Talal Asad on Suicide Bombing

As has been pointed out in several places (1, 2, 3), one of the London bombs went off in a predominately Muslim area. There is a war occurring within the Muslim community; there are those who would throw out 1400 hundred years of intellectual history and development and who would bomb the ummah back to the time before the Prophet (PBUH) verse those who believe Islam is a religion that matures by the grace of God, and struggles with His majesty and revelation every day. I’ve commented before (1, 2, 3) on Muslim-on-Muslim violence. In this instance, I think it’s…

Mecca Development Veers to Kitsch – Critic’s Notebook – NYTimes.com. It is an architectural absurdity. Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world’s holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London’s Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people. Its muscular form, an unabashed knockoff of the original, blown up to a grotesque scale, will be decorated with Arabic inscriptions and…

Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi: Fathers Day: A Love Letter to Muslim Fathers. All of my life, Muslim men — from my father to my uncles, from my cousins to my friends — are the ones who have nurtured, supported and protected me. They've cheered every success, inspired me to push higher with my personal and professional ambitions, and believed in me even when — especially when — I did not believe in myself.