Words matter [updated]

Perhaps I am not up on Muslim writers and thinkers, but thanks to reading a discussion on Muslim Wakeup, I was informed of Asma Barlas, Professor, Politics Department, Ithaca College. Her website contains many articles which are thought provoking and worth a read. The nice thing is that many of her essays are published in The Daily Times, Pakistan, and not in academic journals. Thus making them available to a larger audience. The following was taken directly from Professor Barlas’s website: “My most recent research interests have been in the area of scriptural hermeneutics and the politics of reading/meaning-creation. To…

I dislike the House of Saud. I hate the hypocrisy of the country. I wish Muhammad bin abd-el Wahhab never existed and that Saudi Arabia had no oil so that the petro-dollars could not be used to wipe out Islamic cultural expressions around the world. I do not like my Islam defined by these characters. I, however. like Slate, the online journal. Read it quite regularly, I do. Today, however, I was not happy to read the an article on Slate entitled: “Stop Scapegoating the Saudis, Maybe They’re Not Responsible for Everything That Ails Islam”, by Lee Smith. I like…