Archbishop of Canterbury defends muslim veil - Faithwise Review of the Week

post updated 31 Oct., 2006

Archbishop of Canterbury defends muslim veil, Phil Hazlewood, Agence France-Presse, Published: Saturday, October 28, 2006 National Post

LONDON - The leader of the world's Anglicans yesterday waded into the debate over the Muslim veil, warning politicians not to interfere with people's right to wear visible symbols of their faith.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that to ban veils, turbans, crucifixes or other pieces of clothing would be "politically dangerous" and that the British government should not become a "licensing authority" for what people can wear.

Copyright row over ancient monk

The life and times of a 5th Century Cornish monk has sparked an unholy row over a manuscript in verse.
St Ke or Kea is reputed to have helped King Arthur solve a family dispute.

But a play about him written in medieval Cornish has sown discord between the National Library of Wales and the Cornish Language Board.

The library is still working on a translation of the verses kept in its vaults. But the board printed its own version, and says it is "selling well".

The copyright dispute centres on a previously unknown 16th Century manuscript bequeathed to the library in 2000 by the late Professor JE Caerwyn Williams, an expert in Celtic languages.

Bill Gates Watched Pirated Movies on Internet, By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor
The fact that even Bill Gates downloaded and consumed copyright materials is not necessarily a surprise. The quantity of such products distributed free of charge on the Internet can only be measured in terabytes, the peer-to-peer technology accounting for the largest part of the traffic of copyright materials that, in the BitTorrent world is in no way regarded as stealing or copyright infringement. Even Bill Gates proved how easy it is to access pirated products online.

Echoes of Sikh turban tizzy in recent niqab debate, Oct. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM, TORONTO STAR
Since when is covering women's faces feminism?

The atheist as fundamentalist,
Richard Dawkins on why religious faith tends to create more evil people than, say, Stalinism, TORONTO STAR, Oct. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM, OLIVIA WARD

Halal beats dosa in New York food fight, 29 Oct, 2006 ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ask a witch, Globe and Mail Update,

With Halloween nearly upon us, who better to answer reader questions than a real, live, 21st-century witch?

Meet Nicole Cooper, a Wiccan High Priestess who proudly embraces the name of witch.

Ms. Cooper practices her religion at the Wiccan Church of Canada and works at The Occult Shop in Toronto, so, as she says, "Magic is pretty much my life."

The Religion of Self, Submitted by BLG2319 on Sun, 10/29/2006 @ Faith Commons
The message of the Gospels seems to me to be constantly returning to this theme: those who set themselves up as arbiters of moral correctness, the men of the book, the Pharisees, are often the furthest from God. Rules can only go so far; love does the rest. And the rest is by far the most important part. Jesus of Nazareth constantly tells his fellow human beings to let go of law and let love happen: to let go of the pursuit of certainty, to let go of possessions, to let go of pride, to let go of reputation and ambition, to let go also of obsessing about laws and doctrines. This letting go is what the fundamentalist fears the most.

This is a passage from Andrew Sullivan's latest book "The Conservative Soul". It sums up for me nicely what I have come to believe. Letting go of self obsession is the only way to salvation. Full article

[pdf] Philipp Reichmuth & Stefan Werning's 'Pixel Pashas, Digital Djinns' ISIM Review 18 [source: Virtually Islamic, October 25, 2006]
"...covers a neglected area of study, namely the depiction of Islam and Muslims in computer and video games, and ideas associated with orientalism."

Humphrys in Search of God, 31 October 2006, Tuesday 31 October 2006 9:02-9:30 (Radio 4 FM) Repeated: Tuesday 31 October,
John Humphrys talks to religious leaders about his unfulfilled desire to believe in God. His guest is the Right Reverend Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Listen to an extended version of this interview, John Humphrys talks to Dr Rowan Williams
The next programme will be on: Tuesday 07 November 2006 09:00
John Humphrys talks to religious leaders about his unfulfilled desire to believe in God. 2/3. The guest is Professor Tariq Ramadan, Muslim academic and author.
The week after with a rabbi

DIWALI FUSION PARTY
--Models from Material Thangs styling group during the Diwali Fusion Festival at the 5th Elementt in Toronto Wednesday, October 25, 2006. Brent Foster/National Post

Afghan mother of 6 murdered in suspected California hate crime mourned, October 28, 2006 - 4:47 pm

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) - An Afghanistan-born mother of six who was gunned down in California while wearing traditional Muslim dress was mourned Saturday during an interfaith service to unite local residents rattled by what some called a hate crime.

Women in Islamic head coverings sat near Christians and Jews during the memorial to honour Alia Ansari, 38, who was fatally shot Oct. 19 as she walked to pick her children up from school.

Church leaders hoped the service at Centerville Presbyterian church would bring together people of different faiths in Fremont, a San Francisco Bay-area suburb of 200,000 that is home to the largest Afghan community in the United States and a neighbourhood called "Little Kabul."

"Our commitment is to say: 'How can we be better neighbours in the midst of a changing community?"' said Rev. Greg Roth, the church's pastor.

Court rules that cartoons not intended to make fun of Muslim community
DENMARK: Publishers of blasphemous cartoons acquitted, AsiaMedia, Dawn, Friday, October 27, 2006

Copenhagen --- A Danish court on Thursday acquitted the bosses of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper who had been sued by Muslim groups for printing 12 cartoons of the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) in September last year.

The judge at Aarhus district court ruled the cartoons were neither offensive nor were they intended to denigrate Muslims, according to court papers.

"Even if the text accompanying the pictures could be read as being derogatory and mocking, the cartoons are not offensive," the court said.

Denmark Sikh loses kirpan battle, Ramaninder K Bhatia [ 25 Oct, 2006 0130hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
CHANDIGARH: In a major blow to the Sikh community's efforts to get their distinct identity recognised abroad along with their religious symbols, a Sikh youth in Denmark on Tuesday lost his right to wear a kirpan (dagger), one of the five religious symbols that a baptised Sikh is required to wear.

Tower of power divides hamlet, Residents opposed to proposed cellular tower in churchyard, A service to the community, says parish priest, Oct. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM
JIM WILKES, Toronto Star, STAFF REPORTER

Corporate America swears by the Gita - Faithwise Review of the Week

Corporate America swears by the Gita Chidanand Rajghatta
[ 25 Oct, 2006 0307hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
WASHINGTON: Corporate America is embracing Indian philosophy in a big way.

Suddenly, says Businessweek magazine in its latest issue, phrases from ancient Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita are popping up in management tomes and on Web sites of consultants. Top business schools have introduced "self-mastery" classes that use Indian methods to help managers boost their leadership skills and find inner peace in lives dominated by work.

BW calls its "Karma Capitalism" -- a gentler, more empathetic ethos that resonates in the post-tech-bubble, post-Enron zeitgeist. And where it used to be hip in management circles to quote from the sixth century B.C. Chinese classic The Art of War, it says, the trendy ancient Eastern text today is the more introspective Bhagavad Gita. Full story

Sikh woman discriminated against in US, Thursday October 26 2006 23:12 IST

Christians back plans for Muslim community centre despite threats -29/09/06
Christian leaders in Cumbria are backing a plan for a Muslim Community centre and prayer room, despite threats against those who support it. @ Faith Commons

Detroit case dismissed over Muslim veil, Oct. 25, 2006 at 1:51PM, United Press International -- The Washington Times

Ghana: B/A Chief Imam Calls for Good Sanitation Among Muslim Communities, Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra),
October 25, 2006, Posted to the web October 25, 2006, Michael Boateng, Sunyani

Joking about with Allah, Thursday October 26, 2006, By Scott Kara, The New Zealand Herald

Islamic studies 'letting down' multicultural needs, Press Association, Wednesday October 25, 2006, Guardian Unlimited
The report, entitled Time for Change: Report on the Future of the Study of Islam and Muslims in Universities and Colleges in Multicultural Britain, was written by Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi and Malory Nye.
Prof El-Awaisi said: "The call for a new agenda is timely and necessary to prevent the misguided and narrow interpretation of Islam which is the source of so many problems in our multicultural society.
"It is only through multicultural education we can work to eliminate extremism and fundamentalism."
The report found most British non-Muslims do not "get" Islam and do not understand what makes Muslims "tick".

A small strip of cloth symbolizing Islamic separateness MARGARET WENTE , 24/10/06, Globe and Mail,
A decade ago, political scientist Robert Putnam described America 's waning social cohesion in the bestselling book Bowling Alone. Now he has turned his research to diversity and multiculturalism -- and his findings are sobering. Ethnic diversity, he has found, breeds mistrust. Communities where many ethnicities live together have lower amounts of trust between people than those that are more homogeneous. "In the presence of diversity, we hunker down," he writes. "The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined."
Mr. Putnam is quick to stress that trends aren't destiny, and there's plenty that can be done to make diversity work. But whether that diversity should include the veil is not an issue that will be settled soon. In Italy , which now has a million Muslims, Prime Minister Romano Prodi declared last week that in his opinion, women shouldn't wear veils that hide the face. Then a leading conservative politician named Daniela Santanchè weighed in, arguing that the veil is a symbol of female oppression and is not required by the Koran. A prominent imam lashed back, calling her an "infidel" and much else. Ms. Santanchè has now been offered police protection.

The two-faced Tipu Sultan M V Kamath, Free Press Journal, Sify.com, Wednesday, 25 October, 2006

Early in 1990, the BJP sought a court injunction to prevent the screening in India of a television serial entitled The Sword of Tipu Sultan. The serial was based on a novel written by Bhagwan S Gidwani. A case was made out that Tipu had not been secular as was generally believed and did not deserve to be an icon.

Once again, Tipu is in the news with Karnataka's Minister of Higher Education D H Shankaramurthy questioning Tipu's Kannada credentials, considering that he used Persian, and not Kannada as the language of administration. A fierce controversy has been raised. And the liberal, secular Hindu intellectuals have demanded the dismissal of Shankaramurthy, with the leader of the Janata Dal (Secular) H D Deve Gowda screaming that he would not allow the secularism of the JD (S) Karnataka government being polluted. full story

Read more hard-hitting columns
Karnataka MLC Prof B K Chandrashekar is reported to have said that Shankaramurthy need to know history. Indeed, everyone should, including Chandrashekar himself. One can recommend to him two excellent books, one written by Praxy Fernandes, a south Kanara Roman Catholic (and a former IAS officer, 1947 cadre) entitled The Tigers of Mysore and another written by Australian scholar Kate Brittlebank entitled Tipu Sultan's Search For Legitimacy, with the sub-title ‘Islam and Kingship in a Hindu Domain.’ Both are brilliantly researched and are as objective as one can expect. Both give high marks to Tipu for his religious tolerance, for his respect for all religions, for his reverence to the head of the Shringeri mutt, recounting how Tipu sent a silver palanquin and a pair of silver chauris to the Sarada temple.

This must be compared to reports in the Mysore Archaeological Survey quoted by Brittlebank that at least three Hindu temples within his realm had been destroyed by Tipu: the Harihareshwar temple at Harihar which was "apparently plundered and part of it converted into a mosque," the Varahswami temple in Seringapatam and the Odakaraya temple in Hospet "said to have been destroyed". Does that mean that Tipu was a Muslim fanatic? Hardly.

see also: Tipu Sultan Portal

God, sex and the call centres

News Updated: Oct 26, 2006
Are BPOs 'dens of sin'? Chandna Arora [ 26 Oct, 2006 0305hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

Pastors going undercover to ‘save the souls’ in BPOs, call centres being termed as ‘dens of sin’... why are BPOs stuck with this undeserved negative profiling?

Blame it on graveyard shifts or people barely out of their teens earning handsomely, but the negative branding of call centres, recently termed as 'dens of sin' in an international publication, refuses to go away.

And lately, when a pastor revealed that he went 'undercover' in a Bangalore BPO to save youngsters' morals, the situation just got worse.

Reviled for everything from casual sex, drug addiction and wild partying, the sector has been living with negative branding for long.

DT explores how the sector, which is minting billions for India and giving jobs to lakhs of youngsters, is stuck with this profile...

The Times of India Online
India God, sex and the BPOs
Manu Joseph, [ 23 Oct, 2006 0058hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

BANGALORE: Across the country, good Christians are consoled by the belief that Jesus Christ is present in the call centres, and are disturbed by the fear that he might be the only unmarried virgin out there. U

(U)nable to bear the tales emerging from Indian outsourcing's famous night shift, of condoms clogging toilets, live-in relationships, drugs and other joys condemned in the Old Testament, men who call themselves shepherds are offering to show one road that everybody points to the young the right path.

Christian evangelical groups are asking the youth to carry chastity cards that say, "I commit before god to save the gift of my sexuality from now until marriage, regardless of my past." Catholic priests are cautioning parents about the moral perils of the profession.

Spiritual counsellors are seeking out lovers and asking them not to get physical. And they are also telling homosexuals that they must be mentally ill. Scores of evangelical Christians have even infiltrated call centres in the guise of regular workers to keep an eye on the youth.

In a country where parents believe that their daughters can be despoiled only after sunset, it was inevitable that the arrival of nocturnal call centres would bring in fears of wards gone astray.

The Christian concern is birthed in the fact that a growing number of its youth is entering call centres. The Indian outsourcing industry, where call centres occupy the lower rungs today, employs about 400,000, with an average starting salary of over Rs 10,000. Full Story click here

See also

India's call centers 'dens of vice' (5)

My previous post on the Call Centre (s) Culture in-making

Technocrati Tags
Call centre

More Technocrati stuff

Religious discrimination - rant of the day

Religious descrimintation is valuing a person or group lower because of their faith, or treating someone differently because of what they believe source: Editor's Choice, The world's top websites

See also: Discrimination

To discriminate is to make a distinction. There are several meanings of the word, including statistical discrimination, or the actions of a circuit called a discriminator. This article addresses the most common meaning of the word, social, racial, religious, sexual and ethnic discrimination.

on the same shelf:

Race, Religion and Other Perilous Ground, ARTHUR S. BRISBANE, New York Times

Diversity Resources - Accommodation, Tolerance and Coexistence

Jews and Muslims challenge Geneva cemetery law with calls for own burial spaces - Faithwise Review of the Week

This post updated Oct 19, 2006

Jews and Muslims challenge Geneva cemetery law with calls for own burial spaces The Associated Press, October 11, 2006

GENEVA A cemetery law that has kept the peace between Protestants and Catholics for 130 years is being challenged by Muslims and Jews who want their own space for graves, apart from public burial grounds.

Geneva, shaped as a "Protestant Rome" by religious reformer Jean Calvin in the 16th century, has in recent decades sought to foster religious harmony.

The Swiss city has practiced a strict secularism that extends to the grave, requiring that all cemeteries be public and nondenominational, with equal plots aligned the same way.

But the city's Jewish and Muslim communities want separate cemeteries that would allow them to bury their dead according their religions' rites, and a proposed law is up for approval by the cantonal (state) parliament Thursday.

"We (Jews and Muslims) both need a place where we can bury our dead according to our rituals," said Hafid Ouardiri, spokesman of the Foundation for Islamic Culture in Geneva

The Way Internet Links Muslims During Ramadan, Andy Goldberg, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Arab News,

SAN FRANCISCO, 18 October 2006 — In the real world Sheikh Mohamed Al-Moktar Al-Shinqiti presides over a small Muslim community in Lubbock, Texas. But in the online world he ministers to millions of believers all around the globe who ask for spiritual and legal guidance on the popular religious site Islamonline.com.

Salman Rushdie: His life, his work and his religion Independent News, 18 October 2006

If this onslaught was about Jews, I would be looking for my passport
Politicians and media have turned a debate about integration into an ugly drumbeat of hysteria against British Muslims, Jonathan Freedland, October 18, 2006, The Guardian

But Muslims would be right to reply that they should be under no more obligation to distance themselves from the 7/7 bombers than Britain's Irish community were expected to denounce the IRA in the 1970s and 1980s. And this, too, is a prime task for politicians and media alike - to distinguish between radical, violent Islamism and mainstream British Islam. Too often, the line between the two gets blurred, lazily and casually. Helpfully, the 1990 Trust yesterday published a survey which deserves wide dissemination. They found that the number of Muslims who believed acts of terrorism against civilians in the UK were justified was between 1% and 2%. Not good, but less than the 20% or higher found by some newspaper polls. The trust reckons those earlier polls asked a loaded question - and got a highly charged answer.

Cartoon Mohammed: A Jewish Perspective, Rabbi Daniel Brenner's blog

Our challenge today, In America and around the world, is to find the right balance between traditional religious values and a society which affords us freedom of expression. Continue reading @ Faith Commons

Ontario to push character education, Oct. 16, 2006. CANADIAN PRESS, Toronto Star
Classrooms will become more civilized, and students will be better behaved and get higher grades under the province’s plan to introduce character education across Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday.

Our skewed priorities
It's obscene to hound powerless Muslim women while Muslim world is under siege, says Haroon Siddiqui, Oct. 15, 2006. HAROON SIDDIQUI, Toronto Star

A British commentator, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, wrote that niqabi women are "just as much the victim of sexual objectification as a half-naked woman in a tube top." By this formulation, the state would be kept busy covering up the "half-naked" women and uncovering the niqabis.
Just because a majority of Jews do not wear the yarmulke does not negate the fundamental rights of those who do.

That some Sikhs shave off their beards and cut their hair does not mean that the majority who keep a beard and wear the turban can be ordered to do otherwise.

Just because a majority of Jews do not wear the yarmulke does not negate the fundamental rights of those who do.

That some Sikhs shave off their beards and cut their hair does not mean that the majority who keep a beard and wear the turban can be ordered to do otherwise.

Veil furor hides an arrogant bias, Oct. 19, 2006. HAROON SIDDIQUI, Toronto Star

Diwali should be called national festival of bribes: Bhatti, newindpress.com October 20 2006

CHANDIGARH: Comedian Jaspal Bhatti has come out with a new joke on Diwali. He set up a 'Bribery Gift Shop' in the city on Friday and even demanded that the festival of lights be declared the national festival of bribes.

"This is the best day in the year when bribe-seeking ministers, politicians, bureaucrats and officials unashamedly seek bribes in the form of Diwali gifts," he said.

British Airways worker sues over cross
Woman says she was sent home from work for wearing crucifix, MSNBC.com, Oct 14, 2006

LONDON - A British Airways employee was suspended from work for refusing to remove a necklace bearing a Christian cross, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker at Heathrow Airport, told the Daily Mail she was suing the airline for religious discrimination after being sent home for breaching BA’s dress code.

“British Airways permits Muslims to wear a headscarf, Sikhs to wear a turban and other faiths religious apparel. Only Christians are forbidden to express their faith,” Eweida was quoted as saying.

Where Have All The Peaceful Religions Gone? WorldNews.com,Thu 19 Oct 2006

Values and beliefs - rant of the day

"Religious values motivate love, compassion, humility, justice and liberty for all people;
religious beliefs and practices motivate hatred, cruelty, division, arrogance, injustice and oppression of others."

Reverend Kenneth Carder, United Methodist Bishop, State of Mississippi
Currently director of Duke University Divinity School’s Center of Excellence in Ministry

For more Google

Overseas Indians turn to Web for festival prayers

Overseas Indians turn to Web for festival prayers, Wed Oct 4, 2006 8:30 AM IST
By Onkar Pandey

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thousands of Indians living abroad are logging on to religious Web sites in the run-up to the main Hindu festival of Diwali, courtesy of a stream of portals offering services like online praying and blessings.

Oct. 20 marks the beginning of the three-day Hindu festival of light, and some of the millions of Indians living in countries like Britain, the United States and Canada are joining in the celebrations back home electronically...

"(The number) of people registering online for puja (prayer) during this festival season has surged almost three to four times from the normal days," said Mervyn Jose of Saranam, an India-based site (www.saranam.com).

Around 60 percent of Saranam's clients are living overseas, the majority of whom are Indian IT professionals in their thirties, who are too busy or too distant to get to a temple.

"It is technology which is enabling us to reach the Gods at the click of a mouse," says Jose, himself a former engineer. Full news story See another source: Clicking for Kali

PUNCHLINE:
My book CYBER WORSHIP IN MULTIFAITH PERSPECTIVE, is precisely the same subject: hundreds of resources dealing with Websites, surveys, trend reports, state-of-the-art of the worship, and what have you on the Internet, for many faiths around the globe. For more details click here

Women in Religion in the 21st Century - Faithwise Review of the Week

Conference on Women in Religion in the 21st Century
Commemorating, Celebrating, and Continuing Their Legacy
Tuesday, 10/17/06 – Thursday, 10/19/06

And, a concern about the overall outlook of this conference:

Why doesn't 'Interfaith' include Goddess?, Judith Laura @ Medusa Coils
Though I’m going to point the finger at one organization in particular in this post, let me be clear that this is not the only organization to claim it’s holding an interfaith, inter-religious, or ecumenical gathering while failing to include Goddess speakers. This situation has occurred before, and, unless we speak up clearly and continually, is likely to keep on happening. Often these situations occur with groups that project the image of being progressive and open-minded by including people from a variety of religions.

Technocrati Tags [courtesy, Medusa] :
life news spiritual
feminism Goddess
women and
religion feminism interfaith conferences feminist progressive

Mabrouk to the Times, 11 October 2006, The Revealer © 2005

Bridget Purcell: Mabrouk to the New York Times, which ran two pieces yesterday providing a rare glimpse of an apolitical Islam. The first, an international Quran recitation competition in Dubai drew 80 young men from around the world —- some as young as 10 years old —- to recite the Quran from memory. And in Brooklyn, an artist named Michael Rakowitz opened a shop selling dates, an indigenous Iraqi crop. Part business venture, part art installation, the shop's walls feature Iraqi flags and histories of the Iraqi date industry written in both English and Arabic. Continue reading

As Eye See It : 'We know what 'listening' means in the modern Anglican lexicon - by Andrew Carey, Posted by David Virtue on 2006/10/5

Defusing the clash of civilizations, Former mayor Bennett builds bridges between Islam and the West, By John Colson, October 7, 2006, Aspen Times Weekly

Bringing new readers to sacred Arabic text: Man's life work creates a new simplified alphabet to help reveal
Qur'an to Muslims, Toronto Star, Oct. 11, 2006. STUART LAIDLAW, FAITH AND ETHICS REPORTER

Black lettering is used for letters pronounced on their own — such as the P in Shop — and green for letters whose pronunciation is influenced by the letters that follow — such as the S in Shop. Silent letters are white with a black outline.

Along the way, Khairulbashar developed a website, instructional CDs and workbooks for students and teachers to help pass along his work.

The entire Qur'an is available on CD and can be downloaded for free from his website, http://www.easyrecitearabic.org, though donations are accepted.

Muslim girl tops Sanskrit PG exam - Faithwise Review of the Week

Muslim girl tops Sanskrit PG exam, The Times of India> India> Article

NAVAIKULAM: At a time when inspiring lyrics like Vande Mataram are branded communal, a Muslim girl who opted for Sanskrit has topped the Kerala University MA (Sanskrit) exam in 2006.

Shajeena S notched up 79% and is the first Muslim topper in the university's history.

Middle East Coexistence House fosters Jewish-Muslim understanding by Patricia Lamiell, # Rutgers Focus

LEARNING THROUGH LIVING Eleven female students, including five Jewish, three Muslim, one Hindu, one Christian, and a student who is agnostic, will live and study together this year in new Middle East Coexistence House. At left is Danielle Josephs, a Douglass senior, with Nadia Sheikh, both of whom live in the house, part of the Global Village of living-learning communities at Douglass. Josephs envisioned the house and proposed the idea to Carmen Twillie Ambar, dean of Douglass College. Full Story

Muslim Lawmaker Assimilated and Berated

Denmark's Naser Khader is praised by secular Europeans as a voice for moderation and unity. Islamists consider him a traitor.
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Times Staff Writer, October 8, 2006

The RUSTing of TRUST

Just been reading an article on Trust in HBR (This month’s – September 06 - Issue). Written by Robert Hurly and entitled ‘The decision to trust’.

The author says trust is more often than not the result of analysis and not blind faith or paranoia. He says there are ten factors that determine whether one resorts to trust or distrust in their dealings; 3 of which are related to one’s own personality and the remaining 7 to the situation one is in.

The three personality related factors are: (statements in parenthesis reflect my interpretation)

- Risk-tolerance (are you ready to take a risk and trust someone?)
- Level of adjustment (how much adjusted are you with life? do you believe no one can cheat you?)
- Relative power (how much can you ‘get back’ at the person if he cheats?)

KM thought-leaders have for long screamed from roof-tops about trust being one of the most essential ingredients for it (KM) to be a success in any organisation. But how much of it can be influenced by the KM function/initiative? It is clear that trust is too fundamental, person-based and situation-based for KM to play the role of an influencer. Underlying enablers like communication, capability, risk-tolerance etc can be worked upon with adequate top management support but most of the factors on the list are out of control and hugely associated with the individual’s character and attitude. Knowledge sharing is truly effective only in teams where all the above barriers are crossed….and the situation based factors are difficult if not impossible to handle. Extending this topic a little further…into a slightly different direction, this is a selling point for K-Logs. continue reading posted by Nimmy @

See also my previous post on Knowledge Management and the tacit, tangible and cultural knowledge

Vertical and tacit: Multifaith and Knowledge Management in Perspective

NATIONAL MUSLIM CHRISTIAN LIAISON COMMITTEE AWARDS

(From left: Paul, Raheel ) See all 23 pictures, NMCLC Recognition Dinner 2006-09-19

At the September 19 Annual Recognition Dinner, two outstanding members of the Toronto interfaith community received awards in recognition of their tireless work toward understanding between Muslims and Christians, and all other faiths:

Raheel Raza is a writer, speaker, media personality, faith leader and interfaith activist. In her book “Their Jihad, Not My Jihad” made up of many of her Toronto Star articles and other writings, she explains Progressive Islam, and pleads for tolerance among races, ethnic groups and faiths, and for the equal treatment of women in all walks of life.

Paul McKenna has been a full time interfaith worker for many years and is the Coordinator of the Interfaith Desk of Scarboro Missions in Toronto . He organizes many interfaith events, Golden Rule workshops and high school interfaith retreat days. He is the creator of The Golden Rule Poster which is having a profound effect in schools, hospitals, jails, etc. around the world, and is permanently displayed at the United Nations.

Read more at

the Golden Rule Radical Blog

The Interfaith Unity Newsletter

Scarboro Missions, NEWS HEADLINES, October 2006

National Muslim Christian Liaison Committee

Hindu prisoners observe Ramzan fast in Bihar - Faithwise Review of the Week

Hindu prisoners observe Ramzan fast in Bihar Monday, 02 October , 2006, 19:05 Copyright Sify Ltd,

Bhagalpur: Setting a perfect example of communal harmony, 23 Hindu prisoners, four of them women, of Bhagalpur Central Jail are observing the Ramzan fast along with Muslim inmates, jail sources said on Monday.

A total of 303 inmates are observing the Ramzan fast in the high-security Bhagalpur Central Jail, jail superintendent P K Jha said.

Special food arrangements have been made for prisoners on fast, he said, adding that the gesture by Hindu prisoners should set an example to others who want to divide society on communal lines, Jha said.

All Tithed Up in Knots, Faith Commons
Found an interesting article, A New Era of Tithing, at Get Religion.org about a new trend in church solicitation: http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1923To recap, apparently there is at least one church that is using ATM style machines in their sanctuary to help capture the congregation’s tithing. Problem is, the pastor is alleged to be taking a tithe or [...]

Muslims want to know more on Pope's view of Islam