badmash

This is a little off the beaten path, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. Badmash is a very well done South Asian humor site, full of cartoons, short films, all kinds of parodies, and plenty of Dishoom!

muslim anarchism

In the last few years, there has been talk knocking about on the idea of Islamic Anarchism, primarily from the US-based punk Muslim Michael Knight. But there has been sparse evidence of any coherent online presence of Muslim Anarchists, until June 20th, 2005, when Yakoub Islam, a British-based Muslim, published his online Muslim Anarchist Charter.

If you would like to further explore this intersection of religious belief and political ideology you might want to consider:

On becoming a Muslim Anarchist (from the Ihsan blog)

islam and anarchism (wikipedia)

anarcho akbar (a muslim anarchist blog)

anarcho akbar (a topically organized muslim anarchist site)

Muslim Anarchist Charter

the magic of not reading

New Harry Potter Film Turns Children On To Magic Of Not Reading
LOS ANGELES - Around the world, children are being turned on to the magic of not reading by the blockbuster film Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone. "My daughter Julia never liked to sit passively and stare at a screen, but this new movie has really locked the power of her imagination," said Hannah Foss, 38, of Dayton, OH. "She can't put her books away fast enough." "Movies are great," said Tarzana, CA, 10-year-old Emily Hart. "You can see exactly what the characters look like without having to guess."
From the Onion

harry potter and the book-burning benedict

Since I had recently been blogging about cults recently I thought it would be appropriate to write a tongue-in-cheek entry about how fanatical and cultish the Harry Potter fans are. I know a whole bunch of people who went and bought the new book yesterday and several of them have already finished it!

The Harry Potter books are almost like a powerful, but non-addictive drug. There is a strong compulsion to buy it, and people put aside numerous obligations aside in order to get their "fix" but once they've read the book, they don't need to keep rereading it.

But on second thought, looking back to some of the opposition to the Harry Potter books, I have to wonder which group is more cult-like, the fans, or the fanatics who think that people who read the Harry Potter books will suddenly start worshiping the devil.

Fanatics are after Harry Potter again (An old article, about the response to earlier books)

Pope Benedict Opposes Harry Potter Novels (a more recent article based on an older interview with the Pope, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger)

That's not to say the books shouldn't be criticized. As a Muslim, I myself would express reservations about the fact that in the first volume, the villan turns out to be the nice harmless-looking guy in the turban. But I think it is more useful to point out this fact than to censor the book.

J.K. Rowling's Official Website

Wikipedia on Harry Potter

more protestant islam

Here is another paper exploring the concept of "Protestant Islam":

Contemplating Protestant Islam: A Look at Islamic Reform Movements through the Lens of Sixteenth-Century Christianity by Charles McDaniel A paper presented at CESNUR 2004 international conference, Baylor University, Waco (Texas), June 18-20, 2004. The paper is academic and so it is rather "objective" in tone. And it is unlike the previous piece in that it isn't mainly a defense of traditional Islam.

protestant islam

Here is an article called Protestant Islam by Mohammed Al-Abbasi from Masud Khan's excellent site for promoting traditional Islam. I would say it argues in favor of a mild forms of the guru principle (in the sense of defending the value of following traditional scholarship) and is critical of the Salafi movement.

the guru principle

The topic for the Progressive Blogger Union this coming week is Sun Myung Moon. He is not just a kooky "cult" leader. He has been very quiet about it, but he seems to have gained a certain amount of influence in the U.S. behind the scenes. For example he owns the Washington Times.

A less famous "guru" is Lauryn Hill's recent spiritual advisor named Brother Anthony, mentioned in the Rolling Stone piece called The Mystery of Lauryn Hill

Our individualistic secular society tends to be VERY suspicious of "gurus". In fact, one can even find antipathy to "gurus" even among people who acknowledge a spiritual dimension to life, which from a certain perspective is a little odd. If you have legal trouble, you go to someone who knows the law; a lawyer. If you have financial issues, you go to a financial advisor. If your car needs to be taken care of, you go to a mechanic; someone who understands cars and knows how they work and has experience fixing them. So if your soul is troubled, why wouldn't you go to an expert, someone who knows souls and knows how to heal them and guide them along the right path? So, in theory at least, I think that the idea of a guru - shaykh - teacher makes alot of sense.

The problem comes in when you actually have to find a good guru. In the case of mechanics, lawyers and doctors there are bodies which certify the ability of each "expert". You can ask to see their diploma from law school, or their board certification etc. In the spiritual case, this is often much harder to do (although it is not impossible to get some indications. For example, in Sufism a shaykh would need to have ijaza or permission to teach given by another shaykh)

At the same time, it also very possible for any sufficiently charismatic individual to simply claim to have some kind of spiritual qualification and abuse the trust of unsuspecting students., And that's where the problems start. False, unqualified or fraudulent gurus can damage and exploit the people put under their charge and we are right to be concerned about them. And unfortunately such gurus are common and widespread. Finding a true teacher is a difficult process, and requires a certain degree of discernment. Like finding a needle in a very big haystack.

The healthy counterbalance to the guru principle is what might be called spiritual egalitarianism (At least that's the term which comes to mind); the idea that spiritual knowledge isn't just the special domain of experts but that it is something we all have access to. Some groups, like the Quakers are quite explicit with their doctrine that we all have the "inner light" and so instead of looking outward towards a scholar or a shaykh, they tend to look within to examine their own conscience in search of guidance.

I would say that, like the guru principle, the idea of spiritual egalitarianism has its positive aspects but it can also be abused. (In the sense of not recognizing ANY differences between the deepest spiritual insights and the most self--serving populist slogans) And I would say that there is evidence for both tendancies in Islamic sources (from the positive perspective). There are certainly references which suggest that if we don't know something we should "ask those who know". But there are also texts which point to the idea that our ability to reason gives us the capacity to look at the signs of Allah, in the world, in history, in nature and in ourselves to find evidence of his will.

More later...

arrested development

The other day I was driving some friends to the airport and I popped an old mix tape I'd made about 10 years ago into the tape deck. I had labelled it "Redemption Songs" and it was full of a lot of modern music which was spiritual and mostly upbeat, but not necessarily devotional in the usual sense. There was plenty of Bob Marley (of course), some Ladysmith Black Mambazoo, some Fugees ("The Temple"), some KRS-ONE ("The Real Holy Place"), some Tracy Chapman ("Mountains of Things", "All That You have is Your Soul"). Even some Terrence Trent D'Arby ("If you all get to Heaven").

There was also a lot of Arrested Development ("Tennesee" "Fishin' For Religion", etc.) My friends actually hadn't heard of Arrested Development (damn I feel old) and as I was trying to explain what they were like, I thought that this would actually be a good topic to blog on.

Now I really don't like the word "cult" but apparently sometime after the group moved off the radar, Speech (the main vocalist from Arrested Development) became a member of the the Atlanta Church of Christ, one of the International Churches of Christ (part of what is sometimes called the Boston Movement). The movement has become contraversial recently because of some "cult-like" features.

The Church practices something called "discipling" where newer members would be paired with a more experienced member who would guide them in the church. Now at first glance this idea isn't so bad. And even in Islam there are individuals who may seek the assistance of a shaykh who they could consult when they make certain decisions. But the problem is that this more experienced member or "discipler" didn't even have to have any special qualifications. And on top of that, the disciplers exert a high degree of control over the day-to-day life of the people below them (including extra-curricular activities, who they can date, and how often to have sex with their spouses, etc.)

On top of that, the Church seems to make high demands on the time and resources of its members and discourage ties with people outside the church. And they seem to have a narrow view (narrower than most Christians anyway) of who is a "true believer".

Recently, the Church has gone through a certain amount of restructuring and reform. Kip McKean, charismatic former-head of the movement resigned due to personal reasons and that seemes to have created the opportunity for many of the churches in the movement to "mellow out" (while other individual churches have probably not changed very much at all).

At the same time, this is all just background and a general picture. I have no idea if Speech, himself, has really been victimized by the group in any sense. Perhaps the Atlanta Church of Christ is less controlling. Or perhaps in an attempt to attract a celebrity/spokesperson he is being treated differently from other members. (Just as some have said John Travolta and Tom Cruise and other celebrity Scientologists are probably treated differently from rank-and-file members of the Church of Scientology).

On top of that it is hard to imagine the "revolutionary" brother who sang "Fishin' For Religion" or essentially made up his own religious scripture in a song like "Washed Away" ending up as a member of a cult but then stranger things have happened. But on the other hand, in his Arrested Development days, Speech's songs certain manifested a strong spiritual hunger and longing which actually might make a person more likely to join a group like ICOC.

In any case, Speech continues to make music. And his albums continue to explore religious themes. For example, Check out Speech's solo album "Spiritual People"

Speech/Arrested Development Webpage (LIFE MUSIK)

Arrested Development Lyrics

More critical piece about ICOC from a Muslim site

A page on ICOC from Rick Ross' anti-cult site

different religions week

Different Religions Week 2005 is Friday, July 15 to Friday, July 22. During the week, please consider attending a religious service of a faith different from your own.

Different Religions Week was founded in 2003 by Nathan Black, an undergraduate at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Troubled by the frequency of religiously motivated violence and the complexity behind the conflicts, Black resolved to make a small, long-term contribution to the search for tolerance and peace.

Black believes that most religiously motivated violence arises from the misunderstanding and demonizing of one side by the other. He is convinced that if people could simply observe the way their supposed enemies connect with their spiritualities and muster the strength for their daily lives, we would all be struck by the similarities of humans and their faiths ?not the alleged differences over which we kill.

Aware that closed minds are difficult to change, Black formulated Different Religions Week as a chance for those already tolerant to stand up and say, I, for one, am going to stop living in a box. It is hoped that if such an expression of open-mindedness is made as loud as possible, some of those on the fence about different religions will then feel compelled to participate. They, in turn, may be able to tickle the curiosity of their peers with even narrower worldviews. In this way, understanding and tolerance of different religions may eventually trickle down to the most adamantly bigoted the fanatics and the terrorists that sadly exist in most every religion, and who lie at the heart of the scourge of religiously motivated violence.

Maybe you should consider trying it out and learn about a different place of worship. And conversely, we should keep in mind that someone might want to visit the masjid (after all, the week goes from Friday to Friday) so we should try to be good hosts.

Via: Left End of the Dial

islam and the race question

A little on the academic technical side, this is a brief paper by Dr. Paul Hardy (Who I think I 've actually met before. Only I knew him as Abdul Ghani... he was one funny brother) called "Islam and the Race Question" which argues that Islam is deeply egalitarian and anti-racist.

not just in february

On the Hanafi fiqh list, someone had recently asked a question about Blacks and Islam and part of the answer included a link to a piece by Imam Zaid Shakir entitled Reflections on Black History Month. I still have to think a little more about his take on Fanon, but in general it is a pretty good piece.

what do blacks have in cuba?

This is actually an old article by Pedro Perez Sarduy about the racial situation in Cuba. In other contexts Sarduy often sounds like an apologist for the Cuban regime but this current article seems a little more even-handed.

santeria and islam

Here is a brief review of the book Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, And National Identity by Christine Ayorinde.

The review begins with the remark:

"Ayorinde breaks new ground in her important discussion of the evolution of revolutionary policy toward religion in general, and Afro-Cuban religious practice in particular. . . . Although she is careful not to overstate her case, the conclusion one can draw from her book is that the nation Fidel Castro declared to be 'Afro-Latin' in 1975 is in the process of becoming the world's first socialist state acknowledging (however tacitly) a congeries of African-derived religious forms as its 'national' religion."--Stephan Palmié, University of Chicago

For a long time I've been thinking about the relationship between Santeria and Islam. There are interesting similarities and contrasts. Although on a personal level, the bulk of my family members are either Protestant (like my parents) or Catholic or non-religious, from an "ethnic" perspective, one could certainly make a case that Santeria is the religion of "my (Cuban) people" (which is basically the point of the above passage). The descendants of African slaves in the New World especially South of the Border were able to substantially hold onto the faith and traditions of the ancestors by hiding their practices within a Catholic matrix. Outwardly they showed devotion to Saint Barbara, but inwardly they would think "Chango". Outwardly they would pray to St. Peter, but in their hearts they would say "Ogun". Some might dismiss Santeria as idolatry and superstition, but from another perspective it is an admirable exercise in creative resistance to oppression.

If ethnicity were a primary consideration in choosing a religion, then it is likely I would have become a practitioner of Santeria (which is becoming more dominant and widespread in my parent's homeland) instead of Islam. I chose Islam, in part, because it was a more universal religion, a more human religion. As one author put it, Islam is about the encounter between God as such, and man as such. Nevertheless, there are still ways in which Islam has a certain strong organic relationship with the Latino and Black [1] [2] experience. (Also check my links section for sites which deal with Black or Hispanic/Latino Muslims)

Another interesting question for me is to think about how Muslims ought to view Santeria. In my opinion, one of the real strengths of Islam is it's capacity to come to terms with other religions and tolerate them, without collapsing into a wishy-washy relativism. Muslims can respect the divine origins of Christianity, Judaism, and other revealed religions while at the same time encouraging a commitment to truth and justice.

As the Quran says:

Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. [2.62]

And over the centuries, as Muslims encountered other faiths, arguments were made that Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, etc. could also be recognized as people of the book, or at least those who "believe in Allah and the Last day and do good".

In the case of Santeria where do we stand? Although sometimes thought of as polytheistic because of the belief in different orishas or spirits, Santeria actually does believe in a single creator God (named Oludumare). So in Islamic terms it is at least conceivable that the different orishas represent different names or aspects of the one God, or more likely, the orishas, who are generally not thought of as perfect or absolute, can correspond to angels or jinn. Another possibility is that some of the orishas were actually human prophets who (like Jesus) became "deified" once their ministries ended. In fact, this likely in the case of Chango who was an ancient Yoruba king.

Do practitioners of Santeria have a book? The principles of Santeria are generally transmitted by an oral tradition (and so was the Quran originally), but there is a collection of oral texts, in particular there are a set of texts related to Ifa divination (which in certain respects is similar to the I Ching, discussed in an earlier blog entry)

Santeria also provides its practitioners with an ethical/moral framework as well. In this regard, the 11 Commandments attriibuted to Oludumare are sometimes mentioned:

1. You will not steal
2. You will not kill, except in self-defense and for your sustenance
3. You will not eat human flesh
4. You will live in peace among yourselves
5. You will not covet your neighbor's properties
6. You will not curse my name
7. You will honor your father and mother
8. You will not ask more than I can give you and you will be content with your fate
9. You will neither fear death nor take your own life
10. You will teach my commandments to your children
11. You will respect and obey my laws

All in all, I would just like to suggest that Santeria, like Christianity and Judaism, can be thought of as a religion of Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book) with a divine origin (however distant or however much it may have changed since its beginnings). But of course, Allahu alim (God knows best).

wild pigeon

On a related note.. let's look at censorship of a much more extreme political and violent variety. 10 years in prison for writing a single poem! May Allah make it easy on him:


The poem "Wild Pigeon," written by a Muslim poet in China and published by an official Chinese literary publication, seems innocuous enough - a young pigeon is trapped and caged by humans when he ventures too far from home, and chooses to die rather than be imprisoned for life. However, this poem was published in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, otherwise known as East Turkestan, and officials saw in Nurmuhemmet Yasin's poem a call for Uighur separatism. The plight of China's Muslim minority, which considers itself to have been forcibly integrated into China (alas, that bane of Muslim existence, oil, lies under their feet), has become worse in recent years as Beijing has implemented measures to suppress the Muslim population of 19 million and encourage non-Muslim Han Chinese to settle the area. This, in turn, has radicalized some Uighurs and turned them towards militancy, which then creates a backlash against the remaining Uighur population. Which brings us back to Mr. Yasin and his poem. After a closed trial in February 2005 at which he was not permitted to hire a lawyer, Yasin was sentenced by the Kashgar Intermediate Court to 10 years in jail for inciting Uighur separatism, a sentence which was later upheld on appeal. He has been permitted no visitors, and his personal collection of 1,600 poems and stories has been confiscated. Yasin's story is by no means unique - similar judgements have been made on other Uighurs for infractions as small as wearing a beard. "The authorities continued to use the international war against terrorism to justify harsh repression in Xinjiang, which continued to result in serious human rights violations against the ethnic Uighur community," reads a report from Amnesty International. "The authorities continued to make little distinction between acts of violence and acts of passive resistance." While there is little chance that China will restore the independence East Turkestan enjoyed between 1938 and 1949, activists are turning to the Internet and other media sources to keep China's human rights abuses in check, using Tibetan activism as an example.

Source: alt.muslim

censorship?

Just yesterday the issue of censorship came up for me in a weird way. I drove a friend to a high school where he had to work on a project. And when I got bored I used the high school's computers to surf the internet, check e-mail and actually write a little for this blog. The first time I came to the Planet Grenada front page, everything was fine. But after a few minutes when I tried to come back a bizzare/scary warning message appeared saying that due to content, access to the page would be denied.

It gives me something to think about. On the one hand I want to be free to be edgy and candid and open and critical. I should be able to use all the words in the dictionary (and a few that aren't) if I want to. On the other hand, I do feel that the content of this blog is interesting, informative, positive, and its something that I'd want to share with a large set of people. It feels like a trade-off.

respect the technique

Politically conscious Afro-Peruvian rapper, Immortal Technique, is the subject of this recent piece from In These Times, entitled Respect the Technique

fighting terrorism with islam

Finally, someone doing things the right way. Judge Hamoud Al-Hitar, of Yemen's Dialogue Committee and the Yemeni Organsation for Human Rights came up with a unique strategy after an increase in militant influence in Yemen led to increased attacks. Confronting captured militants in prison, he challenged them to back up their beliefs with the Quran in a series of debates, ultimately proving to many that their interpretations of the Quran were misleading.
full story from alt.muslim

negrodamus 2

Audience Member: Negrodamus, why is President Bush convinced there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Negrodamus : Because he has the receipt.

negrodamus 1

Audience Member: Negrodamus, why do white people like Wayne Brady so much?

Negrodamus : White people like Wayne Brady because he makes Brian Gumbel look like Malcolm X.

"it makes my teeth white" - paul mooney

In this blog, especially with certain entries, I often have some very intensely personal things in my life that I'm dwelling on, but instead of coming out and saying exactly what is going on in a clear and explicit way, I often point to public events or creative works or artists who are in the same ballpark, and which are hopefully still interesting to the other people reading, but in reality are only the tip of the iceberg. This is no exception...

Have you ever heard of Paul Mooney? He's this amazing Black comedian. In my book he is actually THE Black comedian. He was a writer for Sanford and Son, he wrote for Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live, and head writer for In Living Color (he's the one who made up Homey the Clown). He has appeared in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled, Robert Townsend's film Hollywood Shuffle and even an episode of Good Times. Most recently he has appeared on the Dave Chapelle show as Negrodamus and on the Ask a Black Dude segment.

An article entitled Straight Talk appeared in the Bay Area journal Metroactive a few years ago gives a taste of Mooney's material but doesn't do it justice. Instead of shucking and jiving like generations of Black comics from Mantan Moreland to Martin Lawrence to the latest Neo-Blaxploitation sit com on UPN (which stands for U Pick a Nigger, according to Mooney) or BET for that matter, Paul Mooney's laser sharp wit is radical, liberating, cutting edge and cathartic.

The two albums of his I'm aware of ("Masterpiece" which I have, and "Race" which I'm trying to find) are both out of print.

Mooney's humor is certainly not for the easily offended, but if you can get past that he has alot to say. If you think about it, due to obvious economic and demographic realities of the market, most Black entertainers and artists are creating a product intended for white consumption, or at least strongly influenced by the preferences and demands of white consumers (e.g. the biggest consumers of mainstream hip-hop are white kids). And in the case of comedy, this means that to a large degree Black comedians set up Black people to be objects of ridicule. But Paul Mooney turns this formula on its head and fights for laughs with the ruthlessness of a Mau-Mau.

He uses his words to redefine the world in new ways. It's like he can reach deep into your gut, up through your limbs, pull out your funny bone and then proceed to beat you upside the head to knock some sense into it.

More later...