Intra-faith

An Interview with Aziz Poonawalla on the Cordoba House Project

I think Aziz makes some powerful points in this interview. This is America! – An Interview with Aziz Poonawalla on the Cordoba House Project | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen. I think that the Muslim American community didn’t ask to be included in Park51′s project, but we have been dragged into it forcibly. In some ways it would be a relief if the issue went away. However, if they do decide to move, then I think that the message that will be sent is that bigotry and fear of Muslims is not just permitted, it is effective. This may result…

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Books

Dissertation Online

For those who care, my dissertation is finally online at UMI (if you are at a subscribing institution, I’m sure you know the link to use). Search under “Rashid” for name and “dust” for the title. You should hopefully get my dissertation. It is available via Open Access, so free PDF downloads for all. UMI butchered the illustrations and tables in the scans, so if those things are important to you, drop me a line and I’ll send you a clean copy. Rashid, Hussein. “A Handful of Dust: Reading South Asian (Im)migrant Identity in Islamicate Literatures.” PhD, Harvard University, 2010.  

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Inter-faith

Eid on 9/11 Anniversary? | Culture | Religion Dispatches

Eid on 9/11 Anniversary? | Culture | Religion Dispatches. At a loss for what to do, I thought I should go to the Muslim prayer room on campus, where students, anxious and afraid, might gather for help. The subways were closed, and cell phone service had gone out. I had no other idea how to find my friends, no idea where else to go. At the very least, I thought I had a responsibility to the Muslim students on campus. (Then again, I really had no idea what to do. I just thought I had to do something, anything, to…

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Inter-faith

Eid on 9/11 Anniversary? | Culture | Religion Dispatches

Eid on 9/11 Anniversary? | Culture | Religion Dispatches. At a loss for what to do, I thought I should go to the Muslim prayer room on campus, where students, anxious and afraid, might gather for help. The subways were closed, and cell phone service had gone out. I had no other idea how to find my friends, no idea where else to go. At the very least, I thought I had a responsibility to the Muslim students on campus. (Then again, I really had no idea what to do. I just thought I had to do something, anything, to…

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Inter-faith

This Ramadan, Myself and God, Before I Was Born

I appreciate Haroon’s keen analytic mind, which you can see over at Avari. But then, every so often, he just comes out with poetry that I didn’t know he had in him. Haroon Moghul: This Ramadan, Myself and God, Before I Was Born. It is the Muslim belief that the memory of this moment is buried inside of us. Though we do not inherit sin, though we are each born innocent, though no one can be tried for the errors of another, still somehow this memory courses through each of us. It may appear as a flash, a moment of…

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Intra-faith

The Biggest Muslim Capitals in America – The Daily Beast

The Pew numbers are so wrong, that I am amazed they are still being used. We know that there are over 800,000 Muslims in NYC alone, which would mean 1/2 of the US Muslim population is in NYC according to Pew’s numbers. Other than that, the slideshow that goes with the article is amazing. The Biggest Muslim Capitals in America – The Daily Beast. “I think Muslims view the U.S. as a beacon of freedom,” says Farhana Khera, president and executive director of Muslim Advocates, an advocacy organization. According to Pew, two-thirds of the Muslim population was born outside the…

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Intra-faith

The Faith Divide: The future of Islam in America – On Faith at washingtonpost.com

I like Eboo a lot. I think he’s actually behind the curve on this one though; the Muslim-American community is well on the path he describes. Doesn’t mean that he doesn’t say it well. The Faith Divide: The future of Islam in America – On Faith at washingtonpost.com. Big tent Islam means that Muslims from a range of geographies, ethnicities, theologies and intensities all consider themselves part of a single community whose similarities outweigh their differences. It means Sunnis and Shias, sufis and salafis, African-American converts and Arab immigrants, five-times-a-day-prayers and once-a-year-mosque-goers have two words for each other: fellow Muslim.

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Books

‘Many Americans Love Rumi…But They Prefer He Not Be Muslim’

Interview: ‘Many Americans Love Rumi…But They Prefer He Not Be Muslim’ – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010. Many Americans love Rumi for his ecstatic spirituality about divine love, but they prefer that he not be a Muslim, or at least no more than minimally. Therefore, most Rumi books are marketed to satisfy the wish for maximum mysticism and minimal Islam. Americans have little interest or sympathy for political Islam, but by reading even the most popularized Rumi books, Americans are learning about many traditional Muslim values and wisdom teachings. h/t Bibi

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