islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
Dear Sir, Since the Presidential elections are coming up here in the US, I’ve decided to outline what I expect from the President, and in turn, what the President can expect from me. Like you, I too will pledge on your inauguration day to uphold the Constitution. That document is what will bind us together and act as our common language, regardless of our political persuasions.
I haven’t really read the news for the last few days, party because I’ve been travelling and partly because I’m just really annoyed at the way the administration is doing things. I know, I know . . . that’s not news. However, the issue for me has progressed beyond general annoyance and crystallized around two central issues – power and trust. We live in the free world and President Bush seems to have made freedom his mantra, but his behavior seems to more closely resemble an “elected” dictatorship. I know this is naive, but aren’t there any mainstream politicians who…
Non-Muslims are uncaring people who are happy when they see other people being abused and tortured. At least that’s the impression I got from reading CNN.com today. Two stories talking about the images of torture at Abu Ghuraib prison had the following paragraphs: The images sparked anger among Muslims around the world… (link) The images have sparked anger among Muslims across the world… (link) I never would have thought that CNN reporters would dehumanize non-Muslims, but I guess there’s a first for everything. Just for the record, the second article actually does talk about Muslims across the world. The first…
I went to Dawnsinger‘s site today. Followed one of his links to Radio Free Blogistan. For those of you who don’t know, most of the islamicate collective are Apple fans, and we’ve been considering voting Sam I Am off the island for not having an iPod. Anyway, on RFB, I saw this link about news aggregators. I use NetNewsWire Lite, and so looked at Pulp Fiction. On his blog he had a question, that I wanted to share with you. Question: How do you feel about the statement: “Any god that would condemn me for seeking the truth isn’t worth…
Yesterday was the birthday of the Prophet (Milad un-Nabi). I had wanted to do a lengthy post on the various world traditions associated with the celebration of the day. When I went on-line to try to pull resources about Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia, all I kept getting were sites decrying the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. Apparently because he never celebrated it, we shouldn’t either (leave aside the irony of the “guardians of faith” making this decree on the internet.) I celebrate birthdays of my friends and family, people who are important to me. I can’t think of a more…
From Friday’s MotherJones.com, the casualty figures in Iraq are: Number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since Operation Iraqi Freedom began on March 19, 2003: 732 Number killed since George W. Bush declared an end to “major combat” on May 1, 2003: 594 Number killed this month: 136 Paul Wolfowitz, the man considered one of the architects of this war, doesn’t know that. Is it because we can’t hear the names of the dead? Or because we can’t see them? Despite the recent charges against the guards at Abu Gharib prison, the great majority of men and women in…
Two interesting op-eds in the Boston Globe today. The first talks about Karen Hughes equation of the women who marched on the DC Mall last week with terrorists. Regardless of where you fall on the abortion debate, the casual and easy equation of people with different views than this administration is a disturbing phenomenon. (It has happened before with respect to teachers; further proof we are preparing for the Rapture?) The emotional associations with the word “terrorist” after 9/11, across the country, is profound. I think it’s much more evocative than “communist” ever was for my generation. When disagreement becomes…
Ran across this interesting article on how “grassroots” are Progressive Muslim academics. If you haven’t already read Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual, you should.
Just so we are clear, I was “published” in 1974, and am exercising legal control over my soul and genetic material. My thoughts, until published, are part of the Creative Commons. I was inspired to protect myself after reading a good post on copyright by Dawnsinger. More of my thoughts are in the comment section of his blog.