Inter-faith Intra-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

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Conferences Inter-faith Intra-faith Religion

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

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Conferences Inter-faith Intra-faith Religion

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…

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Inter-faith Intra-faith

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…

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Intra-faith Shi'ism

On the Caliphate

Tony had mentioned something about the Caliphate in the comments of an earlier post. And it got me thinking about the whole issue of what a call to a “Caliphate” could mean to OBL. Chapati Mystery has a really good post about the contemporary meanings of that term, and it really is a must read. My take was, and is, going to be slightly more historical. However, since they have filled in some of the contemporary background, my post will be abbreviated. [Just one criticism on the line “ some linear descendan[t] of the Fatimids found in a derelict bookstore…

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Books Inter-faith Intra-faith Reading Lists

Reading the Qur’an – part 3 – Translations and Secondary Sources [updated][2x]

[I’ve jumped a head to part 3 since several commentors have asked about translations and secondary material.] I’ve done one post already on the vagaries of Qur’anic Arabic. Learning Arabic does not really help in learning to read the Qur’an in the sense of its interpretive history, but it does help you appreciate the large semantic range of each word in the Qur’an. (A really good secondary source for this discussion, although somewhat technical, is The Qur’an’s Self-Image.) As a result, when I look up passages, I don’t rely on just one translation, but rather several. I also use languages…

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