Karen Armstrong is a British author of numerous works on comparative religion, who first rose to prominence in 1993 with her highly successful A History of God. A former Catholic nun, she asserts that, "All the great traditions are saying the same thing in much the same way, despite their surface differences." They each have in common, she says, an emphasis on the transcendent importance of compassion, as epitomized in the so-called Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Awarded the $100,000 TED Prize in February 2008, she called for drawing up a Charter for Compassion in the spirit of the Golden Rule, to identify shared moral priorities across religious traditions, in order to foster global understanding. It was unveiled in Washington, D.C. in November 2009. Signatories include Prince Hassan of Jordan, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson.
Bio
Karen Armstrong
Contemporary and historical religion's most prolific author, Karen Armstrong is a highly sought-after lecturer around the world, and is called upon by governments, universities, and church and secular organizations alike to educate about the world's religions and to inform regarding their place in the modern world. A former Roman Catholic nun, she was educated at Oxford and has taught at London University and London's Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism.
Her writings include A History of God: From Abraham to the Present, the 4000 Year Quest for God; Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths; The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Islam: A Short History; The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions; and Muhammad: A Prophet For Our Time. She has been honored around the world especially as a bridge-builder between the Abrahamic Faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Her most recent works are A History of the Bible, The Case for God, and 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life.
One of the 2008 winners of the TED Prize, chosen for her world-changing work and continuing potential to inspire others to do something great for the world, in November of 2009 the TED community helped Armstrong to launch her Charter for Compassion to help to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.
Relation of human beings to God or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases, merely supernatural. Archaeological evidence suggests that religious beliefs have existed since the first human communities. They are generally shared by a community, and they express the communal culture and values through myth, doctrine, and ritual. Worship is probably the most basic element of religion, but moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions also constitute elements of the religious life. Religions attempt to answer basic questions intrinsic to the human condition (Why do we suffer? Why is there evil in the world? What happens to us when we die?) through the relationship to the sacred or supernatural or (e.g., in the case of Buddhism) through perception of the true nature of reality. Broadly speaking, some religions (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are outwardly focused, and others (e.g., Jainism, Buddhism) are inwardly focused.
"Hate can not prevent hate. Only love can prevent hate." This comes from Buddhism, but you can find concepts like this in chistianism and judaism (and in atheism, as well). However, it happens old religions have weird sentences and weird persons who follow those sentences, but even old religions have normal people and it is a good idea to recognize them. It seems to me that this is the proposal Mrs Karen Armstrong argues.
Armstrong, like so many in the West, suffers from the inability to understand the Islamic mindset and recognize that Islam is NOT a religion in the way the West understands the term. This misunderstanding makes us impotent and leaves our egalitarian laws wide open to lawfare abuse by the Islamists as they turn our laws against us. Once there are 10 to 15% of Islamists in a constituency it gets past the point of no return for us to redefine our laws to protect us against the Islamic agenda. Shari'a in the West is just a step away. UK has over 100 Shari'a courts.
Islam does not define humanity in anything like the 'image of God' which is the basis of Western compassion, and this, as well as the Western concept of a personal God of wisdom and justice, shapes Western thinking whether we are secular or not. Islam has no similar concept. Allah is about impersonal power and humans are here only to submit. Individual thinking and interpretation is prohibited. This is why Islamic teaching dehumanizes others, casting them as apes, pigs and dogs. Once a group is dehumanized it's not so unfathomable to realize that there is NO compassion by the Islamists towards infidels, in fact the killing of infidels supports Allah's mandate.
We had better realize that our tolerance of such an intolerable mindset will be our demise. Our legal system needs to redefine religion. A headhunter or child-sacrifice cult would not be tolerated - why is this Trojan Horse of Islam similarly tolerated? A 12-year-old could redefine it. Our pathologically over-tolerant and suicidal society must regain the ability to protect itself by clarifying what "religion" really is.
"Make peace with the other" is a great response to a doctrine that says:
Qur'an:9:29 "Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission."
Qur'an:9:5 "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war."
Unfortunately "the Other" believes in the Quran as complete, unchangeable and unquestionable truth.
This Cordoba effort is probably just an "harass them" stratagem.
member. 
