Year: 2009

Web/Tech

Jonathan Zittrain on the Future of the “Cloud”

islamoyankee

Just posting it because it’s of intellectual interest. Take it or leave it. But the most difficult challenge — both to grasp and to solve — of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. The crucial legacy of the personal computer is that anyone can write code for it and give or sell that code to you — and the vendors of the PC and its operating system have no more to say about it than your phone company does about which answering machine you decide to buy. Microsoft might want you to run Word and Internet…

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Politics

Sotomayor Nomination

islamoyankee

Frank Rice has a good piece on the Sotomayor nomination today, and how it the process highlights how difference is threatening to some people, even though difference is becoming more normative. See also Stewart and Colbert. Unfortunately, while Rich focuses on Latino/a aspects, I think he misses the larger issue of how we all fear difference. For example, this type of fear applies to Muslims, but also emanates from Muslims. Hopefully, the recent experiences with Pres. Obama and Sotomayor help highlight how we fear difference and how we can overcome it.

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Art Literature

Review: Domestic Crusaders

islamoyankee

I have to imagine that writing fiction about Muslim-Americans is a thankless task. People from outside the community are already pre-disposed to like it or hate it. Unless you’re Rizwan Manji, Aasif Mandvi, or Aziz Ansari, you can’t quite draw the crowds to be able to change minds. Of course, you also get heat from inside the community. People will invariably say “it doesn’t represent me,” “it’s not my experience.” These same people will simultaneously identify with Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and support Umrao Jaan Ada, but will not have empathy with Muslim-American characters because it is not exactly their experience.…

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Music Politics

Music, #Iran, and the #IranElection

islamoyankee

With my passion for music, I’d be remiss in not pointing out some resources on Iranian music, especially with the conflict surrounding the Iranian election. This piece from Religion Dispatches is good, but I think it takes the “all politics is personal” a little too far. It’s not always about the music. Hawg Blawg is always excellent, and Talk Islam has some work as well. Andrew Sullivan is running an intermittent series called “Outing Iran” that includes a lot of music.

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Politics

Daddy Party Needs Daddies

islamoyankee

TPM Reader BD: Remember how during the 2008 campaign a lot of people suggested that Obama could prove to be an excellent role model for African-American men who have often been deemed less than responsible as husbands and fathers? Wouldn’t it be great if white Evangelical Republican men could come up with a role model like that too? [From Reader Deep Thought]

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Art Intra-faith Music Poetry

He Who Burns

islamoyankee

My dear friend is putting on a dance performance in NY this weekend. It is titled “He Who Burns,” and plays with the idea put forward by Hallaj that Iblis was cast out of Heaven for being the truest lover of God. He refuse to bow to Adam not because he was disobedient, but because none is worthy of worship other than God. Check it out. He Who Burns

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