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New York City’s religious diversity bucks stereotypes

“You can’t go more than a block without finding a house of worship in New York City, an actively used house of worship,” said Hussein Rashid, a scholar of religion with The New School and Union Theological Seminary. While accurate and up-to-date data on the state of religious identity in the five boroughs is hard to find, Rashid and other scholars say the city is as spiritually diverse as it’s ever been, even as religious affiliation is declining here in step with the rest of the country. Source: New York City’s religious diversity bucks stereotypes

Yo Say José

One of the activities that some Shi’ah participate in during Muharram is to chant “Ya Hasan! Ya Husayn!” “Oh Hasan! Oh Husayn!” These were the Prophet’s (PBUH) grandsons, both of whom were assassinated. When the British came to South Asia they heard “Hobson-Jobson” and thus was born the Anglo-Indian Dictionary. Hobson-Jobson is the dictionary of all the words that have entered English from South Asia. The list is quite entertaining and exhaustive. There has been an attempt to supplement it with some of the words that have gained currency in the 20th century in a book called Sahibs, Nabobs and…

Muslim Woman Chaplain

The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine ran an article a couple of weeks ago about the army’s first potential female chaplain. Unfortunately I found the article somewhat frustrating with respect to the issues at stake in the US military. The author hints at things like ageism and sexism, but there’s a much stronger undercurrent of discrimination in the article that never gets explored. In addition, he only hints at the reaction of Muslims in the military, or outside it, to a female chaplain. Personally, I have no problem. I pray through Bibi Fatimah, the Prophet’s daughter, for special occasions, and recognize…