A CALL FOR UNDERSTANDING

"AS A PROUDLY VEILED MUSLIM WOMAN, I must respond to [the article in The Christian Science Monitor] 'Lifting the veil on women's subjugation' (Nov. 28, Homefront).

"I can only say that the West misunderstands Islamic veil wearing. With more research people might gain a better, and more objective, idea of why Muslim women wear their veils.

"I do it because I believe it is truly an order from the One who created me. He knows what is best for me so I follow Allah's (or as you say—God's) command.

"No one is opressing me. I feel free and protected wearing my veil. I do not abuse my body by showing its beauty to please others. I believe in serving my Creator from the bottom of my heart and in seeking only His pleasure; whether the West understands it or not.

"You have to understand—you cannot give me freedom by taking off my veil. Instead, by taking it off you would oppress me—you would be taking off my freedom."

Aynur Ciftci
London, England
"Why I wear a veil"
The Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2001

Study indicates that depth of religious beliefs impacts economic development

". . . A NEW PROJECT on religion, economy, and society, directed by Dr. Rachel M. McCleary at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, . . . has already generated some surprising findings about the relation of religion to economic and social variables. . . .

"One area of research covers the ways that church attendance and beliefs in God, an afterlife, heaven, and so on evolve as economies develop. . . .

"Future research plans emphasize the topic that excited the German social scientist Max Weber in his famous book on the Protestant ethic and capitalism: How does religion promote or deter economic development? Among the main religions, there is little relationship with economic performance—economic growth is about the same whether a nation is primarily Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist. However, there is some indication that the extent of religious beliefs, though not the amount of church attendance, bears a positive relationship to economic growth."

Robert J. Barro
"Is Prosperity Next to Godliness?"
Business Week
December 10, 2001
Reprinted with permission

CANDOR REQUIRED IN SECULAR/RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE

"I HAVE TRIED for many years to make religious people appreciate how indispensable the secular critics of religion are. Without them religions are tempted to pride, pomposity, and power-grabbing. The critics of religion are the allies of the prophets. No one was harder on the religious of their day than Amos and Jeremiah and Jesus. I have also tried to help serious nonreligious people understand why many other serious people are religious, and why faith may be . . . more than . . . a crutch for the weak-minded.

"Both sides now need to reconnoiter. We as religious thinkers must stop simply making nice about this age of ecumenism, interfaith dialogue and fuzzy feelings among priests, imams and rabbis. We need to take a step toward candor. In response to a secularized intelligentsia, at least in the West, we have tried too hard to put a positive face on religion. . . . We quote Isaiah, not Joel. We talk about Rabbi

Abraham Joshua Heschell, not Rabbi Meir Kahane. We favor St. Francis and his birds, not Torquemada and his racks. Alas, however, they are all part of the story. Telling just the children's version will no longer do. . . .

"Someday . . . the movements against which the United States coalition is fighting will fall. Maybe then it will become clear not only that we are not the Great Satan of the terrorists' rhetoric but that they are not the incarnation of evil pictured in ours. . . . Creating an alternative paradigm . . . will . . . require the best imagination of poets and artists, and the philosophical resources of religious and nonreligious thinkers alike."

Harvey Cox
"Religion and the War Against Evil"
The Nation
December 24, 2001
Reprinted with permission