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Hindu followers of Imam Husayn

Yoginder Sikand, a scholar whose transnational work on Islamist movements is what I’m most familiar with, has an interesting article on Hindu followers of Imam Husayn. The piece is mostly historical, but the last paragraph is interesting: The Hussaini Brahmins, along with other Hindu devotees of the Muslim Imam, are today a rapidly vanishing community. The younger generation abandoning their ancestral heritage, often now seen as embarrassingly deviant. No longer, it seems, can a comfortable liminality be sustained, and ambiguous identities seem crushed under the relentless pressure to conform to the logic of neatly demarcated ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ communities. And…

The delicate politics of school holidays (COMMENTARY) – Religion News Service

The delicate politics of school holidays (COMMENTARY) – Religion News Service. Changing school calendars is a politically difficult maneuver because it makes statements about community identity. Our initial school calendar was determined by a mix of agricultural schedules and dominant religious thought. The result: summers off to work the land, and the end of December off to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Despite changing economies and demographics, we hold on to this system because it tells a story of who we are as a nation.

Nancy Fuchs Kreimer & Hussein Rashid: September 11, 2010: A Time for Turning

Nancy Fuchs Kreimer: September 11, 2010: A Time for Turning. September 11. The date, the words are still so evocative. Hate, anger, fear, sorrow, loss. Nine years after the event, emotions can still be as intense as they were in 2001. For some Americans, September 11 is the anniversary of their loved one’s death. Along with the annual memorials, this year the day will also include public demonstrations both in support of and in opposition to Park51, misnamed the “Ground Zero Mosque.”  Both of us will be marking that day as part of our holy season. For Jews, the 11th…