islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
This post is not the one on Shi’ism I promised below, but it is still related to Shi’ism. Roy Mottahedeh has a great piece on the nature of the Shi’ah groups in Iraq. Juan Cole has a short summary of the relationship amongst Shi’ah groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. Both men are incredibly knowledgeable and extremely lucid writers. While both are predominantly political, they do give a surprisingly good idea of the religious landscape as well.
Muslim WakeUp! has an interesting article on East Turkestan. I thoroughly enjoyed the article, and had a few thoughts that I posted in the comments, and which I am including here in the entirety. I’m doing this re-publication because I need it to set-up a post I’m working on regarding Shi’ism. A very well researched piece, thank you for sharing. I have two comments on it that I’d like to share. You mention that racial divisions in Islam did not really exist until the colonial period, and I’m not sure that is as true as you indicate. In S. H.…
Been following an interesting ‘blog run by Aziz Poonawalla that Ghost Dog pointed out to me. First, congratulations to the good doctor on the successful oral defense of his dissertation. I don’t know the topic, but based on the ‘blog, I’m probably going to enjoy reading it. Second, time to comment on his ‘blog. He’s using the Blogger system, so I’m not sure how to give him the equivalent of a trackback, so hopefully he’ll forgive me.
In light of the coming day of thanksgiving, we wanted to take a second to recognize a few of people of the virtual ummah who have supported us so far. Again, we have to thank the folks at Muslim WakeUp! who were the first to welcome us and who have been consistent commentors and visitors to the site (yes, Jawad, we mean you.) We’ve been negligient in our activities on their site, and hope to address that situation soon. They’ve also brought a wonderful site to our attention, Al-Musawwir. Further proof that there is a difference between Moslems and Klingons.…