Inter-faith

Mapping Religious Life in New York, Block by Block – NYTimes.com

Mapping Religious Life in New York, Block by Block – NYTimes.com. Tony Carnes and I met for breakfast at Penelope, a homey little cafe across Lexington Avenue from First Moravian Church. Penelope sits one block north and three avenues east of Marble Collegiate Church, where Norman Vincent Peale preached for 52 years, and it is a 2.8-mile drive from Sons of Moses, the tiny Lower East Side synagogue where you can still hear Lithuanian Yiddish.  This is how Tony Carnes sees New York City. A Texas native, who came to New York as a young man to study at the…

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Politics

Sen. Durbin chairs first ever hearing on the civil rights of U.S. Muslims on March 29 – Lynn Sweet

Sen. Durbin chairs first ever hearing on the civil rights of U.S. Muslims on March 29 – Lynn Sweet. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) holds a hearing on the civil rights of U.S. Muslims on March 29—the first of its kind–a pointed response to a hearing held earlier this month on terrorism in the U.S. Muslim community chaired by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.).

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Women

Are brothels and bikinis signs of progress for Arab women? – CSMonitor.com

Are brothels and bikinis signs of progress for Arab women? – CSMonitor.com. Western media have too often measured emerging democracies by the yardstick of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” A recent article in The New York Times, “Next Question for Tunisia: The Role of Islam in Politics,” appears to offer the additional standards of “brothels,” “beer,” and “bikinis.”

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Video

Funniest Thing Ever. Google FTW.

Two girls decide they want to order Indian food — but in Hindi. So of course they turn to the Interwebs for help. Because on the Internet, nobody knows you’re brown. Using Google Translate, they successfully order themselves some takeout. I like the part at the end where the dude on the phone is like, “Will there be anything else?” And the girls just keep “saying” the address instead. [From Two White Girls Become Cunning Linguists via Google Translate] humor

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Inter-faith

Episcopal cleric tries Islamic rituals for Lent

Having spent the last six weeks at an Episcopal seminary, I admire what the Deacon is trying to do, and think it can offer insight into one’s own tradition. I’m sorry the Bishop didn’t meet with him before threatening to remove him from the church. Episcopal cleric tries Islamic rituals for Lent. Speaking to a reporter that afternoon, he had no problem reconciling his Episcopalian views with those of Islam and explained that he hoped to test a concept that has been attributed to Mahatma Gandhi and is discussed in John Dunne’s book, “The Way of All the Earth.” According…

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Politics

Mr. King’s Sound and Fury – NYTimes.com

Mr. King’s Sound and Fury – NYTimes.com. Mr. King, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, offered not a scintilla of substantiation for his charges that more than 80 percent of American mosques are run by radicals — “an enemy living amongst us.” Nor did he offer any evidence to support his assertions that “law enforcement officials throughout the country told me they received little or — in most cases — no cooperation from Muslim leaders and imams.”

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Politics

Beyond the Clash of Civilizations – NYTimes.com

Beyond the Clash of Civilizations – NYTimes.com. On the one side were the radicals, who would use more and more demonstrative violence to underline the weakness of the powers-that-be in an attempt to mobilize the masses on their side, and who would finally find themselves isolated and ostracized by those same masses, as the failure of Egyptian and Algerian radicals had proven in the 1990s.  On the other side, a growing amount of Islamists were converting to the creed of pluralism and democracy, as was already then the case in Turkey. That change would not take place without turmoil within…

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Women

Irtiqa: Blogging from Pakistan: Female Cabbie and “Firefly” video

Irtiqa: Blogging from Pakistan: Female Cabbie and “Firefly” video. The article provides just a glimpse of the class and gender struggles in Pakistan. But then again, Pakistan has a history of amazing women leading from the front on issues of human rights and gender equality, and now even the blasphemy law (for example, the indomitable Asma Jahangir, Mukhtaran Mai, Shereen Rehman, etc.).

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Politics

Peter King’s subversive fantasy | Wajahat Ali | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Peter King’s subversive fantasy | Wajahat Ali | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk. Congressman Peter King, who has rationalised his past defence of IRA terrorism without a hint of self-awareness or irony, is now the self-appointed protector of America from future terrorist attacks by holding a congressional hearing on the “Extent of Radicalisation in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.” King presiding over this hearing would be like asking Mel Gibson to chair an impartial session on Jewish American loyalties. King has in the past claimed there are “too many mosques” in America and that 85% of American…

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