islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
If this is a testing time, then some have passed with flying colors. Hats off to a rabbinical student in Massachusetts, Rachel Barenblat, who raised money to replace prayer rugs that a drunken intruder had urinated on at a mosque. She told me that she quickly raised more than $1,100 from Jews and Christians alike. via www.nytimes.com Yay Rachel!
On the occasion of the anniversary of 9/11, and in honor of the end of Ramadan, four New York Muslims reflect on piety and patriotism, on sharing classrooms and rituals of community life, on the courage and goodness of New Yorkers, and on the horrific event that has shaped a generation of American Muslim life. via www.religiondispatches.org
Nearly every Sept. 11 since Sept. 11, Hadidjatou Karamoko Traoré has made sure that her three children were dressed in their best clothes, and taken them from their tidy brick home in the Bronx to the pit where the World Trade Center stood, and where her husband, their father, worked and died. via www.nytimes.com
I do have a multihyphenated experience and identity. I think that makes me an American. It’s not mutually exclusive to be Muslim, Pakistani, and American. Sometimes that very simple message gets lost when fearmongering is stoked by individuals with selfish agendas. via www.americanprogress.org My boy Wajahat Ali give a great interview with the Center for American Progress on the Power of Storytelling
Muslims Block Bible-Burning In South Africa. “What Mr. Vawda wanted to do is not just morally wrong but is an affront to Islam. We regard Jesus as a prophet who is part of the Koran so if he burns the Bible, he is burning part of the Koran,” said Omar.
Maybe we should do the same in Muslim organizations? The Case For Term Limits In Jewish Life | The Jewish Week. As we anticipate the beginning of the New Year it’s a good time to reflect, take stock, and think about life and mortality. Not just personally, but communally as well. Perhaps its time to have a conversation about term limits in Jewish organizations.
Egypt’s present-day Shias live on Fatimid legacy « Simerg. It is hard to miss the Fatimid legacy that is apparent on the streets of Cairo. Moreover, many of this era’s traditions are still practiced. Shia practices such as celebrating Al-Mawlid Al-Nabawy (the Prophet’s birthday), Ashura (commemoration of Al-Hussein’s death), and even using lanterns during Ramadan are still common among Egyptians today.
Idea Lab – Why Are So Many Terrorists Engineers? – NYTimes.com. They say they believe in freedom and share our values. They say a few bad apples shouldn’t bring down judgment on their entire kind. Don’t be fooled. Though they walk among us with impunity, they are, in the words of Henry Farrell, a political scientist at George Washington University, “a group that is notoriously associated with terrorist violence and fundamentalist political beliefs.” They are engineers.
Nancy Fuchs Kreimer: September 11, 2010: A Time for Turning. September 11. The date, the words are still so evocative. Hate, anger, fear, sorrow, loss. Nine years after the event, emotions can still be as intense as they were in 2001. For some Americans, September 11 is the anniversary of their loved one’s death. Along with the annual memorials, this year the day will also include public demonstrations both in support of and in opposition to Park51, misnamed the “Ground Zero Mosque.” Both of us will be marking that day as part of our holy season. For Jews, the 11th…
On Burning Qur’ans – avari | haroon moghul. I don’t think the overwhelming majority of Muslims ever cared. Other than sad, annoying facebook campaigns which are so clueless as to not know that one cannot campaign for a restriction of a constitutional right. Even now, the pictures of violent protest we see, with crowds of angry demonstrators stupidly retaliating against one fringe pastor’s insensitivities by burning American flags (can hypocrisy become any more absurd?), are restricted to Afghanistan — where we are at war. Almost nobody in the media is talking through this, at all. Clearly, the anger at the…