MOOZ-lum trailer

Nice review of the state of architecture for Muslims (not necessarily Islamic architecture) in the US. I particularly like the point Maryam makes, let’s go back to praying together, instead of this modern notion of segregating the sexes. BBC News – Muslim America moves away from the minaret. Architect Maryam Eskandari, former associate director of the American Institute of Architects, is touring the US with a photo exhibition illustrating the transition of American mosques from traditional to postmodern design.  She says Islamic architecture has long been subject to personal interpretation and set in a cultural and historical context.

Guest Voices: A Muslim cartoonist on “Draw Muhammad Day” – On Faith at washingtonpost.com. What Norris failed to understand is that by creating events like “Draw Muhammad Day”, artists hurl rhetorical stones that go straight through their enemies and hit Muslims like me. Al Qaeda isn’t hurt by Draw Muhammad Day. Its entire PR campaign is built on incidents like these. Without the Molly Norrises and Jyllands Postens of the world, Al Qaeda would have to get a lot more creative with its recruitment strategies. Artists who caricature the Prophet inevitably claim, as Norris has done, that they never meant…

A medieval monument to religious pluralism, hidden in the mountains of Afghanistan. One of the great wonders of the medieval world is a very tall, heavily ornamented minaret nestled in a green valley at the edge of the Jam river in what is now Afghanistan. Often called the Minaret of Jam, the monument was almost a millenium ago illuminated by a torch at its top, and surrounded by a thriving town with small industries and outlying farms.  What’s remarkable is that the writing on the minaret and archaeological remains nearby strongly suggest that the city harbored a population of Muslims,…