February 12, 2015
On January 16, 2015, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine looking into alleged crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, since June 13, 2014. Israel condemned this move. Hamas welcomed this move, even though its actions will also […]
February 5, 2015
By Arthur Brown Food and youth work have always gone hand in hand. While it is true that ‘pizza night’ generally attracts more young people than a discussion on the doctrine of the trinity, good youth workers recognise the significance of young [and old] persons eating together. I was recently […]
January 29, 2015
By Rose Khouri* Earlier this month, Martin Accad asked the very interesting question: can Islam be reformed? In his post, he argues that through ijmaa, or “consensus”, renewed and reformed interpretations of the Islamic scriptures are not only possible, but their development has been ongoing in this period of violence […]
January 22, 2015
By Mike Kuhn Never ask a fish “how’s the water?” I know…fish don’t talk so they can’t respond. But the point is that water is the environment the fish lives in and therefore the fish takes it for granted—true of fish and water but also true of people and culture. […]
January 15, 2015
By Martin Accad Pope Francis was recently asked about his process of reforming the Roman Curia. He “explained that often renewal is understood as making small changes here or there, or even making changes out of the necessity of adapting to the times. But this isn’t true renewal, he said, […]
January 9, 2015
By Martin Accad Addressing the question of reform and renewal in Islam at MPAC’s 2014 general convention last month, the late Dr. Maher Hathout who passed away a few days ago on January 3rd compared Islam to a diamond. He confessed that this diamond had gathered much dust over the […]
December 24, 2014
Given the current state of affairs in today’s Middle East, hope can be hard to come by. With this in mind, the IMES team was asked to reflect upon the following question,“What is the message of Christmas during a time such as this?” Please see our responses in the video below: […]
December 18, 2014
By Ashley Wollam* “But where will I get food for my children? What can we do?” It was one of the few moments I was glad that my Arabic is still far from fluent. One of my Lebanese brothers or sisters on the ministry team would have to find the […]