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Change is good
« October 2004 | Main | December 2004 »
Sorry for the delayed Thanksgiving post. No regular internet access for the last few and the next couple of days. Thanks to all our readers, and this year we have enough regular readers whom we know that it would take too long to list all of you by name. Keep the comments, ideas, emails coming. Thanks to all the contributors, anonymous and regular, who keep the posts flowing.
And of course, thanks to God for creating us as tribes so that we may know one another.
It's a good read, but nothing new. It's written by a young'un, which is why I'm posting it. Gives me hope.
All for architecture. Creation of creation is the reflection of the Divine.
Cool article from the Jamaican community.
Al-Ahram weighs in on the value of a garbage dump.
“Muslims aren't violent, and I'm going to kill you to prove it.” I'm sure that was the thought going through the mind of the Muslim who killed Theo van Gogh. To me, if that had happened in the US, it would prove that Muslims are assimilating successfully; after all, don't pro-lifers kill to save life? [That last comment was sarcastic for the trolls who just don't get it.]
thabet has a great run down of the story. martijn has some follow-up on the movie.
However, this incident happened in the Netherlands. During Ramadan. Now the Muslim community in the Netherlands has to pay the price, and the Muslim community around the world is once painted as religious fanatics. And once more God looks down at us and weeps. I have to say, I do get angry when people denigrate Islam, both Muslims and non-Muslims. I get angry about Muslims portray their own faith, because it sounds like they speak from ignorance, not conviction. I get angry when non-Muslims are willing to judge a religion without knowing anything about it. However, I believe in JS Mill's marketplace of ideas. Violence doesn't solve a thing in the debate of religions. I'm particularly convinced that belief in an omnipotent God means that God will take care of Its Ownself, regardless of what we do down here.
According to marijn's post, it seems that the movie was clear that domestic violence is a cultural phenomenon, not a religious one. So ignorance of the other continues to hurt the Muslim community.
Even if all the trees of the world were pens
And all the oceans ink
With many more oceans to fill them
Even then the kalim of God could not be written
For God is all-knowing and all-wise.
31:27
[see previous post for more about this verse.]
On this Eid day, let us remember that as believing Muslims, one of the definitions of faith is that we can't know all that God does, so let us avoid speaking or acting in Its name.
No sirree, to torture Muslims is a bad thing. But I thought the current nominee for the Attorney General post thought it wasn't. So confused.
The Death of Arafat and the Myth of New Beginnings by Mark Levine in Juan Cole's Blog
Here is a graf:
"In the weeks leading up to Palestinian President Yassir Arafat’s death American politicians and pundits have repeatedly called on the Palestinian people to use the opportunity of his passing to transform the intifada from a violent uprising into a non-violent, democratic and pragmatic program for achieving independence. This is very good advice, needless to say, except for one small problem: Palestinians have been trying to build such a movement for the last two decades, and the Israeli Government, IDF and American policy-makers have done everything possible to make sure it could not be heeded."
TPM says it best.
