God Hates Shrimp!

Introduces panelists: moderator: Jocelyne Cesari – Harvard – works with EC on Islam, religions, race and rights Charles Dunbar – prof. of int’l relations at simmons college – former ambassador to yemen and qatar – writing book on whether western sahara would be independent or part of morocco while working for UN – charge d’affaires in afghanistan Muqtedar Khan – Brookings Institute Fellow – US Foreign Policy towards Muslim World – VP of Assoc. of Muslim Social Scientists Amaney Jamal – Asst. Prof. at Princeton – Arab-American community in Detroit – dissertation on Palestinian Americans [didn’t get all the details]

Three senators have approached the Pakistani(-American) community in New York. Read the article here. The politicians are finally starting to realize the value of using history and speaking a new symbolic language as witnessed by their calling on the vision Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It’s also important to note the semi-mea culpa with respect to the PATRIOT Act. The reach out maybe for the wrong reasons, but it’s an important acknowledgment of the role immigrants, and Muslims, play in the political process. It’s also an opportunity for us to get more involved and create a new vision for ourselves here in…

Annemarie Schimmel was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, commentator on Islamic literatures writing in English. Her works are magisterial, and very diverse. I’ve discovered one of her articles on-line, and it’s about the marsiya tradition. Her translations are just beautiful. I wish they had also included the original texts.