Faith in the absence of Reason

From AIM (Asian in Media), June 12, 2006 Muslim journalists, writers, filmmakers and activists are banding together to form a new organisation aimed at influencing the media to move beyond “easy and simplistic portrayal of Muslims” and build on issues relevant to British Muslims today. Called ‘Muslims for Secular Democracy’, the lobbying group is being headed by the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and supported by others such as Ghayasuddin Siddique of the Muslim Parliament, playright Nasreen Rehman and Sharq magazine editor Reem Maghrebi. The organisation says it supports a clear separation between religion and the state and wants to make “democratic…

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…

‘Stealth Jihad’ Conveys Paranoia – Newsweek. Also, simply put, foreign words freak people out. “Jihad” and “Sharia” reinforce the sense among Americans that Muslims in general have an unfathomable world view. During World War II, formerly obscure words like “hara-kiri” and “kamikaze,” which suggested the “warlike ferocity” of the Japanese, became common parlance, Nunberg says. “There was this sense of being confronted with this hostile, alien culture.” The Japanese were “literally demonized,” he says.