Month: August 2011

Intra-faith

A Ramadan Roadtrip Around The US – The Takeaway

islamoyankee

A Ramadan Roadtrip Around The US – The Takeaway. Two men are spending Ramadan in 30 different mosques in 30 different states for all 30 days of the month of fasting. They’re traveling 13,000 miles, from Alaska to New York City, and are speaking with us today from South Carolina, where they’re a little more than halfway through their trip. What they’ve found is that generations of American Muslims have lived in small pockets of the U.S. since the 1800s.

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Events

Chain World – A Freeform Comic Book Experiment by A. David Lewis — Kickstarter

islamoyankee

Chain World – A Freeform Comic Book Experiment by A. David Lewis — Kickstarter. The "Chain World" Comic Book Experiment is, with the endorsement of several comics industry professionals, aimed at producing one artisan-designed hardcover slipcased 200-page comic book/"graphic novel" with a full-color wrap-around cover, beautifully illustrated initial page of story, and…199 pages left blank. Call it the most aesthetic chain letter ever, call it the most beautifully tangible campfire "continue-the-story" game, or call it the oddest "jam comic" to ever come down the pike: This whole Experiment is about creating and releasing one book — only ONE — to…

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Inter-faith

Religious Leader: Hussein Rashid | auburn

islamoyankee

I’m proud to be featured as one of Auburn’s Religious Leaders. I share the stage with my friend Wajahat Ali this week. His video, linked from my page below, is a must watch as well. Religious Leader: Hussein Rashid | auburn. Hussein Rashid is just one of the powerful voices of faith who is joining the Groundswell of support for the 10th Anniversary of September 11th and will be a featured speaker at the September 6th, 7pm event Out of the Shadows of 9/11: Millennials, Moral Vision and the Global Groundswell. Join Auburn for this Groundswell event on September 6th,…

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Events

Event: Museum Talk in Houston in September

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MFAH | Artful Thursday: High Notes – Thursday, September 15, 2011 @ 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM. Billie Holiday’s wavy intonation has its roots in the muezzin’s call to prayer. The syncopated riffs and rhythms of blues guitar legend John Lee Hooker echo a traditional call-and-response, with painful lyrics about life, love, and faith. The be-bop and cool-jazz improvisations of John Coltrane are informed by numerous musical and meditative traditions, including those of Islam. Also indebted to this tradition are the folk rock of Steve Earle and the hip-hop of Mos Def. In this month’s Artful Thursday lecture, Hussein Rashid…

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Art

New Brooklyn Writers Join Old Hands at Fort Greene Park Lit Fest – WNYC Culture

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Bryonn Bain is a friend from college, and I'm working on a review of his book, The Prophet Returns. New Brooklyn Writers Join Old Hands at Fort Greene Park Lit Fest – WNYC Culture. Bryonn Bain, who is from Flatbush and spent five years teaching cultural literacy to teen inmates at Rikers Island, will also be reading from his book, The Prophet Returns, which will be released this weekend by Blackout brooklyn Press.  "You can't underestimate the power of the word, the power of stories," Bain said, who will also be performing with the hip-hop theater group Lyrics from Lockdown…

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Religion

Book Review: A Muslim American Slave – WSJ.com

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Book Review: A Muslim American Slave – WSJ.com. Amid these unpromising circumstances, members of the American Colonization Society—a group that encouraged owners to free their slaves and organized former slaves to colonize what is today Liberia—asked North Carolina slave Omar Ibn Said to write his autobiography. A literate man of West African extraction who had converted from Islam to Christianity, Ibn Said (ca. 1770–1863) created what today is the only extant example of an American slave narrative written in Arabic. His brief work, under the title "A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said," is now published in…

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Inter-faith

National Religious Campaign Against Torture – Litany on or before September 11

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National Religious Campaign Against Torture – Litany on or before September 11. You are invited to use or adapt these prayers for your congregation, community or interfaith gathering. You can use the litany in its entirety or portions of it. You can use several leaders. You might light candles or use another symbol during each line of the “Remembering our Grief” section.

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Intra-faith

Who is Ali (as), the universal hero of Islam? – City of Brass

islamoyankee

My Ramadan musings are up at City of Brass. Who is Ali (as), the universal hero of Islam? – City of Brass. As we begin the first night of Ramadan, I think of the first promise we made to God. We bear witness that God is our Lord (7:172). From God’s desire to lead us, he left us nubuwwah and then Imamah. To be the mu’min, the one with faith, means following the guidance of the Qur’an, the Prophet, and the Imams. To me, that ethical message, particularly of service, rings the loudest. This Ramadan is a chance for me…

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Web/Tech

My name is islamoyankee | My Name Is Me

islamoyankee

Rachel from Velveteen Rabbi got me to write a piece for this important website.  My name is islamoyankee | My Name Is Me. I lived through 9/11. My Muslim identification became more important. I read an article about the two things the French fear/hate: Americans and Muslims. The author of the article coined the term “islamoyankee.” I appropriated it to describe me as being a proud New Yorker and committed Muslim.

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