The Smithsonian Magazine has a feature on Pakistani Sufis, including one figure I am doing a lot of research on. It unfortunately still suffers from a bit of Orientalizing and exoticizing tendencies, but for a description of what happens, it’s pretty good. The “whys” are a bit shakier. Check out the photo gallery too.
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Paris in Pakistan
OMFG! I don’t watch reality TV, I have other trash to watch (Sci-Fi Channel, I love you). But via Amitava Kumar I see this (please suffer through the whole thing, it’s painful, but you feel smart after it): Technorati Tags: Pakistan, India
Is the Bible more Violent than the Qur’an?
NPR does the story. I am uncomfortable with this sort of comparison because it still buys into a paradigm of one religion being better than the other. Interestingly, I think the most intelligent comment comes from the critic of Islam who argues that the Qur’an is not about history, but the present. It is, in many ways, about always defining the present, which means it’s reading cannot be fixed in the past either. He does not take the argument to the logical conclusion. If the guidance is meant to be read for the present, than we as Muslims must struggle…
Islamic Extremisim
Haroon over at Avari-Nameh has posted a great piece on the current (or not so current) bouts of extremisim in Islam. Here is a blurb from the end of the piece: “Muslims must consider their reactions to present-day occurrences with a view to the past and also to the future, to see that, despite claims of resisting American or Israeli aggression, radicalism is not likely to help the Muslim community in any way. Radical Islam desires the subjugation of all competitors – no policies or procedures except shari‘ah, as imagined by activists with brittle education but plenty arrogance. Their immanent…