religion

Footnote to the debate on Jewish racism - Moshe Machover

Moshe Machover intervenes briefly into the debate between Israel Shahak and Roberto Sussman on Jewish racism.

Reply to Israel Shahak - Roberto Sussman

A Marxist critique of Israel Shahak's The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews.

The rise of Islam: What did happen to women? - Azar Tabari

Iranian feminist Azar Tabari subjects to critical examination the widespread view that the rise of Islam improved the lot of Middle-Eastern women compared with their situation in pre-Islamic Arabia.

The Lebanese communities and their little wars - Magida Salman

A Shiite Muslim militiaman fires in skirmishes with Druse in Beirut, 1987.

Analysis by Lebanese activist Magida Salman on the political psychology of the different warring sects within Lebanon, and how, even before the Israeli invasion, the country's body politic had disintegrated massively, with distinctions between left and right being drowned in the blood of sectarian killings.

The essence of christianity - Ludwig Feuerbach

Ludwig Feuerbach's classic criticism of religion as an outward projection of humankind's own inner qualities.

Role of the Shi'i clergy in modern Iranian politics - Azar Tabari

Analysis of the political evolution of Iran's Shi'ite clergy from the late 19th century to their seizure of state power in the February 1979 revolution, looking specifically at how they were able to sustain themselves in politics for so long and why, in the latter half of the 1970s, they experienced a militant revival.

The Jewish religion and its attitude to non-Jews: Part 2 - Israel Shahak

The concluding half of Shahak's major critical study of the Jewish religion and how many of its themes have penetrated zionist ideology despite its outwardly secular appearance.

Religion, zionism and secularism - Ehud Ein-Gil

Ehud Ein-Gil, a socialist from the Israeli group Matzpen, discusses the rise of religious fundamentalism in Israel and how the struggle against it overlaps with the struggle against zionism.

Why the reversion to Islamic archaism? - Lafif Lakhdar

A historical analysis of the internal and external reasons for the development of Muslim fundamentalism - which Lakhdar calls 'Islamic integralism' - with special focus on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Khomeini in Iran. This article is possibly the first ever written in the English language on the topic of Muslim fundamentalism.