Related Posts

Book Review: “Muslim Women in America”

Not my review, and the only reason I highlight this review is because the reviewer gets it: The authors admit that their book “concentrates primarily on Muslim women who are actively affirming Islam.” Skeptics, doubters and agnostics are scarcely acknowledged (Irshad Manji, the controversial author of the important work The Trouble With Islam, is disposed of in a paragraph). The book’s unstated focus is Sunni Islam and the (African-American) Nation of Islam. Little attention is paid to women’s experiences in Ahmadiyyah, Ismaili Shia or Twelver Shia communities—all of which are thriving in the United States. (The Islamic scholar Linda Walbridge’s…

WikiCity on Ismaili

I know we got a lot of people interested in Shi’ism, specifically Isma’ili Shi’ism, coming through this site. Myself, and several others, have an interest in this group, but don’t want to make the blog about one particular interpretation. However, I have found WikiCities, and thought that might be a good place to continue a conversation on the topic. I can’t run it by myself and would like to hear if others, Isma’ili or not, would be willing to help start something up before letting the Wiki have its way. You can leave notes in comments or email me at…

(Un)Created(?) – Quran Desecration, part 2

A question for the Muslim community: why we are offended when the Qur’an is desecrated? (See previous post for details.) Echoing the grand debate most associated with the Mutazilah, the Qur’an is either created, or uncreated. If it is uncreated, then that means the Qur’an is co-eternal with God, meaning that something else exists with God. So, as a second “eternal,” I can understand why Muslims would be upset; of course, it also means that they are only superficially believers in tawhid. To be offended, is to deny what it means to be Muslim. If you argue that the Qur’an…