IIA – Teaching Islam

From Paul Krugman’s excellent op-ed in the NY Times today: And there are many other cases of apparent abuse of power by the administration and its Congressional allies. A few examples: according to The Hill, Republican lawmakers threatened to cut off funds for the General Accounting Office unless it dropped its lawsuit against Dick Cheney. The Washington Post says Representative Michael Oxley told lobbyists that “a Congressional probe might ease if it replaced its Democratic lobbyist with a Republican.” Tom DeLay used the Homeland Security Department to track down Democrats trying to prevent redistricting in Texas. And Medicare is spending…

We caught Saddam! In absolute terms, this a good thing. It doesn’t matter how it gets spun, or whether it was worth going to war for. We caught him. No matter how you cut it, Saddam is a bad man, dare I say evil? He needed to be brought to justice over 20 years ago, but better late than never. I’m an American, and proud to be one. Part of that pride is the belief that the US is a nation of laws, of principle and of hope. We’ve caught Saddam alive, which means not myth, no legend, no symbol,…

Today is the Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, commemorating Hazrat Ibrahim’s and Hazrat Ismail’s willingness to sacrifice everything to God. Traditionally, some sort of animal is sacrificed to symbolize our willingness to do the same. While I appreciate the symbolic value, I’m also a firm believer in the adage about teaching someone to fish; right now the sacrificed meat is distributed to the needy. I remember the story as being Hazrat Ibrahim being asked to sacrifice what was most dear to him, and now that is money. With all of the above in mind I tried to get a…