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Explaining Islam to the public « The Immanent Frame

Explaining Islam to the public « The Immanent Frame. The expectation that Islamic studies scholars were prepared to “cover” the Islamic tradition and speak to its beliefs and practices on a normative, global basis was stressful for many of us. The idea that we could speak with authority about the practices of 1.4 billion people who speak dozens of languages and have inhabited the planet for the last 1400 years is absurd, of course. Like other academics, Islamic studies scholars are trained in certain fields of knowledge; in the best of programs, they are trained to be exceedingly careful about…

On a New York Times Roll

The NYT had an interesting series of unrelated articles about Muslims over the last week. Deprogramming Jihadists I respect that the article is trying to show how the Saudis are attempting to deal with demon they helped create, but really does not address some of the inconsistencies in the approach. For example: Saudi schools teach a version of world history that emphasizes repeated battles between Muslims and nonbelieving enemies. Whether to Afghanistan in the 1980s or present-day Iraq, Saudi Arabia has exported more jihadist volunteers than any other country; 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis. and…

GIA Podcast | Grantmakers in the Arts

GIA Podcast | Grantmakers in the Arts. Narrative Change Through Satirical Storytelling (podcast #17): Zeyba Rahman, senior program officer for The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art’s Building Bridges Program; Josh Seftel, filmmaker and creator of “The Secret Life of Muslims” series; Hussein Rashid, adjunct faculty member in the Department of Religion at Barnard College who focuses his research on Muslim and American pop culture; and Negin Farsad, Iranian-American writer and comedian who you can find on Netflix, HBO, and other media platforms, are interviewed by Nadia Elokdah, deputy director and director of programs of GIA. They discuss their recent…