Photo: Muslim Woman and the NY Skyline

Here is a Wall Street Journal article on the exhibit America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far, at The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, for which I was the lead academic advisor. Alas, the piece is behind a paywall. The show is the fourth in the Upper West Side museum's Global Cultural Exhibition Series, intended — as the name suggests — to create global citizens. And I can attest, from both observation and ancient personal experience, that the best way to broaden horizons isn't by lecturing kids about being better people but by letting them climb into, over and through things.…

Introduces panelists: moderator: Jocelyne Cesari – Harvard – works with EC on Islam, religions, race and rights Charles Dunbar – prof. of int’l relations at simmons college – former ambassador to yemen and qatar – writing book on whether western sahara would be independent or part of morocco while working for UN – charge d’affaires in afghanistan Muqtedar Khan – Brookings Institute Fellow – US Foreign Policy towards Muslim World – VP of Assoc. of Muslim Social Scientists Amaney Jamal – Asst. Prof. at Princeton – Arab-American community in Detroit – dissertation on Palestinian Americans [didn’t get all the details]

In a stunning turn of events in India, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP party was upset by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s Congress Party. As an American Muslim of Indian descent, I have some strong feelings about India in general and about the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in India over the past few years. Though the majority of Indian citizens are Hindu, people quickly forget that there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan (approx 100 million). I believe that the ousted party bears some responsibility for the communcal violence, but the reason I am posting this information…