islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations: Press Room – Chairman’s Press. To all those who observe Nowruz, including those in Afghanistan, Iran, and the United States, I would like to wish you Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak.
Hip-Hop’s Reluctant Hero – LA Times Magazine. In pure Lupe Fiasco style, nothing about Lasers is obvious, starting with the title. According to the artist, it either stands for “Love Always Shines Everytime Remember 2 Smile” or it’s a reworking of the word losers where the O is replaced with an anarchy A symbol. And in keeping with the wordplay, Fiasco raps brilliantly about everything from the contradictions of fame to corporate greed to ghetto culture.
Mullah Caught in Debate Over Tradition vs. Modern Education – NYTimes.com. On opposite sides of a dusty road, thousands of Muslim students in this remote farming town are preparing for very different futures. On one side, inside a traditional Islamic seminary, teenage boys in skullcaps are studying ancient texts to become imams. On the other, students are hunched before computers in college classrooms, learning to become doctors, pharmacists and engineers.
Islam is all-American for one U.S. Muslim leader. Al Azhar, the centuries-old center of Islamic learning in Cairo, is a world away from Oklahoma City where William Suhaib Webb grew up. But it was not until the American Muslim leader immersed himself in Islamic studies at Al Azhar that he realized just how American he was, regardless of his religion.
Wanita Power: What Women in the US Could Learn from Indonesians. It’s surreal for me, an American woman, to be telling audience after audience of women dressed in traditional Muslim headscarves that we don’t have gender equality figured out. But it’s more surreal for them to hear it. More than a few women have told me they were shocked. That they’d assumed women could do whatever they wanted in the US. A few have said that after my talk, they think starting a company sounds easier in Indonesia.
Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison Breaks Down at Peter King Hearing — Daily Intel. it was near the end of his remarks, when Ellison told the story of Mohammad Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-born American citizen who drove an ambulance part-time and worked as a research assistant, that Ellison’s emotions overwhelmed him. As Ellison recounted, some people initially suggested, after Hamdani disappeared on 9/11, that he had been involved in the attacks. It was only later that his remains were discovered in the rubble of the World Trade Center. He had seen the smoke that morning and rushed to help.
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…
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.).
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.”