June 2004 – islamicate

A Letter from Saudi Arabia

islamoyankeeJune 30, 2004

Passed on from a friend from a friend. I can assure that the person is writing from Saudi Arabia. Dear Friends, As I am sitting in front of my home computer, an intense pounding is trying to break through my forehead. I am wondering how quickly the Tylenol will kick in. I have been up this morning since 5:30 AM, which any of you who know me well will be surprised to hear. I was awakened this morning by a telephone call from the Booz Allen senior employee in Riyadh who works on the Saudi Navy Project and lives on…

Current Affairs Religion

Rage

islamoyankeeJune 30, 2004

Not outrage. Simply rage. Demi has commented before about how amazed she is that we can be (relatively) calm about the situation in Iraq. I think I’ve hit my limit. I’ve previously posted about how the abuses committed by insurgents are utterly un-Islamic. Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, Kim Sun-Il, God rest their souls, each one, and may God grant their families strength and peace. Regardless of the fact the Wahhabis think that beheadings are cool, they are not, and furthers my argument that the Wahhabis should not be a voice for Islam if they are not Muslim. I feel an…

Current Affairs

Islam does this, Islam does that…

GhostdogJune 24, 2004

Been laid up up for a few days with a bum ankle. This has given me some time to catch up on my web reading. It doesn’t look good from here. Forgetting Iraq and Saudi Arabia, for the moment, I am saddened that calmer voices have been shouted down both here and in the Muslim world. We have made this an issue about Islam, and I too have been guilty of this. I apologise. I have recently been in the company of some really interesting thinkers listening to them debate the current state of Islam. Thinkers such as Reinhard Schulzeand…

Uncategorized

The Company You Keep

SAM I AMJune 15, 2004

My parents always told me that the company you keep says something about you. What does that say about those who keep the company of Attorney General Ashcroft. Krugman has a thing or two to say about a “Travesty of Justice.”

Current Affairs

Say it ain’t so

islamoyankeeJune 15, 2004

Brigitte Bardot believes in racial purity. [Thanks to Miamvi for the link.]

Current Affairs Religion

Marriage is a gay event

islamoyankeeJune 10, 2004

While I don’t live in the Republic of Cambridge, I do spend enough time there that the ruling concerning gay marriage has a personal impact on my friends. I posted a while ago about how I think it’s a bad idea for the state to legislate morality. There may be arguments for legislating against marriage for same-sex couples, but morality is surprisingly not in the state’s interest. Haroon, from over at Avari-nameh, challenged my basic assumption, and I promised him a good fight, but let it go. Now he’s posting on the same subject, using the same source no less!,…

Books Reading Lists

Reading List: Women

islamoyankeeJune 3, 2004

Islam, Gender and Social Change Women and Gender is Islam Islam and Gender The Tao of Islam Windows of Faith “Believing Women” in Islam Qur’an and Women My Soul is a Woman Women in the Medieval Islamic World Women of Sufism The Scimitar and the Veil Daughters of Abraham Western Representations of the Muslim Woman Video: Adventure Divas: Iran: Behind Closed Cha-dors (PBS link)

Books Reading Lists

Reading Lists

islamoyankeeJune 3, 2004

A few weeks ago this is me did a post on women and hijab in Australia. Velveteen Rabbi asked about some readings, and Hijabman has recently proved people do read what we post about books, so I thought we’d begin an irregular series of reading lists. We made an effort earlier at one, but we are going to formalize it into topic based material. As always, feel free to add what you will in comments. However, I just discovered I do have to do a shameless plug. If you buy from links on this site (Amazon links) you help keep…

Current Affairs Inter-faith Religion Women

Hijab

islamoyankeeJune 3, 2004

There is an op-ed written in a NY Urdu language paper (English translation) that deals with the issue of hijab. I’m looking for the Urdu version, but the English translation reminds me very much of what some of the early debate was like in NY in English. You would throw out a whole bunch of arguments and see what would stick. The arguments have become much more sophisticated and targeted, helped both by time and the easy accessibility of more academic material. I think this article is important, not because of what it says, but because of the language and…

Current Affairs

Independence Day

islamoyankeeJune 1, 2004

So today begins Iraqi sovereignty. Apparently they are exercising their right not to go along with the US already. So we have Paul Bremer, Lakhdar Brahimi and the former IGC trying to figure out who is NOT in charge. So now the question is who’s taking care of our people?