Year: 2005

Inter-faith

“I’ve only met two other Muslims in my life, and they both smelled like incense.”

This choice quote comes from a young white Christian American Boy Scout upon reflecting on meeting  young brown Muslim American Boy scouts at a Scouting Jamboree.  Its from a very interesting article in Time Magazine about Muslim Boy Scouts.  Its jarring for me to realize that in the US Boy Scouts have been affiliated with the Christian faith.  Growing up in Karachi I was a cub and a boy scout as part of our Jamat Khana activities and never once thought of it as being a Christian Institution. Strange.  Any way Scouting is one way for integration between various communities. 

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Current Affairs

Panic Strikes – Lets Profile Muz-lums

Here we go again.  Another terrorist bombing and another call to profile Muslims, or shall I say Moz-lums.  Here is a great gem from NYC Councilmember Oddo: It is important to acknowledge that nearly every Jihadist who has engaged in terrorist attacks has been a young man who called himself Muslim – the common denominator among the recent bombings in London and Madrid, the 9/11 attacks, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the would-be millennium bombers, the destroyer Cole, the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Pan Am Flight 103, TWA Flight 847 and the bombing of the Marine barracks in…

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Uncategorized

Abu WOMB@! [updated]

islamoyankee

As of August 10, my new kunya is now Abu WOMB@!, but at least in this space, I’ll remain islamoyankee. His name is honor of Umm WOMB@! who is an Australian. Until things settle down, I’ll be posting Eschaton-style for a while. update: Abu means father, as Aunty Doodle-bug pointed out, not everyone knows that. Technorati Tags: wombat

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Uncategorized

Stand steadfast before God as witnesses for justice . . .

SAM I AM

Even though categorization is a useful tool for analysis, and OBL is definitely a bad guy, I am curious to hear if people have any objections to the use of the term binladendism as described in this article in the Boston Globe by Abdul Cader Asmal.  I’ve heard some convicing arguments against the blanket use of the term Wahhabism and my sense is that binladenism is probably more accurate but flawed in its own ways.

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Intra-faith Shi'ism

On the Caliphate

islamoyankee

Tony had mentioned something about the Caliphate in the comments of an earlier post. And it got me thinking about the whole issue of what a call to a “Caliphate” could mean to OBL. Chapati Mystery has a really good post about the contemporary meanings of that term, and it really is a must read. My take was, and is, going to be slightly more historical. However, since they have filled in some of the contemporary background, my post will be abbreviated. [Just one criticism on the line “ some linear descendan[t] of the Fatimids found in a derelict bookstore…

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Current Affairs

From Afghanistan

islamoyankee

A friend is travelling through Afghanistan as part of a circus (yes, a circus). One of his more recent emails: Salaam from Karte Seh, Kabul, I hope this finds you safe and in good spirits. I have a new telephone number and mailing address in the U.S., noted at the bottom of this email. Nearly one month ago, what little I knew of Afghanistan I knew by pictures and words, maybe a couple good books, like “Kite Runner” or “An Unexpected Light,” and sound bites from the Boston Globe or Washington Post. Even if I knew better, I still had…

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Books Inter-faith Intra-faith Reading Lists

Reading the Qur’an – part 3 – Translations and Secondary Sources [updated][2x]

islamoyankee

[I’ve jumped a head to part 3 since several commentors have asked about translations and secondary material.] I’ve done one post already on the vagaries of Qur’anic Arabic. Learning Arabic does not really help in learning to read the Qur’an in the sense of its interpretive history, but it does help you appreciate the large semantic range of each word in the Qur’an. (A really good secondary source for this discussion, although somewhat technical, is The Qur’an’s Self-Image.) As a result, when I look up passages, I don’t rely on just one translation, but rather several. I also use languages…

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Current Affairs

Kill all Muslims

islamoyankee

Kill all Muslims must be the new AQ commandment. The targets in the bombing in London were in Muslim neighborhoods. They are killing Muslims in Iraq. Now they are blowing up children in Egypt. I ask this question repeatedly, what are they doing to help Muslims? (A meme I return to again and again.) 2:156 5:32

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