Honor God

The next few weeks promise to be very exciting here at islamicate. This weekend is the Islam in America Conference at Harvard. I’ll be there and trying to do daily updates on the proceedings of the conference. I’m also going to see if I can get some of the panelists to sit down with me and share some more detailed thoughts, if not guest-post with us. I’ve also been conspiring with Haroon of Avari-Nameh fame to see if we can discuss some topics in the open between our blogs. I’m a big fan of the old school way of Islamic…

The tragedies in Spain made me angry – just like I’m sure they did for many others. However, as the amazing show of solidarity in Spanish streets shifted to the election outcome, I must admit that I had some not-so-nice things to say about what was going to happen as a result. Then, as the hostage taking episodes began in Iraq, I was all too happy to draw a causal link from Madrid to tactics in Iraq. However, I’m not so comfortable in those assertions any more. This op-ed in particular made me think again. I’m not sure where I…

Karen Leonard on race and religion. Moorish identity first. Noble Drew Ali, etc. Turks were classified as Asiatics and Arabs (associated with Ottoman Empire) and therefore denied citizenship based on race. South Asians were also disqualified. All S. Asians were initially referred to as “Hindoos,” but not used in religious sense. S. Asian and Arab identity is internally ambivalent about identifying as white. New racialization of Muslims. Imposition of Arab phenotype. US Dept. of Transportation issued in Oct., 2001 indicates Arabs, S. Asian, Muslim and Sikh passengers should not be singled out for searches. None are racial categories. Islam is…