islam doesn't speak, muslims do | "the ink of the scholar is worth more than the blood of the martyr" – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
I was invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institute this summer on the theme of The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion and Violence. The initial calendar event is here. A pre-talk write-up is here, and post-talk write-up here, both from the Daily Chautauquan. A video of the talk is embedded below.
I am honored to be a respondent to the Spring 2014 McGinley Lecture on "Usury: A Moral Problem for Jews, Christians, and Muslims." The lecture and response will be offered on April 8 (Manhattan Campus) and April 9 (Bronx Campus). Both dates will start at 6PM. Details can be found here: http://www.fordham.edu/audience/mcginley_chair/fr_ryan.asp
Opinion: After 9/11, reaction to Muslim Americans more nuanced However, whatever we learn about them does not tell us why they did what they did – only parts of who they are. It is easy, in the initial aftermath of the bombings, to make careless associations between identity and motive, similar to post 9/11 reaction. But this time, there is a change in rhetoric of how potential suspects are identified, particularly if they are Muslim. It is because of this change we are learning to move past paralyzing fear and maturing in how we think of what it means to be…
Odyssey Networks does another nice job with a video featuring me.
So proud to know Willow. Looking forward to this book. ‘Granddad, There’s a Head on the Beach’ and Other Summer Reads – NYTimes.com. But this year’s improbably charming book about hackers is “Alif the Unseen,” a novel prompted by its author’s frustration. G. Willow Wilson, admired for her graphic novels and memoir, says that she was sick of treating her readers as separate factions (“comic-book geeks, literary NPR types and Muslims”) and sick of assumptions that blogging and social media could not have political consequences. So she conjured Alif, a young Arab-Indian hacker living in an unnamed Middle Eastern high-security…
[T]he study shows that out of those stopped only 0.15 per cent resulted in firearms charges. This number stands to directly contradict Commissioner Kelly’s statements that the stops are responsible for the fall in gun crime. Also of note is the fact that out of all ethnicities stopped, white people had the highest chance of having committed a crime, despite being proportionally the least searched. via andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com
Islamic influence on popular American music will be the main topic at forum Thursday at the University of Texas at Arlington. via blogs.star-telegram.com
via velveteenrabbi.blogs.com See Rachel's whole post for excellent resources against SOPA and PIPA. We are both on TypePad and can't go black for the day.
57 Organizations Call on White House to Investigate Offensive FBI Trainings Today, Muslim Advocates, working in coalition with 56 Muslim, Arab, and South Asian organizations, requested that the White House create an interagency taskforce to investigate bigoted and offensive trainers and materials used in trainings for counterterrorism agents and law enforcement. Wired magazine first reported in July that the FBI was using materials that stated that Prophet Muhammad was a "cult leader," and that Islam is a religion that "transforms [a] country's culture into 7th-century Arabian ways." Recently disclosed materials show that these grossly inaccurate and inflammatory training materials extend…
The White House announced We the People, a new online engagement feature. On this innovative WhiteHouse.govplatform, individuals will be able to create and sign petitions seeking action from the federal government on a range of issues. If a petition gathers enough signatures, White House staff will review it, ensure it is sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response. Visitors to WhiteHouse.gov can begin submitting petitions later this month. To sign up for an alert when it launches and preview the feature, visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/WeThePeople.