ramadan: a de-colonial centering moment

From Hatem Bazian: Ramadan: A De-Colonial Centering Moment

"checking out some fromm, some sartre, camus..."

I've recently been looking into Slavoj Zizek again which has whet my philosophical appetite more than usual. The thing that is most intriguing about Zizek is the way he seems to synthesize so many diverse influences into a coherent perspective. It's made me want to reread some older philosophers to try to decide how I feel about them. At the moment, I mainly want to look at some of the existentialists like Camus and Fanon. When I first got into them (in high school) I wasn't Muslim so reading them now should be interesting considering that Camus was born in Algeria and both of them had a lot to say about the Algerian Revolution (and by implication, political revolution and jihad in general). The other day I went to Borders and got Albert Camus' Resistance, Rebellion, and Death and The Rebel. I'll probably read some Gabriel Marcel next and then pick up The Wretched of the Earth again.

See also:
islam and existentialism
ali shariati

um... so is newt gingrich trying to defend white imperialism?

How Obama Thinks by Dinesh D'Souza is the original piece which started this mess. In it, D'Souza, rather presumptuously tries to psychoanalyze Obama and explain his foreign and domestic policy decision in terms of the "anticolonial" (read "foreign", "unAmerican", "socialist") dreams of his father. The piece also strikes me as unnecessarily insulting in parts.

Here is the National Review piece with Newt Gingrich's comments on the issue: Gingrich: Obama’s ‘Kenyan, anti-colonial’ worldview

And here is a report from the Huffington Post: Newt Gingrich Slammed For Saying Obama May Hold 'Kenyan, Anti-Colonial' Worldview