Islam in America Conference Coverage Begins

‘Ms. Marvel’: More options for who gets to save the world – CSMonitor.com. “This is the power of story,” says Dr. Rashid. “It’s not lecturing at you. It’s saying, ‘Here’s this character’s experience. We’re inviting you to that experience and inviting you to think and reflect on your own experiences.’ And that’s the work of great art.”

I’m placing this here because I think it has strong resonances with the Muslim thinking on the concept of charity. I’ll post a similar one for Muslims shortly. Eight Rungs of the Giving Ladder: The concept of giving anonymously without knowing the recipient can be traced back to ancient Israel. Beggars would regularly congregate next to a wall of a courtyard and donors, being aware of this, would face the opposite direction and toss coins over the shoulders in the direction of the wall. Therefore, the recipients of the charity would not feel ashamed or indebted to the giver. Maimonides,…

The next few weeks promise to be very exciting here at islamicate. This weekend is the Islam in America Conference at Harvard. I’ll be there and trying to do daily updates on the proceedings of the conference. I’m also going to see if I can get some of the panelists to sit down with me and share some more detailed thoughts, if not guest-post with us. I’ve also been conspiring with Haroon of Avari-Nameh fame to see if we can discuss some topics in the open between our blogs. I’m a big fan of the old school way of Islamic…