Related Posts

Command the Good – Gaza

Haroon posted about a fundraiser at NYU a few days ago. Unfortunately, I was on the road. Give if you can. He says: We can look all over the world and find a lot of misery, a lot of suffering, a lot of deprivation; some of that is done in our name; some of that is done and defended in a language we really use to argue for the exact opposite. The most important thing is to focus on what can be done, pray very hard, work very hard; we should not be discouraged by the scale of the challenge…

You are American if…

You are exactly like me. For those who haven’t heard yet, a Hindu was meant to give the opening prayer in the Senate yesterday, but before he could begin, he was interrupted by “patriots.” (video) (background pieces, 1, 2) I think Anna of Sepia Mutiny has it right that when she says that the pilgrims came for religious freedom. However, we have to understand that religious freedom still meant for those who had the power to exercise it, lest we forget what happened to the Native Americans and great civilizing “crusade” of bringing the Gospels. Her intent is right though.…

Torture is Terror

The passage below is a problem I have been struggling to articulate. From Aziz: What is needed is a generalized principle under which both opposition to terrorism and opposition to torture can be articulated. From a religious perspective, muslims have been arguing (usually defensively) that terrorism (ie, hirabah) goes against Islamic teachings for quite some time – see my own ongoing articles on hirabah here on beliefnet and my earlier hirabah posts. Recently, several muslim organizations issued a joint statement against torture (to which I also signed). Many of the same religious arguments that are made can be applied equally…