I recently read an article by Asra Q Nomani, a former Wall Street
Journal reporter and author of "Standing
Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam." She is an
American Muslim, born in India. From a young age, she broke the rules, like praying
close to the males during Ramadan prayers. An all-male tribunal tried to ban
her and scare her off. They demanded that she stop writing and criticizing the
way their faith was practiced. This has become more common in the past decade.
She explains that this is largely because of the rising power and influence of
the "ghairat brigade," an
honor corps that tries to silence debate on extremist ideology in order to
protect the image of Islam. Islam has
never gone through a religious reformation in 1500 years. I've always
maintained, that America is good for religion, it allows for debate, free
thinking and new interpretations. Read Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-portrait-of-courage-vision-of-hope.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
Comments
Post a Comment