Related Posts

On the AKAA

The AKAA (Aga Khan Award for Architecture) has received a lot of press that I’m just beginning to compile here. Also checkout the book for this year’s cycle. Celebrating Beauty Visionary Design Award Giver gets his due Houston Chronicle (favorite line: “even Muslims have to pee”) While not properly about the award, here’s some information about the Central Asian Music Initiative also supported by His Highness.

Torture is Terror

The passage below is a problem I have been struggling to articulate. From Aziz: What is needed is a generalized principle under which both opposition to terrorism and opposition to torture can be articulated. From a religious perspective, muslims have been arguing (usually defensively) that terrorism (ie, hirabah) goes against Islamic teachings for quite some time – see my own ongoing articles on hirabah here on beliefnet and my earlier hirabah posts. Recently, several muslim organizations issued a joint statement against torture (to which I also signed). Many of the same religious arguments that are made can be applied equally…

Islam and the Earth

The Qur’an says that God is the light of the heavens and the earth. If you believe you see all of creation as being illuminated by a Divine light, than part of the trust that we, as the most noble of creation, have been given is the care and protection of the Earth. This type of thinking is not new to Muslims. We have shaped the world to reflect our belief in Heaven. Gardens are created to mirror the vision of Heaven with water and split into 4 quarters. Mecca, the center of our religious life, is the gateway to…