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Who is Ali (as), the universal hero of Islam? – City of Brass

My Ramadan musings are up at City of Brass. Who is Ali (as), the universal hero of Islam? – City of Brass. As we begin the first night of Ramadan, I think of the first promise we made to God. We bear witness that God is our Lord (7:172). From God’s desire to lead us, he left us nubuwwah and then Imamah. To be the mu’min, the one with faith, means following the guidance of the Qur’an, the Prophet, and the Imams. To me, that ethical message, particularly of service, rings the loudest. This Ramadan is a chance for me…

Conspiracy Theories

As I’m writing this, I see someone else had a similar idea. So I’m watching CNN yesterday, Aug. 10, and I hear Christiane Amanpour say that many young Muslims in the West believe that 9/11, 7/7, and now the new attacks on planes were plots by Western governments in order to start a war with Islam. O Muslims in the West, are you stupid? Either: 1. The West has the wherewithal to plot such destructive events against their own people, including American and British Muslims, and the ability to keep it secret, but not so secret that we can’t figure…

Eating Your Own

In the last month three articles have come out regarding the Muslim attack on Islamist ideologues. Chris Dickey came out in Newsweek with a few good examples in the Muslim majority world. My two (minor) gripes are that he didn’t mention the stuff happening here in the US, for example, that’s been going on much longer, and the gates of ijtihad never closed for the Shi’ah, so the debate is very different. Lawrence Wright has a wonderful piece in The New Yorker that highlights the nuances involved in the ideological dispute happening in AQ now. Most importantly what emerges is…