30 Good Minutes – Melissa Rogers – Free Exercise for All

American Islam – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here’s what I know. These three men, all converts, appeal to young American Muslims. They appeal, in large part, because they were born and raised in this country and have a vision for Islam that is unmistakably American. Though they’ve all spent time studying in Muslim-majority countries—Imam Zaid and Sheik Hamza were away for years—their focus remains on building a Muslim community that looks and feels, in every way possible, American.

This we were told by the war criminals in the Bush administration were “the worst of the worst.” Some were. Most were nothing of the kind. As with the debt, the war, and the economy, we are still trying to emerge from the Bush-Cheney wreckage. The damage they did to their own country and the world will live on for the rest of our lives. [From The Stain Of Gitmo] torture

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a piece at The Atlantic that got me thinking. For a white person to vote for Obama is racist. The one drop rule means that they are voting along racial lines. Normally I like Coates’ writing, and I agree with his general sentiment. However, it still seems like we are stuck in the same mode of racial thinking. Obama has one white parent and one black parent. Why is he still considered black? I know there is an element of self-identification involved, but as a society, we treat him as black because of the one-drop rule. Black…