Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens:We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the…

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم   مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا{المائدة: 32 }   In The Name of Allah,    Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with…

It always took work to get me out of the house growing up. There was no place I’d rather be than curled up beside our fireplace with a book and cup of tea in the winter—or outside on the swing (with that same book) on a summer’s evening. Home was my place of rest, my sanctuary. And our home really felt like a magical place: Mom has always had a knack for creating cozy, beautiful spaces. It was surrounded by rosebushes, with old books on the shelves, brightly lit rooms, hot oatmeal and coffee for breakfast on cold winter mornings. A friend recently…

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.” — J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007. How disappointing to see JK Rowling and Hilary Mantel signing this nefarious letter calling for the need for ‘cultural bridges’ with Israel. The letter, assembled by a new organisation calling itself Culture for Co-Existence, is a litany of the tired tropes and doublespeak employed by Israel and her apologists. It opens, point blank, saying, “We do not believe cultural boycotts are acceptable.” Within two sentences the reader finds herself in the patrician hallways of the British conservative, being simply…

We cannot understand the role of either law or religion unless we understand human nature. We must believe that the human being is capable of knowing good and evil, benefit and harm, because our bodies by nature are vulnerable to differences in the environment (e.g., can live only within limited temperatures), a fact that defies a relativist attitude toward good and evil. The Qur'an, for example, stresses such distinctions: The blind and the seeing are not alike,Nor are the depths of darkness and the light;Nor are the (chilly) shade and the (genial) heat of the sun:Nor are alike those that…