Religious Witness Against Torture

For those of you unaware, Dick Clarke is former head of counter-terrorism under the Clinton and Bush, Jr. administrations. He’s written a book analyzing the failures of both groups – not just Bush as has been widely reported – in dealing with Al-Qaeda. Unfortunately, I have not yet read the book, but this review is one of the least partisan ones I’ve read so far. It’s really chilling what we don’t know. I’ve often joked – as have others – that the color-coding scheme of terrorist alert is nothing more than a scam to get Bush re-elected. What if it’s…

Today is the Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, commemorating Hazrat Ibrahim’s and Hazrat Ismail’s willingness to sacrifice everything to God. Traditionally, some sort of animal is sacrificed to symbolize our willingness to do the same. While I appreciate the symbolic value, I’m also a firm believer in the adage about teaching someone to fish; right now the sacrificed meat is distributed to the needy. I remember the story as being Hazrat Ibrahim being asked to sacrifice what was most dear to him, and now that is money. With all of the above in mind I tried to get a…

In 2002, the Insitute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands, published a series of essays dealing with the issue of Islam and Modernity. The publication entitled "New Voices of Islam", edited by Farish Noor, is available for download in PDF format. It features the following essays: Muslims Must Realize That There Is Nothing Magical about the Concept of Human Rights Interview with Abdullahi An-Na’im The Responsibilities of the Muslim Intellectual in the 21 s t C e n t u r y Interview with Abdolkarim Soroush We Need New Intellectual Tools for the Age We…