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Haroon Siddiqui Speech

Just read this. Interesting. Three things come to mind: I find it interesting that Mr. Siddiqui has to qualify his statements with the idea that he is not the follow of the Aga Khan, even though he is in front of a “progressive” audience, where being an Ismaili, or Ithna’ashari, or Sunni shouldn’t matter. He critiques the term “extermist” but speaks to a group called “progressive,” which continues to reassert the binary, although from a different direction. He begins talking about how aware Muslims around the world are of prison abuses. I don’t dispute this, but I wonder how the…

Unicycles and Afghanistan

Dear Friends, Salaam aleykum. I hope you’ve been keeping warm and healthy through the winter! This email includes events and updates on the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC). BENEFIT PERFORMANCE!! Sat., March 18 — 6:30 pm @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Building 54, Room 100 Map: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=54%2BE34 MIT’s Juggling Club is throwing a Juggle Mania!! benefit performance for the MMCC. Some great entertainment, for a good cause. Club President David Rush brought in Peter Panic, and I’ll do a straight jacket escape while jumping rope. We all must escape from something, a bondage of some sort… If…

Gaza Crisis [constantly being updated]

I tend not to post on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because I do not perceive it as an issue of religious conflict from the Muslim perspective, and with the sizable number of Christians there, it is easy to make this obvious. However, the recent Gaza bombing, immediately following a blockade of food and certain medical supplies, is horrific. Haroon is covering, as is the excellent Global Voices. Mark Lynch, Abu Aardvark, posts some possibilities  for how this may destabilize the entire region. Not a good scenario. Brian adds more. Apparently the strike has been in the works since before the ceasefire. (h/t…