Clash of Civilizations?
Thursday, November 30, 2006

With the pope in Turkey, lots of reporters are looking for evidence of a rise in Muslim extremism. But looking for a clash of civilizations in Turkey? Look again. Turks are becoming more Muslim in private but decidedly less so in public. Since 1999, public wearing of head scarves has dropped from 16 percent to 11 percent. Mosque attendance has also dropped sharply. All this while more people describe themselves as Muslim. The headline: Keep religion private and out of public life.

Here's the key graf from the Globe and Mail:

More important, according to a study of 1,500 Turks over a seven-year period by the respected Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, people here are far less interested in seeing their religious beliefs reflected in politics, a secularizing trend that is almost unique among Muslims, not just in the Islamic world but also in the West.

Islamic sharia law is now supported by only 9 per cent of Turks, down from 21 per cent in 1999. Only a quarter of Turks now believe there should be political parties based on religion, down from 41 per cent seven years ago. (The ruling AK Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a history of Islamism.) And the number of Turks who do not want to live in an Islamic state now stands at 76 per cent, up from 58 per cent in the previous decade.

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Posted by B Feiler at 9:05 AM 0 comments  

Me 3.0
Sunday, November 26, 2006

In March 2001, on the eve of the publication of Walking the Bible, I started a website. I did it on a whim. "Authors should have websites," I thought. It changed my life. Not just my professional life. My life life. The experience of having people write me, in the middle of the night, two days after finishing a book, on the eve of a discussion in their book group,thirty-five years after teaching me in kindergarten; from Japan, Kuwait, the Philippines; in Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi; in appreciation, in tears, in rage; while watching me on PBS, while listening to me on NPR; while sitting with their dying spouse, while serving in Iraq, just after sending their grandchild to Israel, just after nodding off on the side of Route 1 in California while listening to me on an audiobook; has been the unexpected gift of nearly two decades of being a professional writer. Publishing books, appearing on television, giving a speech, succumbing to the occasional temptation of being the glib, knowing witmaster pundit (like on Stephen Colbert) are mostly one-way forms of interaction. This site has enabled me to communicate, in the best, two-way sense of that word.

So now, more communication. This is the third major design of this site, and the first in several years. Many of the features visitors have come to expect remain, including descriptions, an excerpt, reviews, and links to purchase each of my nine books. For my last three books - Walking the Bible, Abraham, and Where God Was Born - we have very popular interfaith discussion guides andother materials for readings groups or classes. You can read a full bio and signup to receive a newsletter of upcoming appearances. Also, on the events page,I keep a perpetually updated list of where I'll be speaking and a have a link to the wonderful folks at Royce Carlton who help arrange my schedule. And, ofcourse, I have a way to send me an e-mail. In over five years, I've answered every single one.

But in coming weeks we're going to be adding a new slate of features, including forums to discuss Walking the Bible, Abraham, and Where God Was Born on the site, video links to some of my appearances, and, as you can tell, a blog. Soon, I plan to begin posting comments, reports from my travels, photographs, the occasional video diary, the occasional rant, questions from my research that you might be able to help answer, requests for a restaurant recommendation or an interview tip, a tidbit that comes across my desk that you might beinterested in, a tale or two of twins. I'll also explain the story behind thename of this blog.

For now, I wanted to get this redesign in place before the holidays, especially since many PBS stations are re-airing all three hours of Walking the Bible. Since it's been one of the most frequently asked questions of late, a DVD is available.

Please know that we're hard at work on our end. Please stop back by soon. And please turn off that audiobook if my voice is putting you to sleep.

Special thanks to Holden Richards of Kitchen Media for his splendid redesign. And grateful appreciation to my brother (and editor), Andrew Feiler, for the use of his photographs in the blog roll above. The picture of me on the top of the Great Pyramid in Giza was taken by David Wallace, the British director of Walking the Bible, who, when I offered to pay him for the use of his image,wrote, "I believe that anything that happens on top of a pyramid betweenconsenting adults does not require a fee."

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Posted by B Feiler at 6:29 PM 1 comments  

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