Year: 2004

Three senators have approached the Pakistani(-American) community in New York. Read the article here. The politicians are finally starting to realize the value of using history and speaking a new symbolic language as witnessed by their calling on the vision Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It’s also important to note the semi-mea culpa with respect to the PATRIOT Act. The reach out maybe for the wrong reasons, but it’s an important acknowledgment of the role immigrants, and Muslims, play in the political process. It’s also an opportunity for us to get more involved and create a new vision for ourselves here in…

I’ve been sitting on this poem for a while, wondering if I should share or not. It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I finally decided that’s the point of a blog, to share quickly and easily. It doesn’t necessarily have to be great.

Here are my notes from the Construction of the Other Panel. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what they had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)

Here are my notes from the Teaching Islam Panel. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what they had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)

Here are my notes from the Public Policy Panel. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what they had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)

Here are my notes on Karen Leonard’s keynote address. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what she had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)

We’ve added a new typelist on the left bar today to recognize the Ahl al-Kitâb, People of the Book, very broadly defined. One of the things I’ve tried to argue for is that Muslim community cannot see itself or its issues in isolation. After a generous comment from the Velveteen Rabbi, I thought we should practice what we preach. We are actively seeking suggestions for Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, etc., blogs that are attempting to grapple with or explain aspects of their faiths.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting the imam of a local mosque, the largest from what I understand, has commended the 9-11 hijackers in a khutba in Lebanon. The defense is that the comments were taken out of context, but the text is not made available. Give us the context. More telling is the final line: “”When you make a speech in an Arabic environment, the translation will be different in an English environment.”” How will it be different to recommend murder in one language than in another? I agree we shouldn’t rush to judgment, but the Muslim community of…

OK, I have to admit I blew the organizing of the Meetup in Boston. HijabMan and I met for a bit and spoke about the selection of imams in local mosques. It was actually part of the discussion in the morning’s IIA panel as well. Who chooses the imams? Who do they speak to? Who do they speak for? He’s got a case study, so I won’t jump in on that. However, it strikes me that there are two basic approaches to religion: limiting and liberating.

Unfortunately, I was quite involved in running around during the Islam in America Conference, so I was unable to get good notes. I’m hoping Sam I Am (here at islamicate) and HijabMan will cover the difference. It was great finally meeting Mr. Hijab himself, and he’s agreed to give us the occasional post as well. A nagging question I have though is since I’ve seen his face, does that mean we have to get married now? 😉 I do have some thoughts on the presentations will be posting them slowly during the week.