{"id":94,"date":"2007-10-16T07:54:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T07:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html"},"modified":"2007-10-16T07:54:58","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T07:54:58","slug":"dont-blame-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Blame Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Karen Armstrong recently sat down for an interview with Islamica Magazine and was asked about the perpetual threats that we&#8217;re in a &#8220;clash of civilizations.&#8221;  Here was her answer.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the world, and the powerless are beginning to challenge the hegemony of the Great Powers, declaring their independence of them-often using religious language to do so. A lot of what we call &#8220;fundamentalism&#8221; can often be seen as a religious form of nationalism, an assertion of identity. The old 19th-century European nationalist ideal has become tarnished and has always been foreign to the Middle East. In the Muslim world people are redefining themselves according to their religion in an attempt to return to their roots after the great colonialist disruption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To read the entire, provocative interview, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islamicamagazine.com\/Issue-20\/Divisions-in-our-world-are-not-the-result-of-religion.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karen Armstrong recently sat down for an interview with Islamica Magazine and was asked about the perpetual threats that we&#8217;re in a &#8220;clash of civilizations.&#8221; Here was her answer. The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interfaith-relations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Blame Religion - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don&#039;t Blame Religion - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Karen Armstrong recently sat down for an interview with Islamica Magazine and was asked about the perpetual threats that we&#8217;re in a &#8220;clash of civilizations.&#8221; Here was her answer. The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-16T07:54:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bfeiler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don't Blame Religion - Feiler Faster","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don't Blame Religion - Feiler Faster","og_description":"Karen Armstrong recently sat down for an interview with Islamica Magazine and was asked about the perpetual threats that we&#8217;re in a &#8220;clash of civilizations.&#8221; Here was her answer. The divisions in our world are not the result of religion or of culture, but are politically based. There is an imbalance of power in the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html","og_site_name":"Feiler Faster","article_published_time":"2007-10-16T07:54:58+00:00","author":"bfeiler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html","name":"Don't Blame Religion - Feiler Faster","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-10-16T07:54:58+00:00","dateModified":"2007-10-16T07:54:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/cd560df5c2f027ddc9a594e3313de1d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/10\/dont-blame-religion.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don&#8217;t Blame Religion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/","name":"Feiler Faster","description":"The Blog of Bestselling Author and Commentator Bruce Feiler","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/cd560df5c2f027ddc9a594e3313de1d8","name":"bfeiler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ce3\/ce3529dc7e8bc71c31414750eb2dfd45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ce3\/ce3529dc7e8bc71c31414750eb2dfd45x96.jpg","caption":"bfeiler"},"description":"Bruce Feiler is one of America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most popular voices on faith, family, and finding meaning in everyday life. He is the best-selling author of nine books, including Walking the Bible, Abraham, and America's Prophet, and one of only a handful of writers to have four consecutive New York Times nonfiction bestsellers in the last decade. He is also the writer\/presenter of the PBS miniseries WALKING THE BIBLE. His latest book, The Council of Dads, tells the uplifting story of how friendship and community can help one survive life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest challenge. 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