to live within a sacred sphere has manifested itself in myriad cultures from ancient to modern times; how certain beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths have, with interesting variations, persisted.

This book makes use of in-depth interviews with the residents most active in shaping the racially diverse urban communities in which they live. As most of them are white and progressive, it provides a unique view into the particular ways that color-blind ideologies work among liberals, particularly those who encounter racial diversity regularly. It reveals not just the pervasiveness of color-blind ideology and coded race talk among these residents, but also the difficulty they encounter when they try to speak or work outside of the rubric of color-blindness. This is especially vivid in their concrete discussions of the neighborhoods' diversity and the choices they and their families make to live in and contribute to these communities. This close examination of how they wrestle with diversity in everyday life reveals the process whereby they unintentionally re-create a white habitus inside of these racially diverse communities, where despite their pro-diversity stance they still act upon and preserve comfort and privileges for whites. The book also provides a close examination of white racial identity, as the context of a diverse community provides both the catalyst and, significantly, the space for an examination of an unarticulated racial consciousness, which has implications for our study of whiteness more generally. The layers of ambivalence and pride surrounding the fact of diversity in these neighborhoods and residents' lives reveal both limitations and hope as the nation itself becomes more diverse. This critical and yet compassionate book extends our understanding of contemporary racial ideology and racial discourse, as well as our understanding of the complexities of whiteness.

This new edition of A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy has been extended significantly to include 55 chapters across two volumes written by some of today's most distinguished scholars. New contributors include some of today’s most distinguished scholars, among them Thomas Pogge, Charles Beitz, and Michael Doyle Provides in-depth coverage of contemporary philosophical debate in all major related disciplines, such as economics, history, law, political science, international relations and sociology Presents analysis of key political ideologies, including new chapters on Cosmopolitanism and Fundamentalism Includes detailed discussions of major concepts in political philosophy, including virtue, power, human rights, and just war

This textbook applies insight from the social sciences and history to a wide range of violence inspired by religious motivations.

Our world-planet is changing so fast! Amazons expanded its Robot Army from 1400 in 2013 to 45,000 in 2016. Climates changing faster than deniers denials. In the USA, 1 in 3 people are NONES in religious affiliation versus 1 in 10 thirty years ago. The Moores Law of computer chip speed says well be computing-connecting in 2025 64 times faster than 4 years ago. The New Age of Universal Quantum Computers will manifest patterns of data at depths of complexity that will transform humanity. Plans to colonize Mars are underway. Facebook plans to make our brains telepathic. Terrorism is daily. The deep personal touch of self with selves and selves with nature is vulnerable to confusion. Our spiritual world is under siege. Gateways and breakthroughs to demanding futures need new bridging-infrastructure-covenanting designs. AUGURIES promotes an (not the) ANSWeR to A NEW SPIRITUALITY WE ARE. It gardens depths of backyard covenanting with chip-digital cybernetics living next door. Transformative sciences are everywhere: chips for the bods and syncs for the bots. Book I of this Trilogy-ALTARPIECES, was a sound book of the primal-sound Ah to AHHH! to AUM and to Apokstrophes. Book II, SYMPATHIES, was an Aoide song and prayer2player book of things coming into themselves by belonging together and the enchoiring of sympathies. Book III, AUGURIES, tells ATALE of performance and palindromes: strategies of covenantal existence. Its big play is futuring humanitys global based spirituality. (Not as a religion!) This is known: we are on this planet, without a master-key to the mystery. There are patterns-forms-resonances that orientaugur --- us to be in the world as the humans we are. Auguries explores three primal laws of existence: Predation and Procreation (everywhere theres anything); the third is The Prosperoion -- our uniquely human-Eartharion play of consciousness and will-to-prosper-- which forms the CORE dynamic of Book III. This picture is the author as a Prospero of today. Staffs a walking-stick; robes a vest and hat: books an old volume of Shakespeare with some poems inserted: In times To Come(I), In The Shining(II);Guest With Me(G).] The bridge, as rainbow and skeleton, symbolizes the concept of covenantal infrastructure. Hes answering a call, from anywhere in the world, on his magical cell-phone. But the real magical incantation of The Prosperoion is: SHOALS of WONTSUNODI AROCKAKCORAShining Holds of Angelic Legacies--Wonders That Should Not Die--Augural Recrescendoes of Covenantal Kairos. The SHOWONAKARA! A very personal book. A Spirited Ride. Both hands on the wheel! And reins! And Mane! Auguries is about our holding-on midst Gallops of Gaia Gallimaufry (GAGA-GA). In the next WeR Generation of GENiUS we must keep our FREEDOM to dot our own i secure our own saddle. TIME TO MOUNT-UP -- THE SHOWONAKARION -- FROM AFIRADAPO