Sept. 11, 2008

My friend Zeba Khan is up for “America’s Next Great Pundit.” She is also founder of Muslim Americans for Obama. Absolutely lovely and charming person, but more importantly for this process, a good writer. Please see her email below, and while I’d prefer you vote for her, feel free to vote your conscience. I won’t know. Salaams Friends, Last week, I was selected as one of ten contestants in the Washington Post’s “America’s Next Great Pundit” competition. Nearly 5,000 entries were submitted. The Post is holding an online voting weekend starting today and ending Monday, Nov 9th at 3pm EST…

Eboo does some good work in this piece on media representations. I think it’s the next area we have to talk about: how even basic media framing perpetuates fear and ignorance about religion. The Faith Divide: Nine years after 9/11, a debate about Islam – On Faith at washingtonpost.com. There you have it in a nutshell. The forces of intolerance scream from the rooftops, “Islam is about domination”. The forces of moderation are questioned with the intent of delegitimizing them (they’re either just liars, or liars and secret radicals).