By Aly Kamadia, Editor-In-Chief, iDose
People living in Western countries can be forgiven for believing that organized religion, in general, continues to have a weakening influence within their societies. With few exceptions (the US is often cited as an example), religious power in the West has suffered from a significant decline for decades, if not centuries.
But this hardly translates into a Western world populated by the sort of secular utopias that liberalisms most staunch believers advocate for. (The term “liberalism” is used here philosophically, and not to refer to any political party.)
An excellent example of where we are witnessing certain monotheistic religious beliefs drive politics, and indeed conflict according to Shlomo Ben-Ami, is with the horrific bloodshed splashing out of Gaza.
Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign Minister and scholar, describes Gaza as a place where tragedy is being fueled by the “messianic hallucinations of Israel, Hamas, and American Christian evangelicals alike”.
Even if one might disagree with Ben-Ami on this point, his views are worth grappling with, and thus this week, iDose features an article by him.
On a separate note, in an iDose Magazine newsletter that I posted last week, I posed the question of whether Ismailism (a branch of Shia Islam) was facing rapid decline in the Western countries of Canada, the US and the UK.
While I will comment on that question in due course, I wanted to send a special thank you to all of those who have sent me their comments.
And I want to remind readers that they are more than welcome to send me their comments on anything having to do with iDose Magazine, including their broad views on religion, or more specifically, their views on Ismailism (e.g., their views on the question of Ismailism that’s being raised).
Aly Kamadia
Editor-In-Chief, iDose
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