Video of Christmas in Afghanistan
From my buddy doing the Circus/Unicycle program. [Below the fold to save on bandwidth.] Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Unicycles
Category: Inter-faith
Savage Thoughts
Check out this post at Savage Minds. I had a similar post a while ago myself. The other thing that is not mentioned in either post is that it’s more than likely that at least one of Columbus’ navigators was an Arab Muslim, fleeing the reconquista. Technorati Tags: Andalusia, Muslims in the West
Clinton stole my idea
But people actually listen to him. Good speech. If OBL and company believe themselves to be God(s), what faith do they believe in? Technorati Tags: puppy
Merry Hannukah and Happy Christmas
and an Eid ul-Isa Mubarak too. Technorati Tags: Eid ul-Isa
Notes from the Islam in the West Conference
Sorry for the delay in getting these notes up to the site. I took them on a wonderful Mac program called Notebook, that exports beautiful HTML, but it took me longer than expected to get code blog ready – which just isn’t working. Click here to open my notes in a new window. The arrows should work to collapse/expand content cells. Technorati Tags: Islam in the West
Architecture, Hebron, and the Relevance of Awards
Haaretz has an interesting take on the Aga Khan Award for Architecture prize to a restoration in Hebron. Can we make these types of awards more relevant and organic? Technorati Tags: Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Hebron, Islamic Architecture
Islam in the West Conference – Harvard
FIRST ISLAM IN THE WEST CONFERENCE THOMPSON ROOM, BARKER CENTER HARVARD UNIVERSITY Friday, December 2, 2005 8:30-9:00 Breakfast Welcome by Prof. Roger Owen, Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Introductory Remarks by Prof. Roy Mottahedeh, Center for Middle Eastern Studies 9:00-9:45 Prof. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons (University of Florida) – Introductory remarks “The New Hijab: Negotiating Tradition and Identity through Dress, Presentation of Fieldwork among Muslim Women in the Greater Boston Area” Presented by Danna Weiss, Center for Middle East Studies, FAS Session Commentary by Prof. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons 9:45-10:30 Prof. Ali Asani (Harvard University) – Introductory Remarks “Between…
Interfaith reading
Inspired by this post at MoorishGirl, I thought I would suggest a couple of good books about matters of faith and the inter. Unlike Daughters of Abraham, which talks about commonalities, I’m recommending two novels that show commonality of the lived experience, not always pleasant though. The first is Granada by Radwan Ashur It’s a wonderful story of Granada in the year 1499, and while it focuses mostly on Muslims, you can see the impact the reconquista had on Jews and Christians as well. The other book is Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. This book is a wonderful…
Ramadan Mubarak and L’Shana Tov [updated]
For us, Nizari Ismailis, the night of October 4, 2005, was the first night of Ramadan. This holy month for Muslims coincides with Rosh Hoshana. Over at City of Brass, he’s talking about something called the Tent of Abraham. Sounds interesting. Check it out. Also, the Bohras (official website), or Mustalian Ismailis, like the Nizari Ismailis, do not rely on moon sighting, but on astronomical calculation. I was always under the impression that we shared our calculated calendar from the Fatimid period, but since they started a day earlier, there must a divergence somewhen. Anybody know when and/or why? Update:…
Arrival Day 2005
Jonathan of Head Heeb fame is convening the third annual blogburst for Arrival Day. Arrival Day commemorates the arrival of Jews to old New Amsterdam, and each year, the burst has a theme. According to Jonathan, “this year, the focus is on American Jews as part – or, more accurately, parts – of a larger whole.” After last year’s Arrival Day I read Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock – no causal relationship. In it, Roth’s protagonist, Philip Roth #2 (you really need to read the book) preaches an idea he calls “diasporism,” as a counter to Zionism. Now, regardless of what…