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Grass Roots Development May Hold Promise in the Muslim World

I would actually hope that it holds promise for everyone: There is, Khan averred, a “dominant player fallacy” or the tendency to place “too much reliance in national governments and other institutions which may have relatively superficial connections to life at the grass-roots level.” Thus, “urban-based outsiders often look at these situations from the perspective of the city center looking out to a distant countryside, searching for quick and convenient levers of influence.” The secret, then, is to work “from the bottom up” and not from the top down, as is so often the case. As he told the dinner…

Faith [updated]

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…

Ismailis defend Salafis

An unlikely pairing: Tajikistan is banning Salafi groups because they may pose a threat. It’s the Ismailis who come out defending the Salafis. Of course, I’m wary of any reporting that talks of an Ismaili imam that is not the Aga Khan. An Ismaili imam, who did not wish to be identified, told Forum 18 that “Salafis do not constitute any threat for the country. It does not matter whether one is Sunni or Shiite, Ismaili or Salafi, we are all Muslims.”