Mosque in the West Symposium

Sorry folks. I was on the extremism panel (not as an extremist) and I ditched the Imam’s Circle. For various reasons, I actually didn’t say much on the panel, but the main presenter, Aftab Malik, was quite good. I’ll develop some of the thoughts I had in a separate post. I didn’t attend the Imam’s Circle because I thought its composition reflected the tendency to construct, however inadvertently, a homogeneous face of Islam, particularly in its lack of Shi’ah representation. Technorati Tags: MLT

[can’t talk and type at the same time, so my comments are not here. see other blogs for a run down of what I said.] Moderated by Rabbi Jill (JSpot, Radical Torah) Judaism has a rich textual tradition, not all of it text. Jill: Blog about Torah with a social justice idea. Infuse Jewish perspective on other texts (NYT) Tim (Christian Alliance for Progress): Trying to bring Christian texts to bear on public policy. Mik (JSpot): Most of my blogging doesn’t involve posting on text. Try to balance posting. Rachel (Velveteen Rabbi, Radical Torah): Blogs Torah portion of the week.…

The Progressive Faith Blog Con started last night, and what a good beginning it was. Thurman Hart of Xpatriated Texan gave us some powerful opening remarks. Go read. We began with a Jewish prayer service, led by the Velveteen Rabbi herself, Rachel Barenblat. It was pleasure to finally get to meet her. The service was full of taqwa – God consciousness. It was not just about the prayer, but about praying to remember God outside of the liturgical setting, to know that God is, and always should be, with us. Download and read her prayer book. We sat down for…