Interesting links
Couple of nice short articles today from alt.muslim: Killing the Moderates We’re Fighting a War on Islam (the same topic as my You Can Call Me Satan.)
Month: October 2003
You can call me Satan
Malcolm X, before he converted to Islam, was known as Satan. Al-Hallaj claims that the truest lover of God was Iblis, because he refused to bow down in front of Adam; Iblis acknowledged no other than his Beloved. I suppose that means I’m not in such bad company. Some of you may remember this comment by the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, entrusted with making sure I suffer no discrimination: “Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son…
When did the Wahabbi movement become Muslim? [corrected]
Correction: After several months, I finally realized this article has a persistent typo. The correct transliteration is “Wahhabi” not “Wahabbi.” Therefore the title should properly be When did the Wahhabi Movement become Muslim? Arabic does not favor a double consonant at the end, and I should have known better. Rather than correct the entire piece, I’m simply putting the caveat up front. Sorry for the confusion. This is a serious question: When did the Wahabbi movement become Muslim? Just finished re-reading Hamid Algar’s excellent essay, Wahabbism: A Critical Essay, and the one question that he never answers is when did…
How do you say “WTF” in Malay?
Several news outlets (1, 2, 3, 4) are reporting that the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahatir Mohammad, opened the summit of the Organization of Islamic States with some good ol’ fashioned anti-Semitism. I’m not talking anti-Israeli comments – which are often labeled as anti-Semitic, but more on how that lazy use of language, and how it does a dis-service to all involved, in another post – but full out Judeophobia. Just so you don’t doubt me, here’s the most obvious example: “The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews are in control of the…
Redemption Song
I thought I would start my first foray into the world of webblogs with an entry on why and how I became interested in the subject of Islam. Let me first state that I am an architect by training and have never had any courses on Islam, its history, its jurisprudence, or its various expressions. My interest is simple a matter of “redemption”. In the books I read and the movies that I watch, I have always been fascinated with the notion of the fall and the process of redemption. This is why I have been particularly fascinated with Westerns…
The Stories We Tell
One of the stories I remember clearly from my childhood concerns Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the insult he suffered from a woman everyday on his way to pray. The story, in brief, is that the Prophet would be walking to prayers everyday and a woman would dump garbage on him as he walked by, necessitating a thorough cleansing before prayers. This series of events went on for some time, and then for several days it stopped. Upon inquiring the Prophet discovered the woman had fallen sick. He then took to her abode and nursed her back to health. For a…