Maybe I shouldn’t have registered for the IIA conference after all . . .

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.

57 Organizations Call on White House to Investigate Offensive FBI Trainings Today, Muslim Advocates, working in coalition with 56 Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations, requested that the White House create an interagency taskforce to investigate bigoted and offensive trainers and materials used in trainings for counterterrorism agents and law enforcement. Wired magazine first reported in July that the FBI was using materials that stated that Prophet Muhammad was a "cult leader," and that Islam is a religion that "transforms [a] country's culture into 7th-century Arabian ways." Recently disclosed materials show that these grossly inaccurate and inflammatory training materials extend…

Islamoyankee gave me the opening by speaking of urbanism, so I am going to commence by walking through the door of architecture. It is probably apparent to those who have read my previous postings that I am not a scholar of Islam. I am infact an architect by training and an project administrator by profession. It is through my affiliation with architecture that my understanding of the problems that afflict and affect the Muslim world are framed. I would like to share with you some readings on architecture that may also help the reader understand the current crisis in the…