islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
This case in Pennsylvania helps you understand why marriage is not in the State’s interest. Marriage is a religious interest. The state only needs to recognize unions, marriage or otherwise, for legal purposes of benefits. And what is this BS about Muslims can’t have their photos taken? I’m assuming it refers to some women who do not wish to expose their faces in public, but men have no excuse. (h/t Atrios)
The Atlantic has a short piece on Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and how he is guiding the Church through the problems of recognizing homosexuals. The middle way, via media, seems to be a good reminder of what we need to be doing in religious discourse in general. The Archbishop’s passage on sex is an interesting read.
I have criticized one of On Faith’s recent panelists on Aasiya Zubair’s murder as ignoring violence in his own tradition to make it seem as though DV is a Muslim-only problem. Thankfully, another panelist points out that it exists in Christianity, and while she argues there is a problem in religious interpretation, it’s not a problem in religion. A point I try to make in conversation with Katha Pollitt.
This will most likely be my last major link round-up on the topic. There are individual threads of the cost of the crisis that I may develop, but with the current incursion over, the need for relatively quick, major round-ups has dissipated. One of the things I tried to communicate through my sourcing was that the conflict is not a religious issue. I consciously choose to limit the number of Muslim sources to indicate that there was opposition to Israel’s actions that was not based in a conception of a Cosmic War. I also wanted to highlight the number of…
Islamic Revival Tests Bosnia’s Secular Cast – NYTimes.com It seems that there are several issues at stake here. 1. In a republic where one can exercise religion more freely than one has been able to do so in almost two generations, what is the line between expressing religion and reactionary religion? Or, more critically, what is the relationship between the state and religion? 2. There is the the usual undercurrent that devout Muslims are dangerous Muslims. Bars are the signifiers of a truly open society. I think as a metric, it’s a bit bizarre, but it’s the lens of the…
The Smithsonian Magazine has a feature on Pakistani Sufis, including one figure I am doing a lot of research on. It unfortunately still suffers from a bit of Orientalizing and exoticizing tendencies, but for a description of what happens, it’s pretty good. The “whys” are a bit shakier. Check out the photo gallery too. Pakistan, Sufism, qalandar
Gordon Atkinson (Real Live Preacher) has a story about his daughter. It’s not about religion per se, but it is incredibly moving. What are the things we expect of our children? for our children? Their joy is our joy, and their sorrow is our sorrow. How they respond to the challenges in their lives helps us with the challenges in ours. children
I am dread to see what a mosque version of this would look like. (h/t Street Prophets)
Aziz links to a thorough review of the movie. Josh finds a good break down at TPM. And of course, check out Obsession with Hate. Update: Both Aziz and Svend point me to a new deconstruction by Jews on First. The point is that this fight is bigger than us, and we have many natural allies who can take this apart without making it about identity politics.
Report is from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Election 2008