Inter-faith Religion

Is the Bible more Violent than the Qur’an?

NPR does the story. I am uncomfortable with this sort of comparison because it still buys into a paradigm of one religion being better than the other. Interestingly, I think the most intelligent comment comes from the critic of Islam who argues that the Qur’an is not about history, but the present. It is, in many ways, about always defining the present, which means it’s reading cannot be fixed in the past either. He does not take the argument to the logical conclusion. If the guidance is meant to be read for the present, than we as Muslims must struggle…

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Religion

Reading the Qur’ān as a Resident Alien

A friend from Harvard has a new article out on reading the Qur’an. If you can get your hands on it, you should read it. Excerpts are below, with citation information. Whitney Bodman, “Reading the Qurān as a Resident Alien,” Muslim World 99, no. 4 (2009): 689 – 706. — Many will read the Qur’ān casually, out of curiosity. Some will read it with more academic intent and some with polemical intent (a purpose that the Qur’ān condemns, Q 2:176). All of these readers are, in the words of Paul Griffiths, consumers of the Qur’ān. These readers are less likely…

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Religion

Quote about the #Quran

Any point in the text might serve equally well as the beginning or the end, because in a sense the Qur’an is always complete. Whatever God has to say in response to a situation is never left unsaid; God is never at a loss for words. If there is more to come, it is not so much because God is only part way through displaying an already completed text, but rather because further situation will arise that call for direct divine address. The Qur’an presents itself not so much as a corpus completed in the past, but as the voice…

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Inter-faith Intra-faith Web/Tech

Ramadan Mubarak – #Quran Tweeting

Tonight, Aug. 21, 2009, is the first night of Ramadan 1430. I suggested that we Tweet the Qur’an during this time, with the tag #Quran. Since then, Aziz picked up the idea at City of Brass, Gary Bunt mentioned it on Virtually Islamic, and there was a mention in an article from Canada. There has been huge interest on Twitter, and I hope people will take part. Any event usually begins with the first chapter of the Qur’an, al-Fatiha, in its entirety. Rather than Tweet it, I thought I would put it here. In the Name of God, The Most…

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Inter-faith Intra-faith

Tweeting the #Quran – #Ramadan [Updated]

Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, is approaching. We expect it to begin around August 21. Traditionally, Muslims read the Qur'an in its entirety over this time, in a section a day. The Qur'an is split into thirty sections, called juz', and one section is read each night. This year, I have been thinking it would be fun to tweet the Qur'an for Ramadan. Coincidentally, Shavuot came, and several people I follow on Twitter tweeted the Torah. Since that experience seemed to be successful, it further cemented my belief that this would be a good idea. Some guidelines for tweeting…

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Conferences Inter-faith

Forensic Scriptures Conference

I’ll be speaking at a conference in May 2009 at Riverside Church in NY. The event is called “Forensic Scriptures: What the Qur’an Reveals about the Bible.” If you are in the area and would like to attend, you can enter “Friend of Hussein Rashid” under the “position” field to receive a $100 discount on the registration page. Make sure you also check the “affiliate” price.

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