This book offers a unique perspective on September 11 and our world after this tragic event, sharing lessons from an Asian religious experience that can help heal a world troubled by religious conflicts and deepening divisions, and promote a positive global transformation.Existing literature regarding the events of September 11 and our world afterward has focused mostly on the West and the Middle East. Asian Perspectives on the World's Religions after September 11 extends this discussion to include Asia-a continent and culture far too important to be ignored in any assessment of the global impact of this event. The book is organized along the following themes, as they emerged post-September 11th: religion and civilizational dialogue; religion, conflict, and peace; religion and human rights; religion and ethics; religion and the arts; religion, hermeneutics, and literature; religion and gender; religion and ecology; and religion and globalization. Individuals who are studying or teaching political science, international relations, philosophy, ethics, Asian studies, or religious studies will find the text invaluable, while general readers will appreciate the largely unvoiced Asian perspective on this topic.

IntroductionArvind SharmaThe Idea of AsiaMadhu Khanna1. "Civilizational Dialogues" through Popular Frames Post 9/11Anuradha Ghosh2. Jainism: The Way to Lasting Peace through Pluralistic UnderstandingAshok Vohra3. Tolerance in Early Buddhism: Ideation, Praxis, and Fault LinesAhmad Sohaib4. Suffering as a Catalyst for Spiritual Development: The Islamic PerspectiveI. H. Azad Faruqi5. From the Cakravartin Ideal to Realpolitik: Buddhism and Confucianism in the Premodern Chinese Context and Its Implications for Contemporary Chinese Secular Policy toward ReligionAlbert Welter6. From Oriental Utopia to Business Ethics: Europe's Search for New Socioeconomic Paradigms in Eastern Religions and PhilosophiesGerrit De Vylder7. The South Asian Impact upon Traditional Malay TheaterGhulam-Sarwar Yousof8. Javanese Narrations of Ramayan.a and Mahabharata: Products of a Peaceful Process of IntegrationMalini Saran9. Multilingual Scholarship in the Study of ReligionJoseph T. O'Connell10. Politicization of Religion and Its Possible Impact on the Academic Study of Religion in IndiaMadhu Khanna11. Human Rights in Cross-Cultural PerspectiveJoseph Prabhu12. The Concept of Religious FreedomArvind Sharma13. Vietnam Central Highlands at the Crossroads: Globalization, Development, Sustainability, and Cultural IdentityTran My-Van14. Religion as a Possible Impediment to Environmental DiscourseBidisha Kumar and George James15. Acculturation of the Tribals in North India during the British Colonial Period: An Ethnographic PerspectiveRadha Madhav Bharadwaj16. Ecological Cosmology in Hindu Tradition for the 21st CenturyRana P. B. SinghAbout the Editors and ContributorsIndex