religion
Religion In Brief Pope supports opposition towards American nuns VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis supports the Holy See’s crackdown on the largest umbrella group of U.S. nuns, dimming hopes that a Jesuit pope whose emphasis on the poor mirrored the nuns’ own social outreach would take a different approach than his predecessor. The Vatican last year imposed an overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious after determining the sisters took positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” Investigators praised the nuns’ humanitarian work, but accused them of ignoring critical issues, including fighting abortion. The Vatican crackdown unleashed a wave of popular support for the sisters, including parish vigils, protests outside the Vatican’s embassy in Washington, D.C. and a U.S. Congressional resolution commending the sisters for their service to the country.
Brotherhood reviles Boston bombings
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FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2013
Loyola members teach about Islam By KARL GOMMEL Staff Writer The Loyola Society for Civil Engagement held a panel on Islamaphobia in an effort to improve understanding of Islam through increased dialogue. Molly Wagner, president of the LSCE, moderated the panel. Adil Khan, associate professor of Islamic Studies, and Biology sophomore Hiba El Assar served as featured panelists. Audience members offered questions about Islam or Islamaphobia to the panelists to move discussion along. Topics varied from being a Muslim on Loyola’s campus to the effects of post-colonialism on global perceptions of Islam. Wagner felt that the questionand-answer format allowed for a wide range of topics to be touched upon. “Everything that I wanted to
cover personally was covered in the panel but in a much more eloquent way than I ever could have. I think it’s more in keeping with the peace conference in there not being such a hierarchical approach to education,” Wagner said. The panel was part of the weeklong Student Peace Conference, which took place April 8-12. The conference held events focusing on contemporary social, political and religious issues. English literature sophomore Simon Whedbee attended the Islamaphobia panel, and is in his second year of working as an organizer for the conference. Whedbee said that the conference aims to promote an academic dialogue about peace issues. “The idea of getting a bunch of students from different backgrounds, a bunch of members of the New Orleans community
and a bunch of different professors together to talk about various issues from various perspectives, I think that’s kind of the essence of what peace is,” Whedbee said. Khan provided his take on the idea of Islamic culture at the panel. He stressed that Islam varies across borders with each country’s own cultural values. “There is diversity in the Muslim world. These countries each have their own cultural backgrounds. There is a mosque here in New Orleans dominated by black people. The culture at the mosque is 100 percent American. So, no, I don’t believe in the notion of Islamic culture,” Khan said. El Assar was asked to provide her definition of the core of the Islamic faith. She responded with a message of strength in focusing on the important things in life, “I think the biggest thing that is instilled in us is that this world is ephemeral, that we’re working
towards the hereafter. And there’s so many temptations in this world, and it’s easy to fall into those temptations, but we have to remain strong and come above that,” El Assar said. Whedbee was pleased with the interaction at the panel, citing the ongoing discussion as a sign of success. “I think you can judge how well a panel is based on the questions afterwards, which is why I think this particular setting was really interesting because it was all questions. I think the fact that it was able to go on for 4550 minutes based purely on the interest of the people who came here, I think that’s a testament to the fact that this kind of stage works,” Whedbee said. Karl Gommel can be reached at kagommel@loyno.edu
Racial Equality vs Imprisonment
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has condemned the Boston Marathon bombings, saying that Islamic law, or Shariah, does not condone violence against civilians. A Tuesday, April 16, statement from the Islamist group’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, expressed “condolences to the American people and to the families of victims, with hopes for a quick recovery of those injured.” The party also said that Islamic law “firmly rejects assaults on civilians and doesn’t accept any means of terrorizing people, regardless of their religion, color or gender.” “The sinful assaults in Boston ascertain the necessity of solidarity of the international community in efforts to achieve justice and well-being for all nations and communities, and to ensure that these crimes don’t take place again,” the statement read. BURKE BISCHOFF/THE MAROON
Women arrested for doing men’s ritual JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police on Thursday, April 11, detained five women at a Jerusalem holy site for performing religious rituals that ultraOrthodox Jews say are reserved for men. The detentions came just a day after an Israeli organization proposed a compromise to diffuse tensions over the issue of women’s worship at the Western Wall. The proposal, which still has to be approved by the government, envisions establishing a new section at the site where men and women can pray together. About 120 women arrived Thursday morning for their monthly prayer service and police detained five for wearing prayer shawls, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He said they were later released without charge.
Assistant religious studies Professor at Marywood Laurie Cassidy, Assistant Professor for the Jesuit Social Research Institute Alex Mikulich and Assistant theology Professor at the University of Notre Dame discuss their inspiration for writing their book, “The Scandal of White Complicity and U.S. Hyper-incarceration: A Nonviolent Spirituality of White Resistance” on April 10. Their book talks about how too many people of color are being put in jail and how most white Americans are letting that fact affect their perception of those people.
Authors studied incarceration and spirituality By MARY GRACI Editorial Assistant Personal and spiritual expirences have influenced three authors in writing their book, which talked about the relationship between white supremacy and the incarceration of colored people. Authors Alex Mikulich, assistant professor for the Jesuit Social Research Institute, Laurie Cassidy, assistant religious studies professor at Marywood University and Margaret Pfeil, assistant theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, presented their book “The Scandal of White Complicity and U.S. Hyper-incarceration: A Nonviolent Spirituality of White Resistance” on Wednesday,
April 10, in Millar 114. The Jesuit Social Research Institute, Gillis Long Poverty Law Center, and Department of Sociology sponsored the discussion, which went over the relationship between white people and the uneven incarceration of minorities. Mikulich, Pfell and Cassidy organized this discussion panel in parallel to the construction of the book. Mikulich began the discussion by talking about structure, defining exactly what the authors mean by “hyperincarceration,” which is the over incarceration of a certain group of people, and “white complicity,” which is interchangeable with white supremacy. “One of the great benefits of working on this book is that it’s really three books in one,” Mikulich said. “From a Catholic
perspective, it’s very Trinitarian because we have three co-authors who have been in conversation with each other, interrelating questions of structure, culture and spirituality.” Pfell, as did the other speakers, spoke about her experience and how it led to a self-realization that they needed to spread awareness of the current state of white privilege, especially in terms of incarceration. “What I’m finding in my research is that, that picture in your head of the dangerous black man goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, that we needed that idea of the dangerous black man in order to do what we did with slavery and again right now with incarceration,” Pfell said. The discussion ended with Cassidy’s take on the spirituality
concerns surrounding this issue. Cassidy brought the issue back in relevance to Loyola’s Jesuit ideals when she spoke on spirituality and the role it plays in this issue of hyper-incarceration of minorities. Many sociology students, like sociology freshman Sammy Ybarzabal, attended the panel discussion to relate the topic back to themselves and their class. “Because we live in New Orleans and there’s a lot of crime, I feel like we need to have this talk,” Ybarzabal said. “Even when people walk in the streets, there’s this sense of fear when they’re around people of color in the city. Why are we like that?” Mary Graci can be reached at megraci@loyno.edu