Inter-faith

“My Faith in America” by Aleem Walji « Karim R. Lakhani’s Infrequent Musings

“My Faith in America” by Aleem Walji « Karim R. Lakhani’s Infrequent Musings. But that’s what puzzles me about the current national conversation. I grew up in the United States, in the deep south. I practiced my faith easily and integrated into a community in Georgia that supported Newt Gingrich. And nobody questioned my faith or my commitment to America. Not until after 9/11. That’s when seemingly educated but ill-informed scholars asserted that Islam and the West were caught in an unavoidable clash of civilizations; that there is something fundamentally inconsistent between Islam and western values.

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Art

ANIKAI DANCE INDIA TOUR 2011 by Wendy Jehlen — Kickstarter

I don’t normally post Kickstarter appeals, but Wendy is a dear friend, and I am a huge fan of He Who Burns. ANIKAI DANCE INDIA TOUR 2011 by Wendy Jehlen — Kickstarter. ANIKAI Dance Company is embarking on the MOST EXTENSIVE TOUR OF INDIA by a US dance company since 1926 when Ruth St. Denis took her Denishawn Dancers. For the people of India to see physically strong, powerful women (and one man!) take the stage and perform viscerally charged, athletic choreography will be a cultural ground-breaking of enormous proportion. ANIKAI has been invited to tour seven cities across India…

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Inter-faith

A Letter From A Catholic Mother – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

I found this story quite moving, for whatever reason. It is an interesting meditation on the nature of an informed faith, and when two aspects of the same faith come into conflict, how people are seeking to resolve the conflict. A Letter From A Catholic Mother – The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan. I was quite proud of my sixteen-year-old son, who after completing two years of confirmation preparation wrote his letter to the Bishop telling him quite proudly why he did not want to become confirmed as an adult in the current church. 

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Politics

Fake Talibothra

Sepoy asks the tough question over at Chapati Mystery. We’ve been giving money to a fraud, but we believe we can identify targets through drone cameras. Do we even know who we are after? Fake Talibothra. So, tell me, spy novel world, how is it that you cannot identify someone you give money to, someone you introduce to highest officials but you ask us to believe that you know without any doubt that someone you kill without any formal charge, any trial is the right target?

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Books

The McSweeney’s Store

The Domestic Crusaders is available for pre-order. Hooray! This link takes you to a super-secret discount price. The McSweeney’s Store. The Domestic Crusaders focuses on a day in the life of a modern Muslim Pakistani-American family of six eclectic, unique members, who convene at the family house to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of the youngest child.  With a background of 9-11 and the scapegoating of Muslim Americans, the tensions and sparks fly among the three generations, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader” struggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions, while still attempting to maintain and…

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