God Hates Shrimp!

Here’s a link from the New York Review of Books on current books trying to frame the current debates in the Muslim (mostly Arab) world. I give credit to the author for attempting to make sense of such a broad topic. For such a short piece, I think he does a good job. However, the piece is too short for a real understanding of the issue for non-specialists. Still, a read worth noting. Update: Found another good summary of some of the issues involved in Islamism.

A major earthquake has hit Morocco, causing hundreds of deaths. Please give to whatever relief effort you can. I personally use the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, so money can go where it’s most needed. While we do recognize disasters that predominantly affect Muslims, we also acknowledge the value of all human life and strive to help people whenever we can. Any surplus given to the general fund will be redistributed to needy areas.

Opinion: After 9/11, reaction to Muslim Americans more nuanced However, whatever we learn about them does not tell us why they did what they did – only parts of who they are. It is easy, in the initial aftermath of the bombings, to make careless associations between identity and motive, similar to post 9/11 reaction. But this time, there is a change in rhetoric of how  potential suspects are identified, particularly if they are Muslim. It is because of this change we are learning to move past paralyzing fear and maturing in how we think of what it means to be…