Aziz is on holiday once more, and I have a guest post over at City of Brass. It’s a re-print of my earlier “What is Shi’ism?” I even managed to keep all my original typos!
Related Posts
found, but not lost – jihad against studpidity
Read elf on the matter. (yes, it’s old, hence the title of the post). Maybe we should make that our tag line “jihading against idiocy with a dunce cap on the head.”
Brass Crescent Awards are Coming
The new round of Brass Crescent Awards are here. Please nominate anyone you believe is deserving.
NYT on Turkey’s New Riches
Newfound Riches Come With Spiritual Costs for Turkey’s Religious Merchants – NYTimes.com. There are some choice examples in this article of the rich religious. My favorite is the sofa that lifts up off of the ground during prayer time. I wonder how far they had to dig to find people who saw a strong dichotomy between being wealthy and being religious. I think this quote "The businessmen describe themselves as Muslims with a Protestant work ethic, and say hard work deepens faith," is rather telling. How many Turks are thinking of the Protestant work ethic? The class differentials in Turkish society seem to be the real story. The conflict between the material and the spiritual world seems to be a reach that they shoe-horned into the article.