Thursday, January 29, 2009

Karen Armstrong: The Role of Religion in the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Karen Armstrong's talk at the Capitol in Washington, DC with a 20-minute or so Q&A period is being distributed by the Council for the National Interest Foundation.

The talk is basically a summary of positions she has laid out in her book The Battle for God. Her prime contention is that intra-religious battles about how to react to modernity result in social identities which, in situations of stress and political conflict, emerge into fundamentalist political movements.

She takes a little more time to deal with Christian fundamentalists, but she address Jews and Muslims as well.

This talk is a great way to address people who say things like "Those people are always fighting" or "God said there would always be war" or "God says we must do such and such (politically)."

The program is 78 minutes long.

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