Yom Ashura

CNN is reporting that al-Zarqawi has released an audio tape that justifies the killing of Muslim civilians based on the teachings of so-called Islamic scholars. Here is the intro from CNN: “A chilling, rambling audio file thought to be from the most-wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says religious doctrine justifies the killing of innocent Muslims by insurgents. On the audio, the speaker says in Arabic: ‘The shedding of Muslim blood … is allowed in order to avoid the greater evil of disrupting jihad.’ The speaker defends suicide attacks, saying, ‘killing of infidels by any method including martyrdom operations…

Unfortunately, I was quite involved in running around during the Islam in America Conference, so I was unable to get good notes. I’m hoping Sam I Am (here at islamicate) and HijabMan will cover the difference. It was great finally meeting Mr. Hijab himself, and he’s agreed to give us the occasional post as well. A nagging question I have though is since I’ve seen his face, does that mean we have to get married now? 😉 I do have some thoughts on the presentations will be posting them slowly during the week.

Here are my notes from the Construction of the Other Panel. Please keep in mind that this is a stream of consciousness capture of my interpretation of what they had to say. (sorry for the terrible formatting – no time to fix it right now)