In Perspective

For those of you in the NYC area, I’m teaching two courses at St. Bart’s Center for Religious Inquiry that may be of interest. Arabic Immersion Day Readings in the Qur’an Hope to see you there. teaching islam

Myself, and several other members of the islamicate Collective, have been getting lots of requests for books. Specifically, if we were choose a selection of books to represent the highest ideals of liberal democracy, what would they be? In addition, what are some of the key texts representing the richness of Islamic thought that we would include. The work has been proposed for both Iraq and Afghanistan. The endeavor is separate from Juan Cole’s Americana Translation Project (more details here and here), another worthwhile effort. Many of the requests we’ve received so far have been time sensitive. However, going through…

As an American who sometimes ruminates on the role of God in our society, I find the debate over the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools interesting. I can’t separate whether I’m okay with the pledge because it does not violate constitutional separation of church and state or because I believe that it is in fact God’s authority that really provides inalienable rights. If it’s the former, then I don’t really have a problem. However, if it’s the lattter and “one nation under God” is fine with me personally, then I shouldn’t be okay with it as…