“Abdulkarim Soroush” When you don’t lose yourself… When you lose yourself… When you don’t lose yourself, the beloved is like a thorn When you lose yourself, the beloved is the purest gol
Category: Articles
Representatives of religious minorities call for unity facing a brutal regime in Iran
At the United Nations in Geneva, Südwind organised another side-event on human rights in Iran on the 9th of June 2011. Mrs Nazanin Ansari, London, highlighted the deplorable situation of Ayatollah Boroujerdi in jail and focused on the situation of secular Muslims in Iran.
The Catholic Academy in Berlin hosted on Tuesday, 7.06.2011 the conference “The religious minorities in Iran”.
Three representatives of religious groups in Iran talked on this subject in front of guests from the german parliament and other institutions. Mrs Mahin Mousapour represented New Christians, Prof. Dr. Ingo Hofmann spoke about the Bahai community and Dr. Azmayesh talked as an Islamologue and as the representative of the Nematollah Gonabadi Order outside […]
What is Sufism? Is it a religion? Is it a branch of the Islam?
Dr.Seyed Mostafa Azamayesh What is Sufism? Is it a religion? Is it a branch of the Islam? Sufism or mysticism in general is a travel; a travel from the alienated self to the real self.
The Truth on Jihad
Dr. Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh Nowadays, the word “jihad” is used wildly, often with a strongly negative, even terrifying connotation, within a discourse referring to “Islamic” terrorism and suicide attempts.
Divorce Law Under the Achaemenids
There is hardly any available information on divorce in Persia itself during the Achaemenid period; there is evidence only for certain of the western satrapies of the Achaemenid empire. It can be presumed that in the polygamous families of ancient Persia divorce was practiced only on rare occasions and that, in all probability, only the […]
The Sun Dance
THE great sacrificial Dance of the North American nomadic Indians, which is consecrated to the Solar Power, formerly included secondary rites that varied considerably according to the tribes: all sorts of mythological elements entered into its composition to such an extent in certain cases as to make the sun’s role nearly pass into the background.
American Indian Shamanism
By “Shamanism” we mean traditions of “prehistoric” origin that are characteristic of Mongoloid peoples, including the American Indians;[1] in Asia we encounter this Shamanism properly so called not only in Siberia, but also in Tibet—in the form of Bön—and in Mongolia, Manchuria, and Korea; pre-Buddhist Chinese tradition, with its Confucian and Taoist branches, is also […]
Primitive Mentality
There is, perhaps, no subject that has been more extensively investigated and more prejudicially misunderstood by the modern scientist than that of folklore. By "folklore" we mean that whole and consistent body of culture which has been handed down, not in books but by word of mouth and in practice, from time beyond the reach […]
The Virgin Suckling St. Bernard
IN an article by Millard Meiss on The Madonna of Humility which appeared in the Art Bulletin, XVIII (1936), the author describes on pages 460-461 a Majorcan painting of the fourteenth century representing "St. Bernard… kneeling before the Virgin (a statue of the Madonna del Latte ‘come to life’, according to the legend) and drinking […]