Category: Religion

Now that Gov. Howard Dean is no longer actively seeking the presidential nomination, I feel freer to post about him. The Boston Globe ran an op-ed analyzing his thoughts about race. Please take a moment and read it; however, every time you see “black” or “African-American,” insert “Muslim” and every time you see “white,” insert “Christian.” It’s a great analysis, and very true applicable, including the Clinton section, to the situation of Muslims in US. My one thought on it is, if he did have a Muslim room mate, and this individual became head of a Muslim group, would the…

Yesterday was Id-e Ghadir, the day Prophet Muhammad named Imam Ali as his successor. A poem to mark the occasion.

From NYT January 28, 2004 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR My God Is Your God By JOHN KEARNEY Sunday is one of the most important holidays in Islam: Id al-Adha, the feast celebrating Abraham’s faith and willingness to sacrifice his son to God. It would also be a good occasion for the American news media to dispense with Allah and commit themselves to God. Here’s what I mean: Abraham, the ur-monotheist, represents the shared history, and shared God, of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Many Christians and Jews are aware of this common past, but seem to have a tough time internalizing it. Lt.…

Hi All, Thanks to the powers that be for allowing me to post. Today I show you the new face of Islam. More detailed post coming soon!

Farq, not the Colombian para-military FARC, from Arabic, means difference (فرق). Looking through our log files, I noticed that we’d been getting a lot of hits from search engines where people were asking the difference between “muslim” and “moslem.” Presumably they were interested in “Qur’an” and “Koran” as well, but we wouldn’t have met that criteria until just now. 🙂

I’ve spoken previously about my belief in education as being the magic bullet to deal with the many problems of various societies. Below are several excerpts from a speech delivered by the Aga Khan at the opening of a new academy in Kenya, and I think they are fairly representative of my own thoughts on the matter.

I found this article a fairly interesting treatment of the hijab in Australia. Of course, I wouldn’t be pointing it out if I didn’t have issues…

Please share this with your friends and families. Eid Mubarak to all of you.

I am a Shi’ah Muslim. Just wanted that out in the open and up front before beginning the post. This ‘blog is not limited to a particular school of thought, nor does it wish to exacerbate differences amongst the schools of thought. However, I have noticed a tendency, even amongst liberal/progressive/intellectual Muslim sites to marginalize Shi’ahs in their discussions. This statement is not meant to be an indictment, but a statement of fact that allows me a chance to get into a discussion.