Back to Boykin

This post is not the one on Shi’ism I promised below, but it is still related to Shi’ism. Roy Mottahedeh has a great piece on the nature of the Shi’ah groups in Iraq. Juan Cole has a short summary of the relationship amongst Shi’ah groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. Both men are incredibly knowledgeable and extremely lucid writers. While both are predominantly political, they do give a surprisingly good idea of the religious landscape as well.

State of Formation – Every Land is #Ferguson. There is a power in raising our hands for Ferguson. We do not raise our hands like the Illuminati or a Rockefella [sicknowledge]; we do not raise our hands to act out an NWA lyric; we do not even raise our hands in an “Allah Akbar.” Instead, we raise our hands in surrender. Our submission is to the police. The power in raising our hands is with the police. It’s not an act of agency, but a recognition of the value(lessness) of brown and black bodies. This submission to authoritarianism should concern…

On Burning Qur’ans – avari | haroon moghul. I don’t think the overwhelming majority of Muslims ever cared.  Other than sad, annoying facebook campaigns which are so clueless as to not know that one cannot campaign for a restriction of a constitutional right.  Even now, the pictures of violent protest we see, with crowds of angry demonstrators stupidly retaliating against one fringe pastor’s insensitivities by burning American flags (can hypocrisy become any more absurd?), are restricted to Afghanistan — where we are at war.  Almost nobody in the media is talking through this, at all.  Clearly, the anger at the…