Category: Current Affairs

Current Affairs Inter-faith

Not minimum, living

islamoyankee

Father Jake has a good post on the failure of a Senate bill to increase the minimum wage. I love the FDR quote about the minimum wage and its implicit moral component. Riverstone picks up the idea and places it in the context of the teachings of Hazrat Isa. The two of them bring up an interesting point: If the people voting down this legislation are not interested in representing the will of the American people, nor in practicing the teachings of Hazrat Isa, are they the representatives of America? Christianity? If so, is this really what they stand for?…

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Current Affairs Intra-faith

He doesn’t get it

islamoyankee

The article starts out so very promising on the varieties of interpretation that we call shari’ah. Then it so quickly devolves into conflating constitutional law with religious law, without really explaining how such conflations take place. The article also talks about the religious Shi’ah and the secular Kurds and Sunnis. What about the secular Shi’ah and the religious Kurds and Sunnis? There are huge varieties of interpretation even within the traditions. Finally, page 2 is mostly about cultural practices that the author makes sound like shari’ah. This is a blog, I can say things and pre-suppose knowledge, and get into…

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Current Affairs Intra-faith

F You!

islamoyankee

The fatwa has arrived. Of course, such condemnations are not new. However, as long as things like this keep getting in the news, it’s good. More Muslims are forced to confront that there can be no horror at the actions, while having sympathy for the cause. Al-Qaeda is a disease, the disease of ignorance. The pestilence has run through the Muslim community for hundreds of years, and rather than confront it, beat back the major carrier, we condemn the symptoms and leave the disease untreated because we have become so used to it, we can’t imagine life with it. AQ…

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Current Affairs

The terrorists are coming!…er…no…they’re here [update]

islamoyankee

Nick Kristof brings the obvious to light. I’m glad he’s doing it, because it’s only when something is in the non-blogging media is taken seriously. I just wish he’d done it sooner. It’s not only about protecting Muslims, it’s about protecting America. [update] So the killing of the judge was not the work of terrorists, just a crazy guy. However, Kristof’s article is still important; not because I don’t think the government is doing enough, the fact that they stopped some attacks says they are doing something, but that they could be doing it better. Part of that is publicizing…

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Current Affairs Intra-faith Weblogs

Action Alert: Iranian Blogger

islamoyankee

Click here for details and to join a campaign to have him freed. via TPM. From Human Rights First: Iranian blogger and human rights activist Arash Sigarchi was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of “espionage and insulting the country’s leaders.” His harsh sentence, given by a Revolutionary Court on February 22, 2005, sends a stark message to other bloggers and independent government critics in Iran. Arash Sigarchi is editor of a daily newspaper in the province of Gilan and has run a social and political blog for the past three years. His blog has from time to…

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