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MLT – Extremism and New Media, the Imam’s Circle

Sorry folks. I was on the extremism panel (not as an extremist) and I ditched the Imam’s Circle. For various reasons, I actually didn’t say much on the panel, but the main presenter, Aftab Malik, was quite good. I’ll develop some of the thoughts I had in a separate post. I didn’t attend the Imam’s Circle because I thought its composition reflected the tendency to construct, however inadvertently, a homogeneous face of Islam, particularly in its lack of Shi’ah representation. Technorati Tags: MLT

Defining Islam

Nice op-ed piece about what it means to be Muslim. Regardless of whether you think she remains within the fold of Islam or not is your business. I think she makes a good point, neither OBL, nor the media can define what Islam is. Technorati Tags: Islam

How the Jews Saved Islam

I was hoping that title would get someone’s attention. More specifically: I was reading The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (And Queens, New York) and learned quite about the relationship between Bukharan Jews and Muslims in Transoxiana (modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). In brief, Muslims started giving up aspects of their musical heritage and the Bukharan (here, basically meaning Central Asian) Jews took up the craft and helped preserve Islamicate music, especially the shash maqām. It’s a good read, and I highly recommend it. While it’s also a bit late for Diaspora Month, the last…