Month: May 2005

Current Affairs Intra-faith

(Un)Created(?) – Quran Desecration, part 2

islamoyankee

A question for the Muslim community: why we are offended when the Qur’an is desecrated? (See previous post for details.) Echoing the grand debate most associated with the Mutazilah, the Qur’an is either created, or uncreated. If it is uncreated, then that means the Qur’an is co-eternal with God, meaning that something else exists with God. So, as a second “eternal,” I can understand why Muslims would be upset; of course, it also means that they are only superficially believers in tawhid. To be offended, is to deny what it means to be Muslim. If you argue that the Qur’an…

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Current Affairs Inter-faith

Imperium – Qur’an Desecration, part 1 [updated]

islamoyankee

[update]: I didn’t realize the stories of the Qur’an being flushed are at least a year old. It strikes me that this lends much more credence to the claim, considering within 48 hours government concluded its initial investigation and began to blame Newsweek for poor reporting. Transferance. The recent report that the Qur’an may have been flushed down a toilet in Guantanamo Bay has created two trains of thought in my mind. One external, and the purpose of this post, and one internal, the subject of a second post, hence the title. Although it is looking like the original report…

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Inter-faith Intra-faith Religion

Faith [updated]

islamoyankee

Please answer the questions yourself, here, at American Street, or on your own blog. From American Street: Are you a religioius/ spiritual person? Were you born into your faith or did you come to it later? Was there a particular event in your life that changed your religious/ spiritual philososphy? Do you share your faith with others? 1. I am deeply religious. I would like to think that also means I am spiritual, but I know the two are not linked causally. Nor does saying something necessarily make it true. There is deity but God, Muhammad is the messenger of…

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Books Inter-faith Intra-faith

Muslims and the Book (of the comic and graphic variety)

islamoyankee

Oh so many moons ago, I read a post on Dove’s Eye View on a new series of comic books coming out Egypt. There are more details on her site, but the salient point is that the author/illustrator has Muslims fighting for the City of All Faiths; religious harmony is still an aspiration in the Arab Middle East. He grew up reading DC comics, and my personal take is that Marvel was always better at allegory and moral ambiguity (see, for example, these descriptions of the X-Men graphic novel, “God Love, Man Kills”), and DC better at black/white, right/wrong stories.…

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Inter-faith Music

Hasidic Reggae

islamoyankee

Yes Virginia, it’s true. Take a look at this site, just to read comments like this: “He can really rip,” agrees hip-hop producer and bassist Yossi Fine (David Bowie, Me’Shell Ndege-Ocello), who is himself part Israeli and Afro-Jamaican Jew. “He’s extremely fierce, jumping around the stage. The only difference between him and a Jamaican rapper is that he takes the lyrics from the Bible instead of from Rasta. He changes ‘Jah’ to ‘Hashem’ [Hebrew for God].” I intend to buy an album. Seems very cool. Also, here.

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Current Affairs

British Elections and Muslims [update][4x]

islamoyankee

I just saw this piece over at TPM. I don’t know enough about “Gorgeous George” to make a detailed comment yet. However, at least superficially, the argument makes sense. There is a potential for anti-Muslim backlash. [update]: More from the Exiled Afrikan. [update 2]: ThaBit weighs in, as does Crooked Timber. Follow the trackback as well. [update 3]: Apparently the stupidity regarding Muslims has begun. [update 4]: Galloway is now officially included in the oil-for-food debacle. Muslims as a fifth-column rhetoric should begin soon. Technorati Tags: George Galloway

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