Report is from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
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Law and Cultural Purity
Not all fundamentalism is about violence. Sometimes it’s about using the law. Unfortunately, some of our elected representatives are aiming to use the law to define what it means to be “American” by excluding Muslims. They seek to turn back the clock on American inclusion, forgetting that when you can exclude one group, you can exclude any group. We must accept that we live in a global village. Without that basic premise, we miss many of the political patterns emerging both in the US and around the world. We can react to the “new” in two ways: embrace it or…
More on “Obsession” [Updated]
Aziz links to a thorough review of the movie. Josh finds a good break down at TPM. And of course, check out Obsession with Hate. Update: Both Aziz and Svend point me to a new deconstruction by Jews on First. The point is that this fight is bigger than us, and we have many natural allies who can take this apart without making it about identity politics.
Interview on NPR on Riyaaz Qawwali
I was recently interviewed on NPR about Riyaaz Qawwali, a group out of Austin, TX. Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Hofstra University, says that many qawwaliartists working in South Asia today have limited themselves. He believes this American group is bringing the music back to its roots. “You know, I think there’s been so much concern about what is Islam, and what isn’t, politically speaking and artistically speaking,” Rashid says, “that there’s been a push in modern qawwali to actually sanitize it and make it very sterile — and almost rule-bound — rather than ecstatic and devotional. For me, I think…