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Reflection on Obama and Gaza

I won’t be posting much today on Gaza, it’s going to get lost in inauguration coverage. I’ll be Tweeting thoughts on the inaugural address. David says something that I think many of us noticed. This is the Tweet I got immediately before his. And after these two Tweets. As American we cry for the hope realized. For Gazans, the tears are for hope lost. Pray for peace. Pray that Obama will make our hopes true.

Attempts to convert Mama Sarah Obama

Using religion for politics. It ain’t the Muslims this time. There has been an attempt, yesterday, to convert Mama Sarah Obama, President Barack Obama’s foster grandmother, to Christianity: … Presdident Obama’s family is an extended one, of Kenyan, American and Indonesian; and of Muslims and Christians. Obama’s father and paternal grandfather were both Muslims. The mother of Obamas father, the President’s real ‘granny’, Habiba Akumu Obama was a Muslim too. Mama Sarah Obama, his foster ‘granny’ and the woman who brought up Barack’s father – to protect Mr. Obama’s presidential ambition during the recent race for the White House –…

Interview on NPR on Riyaaz Qawwali

I was recently interviewed on NPR about Riyaaz Qawwali, a group out of Austin, TX. Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Hofstra University, says that many qawwaliartists working in South Asia today have limited themselves. He believes this American group is bringing the music back to its roots.  “You know, I think there’s been so much concern about what is Islam, and what isn’t, politically speaking and artistically speaking,” Rashid says, “that there’s been a push in modern qawwali to actually sanitize it and make it very sterile — and almost rule-bound — rather than ecstatic and devotional. For me, I think…