Muslim Education in Africa … and Pakistan … and the US
Interesting journal entry. Just wish it was better formatted.
Category: Intra-faith
Back to that issue again
The basic response is the same as it was in the original article, the Ismailis aren’t Muslim because the majority of [unnamed] scholars hold that that they aren’t because of various [unnamed] beliefs and practices…. Important point, the Ismailis were recognized as the Caliphs of the Muslim community by a large segment of the ummah in the 10th and 11th centuries when the Fatimid Empire held sway.
Talking some sense
Anwar Ibrahim in MWU captures my sentiments precisely: But my message to the perpetrators of these vile acts, whoever they may be, is this: In the name of God, what do you think you are fighting against and what are you fighting for? Because what you are really doing is neither war nor jihad. This is just the senseless slaughter of innocent civilians who have done no wrong. Such actions have no place in Islam and as all the scholars of the Muslim world have stated, it is simply haram. So what do you think you are doing? How are…
To Those Who Would Tell Me My islam
You are not a prophet, but go humbly on the Way of the Prophets, and you can arrive where they are. Don’t try to steer the boat. Don’t open a shop by yourself. Listen. Keep silent. You are not God’s mouthpiece. Try to be an ear, and if you do speak, ask for explanations. –Mawlana Rumi
Hindu followers of Imam Husayn
Yoginder Sikand, a scholar whose transnational work on Islamist movements is what I’m most familiar with, has an interesting article on Hindu followers of Imam Husayn. The piece is mostly historical, but the last paragraph is interesting: The Hussaini Brahmins, along with other Hindu devotees of the Muslim Imam, are today a rapidly vanishing community. The younger generation abandoning their ancestral heritage, often now seen as embarrassingly deviant. No longer, it seems, can a comfortable liminality be sustained, and ambiguous identities seem crushed under the relentless pressure to conform to the logic of neatly demarcated ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ communities. And…
The Mahdi
Father Jake had a question regarding the Mahdi and the use of the name “Mahdi Army” by Muqtada as-Sadr. He’s gone out and done a fair amount of research, and I wanted to add my two cents. From a theological perspective, the idea of the Mahdi is incredibly ill-defined, because the idea of the end days are ill-defined in the Qur’an. While we have a sense that the mountains will crumble, stars will fall from the sky and the sky itself will tear, there is no equivalent to the Book of Revelations in the Qur’an. (For a wonderful discussion of…
I do run, run, run; I do run, run, run
Name the country with the following traits: A female Olympian with medal hopes in marksmanship. Queen – the band with an openly gay lead singer – is highly popular. Has a very successful family planning program. Allows abortion – albeit in limited circumstances. Transsexuals are accepted as part of society. Hopefully the first thought that came to your mind was an Islamic state described as fundamentalist. A state where women are supposed to wear hijab and the state is theocratic. Perhaps a state that is part of the Axis of Evil, and has had no diplomatic relations with the US…
Hijab in the UK
Via this Crooked Timber piece [sorry CT folks, can’t find your trackback ID] I found out about this case in the UK about a Muslim girl wanting to cover in school. I like Harry’s last paragraph: But the fact that the regulations might drive a girl into an educational situation in which her religious beliefs will not be challenged or tested seems to me a reason for bending, or revising the rules, not a consideration in their favour. The parents’ enthusiasm that their child should attend a state comprehensive school is to their credit. Telling them that they should school…
The Wahhabi Movement Hates the Prophet (PBUH)
The Wahhabis are apparently putting toilets over where the Prophet (PBUH) lived. Clearly what the Qur’an meant when it said God and the angels praise him (33:56). In 1990, sympathizers tipped him off that the site thought to contain the foundations of the Meccan house of Muhammad and Khadija was to be paved over. He rushed to the site, even threatening to put his young son in the bulldozer’s path. He used his contacts to win permission for a last-minute archaeological dig. It lasted 40 days, and he says his team of volunteers uncovered stone foundations that appeared to be…
A Question of Authenticity
Who You? posted a few days ago about who gets to say who is Muslim. It is an issue that is of grave concern to all Muslims, and particularly those who actively fighting for the soul of Islam; the easiest way to delegitimize your opponent is to call them kafir – non-Muslim. More broadly than the Ismailis, there were other Muslim voices that were silenced, with greater success, during the recent Canadian elections. A hijab-wearing woman, whose father established one of the larger mosques in Toronto, was shunned by the Muslim community over her support of gay marriages. Her name…