God Hates Shrimp!

While visiting unmedia, I saw a link on deconstructing Daniel Pipes’ latest peace writings. This particular rambling was on identifying oneself as a moderate Muslim. From unmedia, I got to Zack’s detailed criticism of Pipes, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Zack in-turn lead me to a beliefnet quiz on what type of Muslim I am. Good fun. I came in as a “spiritual seeker,” but I found so many of the questions hard to answer because they pre-supposed a particular understanding of Islam, which is not mine. I’m still working on that Shi’ism post.

From today’s Thomas Friedman op-ed: What is going on in Iraq today is not only a war between radical Islam and America, it is, more importantly, a war within Islam — between those who want an Islam with a human and progressive face that can meld with the world and those who want an Islam that is exclusivist and hostile to the world. So, yes, we need all the Arab and Muslim support we can get to see Iraq through to some decent outcome. But the Arab-Muslim world needs a decent outcome in Iraq just as much — if not…

Opinion: After 9/11, reaction to Muslim Americans more nuanced However, whatever we learn about them does not tell us why they did what they did – only parts of who they are. It is easy, in the initial aftermath of the bombings, to make careless associations between identity and motive, similar to post 9/11 reaction. But this time, there is a change in rhetoric of how  potential suspects are identified, particularly if they are Muslim. It is because of this change we are learning to move past paralyzing fear and maturing in how we think of what it means to be…