Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

DRAFT

WITH THANKS TO. Contributors:

Illustrations & Photography:

Phase 4 Shades of Noir Team

Jay Lee Melodie Holliday

Raman Mundair Jeannine Hill Fletcher Mark Dean Saffron Mustafa William Whitcombe Christabel Yiming Sun Rahul Patel Undleeb Agoniste Red Bridgett Crutchfield Ayham Jabr INFO: W: shadesofnoir.org.uk E: info@shadesofnoir.org.uk Tw: @shadesofnoir Fb: shadesofnoir OUR SUPPORTER:

Cover image by Ayham Jabr.

CONTENTS. 06.

Welcome

08.

A Note From The Lead

10.

Key Questions

11.

Peer Review

18.

Key Data

Raman Mundair & Jeannine Hill Fletcher

24 .

Expanding The Conversation

68.

Further Resources Key terms, Further Reading, Digital Resources

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Content Disclaimer.

Please note that some of the words in the Key Terms section of this ToR are considered highly offensive to People of Colour but we have included them to support difficult discussions around the subject of Race in higher education.

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Religion, faith, spirituality & belief is an embedded part of human psychology that gives insight into individuals thought processes and often experiences. According to a blog post by Dr Greg on patheos.com, the terms are commonly used interchangeably but can differ in meaning depending on the context or even the conversation taking place. However, what isn’t interchangeable are individuals experiences in relation to these practices whether it’s within the practices community or the perceptions from those outside of those communities looking in. Examples include: • Anti-Blackness: When it comes to Muslims they are by default considered light-skinned or brown, Asian, and Arabic-speaking. In this regard, white supremacy and Arab supremacy work to erase the nuances of Muslim identity and perpetuate a pernicious form of double colonialism that dissociates Blackness from Islam (Chowdhury and Chowdhury, 2017).

• Sexism: Religion can be integral to the existing gender order, and can serve to reproduce and legitimate gender inequality for those who practice the religion and those who fall within its penumbra (‘consolidating’). Woodhead, L., 2007. Gender Differences in Religious Practice and Significance.

• Homophobia: Interpretation of religious doctrine leads some conservative Christians to the conclusion that same-sex sexual acts are immoral and that they must not promote them in any way. Carl F. Stychin; Faith in the Future: Sexuality, Religion and the Public Sphere, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 29, Issue 4, 1 December 2009, Pages 729–755, • Othering: The proportion of the population who identify in NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey as having no religion, referred to as “nones”, reached 48.5% in 2014, outnumbering the 43.8% who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics, and other denominations. According to National Geographic, a lack of religious affiliation has profound effects on how people think about death, how they teach their kids, and even how they vote. (News.nationalgeographic.com, 2017) For centuries key texts such as the Bible, Quran, and Tanakh have been the blueprint for religion that has been passed down from generation to generation. With some changes in the political landscape globally, this terms of reference aims to explore how higher power can be interpreted, practiced, influence culture and change in the coming future.

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A NOTE FROM THE LEAD.

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This Terms of Reference has been a real learning curve for me. Being born and raised to have strong Christian values I have vague memories of being in church settings and questioning everything that was going on around me. From primary school to Sunday school, Bible study to choir practice, I had an uncertain relationship with what or better yet who I perceived to be Higher Power.

Having discovered many different subcultures that exist within and outside of religion and religions that I didn’t even know exist, I had to unpack everything I was ever taught when I was younger and explore uncharted territory. This has been a journey of understanding, questioning, re-evaluating and at times applauding the dynamic role Religion, faith, spirituality, faith, and beliefs play in our everyday lives.

The contributions to this Terms of Reference zine have been curated to give a vast view into the complex world of powers above our own. Whether you believe in them or not, the perspectives being shared give great insight into the minds of those whom we may have misunderstood, shunned or even ostracised. It’s extremely important, especially in the times we are living in today, that at the very least we are trying to understand each other and our unique perspectives, even if they are opposing.

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KEY QUESTIONS.

1. Does religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?

2. How important is the role of religion in today’s current socio-political climate important?

3. Is there a distinct difference between religion, faith, spirituality & belief?

4. How can religion, race, gender & sexuality intersect?

5. How do you define religious extremism?

6. How can art education support students whose identity is shaped by their religion?

7. How does the perception of religion differ between current and previous generations?

8. Is religion a form of oppression or freedom?

9. How does atheism relate to the creative arts?

10. How does religion, faith, belief & spirituality affect family dynamics and intimate relationships?

11. To believe or not to believe: are religious text often interpreted for different agendas?

12. Can religion and capitalism work for or against each other?

13. Where do we envision the role of religion in the next 50 years?

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PEER REVIEW.

Shades of Noir has been pleased to invite Raman Mundair and Jeannine Hill Fletcher to peer review this Terms of Reference.

Raman Mundair is an Indian born, Black British Asian intersectional feminist. She is the award winning author of Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves, A Choreographer’s Cartography, The Algebra of Freedom and is the editor of Incoming: Some Shetland Voices.

Her work is socially and politically observant, bold, mischievous, cutting edge and potent with poetic imagery and integrity. Her writing plays with the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and class and challenges notions of British and colonial histories and identities. She has published poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction and has performed and exhibited her artwork around the world from Aberdeen to Zimbabwe. Raman was awarded a Leverhulme Artists Fellowship, a Robert Louis Stevenson award and is a Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative nominee. She is the co-founder of the online FB space: SAORSA – Arts and Intersectional Dialogue for Women. She regards herself as a writer who writes, makes art, film and installation.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher is a constructive theologian whose research is at the intersection of Christian systematic theology and issues of diversity (including gender, race and religious diversity). Her most recent book is entitled, The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism and Religious Diversity in America (Orbis, 2017). Other works include Monopoly on Salvation? A Feminist Approach to Religious Pluralism (Continuum, 2005) and Motherhood as Metaphor: Engendering Interreligious Dialogue (Fordham University Press, 2013). She is Professor of Theology at Fordham University, Bronx NY, and board member of the grassroots social justice organization, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition.

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A NOTE FROM RAMAN MUNDAIR. “Religion, faith, spirituality and belief is an embedded part of human psychology that gives insight into individuals thought processes.”[1] Perhaps something else that could be added here is that religion, faith, spirituality and belief, or the absence of this, are an essential part of the cultural narrative and context we create as human beings.

Religion and its accoutrements can be read as contentious, divisive, oppressive, inspiring, uniting, uplifting and visionary – these many readings operate at the same time. Intersectional approaches to religion, faith, spirituality and belief are necessary in order to get a true measure of this human experience and expression. Interdisciplinary readings and questions offer a true lens through which to measure how religion has had an impact on the evolution of human psychology, creativity and culture.

As Chaplain and Interfaith advisor Mark Dean stresses in his interview, learning and teaching environments are impacted by “...Religion, Belief and Faith Identities....[and this] situation is further complicated by questions of intersectionality – the way identities associated with race. Religion, gender, sexuality, etc. overlap and sometimes conflict. This is one reason why we cannot take a simplistic or binary approach to questions of religion in the university.”

Other aspects of intersectionality to consider are class, caste and colourism. In South Asian culture, for example, Hindu (higher) caste ‘saffron-washing’ has led to a revisionism of culture, faith, belief and tradition which jars with the modern secular India that appears on the world stage.

A vital consideration now is what can religion, faith, spirituality and belief mean to us in the age of Brexit and Trump? What place does it play in a nation where recent census figures suggest that 48.5% of people identify as having no religion?[2] The socio-political climate is highly relevant to the way religion and belief is perceived.

Palestine, 9/11, sectarianism, ongoing child abuse revelations in Christian communities are just some of the events connected rightly or wrong to religion, that create the context in which we view and experience the influence of religion, faith and belief on our communities and in our learning environments. This current and ongoing history does not happen in a vacuum. It is part of our academic life. It is present in the education contexts we operate in. It is part of the conversation and discourse of our creative and scholarly lives.

Current events like the post Weinstein, #metoo movements may also feature in changes in spiritual and higher power self expression. Is the increasing interest in [1]. A quote by Dr Gregg on Patheos.com [2]. NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey 2014 12 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

witchcraft a feminist/womanist expression of religion, faith, spirituality and belief?

Is this a reflection of women creating a spiritual space for physical autonomy?

The increasing popularity of Santeria and Oshun suggests a confidence in and higher power connection to African spirituality. Is this a reflection of people of colour creating a spiritual space for cultural autonomy? A confident moving towards a method of spiritual self determination and self power that functions on a profound level. A practice of faith and higher power that connects the practitioner with a conduit of history, DNA, epigenetics, myth and nature.

There are so many interesting aspects to consider when looking at these ideas. Including why it is that certain religions and faiths appear to be affected by colourism? For example, being of African or Caribbean heritage is rarely associated with Buddhism. That the common trope when thinking of an archetypal Buddhist is South East Asian or White Middle Class.

There are many fascinating and honest voices in this Higher Power Terms of Reference - the interview with artist, Saffron Mustafa is interesting on many levels. Her and her family’s experience offer an alternative perspective on islamophobia as experienced from a place of white privilege.

Saffron’s unique experience of being a white believer of Islam in Saudi Arabia, where she and her family felt culturally and spiritually connected to the people and Islamic world about them, differed greatly from their return to the UK. Where they felt out of place and uncomfortable – strangers, ‘exiles,’ to a certain extent, in their original ‘homeland’. Saffron and her family faced the discrimination many people of colour, especially devout Muslims face – “...my Mum found it really difficult to wear hijab...My Dad found it really difficult finding a job because he had changed his name when he was young and impressionable and first converted and he has a beard because the prophet Mohammed had a beard and he was just trying to be a good Muslim and it stopped him getting a job...He’s got a beard and it was a problem. And just not being allowed to pray and stuff, it’s just crazy.”

Saffron has taken steps to mitigate her experiences of prejudice, to negotiate them – she goes by her less obviously Muslim second name for example since the 9/11 attacks.

She identifies with being spiritual rather than religious – investigating an interest in Sufism. Saffron’s experiences are in some ways the experience of a ‘minority within a minority’ – a phrase that contributor Alia Youssef uses and expands upon to describe herself as Pakistani-Canadian who identifies as a Nizari Ismaili Shi’i Muslim.

Tiff’s piece on Social Justice/Buddhism/Queerness reflects in part on Buddhist sanghas – “...many sanghas have severely compromised by capitalism and [the] need to provide HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 13

consumer orientated Buddhism...which dilutes the authenticity of Buddhist practice.” This thought is echoed in another tone in Melodie Holliday’s piece, “I was a Buddhist for Seven years.” Where Melodie charts her gradual disillusionment with a Buddhist order and the beginning of a new found spirituality that draws on her ancestral and cultural traditions.

Melodie’s experiences connect with my own encounter with western Buddhism.

Something which I reflect upon in my contribution alongside early experiences of Sikhism and institutionalised Christianity within the British school’s system.

This is a rich, urgent collection of voices and experiences, all of which illuminate a new way of reading Higher Power – Religion, Faith, Spirituality and Belief.

Raman Mundair www.facebook.com/ramanmundair www.shetlandamenity.org/the-artist

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A NOTE FROM JEANNINE HILL FLETCHER. This issue of Shades of Noir’s Terms of Reference introduces readers to key terms in the study of religion and theology, engaging the topic of Higher Power through the concepts of Religion, Faith, Spirituality and Belief. While often used interchangeably, each of these terms points to different dimensions of the field, and different dimensions of human life. With the many diverse voices represented in this zine, the conversation in these pages will be a great resource not only for parsing the particular terminology, but thinking together about religion’s past, present and future in our everyday spaces.

Through the lens of ‘religion’ – a term that is generally employed to point to an organized body of thought, practice and community – voices in this volume remind us that religion itself is not one thing. As with any human undertaking, the thought, practices and communities of religions can be incredibly life-giving, but they can also harbor the many failings reflective of our human fallibility. Religions can be sexist, racist, homophobic; they can support nationalist ideologies and fuel intolerance of difference. But these systems of thought can alternatively provide access to deep wisdoms that have emerged across time and space, revealing to us the best of who we might be as human beings. The perspectives in this zine give a tremendous range in considering the possibilities and dangers of ‘religion’ in our everyday lives. This range of perspectives demonstrates perhaps the most important piece of learning about religion in our time, that is, that there is a diversity within religions just as there is diversity among religions.

The diversity within religion is essential to recognize since, as a human project, religion is informed by distinctive interpretations that respond to particularities in history, social location and context. While persons within a particular religious tradition might all turn to the same scripture, the way they interpret that scripture can have vastly different results.

Here, it is helpful to consider ‘belief’ as a sub-element within the category ‘religion’ where religious scriptures and traditions of thought might shape the way the people see the world (what we think of as their ‘beliefs’ about the world). ‘Religion’ as ‘worldview’ is closely related to questions of belief as the various traditions provide orienting answers to the fundamental questions of our human existence: Who are we? How did we get here? Where are we going?

And who are we supposed to be in the time allotted to us on this earth? Religion thus is not unlike other human endeavors that aim to address the existential dimension of being human. Religious traditions provide a set of symbols and stories, beliefs and practices that shape the way humans understand their place in a world that can be interpreted in many different ways. Tapping into the ancient wisdoms of our ancestors or expressing symbolically our deepest desires for humanity are two ways that ‘religion’ aligns with many of the projects in ‘the arts’. But, if we look carefully at the symbolic expression within any given religious tradition (as well as among them) we will see that the interpretations of the tradition are vast and diverse. This diversity is reflected in the voices of this zine: even as it introduces us to the artistic expressions and fundamental beliefs that might emerge from religious communities, it reminds us that there are other interpretations of these same traditions.

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Similarly, while persons within a particular community may all count themselves as a part of that religious community, other dimensions of their social location inform their experience of that religious community. Thus, the evidence of intersectionality that emerges in the pages of this zine is incredibly important in maintaining the complexity of religion. As not ‘one thing’, religion is always a project of human thought and practice that intersects with the lives and contexts of particular human beings. In the words of feminist scholar of Islam, Leila Ahmed, “we are all hybrids”, indicating that persons who inhabit religious communities are not defined by their religion alone. They are always already hybrid as religion intersects with other dimensions of identities: gender, race, class, sexuality, geography, nationality and more.

This diversity within religions invites us to consider even more fully the reality of diversity among religions, not in isolation but as we encounter it in our distinctive time and place, and our moment in history. Because of our always intersectional identities (as has been true for religion in all times), the examination of religion is always related to our material realities and our political realities. One is not ‘Christian’ in the abstract (or ‘Buddhist’ or ‘Hindu’ or ‘Atheist’), one is any one of those identities in a particular time and place. In our time of increasing White supremacist nationalisms, paying attention to the ways in which religion fuels or resists this particular set of ‘pernicious othering’ (as Rahul Patel names in this zine) is of critical importance. Several other contributions to this zine reflect the reality that this hybridity, when coupled with racism and religious supremacy can be dangerous.

Critical studies of religion can point to the ways that universities have been sites for the production of knowledge of the ‘religious other’ that have not always been life-giving. But, evidence in this zine demonstrates the role of universities not only in creating spaces for interfaith learning and interreligious tolerance, but for producing knowledge and a counternarrative to the White Christian supremacist theological and political narrative we’re receiving.

But universities aren’t the only sites of power to create the religio-racial project of our present.

The arts, too, have a role to play in shaping public outlooks and social spaces. Will our knowledge production and artistic creations fuel a positive orientation toward religious and racial diversity? Or will they maintain a status quo that values some lives and some expressions more than others? In the face of a resurgence of White Christian nationalisms, religion and the arts have a role to play in producing counter-narratives for the flourishing of all.

The 20th century German theologian, Paul Tillich, also saw a rise of deadly nationalism in his own day, and he named these projects as exhibiting an ‘idolatrous faith’. If faith is the project by which humans dedicate themselves to what they understand as ‘ultimate’ (even if by its nature it is transcendent and beyond our capacity to prove), then faith in what is truly ultimate, what will never pass away, what endures, is to be valued over those projects that elevate finite concerns (like ‘the nation’ or ‘success’) to the rank of ultimacy. We can hope that religion and the arts might put us in touch with what is truly ultimate, but we need to remain vigilant for those expressions in both fields that do not.

Ultimately, the organized bodies of ‘religion’ foster a way of being in the world that we might name ‘spirituality’. As Sandra Schneiders has defined it, through the project of spirituality one “conscious[ly] involves oneself in the project of life-integration through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives.” Spirituality is a way of life by which each person 16 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

aims to integrate into all aspects of life the ultimate value one identifies. Whether this is expressed in religious or non-religious ways, the explorations of this zine invite each reader to consider what is the spirituality that guides our life choices, considering whether and how our lives exhibit integration of our core values, and how we might express them.

So even if one does not identify with a religious tradition or community of belief, the voices in this zine invite the reader to consider what is of ultimate value, and whether and how each reader can integrate this into a coherent manner of living. Whether through ‘religion’, ‘spirituality’, ‘art’ or ‘belief’, we share a common human quest for naming and expressing what is real about our short time on this planet. We can be grateful to the organizers and contributors to this zine for sharing their journey with us, and inviting us to consider the questions – even if not embracing the answers – that religions might pose.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher Professor of Theology Fordham University Bronx, NY USA Author of The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism and Religious Diversity in America (Orbis, 2017) And Monopoly on Salvation? A Feminist Approach to Religious Pluralism (Continuum, 2005)

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KEY DATA.

Global Religious Landscape: Worldwide All Population, estimate of 2010 Percentages are calculated from unrounded numbers. Figures may not add exactly due to rounding. Populations of less than 10,000 are shown as <10,000. Populations of 10,000 and more are rounded to the nearest 10,000. For definitions of religious groups.

Pew Research Reports [Accessed: 21 Nov] Available: http://globalreligiousfutures.org/explore r#/?subtopic=15&chartType=pie&year=2010&data_type=number&religious_affiliation=a ll&destination=to&countries=Worldwide&age_group=all&gender=all&pdfMode=false

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Global Religious Landscape: Worldwide All Population, estimate for 2020 Percentages are calculated from unrounded numbers. Figures may not add exactly due to rounding. Populations of less than 10,000 are shown as <10,000. Populations of 10,000 and more are rounded to the nearest 10,000. For definitions of religious groups.

Pew Research Reports [Accessed: 21 Nov] Available: http://globalreligiousfutures.org/explore r#/?subtopic=15&chartType=pie&year=2010&data_type=number&religious_affiliation=a ll&destination=to&countries=Worldwide&age_group=all&gender=all&pdfMode=false

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Many Countries Favor Specific Religions, Officially or Unofficially Islam is the most common state religion, but many governments give privileges to Christianity More than 80 countries favor a specific religion, either as an official, government-endorsed religion or by affording one religion preferential treatment over other faiths, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data covering 199 countries and territories around the world.1 Islam is the most common government-endorsed faith, with 27 countries (including most in the Middle East-North Africa region) officially enshrining Islam as their state religion. By comparison, just 13 countries (including nine European nations) designate Christianity or a particular Christian denomination as their state religion.

But an additional 40 governments around the globe unofficially favor a particular religion, and in most cases the preferred faith is a branch of Christianity. Indeed, Christian churches receive preferential treatment in more countries – 28 – than any other unofficial but favored faith.

This analysis includes the 198 countries and territories typically studied in Pew Research Center’s annual reports on global restrictions on religion, plus North Korea. Although North Korea is not included in the annual reports because of the difficulty of obtaining reliable, up-to-date information on events inside its borders, information on its overall policy toward religion is readily available. For more detail on why North Korea often has been excluded from other analyses, see the Methodology section of Pew Research Center’s April 2017 report, “Global Restrictions on Religion Rise Modestly in 2015, Reversing Downward Trend.”

Pew Research Reports, 2017 [Accessed: 21 Nov] Available: http://www.pewforum.org/2017/10/03/many-countries-favorspecific-religions-officially-or-unofficially/#fn-28865-1

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Survey: Importance of Religion ‘Very Important’ Map representation covering all respondents of all age groups and all religious affiliations in general from most recent reported year that responded ‘Very important’.

Pew Research Reports [Accessed: 21 Nov] Available: http://globalreligiousfutures.org/explorer#/?subtopic=36&countries=Worldw ide&question=305&chartType=map&answer=14220&year=recent&religi ous_affiliation=all&gender=all&age_group=all&pdfMode=false

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Importance of Religion ‘Not At All Important’ Map representation covering all respondents of all age groups and all religious affiliations in general from most recent reported year that responded ‘Not At All Important’.

Pew Research Reports [Accessed: 21 Nov] Available: http://globalreligiousfutures.org/explorer#/?subtopic=36&countries=Worldw ide&question=305&chartType=map&answer=14223&year=recent&religi ous_affiliation=all&gender=all&age_group=all&pdfMode=false

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Illustrated by Katayoun Jalili

EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION.

INTERVIEW WITH MARK DEAN. THE CHAPLAIN & INTERFAITH ADVISOR FOR CCW & CSM. You’re the Chaplain & Interfaith Advisor for Camberwell, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea and Wimbledon, could you tell us more about your role and what you do?

From your experience, what role does religion play in higher education and how does it affect students who are religious or may be atheist?

The short answer is the chaplains are here for everyone. We are not employed by the University but are sent to serve here by the Diocese of London. In the same way that Anglican vicars are there for everyone in their parish, whether members of the Church of England or otherwise, so Anglican chaplains are there for everyone in the institutions they serve in, eg hospitals, prisons, or in our case, the university. We develop interfaith initiatives with colleagues from other denominations and faiths, who we can put students in touch with. We also work alongside the Counselling and Health Advice Team; one way of understanding this is to say that while counsellors focus on the emotional aspects of student life, and health advisors on the mental and physical, so chaplains address the spiritual. For example, we can speak about questions of faith if they are important to you, and we hold regular communion services and meditation sessions. Chaplains are also available to all staff in the university.

Historically, religious institutions were the wellspring of universities – this is the case in both Christendom and Islam – and some higher education institutions still have a religious foundation. But at least from the Enlightenment onwards, a tension developed, and in the Modernist period, when the art and design schools that form UAL were founded, this became a kind of rupture; so by the twentieth century, there was a common assumption that western education, along with other cultural institutions, would become increasingly secular, or indeed atheist. However, it is now clear that the post-modern situation is more complicated than this, not least due to the international context. For example, approximately 50% of UAL students identify as religious, and of those who don’t, only a small minority identify as atheist, while most prefer terms such as agnostic, ‘spiritual not religious’, etc.

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How can art education support students whose identity is shaped by their religion?

Lastly, do you think religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?

Due to the cultural shift identified above, and also perhaps in response to Equalities legislation, under which religion is now a protected characteristic, universities are beginning to address this question more creatively. For example, UAL has a Religion and Belief Champion, as well as a Community of Practice, focused on Religion, Belief and Faith Identities and how these impact on learning and teaching.

The situation is further complicated by questions of intersectionality – the way identities associated with race, religion, gender, sexuality, etc overlap and sometimes conflict. This is one reason why we cannot take a simplistic or binary approach to questions of religion in the university.

Speaking personally, as an artist I have found that my faith is critically engaged with my creativity. However, it is not an easy relationship. Religion involves a kind of following, which is in many ways anathema to contemporary art practice, where, unlike other academic subjects, art students are required to develop their own independent research at undergraduate level. ‘Spirituality’ seems to be a more acceptable proposition in the art world these days, but this tends to be understood either in individualist/consumerist terms or as a kind of ethnographic exoticism, both of which I find problematic.

How important is the role of religion in today’s current socio-political climate?

I think the answer to this must be ‘extremely’ important!

Is there a distinct difference between religion, faith, spirituality & belief?

As already noted, many people today would describe themselves as ‘spiritual not religious’ which would imply that there is a distinct difference between the two. But I’m not sure things are as binary as that, any more than they are when it comes to questions of spirituality vs atheism. For example, when it comes to questions of life after death, it is possible to believe in an afterlife without reference to God - you can call it the ‘spirit world’ but it could just as easily be described as another plane or dimension of material existence. Conversely, it is also possible to hold a religious faith in God without believing in an afterlife - the Sadducees in the Bible did for example.

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So, no easy answers I’m afraid – it is not for nothing that our chaplaincy motto is ‘encouraging enquiry, celebrating diversity’ – so please feel free to continue the conversation with us! www.artschaplaincy.net

PRAY. WORDS BY JULIE WRIGHT.

When times get tough

Pray and Pray until it goes away.

Pray.

If it doesn’t go away, just pray again the very next day.

When you have no money Pray.

When your mental health begins to affect your day-to-day life Pray.

When you experience emotional trauma Pray.

When you’re crippled in debt Pray.

When you suffer abuse Pray.

When you slip into depression Pray.

When mass shootings occur Pray.

When “natural” disasters occur Pray.

When the world feels like a living hell Pray.

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INTERVIEW WITH SAFFRON MUSTAFA.

After spending the morning in class I was able to catch up with art student, Saffron Mustafa, who’s now in her third year of studies at Camberwell College of arts. I must admit, when I first heard her name, I pictured someone completely different to the blue eyed, freckled faced girl with short hair who I was talking to. But, after our introductions I discovered the idiom there’s more than meets the eye perfectly reflects Saffron unique perspective. Born and raised by her parents who are both white British Muslim converts, she describes her relationship with Islam as strange. I would, however, describe it as more or less, unconventional. As we

delved into her early childhood memories of being raised as Muslim, I become more and more intrigued by her self-described dilemma of being caught in this weird space of being between multiple cultures.

So your family are Muslim, are you Muslim yourself?

I was brought up Muslim but I’m a bit further from that now, I have a strange relationship with it now I guess

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Would you like to tell me more about that?

So both my parents are white British and they are Muslim converts What made your parents want to convert to Islam?

My Dad was studying religion in Glasgow and I guess he was having a weird time at uni and struggling with western ideology. So I think it really appealed to them at the time as a way to escape these ways of thinking.

So they kind of came to it like that I think

really difficult to wear hijab and stuff because we would be in the supermarket or something and people would be like oh my god where are you from? Just because she’s got this headdress on which is a religious choice she made and the assumption that if you’ve got that on then you’re from somewhere else.

My Dad found it really difficult finding a job because he had changed his name when he was young and impressionable and first converted and he has a beard because the prophet Mohammed had a beard and he was just trying to be a good Muslim and it was stopping him from getting a job Interesting, has that made him look at Islam in a different way?

Are they still Muslim?

Yes they are still Muslim Did they find it difficult being white British people entering into Islam that is a predominantly Asian religion?

Yes, I think so, it’s weird because of them being converts and so young and easily influenced at the time they would pick up these teachings from Muslims around them.

Islam spans so many different places and cultures so there’s obviously so many different nuances and understandings, so they’d pick up teachings and traditions more particular to maybe Pakistani Muslims, for example So we had like all these different influences because obviously Islam isn’t like an old family thing and there were so many different people around us all from like five different places. I dunno it was kind of weird and then also just like, we moved to Saudi Arabia for a bit and when we came back my mum found it

I don’t know, I guess I would have to ask him *chuckles* I don’t think so, I mean he just had to change his name it’s just crazy how far islamophobia reaches. You would think as they come from a white background and this islamophobia reaches so far, it’s really difficult So despite him being white British, him being a Muslim was an issue?

Yeah, he’s got a beard and it was a problem. And just not being allowed to pray and stuff, it’s just crazy You mentioned you moved to Saudi Arabia for a bit, what was that like?

Yes, I was raised Muslim until … so we moved back from Saudi Arabia where we lived for like two years, we lived near Mecca in the mountains which is interesting I think. It’s quite an intense place. So that

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 29

was a really amazing experience everyone was really helpful and we had Qur’an and Arabic lessons. Everyone would really help us out, everyone was really kind and amazed that these westerners had converted to Islam and we moved to Saudi Arabia and it was like woahh!

He’s a really cool Sufi guy who wrote poetry but I kind of feel like some of his poems that are more popular are also the kind of thing a white hippie would quote *giggles* but I like this! So it kind of makes me cringe a bit but I feel like it’s something I can live my life and sort of hold onto a part of Islam

It must have been a huge culture shock for you, how old were you when you moved there?

Did you ever come across a lot of white British Muslims or were you the only one?

It’s not something that I’ve come across that often… there was a family when I was younger who we were close with. My parents recently moved to Norfolk and I met these sisters and their parents are white converts but they’d all really stayed with Islam which feels different to me. I’ve found it really difficult just trying to figure out where I stand and they were all just really comfortable with Islam and living that way.

I was quite young at the time. I was like eleven or twelve. I was actually more culture shocked when I got back and so were my parents! They had like a spiritual crisis…

That’s interesting what’s a spiritual crisis?

So my dad was a peace worker for The Christian Muslim Forum at the time we moved back and he got baptised into the Russian orthodox church, it’s like quite an intense form of Christianity. Then my mum started going to yoga and went down this really spiritual path and I was still praying five times a day and wearing a hijab and then my parents came in one day and were like oh hey we’re having a spiritual crisis, we’re actually not praying at the moment and then I had a crisis and stopped praying and that was when I was 13 or 14 maybe.. but now they’ve come back to Islam So where are you now? Are you still religious or more spiritual?

I feel like I’m probably more spiritual, I’m quite into Sufism now which is something I can share with my parents What’s Sufism?

It’s like a more spiritual or mystical conception of Islam, have you heard of Rumi the poet?

Yes, I have 30 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

When you were a Muslim could you relate more to the Asian community rather than the white British community seeing as Islam is predominately Asian? That’s what I was surrounded by and so that’s what I was comfortable with and had an understanding of.

I know there are different subgroups in Islam, which group did you and your family connect with the most? Sunni Islam. My parents actually named me Sunni when I was born, my mum was reading some Islamic text and she was like oh Sunni, thinking it was pronounced like sunny, that’s nice!

Did you change your name then? Or were you born with a different name?

No, no I was born Sunni Mustafa and Saffron is actually my middle name at the moment. I had this thing on 9/11 where obviously I was like really small but I came running down stairs like oh my god it wasn’t me! because they were like mentioning Sunni Muslim’s on the news and I thought they were blaming me! I was always really interested in changing my name growing up

and decided to get a middle name, which I prefer to be called by, as of a few years ago.

So you were home schooled for most of your childhood and then went to sixth form, how did you find that?

I really struggled with the drinking culture and stuff like that, it was really weird adjusting to that and people’s families being so liberal. Like really liberal, like oh yeah I’ll buy you a bottle of wine and a packet of fags! I found it really weird

really interested in beliefs and mythologies and symbolism and these things feeding into my work, which I guess would link up to Islam and ideas around religion and faith So, what’s your overall opinion of religion as a whole?

Uhmm.. I’m not sure ... I find it really so fascinating that people have so much faith and all these different beliefs, it can tear people apart and also can bring people together in such a beautiful way.

So your degree is in painting, from your experience with Islam does that inspire or influence your artwork in any way at all?

Uhm.. probably…

Do you feel like religion increases creativity or decreases it?

Mmm.. it’s kind of a weird one…because my mum was actually an art student just before she converted and because she was so impressionable at that time in terms of her faith and some people were telling her she shouldn’t recreate God’s creation, so she didn’t take pictures and she stopped drawing. So in her situation then it definitely decreased the ways she was used to expressing her creativity, I guess because she was maybe trying to do something to please someone else as well as God. But I feel like if you’re religious in a way where you’re really conscious of how you feel and what you need and the ways you might need to express yourself then faith can be really helpful and increase your creativity on even just a personal level So for you personally would you say it has increased or decreased your creativity?

I think it has increased my creativity because I just think about beliefs all the time and stuff like that really influences my creative practice. A lot of my dissertation is coming down to writing about belief systems. Maybe we can go back to your previous question about my artwork and in answer yes I’m HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 31

BRIDGETT CRUTCHFIELD.

SON: Does religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?

SON: How can religion, race, gender & sexuality intersect?

BC: Based on the ridiculousness heard and witnessed among the religious, I’m lead to believe their creativity is increased.

BC: Based on holy books-they can’t.

SON: Is there a distinct difference between religion, faith, spirituality & belief?

BC: I believe there is. The underlying theme is they tend to believe in the supernatural to some degree

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SON: How can art education support students whose identity is shaped by their religion?

BC: It can help those who struggle to speak, convey their thoughts on the canvas of choice.

SON: How does the perception of religion differ between current and previous generations?

SON: How does your work relate or explore this topic?

BC: People are now more inclined to identify as spiritual, believe in a higher power without cosigning Christianity.

BC: My images portray the issues I have with religion. Besides religion being a placebo (in my opinion), its treatment, viewpoint on women leaves a lot to be desired. My images tend to depict women in authority. Owning themselves, their identity...their bodies

SON: Where do we envision the role of religion in the next 50 years?

BC: I’ll be 99 if I’m still around. Sadly, I believe religion will still exist but won’t have as much of a stronghold. Wait, we’re still battling racism 60 years post MLK Jr. Disregard initial comment

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 33

SOCIAL JUSTICE / BUDDHISM / QUEERNESS. WORDS BY TIFFANY WEBSTER. An introduction and reflection on Radical Dharma by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Ownes with Jasmine Syedullah, PhD Buddhism in relation to liberation and queerness.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography and refrain of the Black Lives Matter movement.

‘Igniting a long-overdue dialogue about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out in society at large and Buddhist communities, in particular, this urgent call to action outlines a new dharma that takes into account the ways that racism and privilege prevent our collective awakening. The authors travelled around the country to spark an open conversation that brings together the Black prophetic tradition and the wisdom of the Dharma.

Bridging the world of spirit and activism, they urge a compassionate response to the systemic, state-sanctioned violence and oppression that has persisted against black people since the slave era. With national attention focused on the recent killings of unarmed black citizens and the response of the Black-centered liberation groups such as Black Lives Matter, Radical Dharma demonstrates how social transformation and personal, spiritual liberation must be articulated and inextricably linked.

Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Jasmine Syedullah represent a new voice in American Buddhism. Offering their own histories and experiences as illustrations of the types of challenges facing dharma practitioners and teachers who are different from those of the past five decades, they ask how teachings that transcend color, class, and caste are hindered by discrimination and the dynamics of power, shame, and ignorance. Their illuminating argument goes beyond a demand for the equality and inclusion of diverse populations to advancing a new dharma that deconstructs rather than amplifies systems of suffering and prepares us to weigh the shortcomings not only of our own minds but also of our communities. They forge a path toward reconciliation and self-liberation that rests on radical honesty, a common ground where we can drop our need for perfection and propriety and speak as souls. In a society where profit rules, people’s value is determined by the color of their skin, and many voices—including queer voices— are silenced, Radical Dharma recasts the concepts of engaged spirituality, social transformation, inclusiveness, and healing.’

“I’m thinking about my own liberation.

I mean, I’m not liberated. Liberation is a process, and I think one of the first important things I had to do is stop believing in my inferiority.” ― Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation Radical dharma explores the intersections of race, racism, gender identity, and sexual preference those that relate to Buddhism and to those that necessarily don’t. There are both

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 35

articles and moderated discussion groups with the three authors, all of whom are black, queer and/or transgender intellectuals.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters where the authors provided their own testimonies of transforming their own racial/sexual/gender wounds.

“The tiptoeing around race and other forms of difference as if in fear of waking a sleeping lion is one of the most subtly toxic attributes of whiteness in our culture right now.” -Jasmine Syedullah I think that Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams sensei identifies the problem and highlights the conflicting viewpoints that run throughout the book when she states: “Race is the ultimate delusion in that it both does and does not exist in reality.”With respect to sanghas, the conversants note that problems arise when the sangha is not willing to turn into itself and explore what it means to be in a racialized society.

Another one of the author’s, Lama Rod, describes radical Dharma, within this context as having the bravery to have dharma talks and meditation practices that will focus on topics that make participants feel uncomfortable and learn how to deal with their suffering.

One of the criticism’s of Lama Rod’s, with which I agree, is that many sanghas have become severely compromised by capitalism and need to provide a consumer oriented Buddhism. The result is too heavy a focus on selling classes and not offending sangha 36 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

members which dilutes the authenticity of Buddhist practice. On the other hand, you need money to run a sangha, so where is the balance? Reminding me of the Christian megachurches that require and/or ask for donations but are also a business in itself.

The authors turn to greater complexity at times when they talk about racism and economics as co-repressive self-feeding factors. However, the essays and discussions veer between the “race as monolith” and “race as factorial” viewpoints.

“Love is the wish for myself and others to be happy. Love transcends our need to control the recipient of love. I love not because I need something in return. I love not because I want to be loved back, but because I see and understand love as being an expression of the spaciousness I experience when I am challenging my egoic fixation by thinking about the welfare of others. I go where I am loved. I go where I am allowed to express love. In loving, I have no expectations.”-Lama Rod Owens

INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM WHITCOMBE. THE CHAPLAIN & INTERFAITH ADVISOR FOR LCF & LCC. 1. You’re the Chaplain & Interfaith Advisor at High Holborn, London College of Communication, and London College of Fashion, could you tell us more about your role and what you do?

something that’s going to go away. With this in mind, perhaps the question is what role does higher education have to play in helping students to meet, hear and better understand their global neighbours?

My primary role is to provide pastoral and spiritual care to the students, staff, and families of UAL. Although I identify as a Christian and priest in the Church of England, I don’t expect those who I meet and support to have signed on the dotted line when it comes to a belief system: I am here to support the religious, the atheist and the unaligned. The point is my tradition and training has given me 15 years experience of being there for people in very religiously and ethnically diverse communities.

3. How can art education support students whose identity is shaped by their religion?

UAL Chaplaincy also organises events in relation to the exploration of the relationship between faith and the arts.

2. From your experience, what role does religion play in higher education and how does it affect students who are religious or may be atheist?

Students, whether religious or atheist, are preparing to live, travel and work in a highly complex and multi-faith world.

Religion is another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of the human experience. It isn’t

By understanding that religion is an important identity strand for many. By showing interest and a willingness to engage with the stories that students of faith want to share in their creative practice. Keep asking questions and keep listening: keep the dialogue open.

4. How important is the role of religion in today’s current socio-political climate?

Religion plays an important role in identity formation. As long as religion plays a role in the identities of peoples, it goes without saying that it will be important in any socio-political climate.

5. How would you define religious extremism?

It begins with the view that I am the one who is right, and that I have a complete monopoly on the truth. And it often it ends in whatever means are felt necessary to assert that view.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 37

6. Is there a distinct difference between religion, faith, spirituality & belief?

7. Lastly, do you think religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?

This is a whole dissertation, but to try and answer this briefly, I find a picture is helpful. The picture is of a desert, with a road winding through it into the distance.

That road is the journey of faith and belief.

Sometimes there will be beauty, sometimes the way ahead will be very clear. Often there will be feelings of thirst, hunger, and discomfort. Other times, a sense of plenty and refreshment. There’s a bus on that road. It’s not perfect, but it’s trying to carry people along the road of faith and belief, and often the people it carries will be arguing and disagreeing – that bus is religion. Sometimes the bus will be a great support. Other times it will go wrong and break down and get into trouble. That’s because it’s operated by fallible, human beings. There are also people in this picture.

People who have a side to them that yearns, wonders, dreams, creates, loves. They have moments on that road in the desert when their vision is somehow extended, and they see so much more in and around them than they did just a few moments before. This is the spiritual side that I believe exists in all of us. Some of the people in this picture will be travelling on the bus. Others will be way ahead of it. Others will hop on, hop off.

Others will prefer to make their own way.

Having studied History of Art, I would say fairly confidently that it has the potential to increase creativity.

38 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

UNDLEEB AGONISTE RED.

‘Untitled’: Reflects on the story of Jonah. And says: “there was hope, even inside the belly of the whale.” - Undleeb Agoniste Red

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 39

MAIRA HAMID.

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Truth “Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects false deities and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things.

Allah is the protector of those who have faith. From the depth of darkness He leads them into light.

Of those who reject faith their patrons are the false deities, from light they will lead them forth into depth of darkness. They will be companions of the fire, to dwell therein forever.”

Chapter: 2, Verses: 256 – 257.

Signs of His Creation ”Consider him who had an argument with Abraham about his Lord, because Allah had given him the Kingdom; how, when Abraham said: My Lord is He who gives life and causes death, he answered: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Allah causes the sun to rise in the East, So do you cause it to come up from the West? Thus was the disbeliever embarrassed. And Allah guides not wrongdoing people.”

Chapter :2, Verse:258.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 41

Allah! There is no God except Him, the Alive , the Eternal.

He has revealed to you (Muhammad) the scripture with truth, confirming that which was revealed) before it, even as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.”

Chapter3, Verses: 2-3

Equality “Men who surrender to Allah, and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard (their modesty), and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women who remember. Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.”

Chapter: 33, Verse: 35

42 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

Religion of Peace “And if any one of idolaters seeks your protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the word of Allah, and afterwards convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who know not.”

Chapter: 9, Verse: 6

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 43

SURAH YUSUF. ‫فسوي ةروس‬.

WORDS BY SAHAR AMER.

A surah is a chapter in the Qu’ran which tells a story - usually with hidden morals.

There are 114 surahs in total, and the story of Yusuf is one of the most prolific as it was told as one whole as opposed to line by line. This story is also a personal favorite and most memorable from the Qu’ran. Please note that some of the story is subject to interpretation, but the following is a shortened version of how I recall it.

Yusuf - the son of Prophet Yaqoob - has a dream of 11 stars, the sun and the moon prostrating before him. He informs his father of the dream and Yaqoob instantly 44 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

realises that his son is destined for prophecy.

His father warns him not to discuss the dream to his brothers as they may see Yusuf as superior and become jealous.

Although Yusuf mentions nothing to his brothers, they witness the way Yaqoob treats him differently to his brothers and they inevitably grow jealous of their father’s favoritism and love towards Yusuf. Yusuf’s brothers plot to kill him as revenge, but cannot bring themselves to follow through, so they collectively decide to throw Yusuf down a well. After Yaqoob notices Yusuf’s disappearance, the brothers lie to their father

and tell him that Yusuf was eaten by a wolf.

Meanwhile, a caravan traveller comes across the well that Yusuf resides in and takes him to another town to sell him as a slave. Yusuf is sold to Aziz, one of the powerful people within the community. Aziz’s wife falls in love with Yusuf and attempts to seduce him, but Yusuf - as a righteous person - refuses her attention. After word begins to spread of Aziz’s wife trying to lure her slave, she becomes embarrassed and proceeds to invite all of her female friends over to witness Yusuf’s beauty to prove that she is not to blame for her actions. Before Aziz’s wife presents Yusuf to her friends, she hands them each a knife to see if they would slip and lose their concentration when they see Yusuf. Alas, once Yusuf is presented before the women, they all cut their hands with the knives, demonstrating Yusuf’s mesmerizing allure.

After Yusuf declines the women’s invitation, he prays to Allah: “O my Lord! Prison is more to my liking than that to which they invite me: unless you turn away their plot from me, I may feel inclined towards them and join the ranks of the ignorant.”

So Allah responds to Yusuf’s duaa and he is sent to prison. While in prison, Yusuf meets two prisoners who ask him to interpret their dreams; the first prisoner dreamt that he was pressing wine and the second prisoner dreamt that he was carrying a basket of bread on top of his head while birds fed from the bread. Yusuf predicted that the dream of the first prisoner meant that he

would go on to serve wine for the King of Egypt, and that the second prisoner would be crucified and birds will eat from his head.

Years later, the first prisoner has been released and - as Yusuf predicts - becomes a servant for the King of Egypt. The King has a dream and calls on the people to interpret his dream, so the servant - with Yusuf in mind - tells the King about Yusuf who is still locked away in prison. The King releases Yusuf and Yusuf illustrates the King’s dream: “Verily, I saw seven fat cows, whom seven lean ones were devouring - and of seven green ears of corn, and seven others dry.

O notables! Explain to me my dream, if it be that you can interpret dreams.”

To which Yusuf replied: “For seven consecutive years, you shall sow as usual and that the harvest which you reap you shall leave in ears, all - except a little of it which you may eat. Then will come after that, seven hard years, which will devour what you have laid by in advance for them, all except a little of that which you have guarded stored. Then thereafter will come a year in which people will have abundant rain and in which they will press wine and oil.”

The King rewards Yusuf by making him the Treasurer of Egypt, and eventually Yusuf’s family finds him after fleeing their village due to the famine and beg for forgiveness.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 45

GURU NANAK AND THE REALM OF CHLOROPHYLL CATHEDRALS.

WORDS BY RAMAN MUNDAIR.

I grew up devout - a child of spiritual ritual, raised Sikh by my mother – a woman of strict faith. Pictures of Guru Nanak looking compassionate and benign and bearing an uncanny resemblance to an Indian Father Christmas were dotted around our working class home. I am a first generation migrant. My mother and I arrived from India together and forged our way together navigating the beta urban landscape Manchester in the late seventies and early eighties. I grew up without extended family and in my mind Guru Nanak also took on the role of unofficial Bapuji – a two dimensional grandfather 46 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

albeit omniscient and judgemental.

My Mummyji was observant – she kept all the holy days, instructed me on how to light diyas and incense in the correct fashion – head covered and in prayer.

Together we would douse the house, ourselves and family members with sacred blessings. It felt as if it was something important, right and necessary. It felt like it was something to be part of.

Sundays and occasional Saturday evenings were taken up by visits to Bury New Road, Moss side and Whalley Range Gudwaras.

Early memories of lush rooms lined with deep red flocked wallpaper and tinsel garlands, folk in bright silks and polyesters, Gyanis intoning sacred prayers and holy music all mixed in with the delicious smell of desi langar being cooked provided a full on sensory landscape for a child. I may not have understood or processed the detail but I enjoyed the spectacle and felt its deep rooted connection to culture and homeland.

As an older child, perhaps nine or ten years of age I became more aware of other forms of worship. The Lord’s Prayer, hymns and carols communicated a Christian narrative that were an ever present part of my school life. As English had displaced my mother tongue, I was, regretfully in some ways, more attuned to the Christian narrative (simply because it was a structured part of my school day) than I was to the complex, colourful stories of the Ten Sacred Gurus who constructed the Sikh faith.

It was around this time that I became aware of sacred ritual. I remember watching the BBC programme – ‘Songs of Praise’ being fascinated with the Sunday service. Later, in private I took my glass of ribena and drank the ‘Blood of Christ.’ A squished morsel of white bread became my ‘Body of Christ’.

I knelt and imagined myself as a habit-clad Deborah Kerr in ‘Black Narcissus,’ looking heavenwards as I crossed myself. This was the beginning of my realising that religion can have an element of performance to it.

As a student in London and I was introduced to an impressive, sleek Buddhist centre in East London by a group of Queer Black

women whose politics and activism I greatly admired. The Buddhist centre was unlike any place of worship I had encountered before. It had a finely developed aesthetic.

The buildings, which incorporated a place of prayer, teaching, living quarters (for order members), a cafe and bookshop, were painted in subtle Mandala colours, with saffron and gold highlighting sacred spaces.

Magnificent and ornate flower arrangements with expensive fresh Birds of Paradise and exotic Lillies featured at the alter. No sign of the carnations and roses I was used to the Gudwara. This was a different league.

Interior design and moments of decorative beauty was a clear part of its remit and lure.

The majority of the congregation were white and middle class. There were gatherings where we would pay for the privilege to discuss teachings and the opportunity to go on expensive retreats in the country. The retreat centres were equally impressive and located in picture perfect English landscapes.

There was much that attracted me at first but I soon realised that there were many things that didn’t sit right with me. It was a very seductive and expensive scene. Small things like the overpriced vegetarian cafe that was largely fuelled on the voluntary labour of women. Bigger things like the realisation that the order ran retreats in India for Indians interested in Buddhism, many of whom were not earning a high wage, yet were expected to pay a relatively large sum for the privilege of having a western take on the Indian born Buddha. I had by that point a precarious commitment to the order and this was one of the death nails for me.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 47

I have had some wonderful experiences of imposed solitude and retreat. Great moments of spiritual and creative reflection. Delicious and intense moments of golden silence.

These have been joyous and life changing moments which have fed and sustained me.

I once enjoyed a retreat at a convent of nuns from the St Augustine order. Where I took a memorable walking meditation with a nun in her seventies. We ended up deep in conversation and came away with a thought-jewel - “True faith is doubt.” That in order to be truly engaged in spiritual practice, we must be in constant dialogue with ourselves and our faith. We must be confident in our exploration and pushing of boundaries and concepts of religion and belief.

A few years later I came across the Vipassana retreat, which has been a real gift in my life. The ethics and simplicity of S.N. Goenkaji’s interpretation of Buddhism sits right with me. The retreats are free of charge for beginners and donation only thereafter, making it accessible and affordable for all. The teachings are gentle and not prescriptive. There is no pressure to convert or give up worldly life and take up saffron robes and the guise of an ascetic. In fact the opposite is encouraged – that if we can live compassionate and mindful moments in our daily routine, then we are living successfully.

It is acknowledged that the mundane nature of domestic and worldly life is the most challenging for spirituality. That it is easy to be a ‘successful’ practitioner/believer in a cloistered setting – it is easier to observe the rules and guidance of faith, belief and spirit there. What is a real achievement is to practice in amongst the chaos of daily reality.

Goenka’s Vipassana (there are other Buddhist movements with the name Vipassana, but here I specifically refer to S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana Buddhist teachings) is an active Buddhist movement with centres around the world. It has a strong element of seva – of volunteer work and meaningful acts of compassion. An example of which is ongoing work in prison reform and rehabilitation.

Undertaking ten days of silence and reflection on spiritual retreat have been life-enhancing for me. They have also allowed me the headspace to return to and reconsider original Sikh values. Values that have never left me and I have come to realise are an important part of my identity. From the relationship I have with my hair- hair is sacred in Sikhism; my egalitarian social and political views pair well with the Sikh concept of seva and right livelihood and my feminist ideals – Guru Nanak was overt in declaring that women and men were of equal value when founding the faith. I also realise that my openness to spiritual discourse and dialogue is perhaps in part influenced by Guru Nanak, who was keenly engaged in interfaith dialogue and was clear to state that all gods are one, one are all gods.

The concept of a retreat is an important one for me. The idea of self imposed silence. An observation and communion with self – a non consumer ‘me time,’ if you will. It is especially vital for women of colour, as we are often in positions where our energies are being constantly drained in one way or another. Virgina Woolf is assigned the beautiful idea of ‘A Room of One’s Own’ - a retreat in many ways can create that for me. It offers me the opportunity to spring clean my inner space, my mind, my head space. Make it fit for purpose – a private, pure space for a woman with many necessary plates a-spinning and many creative endeavours aflow-ing.

The politics of headspace are acute and fine. There are few who have the financial 48 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

means or capacity to take time out to spiritually re-fuel, retreat and renew. For me my encounters with the natural world are mini retreats â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are moments of wonder, experiences that feed my spirit, connect me with a loving, majestic higher power.

For me the natural world and spirituality are entwined. A forest is a chlorophyll cathedral. The sea and sky an ever-changing sacred prayer. In the natural world faith makes sense and human beings are given their true perspective â&#x20AC;&#x201C; fragile, small creatures in a bigger, nuanced and vibrant picture.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 49

ALIA YOUSSEF.

“Tea meditation leads to contemplation for me. Anything can be a dialogue with the divine when you transform it from the mundane to the sacred.“ Aalya is a 27 year old Pakistani-Canadian who identifies as a Nizari Ismaili Shi’i Muslim. She described her identity to me as being a minority within a minority within a minority. When I asked her how she would like to be perceived, Aalya told me, “I want to be perceived as that person whose thoughts, words, and actions reflect the Islamic ethos by helping those who exist on the periphery of society and its norms.” Being informed about her identity and faith itself is important 50 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

to Aalya, she is completing her master’s degree in both education of Islamic societies and civilizations and teaching. She is also a secondary religious educator. Aalya told me what’s most important to her is “being an inclusive ally for others and seeking consent, always. The safety, wellbeing, and happiness of my loved ones are also very important to me.” Aalya appeared to be a very thoughtful, conversational, and spiritual, she admits that she believes she is perceived as “a spiritually rooted happy-go-lucky camper who thinks and talks excessively.” She mentions often that she is always thinking; her favourite place to find herself is when she is lost in

her own head. “I have a vivid imagination and possess a reflective nature. Getting lost in one’s thoughts can be a dangerous habit. So it is just as important to find myself. The only time in her life she can recall not being flooded with thoughts is when she was skydiving 7 years ago, “but after the free fall, thoughts began to float back into my mind,” she told me.

“Here shows just how far I’ve come. I have a limited background in farming, but I pursued it via course-work and practical training because I wanted it. Sure, it does not totally align with my degree but it totally aligns with my interests in sustainability.”

Saba is a 22-year-old commerce student who works as the Data Coordinator at the Ryerson Urban Farm. When she isn’t flexing her economic or sustainability muscles, she’s sharing her wealth of information on fitness, health, wellness, and food on her personal blog. Saba loves sharing information, but even more so she loves learning it, which is a quality she loves most about herself.

She told me, “Knowing your options about everything (and I mean everything) is power. It’s very empowering to the self to be aware of choice.” Saba continues to stress how important this is to her in relation to Muslim women stereotypes. She commented, “If anything could be improved upon, it would be others awareness that we are independent. The decisions we make are our own. Our religion, our culture, and our families impact our decisions, just as your religion (or non religious affiliation), your culture, and your families affect yours.

Ultimately though, we make our own decisions, just as you make your own.” ​“My yoga centre is my OM away from

OM. It is my sanctuary, it is the place I have created for others to feel connected to themselves and each other.” Salimah is a 46 year old entrepreneur, yoga centre owner, and yoga therapist. She is of Indian origin, was born in Nairobi, Kenya and immigrated to Canada when she was 4. She absolutely loves walking, especially if it’s to a place she has never been before. Being in new situations with new people is actually the quality she loves the most about herself. It’s one of the reasons ‘saying yes’ is so important to her, it allows her to continually shift perspective, and find herself connecting and laughing with others. The person she laughs the hardest with though is her son who Salimah told me has “spontaneous answers to just about anything.” Salimah has such a positive and beautiful outlook on things, she told me that she believes “in the magic of life, in giving up what’s good for what is even better, in a higher power, and in acting on intuition.”

When I asked Salimah how she thinks she’s perceived she responded: “Lesbian, Yogi, Brown, Muslim aka Human” but she would prefer to just be perceived as human.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 51

YIMING SUN.

Spiritual System Opposing Internet System? a processed interview with Zhang Ji Yiming Sun 2017-10-09 Q: Who are you? (name, age, occupation) Zhang: Zhang Ji, 23, born in Beijing. Currently I am working on a jewellery project in Milan. I just landed in Milan this morning.

new sense added to our 5 senses, a reserved capacity of our sensory organism. It is reserved because culturally we don’t have the capacity to exercise it. We made use of our sight and hearing so often that we recognize visual information and audio information easily. If we tend to develop our sensory experience of smell and touch consistently, we would have access to more perceptions that will help us open up our world current world perceptions that could be considered narrow.

In fact, Spirits and ghosts are all kinds of data.

Q: Is spirituality the inspiration of your practice?

Zhang: My project is related to numerology but I don’t have a name for it at the moment, its related to jewellery design. It is inspired by my spiritual system and is designed for this system, I plan to make jewellery out of this system. The system I have created is based on the number 6, it is representing the twodimensional version of the metric system.

Q: Is it true that you see spirits?

Zhang: I will put it in another way, Spirits or ghosts are a part of our human senses that is unlike the five-major sense we are familiar with. As human’s we can read our own senses which creates data from the stimuli. From all five of our senses, we become informed by a range of data to construct perception that will describe how we feel. This is mediated by language that will communicate what we think. The ability to detect other stimuli beyond those ordinary senses also exists, but they are somehow veiled or have been long reserved i.e. Ghosts and Spirits. Spirits are a

The capacity to sense the spirits has remained out of literal language in our world. We have few word to name and speak about it, which makes it hard to translate. Things associated with spiritual senses probably have relevance to the feeling of detecting the entity of space itself and the content of time.

Such feelings nevertheless tend to translate initially into forms of visual information.

Simply because vision is the chief sense.

Q: When is the first time you saw them?

Zhang: The first time I detected them was at the age of 4 or 5. I would describe them as very visually intense data. It’s a communication, an exchange of data. It had a lot of connections to the space where I was.

Q: How does it feel like seeing/ communicating with them?

Zhang: Like you are communicating with data directly.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 53

Q: How do you distinguish them?

Zhang: They are data themselves, so am I. Let me explain it another way. It feels like yourself, as a human being, as a body, a mind, your spirit elicits from a space, your spirit comes so close to their spirit as to come into contact with them. There is the certain tension right in between your spirit and theirs. It’s through the senses.

As long as there is tension between me and the spirit there will be a data exchange.

Tension (energy) exists everywhere, arching from space to time, attaching to objects.

It enables objects to transform. Located in a particular space, your spirit should have its own tension, a driving force, such as centrifugal and centripetal force. The gravity, engulfs it, so do the Spirits.

If there is a spirit over there right now, your spirit will grow a connect to it.

Q: How do you make sense of yourself as being able to see a different world compared to your peers?

Zhang: Self-identification is a tough thing for me and it always has been. It involves problems. From time to time, you get people think you are mentally ill, after all it is an excessive work of the sense, generally speaking. You get lonely. Because a large part of your life is impossible to be expressed to others. You may only write it down and talk to the spirits, which annoyed me sometimes.

Q: How does this ability and communication change your life?

Zhang: As I was growing up, I developed a practice in drawing and writing to record the ghosts and spirits as well as a way of expressing myself. This has allowed me to create my spiritual system. It became a special language for me to self-reflect and 54 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

produce, in spite of the lack of external communication which is still significant, it nurtured me internally and began to be my advantage position. Because of the capacity, I get to know the world through exceptional paths with exceptional accessibilities, which I can make use of to help people who may understand a little bit and are curious to learn more. I realised my system is useful as it elicits a sympathetic reaction from certain people; it evokes their spiritual energy from reservation. This is what I have been doing in my recent project. The jewellery I made, as well as the system, are all for my clients, for their spiritual practice and need.

Q: How do you think people are interested in and able to understand your work in the contemporary art context and market?

Zhang: I don’t know. The collectors of my works are my clients. I guess that those who understand my system understand my artworks. Most of my paintings are literal. I see a figure of a man, feel its spirit, represent it by abstract lines. There are also complicated works. The photography. In my photographic works, there are a lot of sensory logics, which could be distant to the mass.

But I could not bother, those logics exist and so my clients sense them. It is such a fantastic thing, very exclusive - if you see what I mean - the incommunicable sympathetic!

The incommunicability is, in fact, communicable in certain levels. To further elaborate, let’s imagine a para-world. It’s the process of developing my current art project as well. In photography, I think about space, colour, and layers, I think the word is a construction of consciousness. Vision is one path of data, I don’t take it at least. I take the combination of the multipath of data so as to approach the world. It is about how to combine the multitude. Lines are lines.

Existed images are existed images. I collect and integrate all these data into simple and conceptual work, during a whole process

that resembles the modality of reasoning.

Q: Can you talk more about the spiritual system? What do these numbers stand for? (Fig. 3 & 4) Z: It depicts a process of energy distribution, consists of thirty-six ghost positions. I class it as what we conventionally see as “ghost”, i.e. the ones we see in movies.

presented in communicable language in the first place so that people can get to expand self-reflection and upgrade self-identity. If we still are to stay on the present sensing level, we would be crashed and flattened eventually by the World-Wide-Web. My spiritual system may appear as opposite to the internet system, which could be a good thing for the future of human beings.

Literal language applied here is only for the sake of interpretation, as a subordinary way, in order to compromise the communication culture of our world.

Q: How come you decide to construct your own spiritual system?

Z: It is actually a division, a construction, an algorithm of consciousness, through which we read the world. Future-telling is not what it is made for, it is made for reading the world. As the jewellery I made, the six branches representing six exquisites (Six Ling Long) entangle with one another denotes the system of world. (Pig. 1 & 2) Fig. 1 & 2 Six Exquisites (Six Ling Long) Jewellery Is there any reason? I don’t think there is any. Everyone born into the world has its own initial driving force. I find it my driving force. It is the energy of my spirit that calls at me, activates me to execute it.

If seeing from more secular view, if seeing from my view of the “untrustworthy body”, I am willing to bring this system out to the world and so hopefully make the world better.

I am, frankly speaking, concerned with making the world better. I personally feel it unprogressive or progressively worse.

Human beings are either getting severely bleak of natural capacities or they just know too little to progress. Human beings are sharing the urge to progress, and this progression is in need to be provided and HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 55

I WAS A BUDDHIST FOR SEVEN YEARS. WORDS BY MELODIE HOLLIDAY.

Vajrapani by Melodie Holliday.

I started going to a local Buddhist centre to do meditation. As a young mother of two babies I knew that it was important that I looked after myself. Meditation seemed like the answer and before long I was going along to weekly meditation sessions. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take long for me to get to know the team members running the centre and after a few months. I grew curious about Buddhism and started attending Buddhism sessions as well as learning about the dharma (teachings) and sangha (community). In my centre, I was one of two Black people, however, I did not let this fact deter me. Over the course of months, I would go off on retreats leaving 56 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

the kids with their father or taking them with me. I would meditate in fields while they fell asleep with their heads on my laps.

We tried to build a sense of community during the one or two weeks that I would stay in the retreats. Luckily, for me my children describe this time as the best time of their lives for two reasons they built a strong relationship with their Dad and also because they could run free in the wilderness. Which would have been fairly hard to do in London otherwise. I became more enmeshed in the centre and its activities. I climbed the ranks of the order

participating in rituals and events, which allowed me to become part of the team and community. Generosity was a big part of the teachings of the order this could mean generosity of your time, money, services etc.

For a while it was fun but then I started to notice that the organisation continuously sent out letters for fundraising all the time and while people explained that it was not expected that everyone donate money it did seem like a kind of unspoken pressure to give in some way.

Whether it be time, money, skills, volunteering it felt like quite a big commitment. I noticed people would get involved and then somehow feel undervalued because at the same time there was a hierarchy of positions. Even though you made a commitment to the faith you were not yet part of the main order, to do that there was a special ceremony and your name would be changed. This process could take years and some people would feel disappointed that they had given up so much of their time but could not seem to be approved to join this elitist order.

The community had many enterprises one was a proposed café, which they were trying to get off the ground. I noticed that at the forefront of building the café were women.

They seemed to do all of the cooking etc. and I started to think that it was ridiculous as I am a feminist and the last thing I was going to do was be stuck in some kitchen alongside other women cooking and cleaning while the men got on with “Holy” work or whatever it was they were doing. How sexist!

Secondly, I found out that the man who started the organisation, had been accused of sexual

misconduct by a younger man many years ago.

It was something that everyone knew about but it was kept on the down low. I researched online and really, I was not surprised a wellknown artist did some work in which she stated, “Abuse of power comes as no surprise”.

I started to take a look around and see the imbalance of relationships. One of my acquaintances was seeing a member of the order and he failed to make a firm commitment to her because it might interfere with his spiritual practice. In another world, we might call this having one’s cake and eating it. In this world, however, it seemed to mean that they could fool around and when it got serious the men could bail out.

I started to see all was not as it seems on one retreat I noticed a young single mother who had arrived on her own not knowing anyone, cuddling up to an older male order member as if they had known each other for a lifetime.

For me the evidence of abuse of power was just too much. I felt that this organisation exposed many aspects of organised religion that are wrong. Sexism, racism (the same order member huddled up to the young single mother he had only just met. Told me that “without my torch in the pitch black you wouldn’t be able to see me in the dark”. This was a casual comment that he thought was perfectly normal to express and he failed to see that it could be considered as at all offensive. One of many examples of unethical behaviour that contributed to bursting my spiritual bubble. Now, I have my own rituals, my own belief systems inherited from my ancestors and I am extremely sceptical of those religions whose belief systems are built on the foundations of colonialism.

HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 57

INTERVIEW WITH RAHUL PATEL.

So you’re part of teaching within right?

Yes, that’s right … And how long have you been a part of teaching within?

It started in 2016, the first cohort started in September 2016, so that’s when we were selected and became part of the teaching within cohort and we’ve been with them ever since.

What were you doing before Teaching Within?

Before Teaching Within I was and still am researching into exhibitions into archives but also I’m a curator and exhibition designer.

So what sort of exhibitions? Is there anything specific?

Well, specifically what I’ve been doing is exploring archives. Either archives that are local to a particular area or as part of university archives and then exploring the relationship, a particular relationship, then exploring that. So, for example I did an exhibition on a studio photographer and he was based in Brixton and he was there from the 50s 60s 70s era. He came to the end of his life in the 80s and he was from a Jewish background born in east London but photographed through that period, people locally who had come. He had a fantastic production of people from an Afro Caribbean background who had come as migrants and lived here and had their lives photographed.

And then what happened was that when

he closed his photography shop he just gave all these photos to the local Lambeth archive, he had about 3000 photos, from that there’s been various exhibitions, very small exhibitions. That was one of the ones I did for Morley College that is attached to Morley, Gallery. They would send photos back when they qualified or did something important, got married had kids and all of that and that configured their lives.

I also researched the black and Asian archives at Chelsea College of Art which was established in the 1980s by a librarian Liz Ward because they a black American student came to her and said, this is in Central Saint Martins, “Where are the black artists? There’s nothing in this library about black British artists”. Then she started collecting all the work from exhibitions, notices, catalogues, all of that of black artists and so that became a very important critically acclaimed archive which was used by institutions across the country because no other library had information about black artists.

Would you say that you’re religious? Or Spiritual?

No, I’m an Atheist. But what I understand is the importance that religion plays in people’s lives. It cannot be disregarded or ignored or to be distorted.

Were you raised Atheist or were you raised in a religion?

Well, I was brought up in a Hindu family who would do the key events if that were what you would like to call it and

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occasionally went to Sunday temple but that was mainly a community effort rather than we had to go and this will be apart of our daily routine, our daily spiritual routine. It wasn’t that and it was like the community went there and it was a way of getting together with the community. And I think that plays a key part for a lot of people, in terms of what takes place because for a lot of people the outside world is ugly. It’s horrible.

So for those who are people of colour, racism plays a key role in how they can keep together. And use a kind of environment that is their own environment to think and do things and have a kind of spiritual patience to try and gain solace, dignity but also try and understand a very difficult world.

Therefore you can see why amongst people of colour it plays a significant role because there are no spaces out there where this kind of thinking can occur. It’s odd that one of the most internationally renowned universities, University of the Arts London, it is not talked about. It is not debated, it is not theorised, it is not understood in anyway shape or form.

Well, we do have 2 church chaplains…

Every university has chaplains and there will be some space, prayer space in most universities dominated by Christian union or Christianity in one way or the other even though there are more students of Muslim faith around so we need to consider space for them as well in a different way. At this particular moment I feel there is a pernicious othering of the Muslim faith. Two specific counts, this idea that enlightenment we accept religion but actually in practice it is not accepted. It is othering it is done on the basis that these are a kind of alien or medieval or barbaric religion that has been brought into what’s actually taken place. So that takes place on a daily basis of, especially Muslim women, in terms of the clothes they wear and therefore immediately become objects rather than becoming a subject. They are not seen as someone you can converse with or take their opinions or they’re allowed 60 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

a voice. They’re just seen as objects that you cannot communicate with but somehow they’re either seen as oppressed or if they are articulate they’re ignored in everyway shape or form. It’s very insidious. The other thing that takes place is the question of Muslim men, there is an absolutely nasty tenacious argument taking place that they’re all sexual predators. That started in Europe and now it has been gathering momentum from isolated events such as in Bradford etc. so the whole thing is kind of tarnished in that terrible way. I see Islamaphobia as a mirror image to anti-semitism was actually dealt with beforehand as well, the way that imagery was used of people. The other thing is the underline of this whole process is this idea that these people are going to take over because they are breeding too many people, you can go through this academisation, academics coming up with this sort of stuff. These are right wing people coming up with nasty stuff about people from the Muslim faith, that they are going to take over our culture, they’ve got too many children etc. Completely devoid of fact in any way shape or form but it is accepted as a kind of myth and when you look at the population numbers it just doesn’t meet fact but it’s the narrative that is progressed continuously though publications, through the media and everything like that.

So what do you think universities can do to counteract that narrative?

I think what has to happen is a difficult and sometimes, sharp debates need to happen in universities. There are so many people who would like to have a debate but they don’t necessarily have the tools to do that, they don’t have the theoretical tools to do that and I’m thinking in an institution like ours there are a lot of people who are just caught as rabbits with headlights in them not knowing what to do. What I think that has happened over the last 30 years a particular form of theory, postmodernism, poststructuralism

etc. have taken away the idea of history and that’s meant that a debate cannot take place.

people.” So he says the conditions people are in, why are you ignoring people’s conditions?

Is that just amongst tutors or student as well?

Do you think religion, spirituality & faith increases or decreases creativity?

Both, amongst student’s, tutors, senior lecturers, in the lecture room and in public debates. The curriculum means what kind of student’s do we have in the university?

Are they coming from those kind of backgrounds? I can go to a university round the corner from CSM or Chelsea, LCC and I will find that the student population reflects the local community or the community around London while UAL does not. CSM is hideously white.

They don’t even have people behind the canteen who are black! The security guard’s but that’s about it! For me that is people, people are curriculum. Students as well as tutors…I don’t know how many tutors are Muslim? We don’t but they would not be seen as part of this institution, which is seen as a kind of a international religious institution, art and design are not religious.

I think it increases creativity. Anything that involves people, human beings practice enhances the process of creativity. Anything that’s made exclusive rather than inclusive decreases it and I think let’s be brutal about it CSM and UAL suffers from that. A lack of creativity. There is a huge element of people who’s creativity is being ignored because they have to conform through a particular method or a particular way of doing things.

Do you think it’s important for Atheists to be in the know about religion?

Absolutely, I think it is people’s choice whether or not they want to practice religion.

There’s a wrong assumption that people are forced into religion, I disagree with that.

Society creates conditions where people have to look for spirituality, which is racism and wars so therefore you have to demonise a group of people so that they can be bombed.

So that’s what you do on a regular basis, but I do think people need to understand, there’s one quote that people continually use but it is totally misquoted and for me this quote plays an important guiding rule to the way I see religion “Religion is the opium of the people” – Karl Marx what they don’t look at is the first part of the quote, “Heart of the heartless heart, soul of a soulless society, therefore religion becomes the opium of the HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 61

AYHAM JABR.

Target by Dan Holliday

DAMASCUS UNIVERSITY.

SON: Does religion, faith, spirituality increase or decrease creativity?

AJ: That depends on the region. 50 years from now Saudi Arabia will still Wahabi as it was but Syria will get more secular.

AJ: neither.

SON: Is there a distinct difference between religion, faith, spirituality & belief?

AJ: they are all based on fiction and fear SON: How can religion, race, gender & sexuality intersect?

AJ: by controlling and redirect race, gender and sexuality for the sake of the religion SON: How can art education support students whose identity is shaped by their religion?

SON: How does your work relate or explore this topic?

AJ: A quote from the Genesis and that being used in all religions “ God Created Mankind In His Own Image”.

Each person is addicted to something, not just drugs, does that mean god is an addict also!

Or in the evolution theory that shatters all religions claiming that God created us in human shape from the beginning.

Or even Seduction that makes me feel that also God was weak towards the seduction just as much as humans

AJ: All ART in Religion is forbidden “ HARAM” unfortunately.

SON: How does the perception of religion differ between current and previous generations?

AJ: It does not differ. the religion is getting fractured and outcasted each generation and it is getting as radical as it was 1500 years back SON: Where do we envision the role of religion in the next 50 years?

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FURTHER RESOURCES.

KEY TERMS. African American Hoodoo

Also known as “conjure”, "rootworking", "root doctoring", or "working the root", is a traditional African American folk spirituality that developed from a number of West Africanspiritual traditions and beliefs.

Afro-American religions

Also known as African diasporic religions or New World traditions) are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas in various nations of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. They derive from traditional African religions of Africa with some influence from Christianity.

Afterlife

(Also referred to as life after death or the hereafter) is the belief that an essential part of an individual’s identity or the stream of consciousness continues to manifest after the death of the physical body.

Allah

The name for God, the Supreme Being, in the Arabic language; the common name for God in Islam.

Ally

A person of one social identity group who stands up in support of members of another group; typically a member of a dominant group standing beside member(s) of a group being discriminated against or treated unjustly.

Atheism

Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.

Belief

A religious tenet or tenets; religious creed or faith:

Biracial

Having parents of two different races

Black

A term used in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification or of ethnicity to name people, especially one of African, Australian Aboriginal and/or Melanisian ancestry.

Black Feminism

The belief that sexism, class oppression, gender identity and racism are impossible to separate. These concepts relate to each other through intersectionality

Body politics

The term refers to the practices and policies through which powers of society regulate the human body, as well as the struggle over the degree of individual and social control of the body. The powers at play in body politics include institutional power expressed in government and laws, disciplinary power exacted in economic production, discretionary power exercised in consumption, and personal power negotiated in intimate relations HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF. // 69

Brujería

Spanish-language word for "witchcraft". Both men and women can practice; brujo(s) and bruja(s),respectively.

Buddhism

A widespread Asian religion or philosophy, founded by Siddartha Gautama in NE India in the 5th century BC.

Catholicism

The traditions and beliefs of Catholic Churches. It refers to their theology, liturgy, ethics and spirituality. The term usually refers to churches, both western and eastern, that are in full communion with the Holy See. The Catholic Church is the main and earliest form of Christianity.

Candomblé

(Dance in honour of the gods) is an Afro-American religious tradition, practiced mainly in Brazil by the “povo do santo” (people of the saint). Officially originated in Salvador, Bahia at the beginning of the 19th century, when the first temple was founded.

Cisgender

A person who identifies with the gender that was assigned for them at birth

Christian

the religion based on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, or its beliefs and practices.

Colourism

A term coined by Alice Walker in 1982. Describes the ideology and practice that dark skinned people are lesser than light skinned people.

This ideology is indigenous to many cultures outside of the West but is one of the main foundations of racism and white supremacy.

Cuban Vodú

Also known as La Regla de Arará, is a syncretic religion of Caribbean origin which developed in the Spanish Empire.

Democracy

A form of government, tied strongly to Anceint Greek political systems, wherein citizens of a state elect representatives to govern them and potentially have the power to remove such representatives from their position.

Desi

A Person of the indian subcontinent or South Asian diaspora. Desi countries include; Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Diaspora

Scattered population whose origin lies within a different geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland.

Dominican Vudú

Also known as Las 21 Divisiones (21 Divisions), is a syncretic religion of Caribbean origin which developed in the Spanish Empire.

Espiritismo

A term used in Latin America and the Caribbean to refer to the popular belief that good and evil spirits can affect health, luck and other aspects of human life.

Ethnicity

A group of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared historical, social, cultural experiences, ancestry which distinguish them from other groups.

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Faith

A set of particular religious beliefs and complete trust or confidence in someone or something.

Femininity

A set of behaviours, presentations and roles which are culturally associated with being a woman and/or possessing female sex characteristics. People of any gender identity or sexual orientation can be feminine, but women and those who are assigned female at birth often experience societal pressure to be so.

Folk healer

An unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices, herbal remedies and even the power of suggestion.

Gender

Gender is an expression of the reenactment of certain roles. it may differ from time to time.

God

(In Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.

Haitian Vodou

A syncretic religion practiced chiefly in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora.

Practitioners are called â&#x20AC;&#x153;vodouists" or "servants of the spirits".

Heteronormative

The belief that people can only fall into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with fixed traditional gender roles. It assumes that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or the only norm.

Hinduism

A diverse body of religion, philosophy, and cultural practice native to and predominant in India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils.

Heteronormative

Prejudice against same gender sexual and/or romantic relationships.

This hatred extends to the cultures of LGBT/queer people.

Inclusive

Not excluding any section of society or any party involved in something.

Internalised Racism Internalised racism is loosely defined as the internalisation by people of racist attitudes towards members of their own ethnic group.

Intersectional Feminism

A perspective within feminism that doesn't exclude people from the movement based on their Gender, Race and Class.

Intersectionality

A term coined by KimberlĂŠ Crenshaw which examines how social identities are used as a way to discriminate against marginalised groups who experience multiple forms of oppression simultaneously. Specifically women of colour who suffer from both gender and racial discrimination.

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Interfaith

Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religioustraditions (i.e., "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels.

Islam

the religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.

Islamaphobia

dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.

Jehovah’s Witnesses A millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity Judaism

An ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion with the Torah as its foundational text. It encompasses the religion, philosophy and culture of the Jewish people

Kumina

An African Jamaican religion and practices that include secular ceremonies, dance and music that developed from the beliefs and traditions brought to the island by BaKongo enslaved people and indentured labourers, from the Congo region of West Central Africa, during the post-emancipation era.

Louisiana Voodoo

Also known as New Orleans Voodoo, describes a set of spiritual folkways developed from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions developed by West and Central Africans populations of the U.S. state of Louisiana.

Lucumí

A creolized remnant of Yoruba language retentions in Cuba and the liturgical language of Santería in Cuba

Marginalise

To relegate to the fringes, out of the mainstream; make seem unimportant:to place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power.

Masculinity

A set of behaviours, presentations and roles which are culturally associated with being a man and/or possessing male sex characteristics. People of any gender identity or sexual orientation can be masculine, but those who are assigned male at birth often experience societal pressure to be so.

Meditation

To focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation

Minority

a small group of people within a community or country, differing from the main population in race, religion, language, or political persuasion.

Muslim

a follower of the religion of Islam.

Oppression

When a person or a group of people are subjected to unjust, and usually violent treatment by those in position of power.

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Orisha

A spirit who reflects one of the manifestations of the supreme divinity (Eledumare, Olorun, Olofi) in Yoruba religion

Orthodoxy

(From Greek orthodoxia â&#x20AC;&#x201C; â&#x20AC;&#x153;right opinion") is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.

Paganism

A term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity for populations of the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population or because they were not milites Christi (soldiers of Christ)

Patriarchy

A social system in which cis-men hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property at the specific exclusion of women and non gender conforming people, at least to a large degree.

POC

Person/People of colour, has been used and taken up at different points in history in different places to describe non-white, European people.

Prayer

a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity.

Prejudice

Hatred towards someone based on their identity. Example: An oppressed person of colour can be prejudiced against privileged races but cannot be racist.

Privilege

A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a individuals in particular groups by institutions.

Pronouns

A word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse. People with various gender identities choose pronouns they feel comfortable with; some people may have more than one pronoun.

QTIPOC

Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour

Queer

An umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heterosexual and/or cisgender

Queer Phobia

Similar to Homophobia, describes a fear or hatred of queer folk (any one who is not heterosexual)

Quimbanda

An Afro-Brazilian religion practiced primarily in the urban city centers of Brazil. Quimbanda practices are typically associated with magic, rituals with Exus, and Pombagiras spirits. Quimbanda was originally contained under the religious tradition of Macumba.

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Race

A socially constructed system of classification of the human population into distinct, unequal, discontinuous groups, based, from the 17th century onwards, on physical features and ancestry. Though the concept existed long before this time, in many different forms, it was used by European scholars, scientists, merchants and nobility to legitimise and justify their genocide and dispossession of the peoples of America and enslavement of Sub-Saharan Africans.

Racial ambiguity

Unable to pinpoint one's racial background just by looking at them. Being racially unidentifiable.

Racism

Acts of prejudice, bigotry, and/or discrimination of individuals of one race against members of other races. These acts do not count as racism if they are coming from members of a marginalised race, i.e. black people, as they do not have the social, political or economic power to make their actions opressive and effective.

Racism also refers to institutional, systemic, linguistic and economic structures that perpetuate the idea of racial superiority and inferiority, allowing for a wide range of effects, e.g. skin-bleaching, overrepresentation of PoC in prisons, underrepsentation of PoC in media, the poverty of Africa and its Diaspora community.

Radicalisation

Radicalization (or radicalisation) is a process by which an individual, or group comes to adopt increasingly extreme political, social, or religious ideals and aspirations that reject or undermine the status quo or undermine contemporary ideas and expressions of the nation

Religion

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Usually done as a collective

Representation

Refers to equality in opportunity and visibility. For example, representative media is media that is reflective of the variety of races, cultures, genders or religions that its entire readership belongs to.

Roman Catholic

A term sometimes used to differentiate members of the Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome from other Christians, especially those who also self-identify as “Catholic", such as Anglo-Catholics and Independent Catholics.

Santeria

Also known as Regla de Ochá, La Regla de Ifá, or Lucumi, is an Afro-American religion of Caribbean origin that developed in the Spanish Empire among West African descendants. Santeria is a Spanish word that means the "worship of saints".

Santo Daime

A syncretic religion founded in the 1930s in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre by Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Mestre Irineu. Santo Daime incorporates elements of several religious or spiritual traditions including Folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, African animism and indigenous South American shamanism, including vegetalismo.

Self Defining women A person who identifies as a woman, regardless of what gender was assigned for them at birth 74 // HIGHER POWER: RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY & BELIEF.

Seventh-day Adventist

A Church that is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in Christian and Jewish calendars, as Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Sex

Denotation of human females and males depending on biological features (chromosomes, sex organs, hormones and other physical features)

Sexual Orientations A persons sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted Sexuality

Refers to a person's sexual orientation/preferences in terms of sexual activities

Shamanism

A practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world

Sikhism

A religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent about the end of the 15th century

Social Justice

justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

Spiritism

A spiritualistic philosophy codified in the 19th century by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the codename Allan Kardec; it proposed the study of “the nature, origin, and destiny of spirits, and their relation with the corporeal world”

Spirituality

The quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Trinidad Orisha

Also known as Shango, is a syncretic religion in Trinidad and Tobago and is of Caribbean origin, originally from West Africa (Yoruba religion) and influenced by Roman Catholicism.

Umbanda

A syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous American beliefs.

Vodun

(Meaning spirit in the Fon and Ewe languages, also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Voudou, Voodoo, etc.) is practiced by the Ewe people of eastern and southern Ghana, and southern and central Togo; and the Kabye people, Gen-speaking people, and Fon people of southern and central Togo, and southern and central Benin.

White Feminism

A feminism that does not take into consideration non-white women, often even partaking in the oppression of non-white people.

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White Supremacy

White supremacy is an ideology centered upon the promotion of the belief, that white people are superior. It is argued by critical race theorist that all white people have a level of white supremacy values because of the media, education and politics have embedded whiteness as superior in society.

White Washing

A term used to describe white actors or actress playing non-fictional and historical non-white character roles. Therefore writing and disconnecting historical events and achievements to the non-white community.

Winti

An Afro-Surinamese traditional religion that originated in South America and developed in the Dutch Empire; this resulted in the syncretization of the religious beliefs and practices of Akan slaves with Christianity and Indigenous American beliefs.

WoC

Women of Colour

Xenophobia

Fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.

Yoruba

A religion comprising the traditional religious concepts and practices of the Yoruba people, is found primarily in southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin, and Togo, commonly known as Yorubaland.

White Washing

A term used to describe white actors or actress playing non-fictional and historical non-white character roles. Therefore writing and disconnecting historical events and achievements to the non-white community.

Xenophobia

Prejudice of people from other countries.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Age-of-the-sage.org. (2017). Major World Religions populations pie chart statistics list. Available at: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/mysticism/ world_religions_populations.html [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

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James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (1970) (40th anniversary edition, Orbis 2010) Jenny Peace, Or Rose, and Gregory Mobley, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth and Transformation (Orbis, 2012) Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (HarperOne, 1991) Leila Ahmed, A Border Passage: From Cairo to America, A Woman’s Journey (Penguin Books, 2012) Moore, D. (2017). Anti-black Christianity & White Supremacist Gods: A Meditation on Race and Religion in the U.S. - The Feminist Wire. [online] The Feminist Wire. Available at: http://www.thefeministwire.com/2017/02/whitesupremacistgods/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].

News.nationalgeographic.com. (2017). The World’s Newest Major Religion: No Religion. Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].

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Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (1957) (HarperOne, 2009) Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Theology: The Gifford Lectures – An Extended Edition, (Orbis Books, 2017) Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. (2017). Many Countries Favor Specific Religions, Officially or Unofficially. [online] Available at: http://www.pewforum.org/2017/10/03/many-countries-favorspecific-religions-officially-or-unofficially/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

Singh, G. and Cowden, S. (2011) ‘Multiculturalism’s New Fault Lines: Religious Fundamentalisms and Public Policy’ Available at: https:// www.researchgate.net/ publication/254084959 Multiculturalism%27s_New_Fault_Lines_Religious_ Fundamentalisms_and_Public_Policy#39;s_New_Fault_Lines_Religious_Fundamentalisms_ and_Public_Policy/links/5524f7820cf2caf11bfcebf5.pdf [Accessed Aug 24, 2017].

Terrence Tilley, Faith: What it is and What it Isn’t (Orbis, 2015) Watson.brown.edu. (2017). Racial Profiling | Costs of War. [online] Available at: http:// watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/social/rights/profiling [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].

Woodhead, L., 2007. Gender Differences in Religious Practice and Significance.

Feminism and faith - Online Articles, websites Websites and articles that consider faith and spirituality from a feminist and womanist perspective.

Valoy, P. (2017). On Feminism and Faith - Everyday Feminism. [online] Everyday Feminism. Available at: http://www.everydayfeminism. com/2013/05/feminism-and-faith [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017] Faith In Feminism. (2017). Faith In Feminism. [online] Available at: http://faithinfeminism. com/?doing_wp_cron=1512324686.1942529678344726562500 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Contributor, G. (2017). Feminism and Faith by Judith Plaskow, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and amina wadud. [online] Feminismandreligion.com. Available at: http:// www.feminismandreligion.com/2015/07/15/feminism-and-faith-by-judith-plaskowrosemary-redford-ruether-and-amina-wadud/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Carpentier, M. (2017). Are Faith And Feminism Compatible?. [online] Jezebel.com. Available at: http://www.jezebel.com/5038902/arefaith-and-feminism-compatible [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

LGBTQ and faith - Online Articles, websites Websites and articles that consider faith and spirituality from a LGBTQ perspective and offer support and information.

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Gay Sikh. (2017). Gay Sikh - Homosexuality within Sikhism. [online] Available at: http://www.gaysikh.com/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

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Muslims for Progressive Values. (2017). LGBTQI Resources. [online] Available at: http://www.mpvusa.org/lgbtqi-resources/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Mwnhelpline.co.uk. (2017). Muslim Womens Helpline. [online] Available at: http:// www.mwnhelpline.co.uk/issuesstep2.php?id=23 [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Naz.org.uk. (2017). NAZ | Sexual Health for Everyone | Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Women. [online] Available at: http://www.naz.org.uk/lgbtsupport/lesbian-bisexual-and-queer-women/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Witchcraft, spirituality and higher power - Online Articles, websites Websites and articles that consider faith and spirituality from a witchcraft, spirituality and higher power perspective.

Doyle, S. (2017). Season of the witch: why young women are flocking to the ancient craft. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/ feb/24/witch-symbol-feminist-power-azealia-banks [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Kelly, K. (2017). Are witches the ultimate feminists?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/05/ witches-feminism-books-kristin-j-sollee [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Jones, H. (2017). Black and Brown Artists Remind us That Witchcraft Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t White. [online] Wear Your Voice. Available at: http://wearyourvoicemag. com/identities/witchcraft-isnt-white [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Retreats Vipassana Retreat website that offers ethical, spiritual retreats in the Buddhist tradition at no cost/donation only basis all over the world, including the UK Dipa.dhamma.org. (2017). [online] Available at: http://www.dipa.dhamma.org/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

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FURTHER READING. Books: Ariens, M. and Destro, R. (1996). Religious liberty in a pluralistic society. Durham, NC.: Carolina Acad. Press.

Atkinson, J. (2005). Faith lost: faith regained. Leiden: Deo Pub. Atran, S. (2002). In gods we trust. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Barton, G., Weller, P. and YÄąlmaz, I. (2013). The Muslim world and politics in transition. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Bascom, W. (1969). Ifa divination. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press.

Beal, T. (2012). The rise and fall of the Bible. Boston: Mariner Books.

Beckwith, M. (1924). Anansi stories, Jamaica. New York Boyce Davies, C. (2008). Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC CL Buddenbaum, J. and Mason, D. (2000). Readings on religion as news. Ames: Iowa State University Press.

Chang, H. and Boyd, D. (2016). Spirituality in Higher Education. Walnut Creek: Taylor and Francis.

Clark, S. (2009). Understanding faith. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.

Corvino, J., Anderson, R. and Girgis, S. (2017). Debating religious liberty and discrimination. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dalin, D. (1993). American Jews & the separationist faith.

Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Eisgruber, C. and Sager, L. (2010). Religious freedom and the constitution. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Fisher, L. (2002). Religious liberty in America. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas.

Fiske, E. (1967). The contemporary religious experience. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

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Francis, P. and Balmer, R. (2017). When art disrupts religion.

Garrett, G. (2015). Entertaining judgment. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Gates, H. and Mckay, N. (2004). The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, inc Gillespie, M., Herbert, D. and Greenhill, A. (2013). Social media and religious change. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Gopin, M. (2000). Between Eden and Armageddon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grool, M. (2016). Vodun Stories of the Fon (Benin). Cologne Germany: Rudiger Koppe Verlag.

Hebblethwaite, B. and Bartley, J. (2012). Vodou Songs in Haitian Creole and English. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Hill, C. (1973). The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great religious poetry. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Ilesanmi, S. (1997). Religious pluralism and the Nigerian state.

Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies.

Keller, T. (2008). The reason for God. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Khan, M. (2007). Debating moderate Islam. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Leaman, O. (2013). History of Islamic Philosophy. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Lele, O. (2003). The Diloggun. Rochester: Destiny Books Lints, R. (2010). Progressive and conservative religious ideologies. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub. Makdisi, J. (1990). The rise of humanism in classical Islam and the Christian West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

MARTI, G. (2017). WORSHIP ACROSS THE RACIAL DIVIDE. [S.l.]: OXFORD UNIV PRESS. Marti, G. and Ganiel, G. (2014). The deconstructed church. New York: Oxford University Press.

Meyer, B. and Moors, A. (2006). Religion, media, and the public sphere. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Michel, C. and Daniels, K. (2008). Ultimate power of blood sacrifice in Haitian Vodou. In: M. Asante and A. Mazama, ed., Encyclopedia of African Religion, 1st ed. Sage Publications.

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Migliore, D. (2008). The power of God and the gods of power. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

Migliore, D. (2008). The power of God and the gods of power. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.

Oslington, P. (2014). The Oxford handbook of Christianity and economics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Otero, S. and Falola, T. ed., (2013). Yemoja: Gender, Sexuality, and Creativity in the Latina/o and Afro-Atlantic Diasporas. 1st ed. New York: State University of New York.

Parvez, Z. (2011). Politicizing Islam. New York: Oxford University Press.

Qubādzādah, N. (2017). Religious secularity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Robertson, R. (1975). Sociology of religion. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Schelkens, K. (2010). Catholic theology of revelation on the eve of Vatican II. Leiden: Brill.

Shah, T., Farr, T. and Friedman, J. (n.d.). Religious freedom and gay rights. New York: Oxford University Press.

Stievermann, J. (2014). Religion and the marketplace in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tann, M. (2012). Haitian Vodou. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications Taylor, Y. (2014). Queering religion, religious queers. Routledge.

Thiemann, R. (1996). Religion in public life. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Ward, K. (2004). The case for religion. Oxford: Oneworld.

Wentz, R. (1998). The culture of religious pluralism. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Articles, Essays & Journals: BBC News. (2017). How a Muslim’s suitcase became art. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-41391091/how-abirmingham-muslim-s-suitcase-became-art [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Editor, O. (2017). Nigeria: Between Spirituality and Nation Building. [online] THISDAYLIVE. Available at: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/10/15/ nigeria-between-spirituality-and-nation-building/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

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Enar-eu.org. (2017). Islamophobia in Europe: Recent Trends - ENAR. [online] Available at: http://www.enar-eu.org/Islamophobia-in-Europe-Recent-Trends [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

EurekAlert!. (2017). Some faiths more likely to turn to religion for answers to science. [online] Available at: https://www.eurekalert.org/ pub_releases/2017-10/ru-sfm101617.php [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

French, S. (2017). In these countries, most residents think religion does more harm than good. [online] MarketWatch. Available at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/in-these-countriesmost-residents-think-religion-does-more-harm-than-good-2017-10-16 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Hamdan, A. (2008). Cognitive Restructuring: An Islamic Perspective. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, [online] 3(1), pp.99-116. Available at: http://transformationalchange.pbworks. com/f/Cognitive%2BRestructuring%2BIslamic%2BPerspective.pdf [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

Metro.co.uk. (2017). Outrage as white woman â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;browned upâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to live as a Muslim for Channel 4 | Metro News. [online] Available at: http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/18/ outrage-as-white-woman-is-browned-up-to-live-as-a-muslim-and-suffers-racialabuse-in-channel-4-documentary-7008360/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2017].

Mistress Syndrome. (2017). How does Whiteness Separate us from God?. [online] Available at: https://mistresssyndrome.com/2017/05/08/howdoes-whiteness-separate-us-from-god/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2017].

Rest For Resistance. (2017). Religious Journey of a Black Lesbian Atheist. [online] Available at:https://www.restforresistance.com/zine/religiousjourney-of-a-black-lesbian-atheist [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Mitchell, D. (2017). Is living without a shared religion reason to rejoice? | David Mitchell. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/15/living-without-shared-religionneil-macgregor-living-with-gods-radio-4 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Morris, A. (2017). Ex-Google engineer establishes religion that worships an AI Godhead. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/10/11/anthony-levandowskiengineer-religion-artificial-intelligence-ai-god-way-of-the-future/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Quinn, D. (2017). Religion is more than a box-ticking exercise. [online] Thetimes.co.uk. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/religion-ismore-than-a-box-ticking-exercise-m5rr7mht3 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Ratcliffe, R. (2017). Fake news images add fuel to fire in Myanmar, after more than 400 deaths. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian. com/global-development/2017/sep/05/fake-news-images-add-fuel-to-firein-myanmar-after-more-than-400-deaths [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

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Sherwood, H. (2017). More than 20% of countries have official state religions – survey. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/03/morethan-20-percent-countries-have-official-state-religions-pew-survey [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Singh, G. and Cowden, S. (2011). Multiculturalism’s new fault lines: Religious fundamentalisms and public policy. Critical Social Policy, [online] 31(3), pp.343364. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Cowden/ publication/254084959_Multiculturalism’s_New_Fault_Lines_Religious_Fundamentalisms_ and_Public_Policy/links/5524f7820cf2caf11bfcebf5.pdf [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

Stoakes, E. (2017). UN influence in Myanmar at a low after Aung San Suu Kyi cold shoulders envoys.[online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www. theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/18/un-influence-myanmar-atlow-aung-san-suu-kyi-cold-shoulders-envoys [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

York, A. (2017). US’s largest anti-Muslim group cancels dozens of rallies after seeing the size of anti-fascist crowds in Boston. [online] Independent.co.uk. Available at: http://www. independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/act-cancel-america-first-rallies-largestanti-muslim-group-counter-protesters-a7906836.html?amp [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

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DIGITAL RESOURCES. Websites: Humanism www.humanism.org.uk Throughout recorded history, there have been non-religious people who have believed that this life is the only life we have, that the universe is a natural phenomenon with no supernatural side, and that we can live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. They have trusted to the scientific method, evidence, and reason to discover truths about the universe and have placed human welfare and happiness at the centre of their ethical decision making.

Atheist Scholar www.atheistscholar.org The Atheist Scholar is an online academic resource for those interested in the serious, interdisciplinary study of atheism. The Atheist Scholar provides a comprehensive overview for the student of atheism, a review of the best books on atheism, and summaries of literature and movies of interest to atheists.

BBC Religions http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions Religion can be explained as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Beliefnet http://www.beliefnet.com As the leading lifestyle site dedicated to faith and inspiration, Beliefnet helps people find and walk a spiritual path that instills comfort, hope, strength and happiness. It is through this discovery that our readers are empowered to live a more meaningful life.

Patheos www.patheos.com Explore the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality!

Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Church Without Religion www.churchwithoutreligion.com We believe that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and without mistakes, as originally written. It is the complete revelation of His will for salvation and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for the Christian life.

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Religion on Reddit www.reddit.com/r/religion This is a subreddit for matters concerning all religions and topics involving them. It is a place for open minded discussion on all sides of every topic.

Religion News www.religionnews.com Religion News Service’s first priority is to provide intelligent, objective coverage of all religions Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Asian religions and private spirituality. RNS also provides commentary from a diverse array of all points of the political and theological spectrum. Coverage of religion, ethics and spirituality from around the globe.

Religion Dispatches www.religiondispatches.org Religion Dispatches is a secular, independent online magazine that stands at the intersection of religion, politics, and culture. We aim to create a new way of thinking about religion in American culture and politics, one that challenges last century’s media dominance by an ultra-conservative fringe, that invites free discussion of religious ideas once they’ve hit the public square.

Catholic Exchange www.catholicexchange.com Catholic Exchange seeks to enable all to be enriched and strengthened in their Christian faith as proclaimed by the Catholic Church. By offering accessible articles and helpful tools for spiritual growth, we seek to make saints in our own time especially among those who live busy lives but still seek to grow in friendship with Christ.

Podcasts: #GoodMuslimBadMuslim: www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com The #GoodMuslimBadMuslim monthly podcast featuring Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh is about the good and the bad of the American Muslim female experience.

InterfaithVoices: www.interfaithradio.org Interfaith Voices is an independent public radio show fostering interfaith understanding by providing engaging conversation about religion, across many traditions and beliefs On Being with Krista Tippett: www.onbeing.org On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio conversation and podcast, a Webby Award-winning website and online exploration, a publisher and public event convener. On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live? We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors

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BBC Heart & Soul Podcast: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsn4/episodes/guide Personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Research on Religion Podcast: www.researchonreligion.org Our goal for this podcast series is to make scholarly research on religion interesting, relevant and accessible to a broad audience. We intend this audience to include other scholars, clergy members and anyone else who has an interest in religion.

The conversational format of our podcast is designed to facilitate a jargon-free discussion of major topics within the social scientific study of religion.

Buddhist Geeks podcast: www.buddhistgeeks.org Buddhist Geeks was originally conceived by Vincent Horn & Ryan Oelke in 2006 and the Buddhist Geeks Podcast was subsequently launched at the beginning 2007. It instantly became one of the most downloaded podcasts in the Buddhist category and has since been downloaded 10+ million times.

Inciting a riot podcast: www.incitingariot.com Inciting A Riot isn’t just a blog concerning all things related to politics, people, and paganism; it’s also a PODCAST! That’s too many p’s. I’m sorry. The podcast has exclusive content including: music, spirituality, sociology, etymology, book reviews, tips & tricks, as well as a host of new segments and topics, added all the time!

Feminist Mormon Housewives Podcast: www.feministmormonhousewivespodcast.org For over a decade, Feminist Mormon Housewives, a blog NPR’s Krista Tippets called “legendary”, has published essays on subjects pertinent to Mormon women.

Vox Tablet: www.tabletmag.com/author/vox-tablet An award-winning podcast, hosted by Sara Ivry, explores Jewish life and culture through lively conversations with writers, musicians, chefs, and theologians Everyone’s Agnostic: www.everyonesagnostic.com Agnostic means “not knowing.” When it comes to “god,” no one knows. Seriously… no one! No one can REALLY “know” whether God exists or not let alone any details about Her (see what I did there?). So, Everyone’s Agnostic...whether we know it or not.

NCR In Conversation by National Catholic Reporter: www.ncronline.org Approximately 23 percent of the U.S. population identifies itself as Catholic, the largest religious body in this country. The National Catholic Reporter is the only significant alternative Catholic voice that provides avenues for expression of diverse perspectives, promoting tolerance and respect for differing ideas.

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NCR is a religious news source with worldly interests, and though a large amount of its reporting deals with issues of the Catholic church, an equal amount of its coverage is a marriage of the religious, political and social forces shaping public policies and institutions. We are concerned for all people and we are committed to shaping a world that recognizes the dignity of every human being, regardless of religious belief, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other characteristics. Throughout our history, we have been a voice for the disadvantaged and the marginalized, and we have told the stories of injustice that others simply will not print.

YouTube Channels: Discovering Religion: www.youtube.com/user/DiscoveringReligion “Discovering Religion” is an original, documentary-style series on YouTube that explores a variety of topics within the framework of religion, science, philosophy, history, and politics. The aim of this series is to objectively examine the fallacies propagated by religious doctrine through an entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking medium.

Shots of Awe: www.youtube.com/user/ShotsOfAwe Ever ponder the miracle of life? Or perhaps wonder about the evolution of intelligence?

In Shots of Awe, “Performance Philosopher” Jason Silva chases his inspiration addiction as he explores these topics and more. Every week Jason freestyles his way into the complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses the truth and beauty of science in a form of existential jazz.

Eckhart Teachings: www.youtube.com/user/EckhartTeachings Eckhart Tolle is widely recognized as one of the most original and inspiring spiritual teachers of our time. He travels and teaches throughout the world. Eckhart is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition but excludes none. His profound yet simple and practical teachings have helped thousands of people find inner peace, healing and greater fulfillment in their lives. At the core of his teachings lies the transformation of individual and collective human consciousness - a global spiritual awakening.

Moojii: www.youtube.com/user/Moojiji Mooji brings the possibility of Self-realization into the here and now. His communication is simple, direct and immediate. An invitation to move from person to presence -- and ultimately, to liberation. He speaks to you.

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YouTube Videos: Islam Unveiled (Religion Documentary) - Real Stories www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBvFX3xzQbk The Dawn of Religion: Documentary on the First Beliefs of Ancient Peoples (Full Documentary) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcn_5zEO3q0 Is Religion Man-Made? How Did Religion Start? The Evolution of Belief (2006) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2yz7XDs2A History Of Christianity - How Christianity Was Invented www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNtF1-Y-JJM Richard Dawkins: Why Religion and Evolution Don’t Mix Well www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u8gAV7om_g

Key Organisations: IMAAN https://imaanlondon.wordpress.com Europe’s biggest charity supporting LGBTQI Muslims MCB www.mcb.org.uk The Muslim Council of Britain is a national representative Muslim umbrella body with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools.

Muslim Women’s Network www.mwnuk.co.uk Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) is the only national Muslim women’s organisation in Britain. We are a small national charity (no. 1155092) and work to improve the social justice and equality for Muslim women and girls. We have a membership of more than 700 individuals and organisations with a collective reach of tens of thousands of Muslim women.

Our membership also includes women of others faiths and men who support our work.

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain www.ex-muslim.org.uk We, non-believers, atheists, and ex-Muslims, are establishing or joining the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain to insist that no one be pigeonholed as Muslims with culturally relative rights nor deemed to be represented by regressive Islamic organisations and ‘Muslim community leaders’.

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Black Non-Believers www.blacknonbelievers.wordpress.com Black Nonbelievers (BN) is a 501 c3 non-profit fellowship of nonbelievers headquartered in the Atlanta area that is dedicated to providing an informative, caring, festive and friendly community. We connect with other Blacks (and allies) who are living free of religion and other beliefs, and might otherwise be shunned by family and friends. Instead of accepting dogma, we seek to determine truth and morality through reason and evidence.

UAL Chaplaincy www.artschaplaincy.net The Anglican Chaplaincy to University of the Arts London is a partnership between the university and the Diocese of London (Church of England) as part of the University Chaplaincy Network. We work within the Counselling, Health Advice & Chaplaincy team at UAL, which aims to support the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of student life. In addition, the chaplaincy is available to all staff.

University Jewish Chaplaincy www.mychaplaincy.co.uk University Jewish Chaplaincy works with Jewish students and universities across the country to enhance the Jewish student experience and safeguard Jewish university life.

Our Chaplains and Chaplaincy couples are there for all Jewish students to provide a warm, non-judgmental, vibrant, inclusive and inspiring Jewish environment.

Christian Science www.christianscience.com Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, defined it as “the law of God, the law of good . . . ” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1). In Christian Science, God is understood to be infinite Love, and so invariably good that a clear glimpse of this through prayer has the power to heal, redeem, and restore anyone.

The National Association for Christian Recovery www.nacr.org The National Association for Christian Recovery is a network of individuals – not a network of support groups. There are no “NACR Groups”. We do, however, want to assist you in finding a support group that will help you in your recovery and we hope that the material provided here will give you a good start.

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Twitter Users to Follow: @SuperSoulSunday @MuslimWomenUK @MuslimCouncil @ImaanLGBTQ @swirlina @BNonbelievers @PewReligion @DalaiLama @padrealberto @Park51 @RevJJackson @DeepakChopra

Christianity @EEWC_CFT ‫‏‬ African spirituality @AncestralVoices @pushitfwdmedia Higher Power @higherpowerproj ‫‏‬ Atheism @ThinkAtheist ‫‏‬ @AtheistQ

Buddhism @VipassanaOrg @LamaSuryaDas @SharonSalzberg @JackKornfield @tricyclemag @jhalifax @dharmavidya @BuddhistGeeks @shambhalasun @Buddhism_Now Sikhism @allaboutsikhism @everythings_13 @Rise_women @GSW_D ‫‏‬ @SikhFeminist @safarinstitute @SarbatSikhs Bahai @Bahai_Teachings @GayBahaisUnited Islam @muslimfeminist @monaeltahawy ‫‏‬ @RaquelEvita ‫‏‬ @musIim_ @a_leesha1

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We salute you!

Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief Š Shades Of Noir 2017