Year: 2009

Current Affairs

It’s All About Us Indeed

islamoyankee

Either we are doing this to people, or there were no people were involved. In which case I’m sure PETA can launch a more effective drive than the human rights community. From TPM Reader CR: One odd thing about this torture debate is that it’s all about *us.* Whether we committed a crime, how it affects our collective soul, how the wheels of justice ought to move (if at all). But nobody is talking about the victims–it’s as if torture were analogous to smoking the marijuana you grew in the woods behind your house. Something technically illegal, but something that…

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Current Affairs

Islamic ‘Adl in Orakzai

islamoyankee

Glad to see I have a role model in becoming a sardonic old man. It’s not justice or shari’ah, it’s extortion. What surprises me, however, is that none of the maulanas and muftis made an issue of the exact amount of money when so many avenues of argumentation were open to them. Was the amount extorted from the Sikhs right according to all the major schools of Islamic jurisprudence? Wasn’t it less? Wasn’t it more? Shouldn’t the amount be equivalent to the value of a certain weight in gold? And what about the requirement, according to many jurists, that the…

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Politics

Torturers For Hire

islamoyankee

But didn’t CIA officers have to approve the request? Former FBI supervisory special agent Ali Soufan, writing in an op-ed in the New York Times today, makes this parenthetical point regarding CIA torture: (It’s worth noting that when reading between the lines of the newly released memos, it seems clear that it was contractors, not C.I.A. officers, who requested the use of these techniques.) I’m not sure if that puts a different gloss on Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA officers, but it’s a point worth noting. [From Torturers For Hire]

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Current Affairs

There was a Muslim on the Maersk Alabama

islamoyankee

Zahid Reza said he and shipmates lured a pirate to a darkened engine room, where a struggle broke out. “I held him, I tied his hands and tied his legs. He was fighting me,” said Reza, who stabbed the pirate in the hand. “He was scared. He said he was planning to ask for $3 million. I told him, ‘You’re a Muslim and I’m a Muslim.’ “ Maersk Alabama crew recalls pirate attack – USATODAY.com.

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Inter-faith

Twittering Across the Faith Line

islamoyankee

I am fascinated by the role of new media in the world of multifaith relations. Take the events of yesterday morning… Rabbi Ira Stone At 9 a.m. I received an email from my colleague Rabbi Shai Gluskin that informed me that my teacher, Rabbi Ira Stone, was now posting about the Mishnah on Twitter. Not yet Twitter literate myself, I repaired to Facebook where I posted a “status update” announcing this news. An hour later, I received an email from Hussein Rashid, a scholar of Islam in New York City, who will be teaching for RRC next spring. He indicated…

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Intra-faith Women

Child Marriage in Arabia

islamoyankee

Brian’s comments are spot on. What is this reform of which you speak? After public outcry over the marriage of an 8-year-old to a 50-year-old, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Justice has vowed action: “The justice ministry aims to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls’, Justice Minister Mohammad Al Eisa told Al Watan newspaper, partially owned by members of the royal family… “The minister’s comments suggested the practice of marrying off young girls would not be abolished. The regulations will seek to ‘preserve the rights, fending off blights to end the negative aspects…

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