islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
Against our tag line of “Islam doesn’t speak, Muslims do” John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed have published a book called “Who Speaks for Islam?” What I have read so far is really promising. Gulf News is running a series of articles about the book. Worth looking at: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Also, related: Muslim Women want Equal Rights Who are Muslims? and The Queen of YouTube
In light of my earlier post: “But members of the new colony have only one real problem, and that problem is white people. British racism, of course, is not our problem. It’s yours. We simply suffer from the effects of your problem.” p. 138 “But it is often argued that those old days, those old ideas are long dead, [racism which resulted in slavery and colonialism] and play no significant parts in the events of contemporary Britain. If only that were true. If only history worked so cleanly, erasing itself as it went forward.” pg. 145 From: “Imaginary Homelands” (Salman…
Malise Ruthven reviews a few books, mostly by Tariq Ramadan, and new one on the origins of the Sunni-Shi’ah divide. Technorati Tags: Shi’ism
The Revealer takes down the latest politicization of the Prophet Jesus. Money quote: “Levenick’s review isn’t just boldly ignorant, it’s an example of the secularization of new evangelicalism, that strain of Protestant Christianity that insists Christ was both revolutionary and conservative.” Moses was an Egyptian. Jesus was a Jew. Swarthy people everywhere. Deal with it.
According to Brian you can pre-order the last Harry Potter book in Afghanistan. My prediction for the last book is that that Harry we know must die. He will either die a physical death, or he will wake-up from a dream, à la “Wizard of Oz,” and discover he’s never had any magic. Why you ask? Because the magic must be kept alive. If Harry lives, and is totally victorious, the magic becomes a tool. It is no longer wondrous. Once the magical becomes ordinary, or is made ordinary, we forget our relationship to it. For Harry, the magic must…
One of the joys of being an academic is that you know lots of people who publish books. Sometimes you even get comped a copy. (If getting excited about a free academic book is not a sure sign I’m in the right field, I don’t know what is.) I don’t normally plug them here because they tend to be quite specific, and so I don’t think right for a general audience. However, my friend Eboo Patel, whom I’ve mentioned before, has a new book out, and I’m going to promote it here for several reasons: It’s a good book on…
I need to spend more time with this article. Posted as an FYI. Technorati Tags: Ziauddin Sardar
What would an introductory reading list on Islam look like? Not for an academic audience, but for the educated lay reader? My suggestions: General: Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2001. Algar, Hamid. Wahhabism: A Critical Essay. 1st ed. Oneonta, NY: Islamic Publications International, 2001. Bulliet, Richard W. The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. Ernst, Carl W. Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World. Islamic Civilization & Muslim Networks. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Firestone, Reuven. Jihad…
Not my review, and the only reason I highlight this review is because the reviewer gets it: The authors admit that their book “concentrates primarily on Muslim women who are actively affirming Islam.” Skeptics, doubters and agnostics are scarcely acknowledged (Irshad Manji, the controversial author of the important work The Trouble With Islam, is disposed of in a paragraph). The book’s unstated focus is Sunni Islam and the (African-American) Nation of Islam. Little attention is paid to women’s experiences in Ahmadiyyah, Ismaili Shia or Twelver Shia communities—all of which are thriving in the United States. (The Islamic scholar Linda Walbridge’s…