Books Intra-faith

Book Review: “Muslim Women in America”

Not my review, and the only reason I highlight this review is because the reviewer gets it: The authors admit that their book “concentrates primarily on Muslim women who are actively affirming Islam.” Skeptics, doubters and agnostics are scarcely acknowledged (Irshad Manji, the controversial author of the important work The Trouble With Islam, is disposed of in a paragraph). The book’s unstated focus is Sunni Islam and the (African-American) Nation of Islam. Little attention is paid to women’s experiences in Ahmadiyyah, Ismaili Shia or Twelver Shia communities—all of which are thriving in the United States. (The Islamic scholar Linda Walbridge’s…

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Conferences Intra-faith Religion Web/Tech

Moslems on the Internets

Paper presented at Harvard’s Islam in the West Conference. Introduction only. Full reference information for citation purposes will be supplied on request, normal copyright reserved for this posting. Introduction President Bush’s comment about the “internets” was derided for turning a singular, indivisible entity into a plural. While technically incorrect, the term does highlight an interesting point: While there is only one internet, the variety of reactions to the internet – because of its association with the world wide web – are manifold. Is the internet a space for free sharing of information and easy access to commercial goods or is it a…

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