more on dhull hijjah

From Sunni Path:
The First Ten Days of Dhull Hijjah
The Day of Arafah: The 9th of Dhul Hijjah
The Fiqh of Eid al-Adha: The 10th of Dhul Hijjah

the wise men

This is a bit late but yesterday was the Feast of Epiphany which is known as El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) in much of the Spanish-speaking world and recalls the Biblical account of the Wise Men visiting the baby Christ and leaving gifts. (So logically, this would be the main gift-giving day instead of December 25)

I recently found out that in Chile and certain other countries, the day is also called La Pascua de los Negros. Some say the name is a reference to the idea that one of Wise Men was a black African.

But others say:

Es interesante notar que, en tiempo de la colonización española, especialmente en Cuba y Puerto Rico, este día era de asueto para los esclavos negros que salían a las calles a bailar al ritmo de sus tamboras. Esto origina el nombre de Pascua de los Negros con que el día es aún conocido en algunos países.

The period from December 26 (Boxing Day) to January 6 is also the origin of the 12 days of Christmas.

The Quran does contain a birth narrative of Jesus but doesn't mention the Wise Men. (Although, in 22:17 Magians are mentioned but not in reference to the birth of Christ). As far as I know, no authoritative Muslim accounts (i.e. Quran and sunnah) of the birth of Jesus include the Wise Men. But I wouldn't rule out the possibility that there is some obscure narration or a syncretic legend in the Muslim world which includes them... After all, if Muslims in Senegal celebrated Christmas this year then anything is possible. (I wonder if Christians in Senegal will be celebrating Eid? Just this morning I was hearing on NPR how African Christians were incorporating traditional African pracitices in the churches and they mentioned animal sacrifices)

Nevertheless, I would still argue that the story of the Wise Men suggests a different kind of similarity between Islam and Christianity.

Matthew 2:1-2

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

According to some, the three wise men symbolically correspond to Noah's three sons and represent all the people of the earth coming to pay their respects to Christ. (And so one is African, another Oriental, another European) But in other interpretations, the "Wise Men from the east" came from Persia and were likely to be Zoroastrian. In any case, if you take the Bible literally, they were Gentiles who had their own system of belief but were still able to correctly predict the birth of the Messiah. And so, in this way, the Bible is recognizing the validity of a pre-Christian non-Jewish religion. And so an argument can be made that from a Christian perspective, Zoroastrians (or whatever group the Wise Men belonged to) are People of the Book. (Allahu alim)

it's a beige thing

From: Modern Identity is Not All Black or White - It's a Beige Thing by Raphael Mokades

"It may be that in the future there will be more rather than fewer of us - the 2001 census suggested that mixed-race people had the youngest average age profile, and one in five of London's schoolchildren will soon be from mixed-race backgrounds. I know there can never be a box on those forms for every possible permutation of ethnic origin. But I also hope that as mixed-race people become more numerous and start to reach the higher echelons of British society, a more sophisticated understanding of ethnicity will evolve: one which allows people like me to be seen as a subtle shade of beige."

When I was younger, I would have felt more positively towards the above article. Now that I'm older, I think the article raises some good questions, but my attitudes towards racial/ethnic identity have in some ways gotten simpler. Now, alot of the identity questioning I engaged in seems like self-indulgent navel-gazing. We have more important questions to deal with in life other than which box to check.

Furthermore, Latin America with its long and extensive history of miscegenation already has developed a rich vocabulary of terms, in Spanish, Portuguese and even French, which can be used to describe different racial mixes. So centuries ago in certain parts of the New World, society had already "evolved" past seeing things in black and white and even beige, and had moved on to dividing people into mestizo, castizo, espomolo, mulatto, lobo, zambo, coyote, moreno, trigueno and many other categroies. But it wasn't at all clear that this richer and more detailed language did anything to limit or prevent the effects of racism/colorism/prejudice in these societies. So I would definitely question whether Mokades' train of thought does anything to significantly to make the world a better place.

At the same time, I don't think my attitudes would be what they are now, if I hadn't obsessed over these sorts of questions then. So ultimately I would settle on saying that on an individual level, especially in the case of people who come from any kind of a mixed-background a period of racial navel-gazing is useful, and maybe even necessary, but in the long run we need to look elsewhere to create a truly free society.

padilla likely to face terror trial in miami

Miami Herald: Padilla likely to face terror trial in Miami

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ''dirty bomb,'' to be released from a military brig and moved to Miami, where he faces a criminal trial on lesser terror-related charges.

In some sense this is a good thing for Padilla because it ends his Kafka-esque status of being in a legal limbo. On the other hand, according to the Herald, Padilla is being released from military custody in order to prevent the Supreme Court from making a ruling on the administration's "right" to consider U.S. citizens as enemy combatants.

ex-prisoner rights

Black Voice News: Formerly Incarcerated People Organize to fight Discrimination in S.B.

This is actually an issue I think alot about from time to time. What is the whole purpose of punishment and the criminal justice system (I'm still not sure how to diagram that last phrase). If the goal is rehabilitation then as a society, you want to do everything you can to help people get re-integrated in society when they get out. But if we aren't willing to do that, what was the point of letting them out in the first place?

comment moderation

Blogger recently added a feature where comments can be moderated individually so there is no need for the word-verification which gives some readers trouble. I just switched over today and hopefully it will let me keep out spam but let more people participate.

pat robertson is evil: reason #865

From CNN: Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed. (see story)

Also see: pat robertson is evil: reason #873

the chappelle theory

The Chappelle Theory is an in-depth explanation of how a secret cabal called the Dark Crusaders conspired to bring down the popular African-American (and Muslim) comic. (take with plenty of salt). But for me, the biggest mystery is that if there really was a powerful cabal which was so concerned about the images of Black folks in the media, how do you explain The Parkers?

she meant it in a good way...

DELTONA -- A handful of angry residents Tuesday night denounced a city employee's recent use of an ethnic slur toward Hispanics and called for her to resign or be fired.

A group of about 15 to 20 people applauded and cheered during a City Commission meeting as three residents gave passionate speeches lashing out at city officials for not anticipating such a negative reaction to the term "spic" used in jest by public information officer Jeannine Gage at a media-only event last month.

During a "media appreciation day" at City Hall on Dec. 1, Gage jokingly announced a mud-wrestling match that would feature celebrity "hicks vs. spics."

Though the city gave Gage a written reprimand, residents who spoke Tuesday said that if she is not dismissed, they will start a petition for her removal.

(full story at Orlando Sentinel)

afro-colombians driven off land

From the LA Times: Afro-Colombians Driven Off Land in Cocaine War

See also:
black colombians fight for land and rights
africans in latin america
orlando valencia
orlando valencia's body found
afro-latinos marginalized and ignored

sisters gonna work it out

Some funky and progressive women of color are in the process of staking out and claiming a piece of the blogosphere for their own revolutionary and subversive purposes over at the Woman of Color blog. And definitely check out: A Blog Carnival for and by Women of Color

evangelical roots of economics

From Black Electorate: Let There Be Markets: The Evangelical Roots of Economics by Gordon Bigelow is an interesting piece which suggests the basis of economics as a discipline with a particular world-view can be credited (or blamed) on evangelical Christianity.

"Economics, as channeled by its popular avatars in media and politics, is the cosmology and the theodicy of our contemporary culture. More than religion itself, more than literature, more than cable television, it is economics that offers the dominant creation narrative of our society, depicting the relation of each of us to the universe we inhabit, the relation of human beings to God. And the story it tells is a marvelous one. In it an enormous multitude of strangers, all individuals, all striving alone, are nevertheless all bound together in a beautiful and natural pattern of existence: the market. This understanding of markets—not as artifacts of human civilization but as phenomena of nature—now serves as the unquestioned foundation of nearly all political and social debate. As mergers among media companies began to create monopolies on public information, ownership limits for these companies were not tightened but relaxed, because "the market" would provide its own natural limits to growth. When corporate accounting standards needed adjustment in the 1990s, such measures were cast aside because they would interfere with "market forces." Social Security may soon fall to the same inexorable argument.

"The problem is that the story told by economics simply does not conform to reality."

bahai thought police

Once dormant, ex-Bahai, Muslim blogger, Maryam at Dervish has started posting again! And in addition to giving her blog a fresh coat of paint, she has come back swinging with a two-part piece on some of the more Orwellian aspects of the Bahai administrative order.

Basically Sen McGlinn was a Bahai scholar but was disenrolled from the Bahai faith for some of his political opinions. On top of that, the Bahai publishing house which distributed his works and certain other Bahai scholarly writings is receiving some flack from the Bahai officials as well. For more info, check out Dervish:
Blackwhite - Part One
Blackwhite - Part Two

Past Grenada entries:
gentle bahai
bahais and divorce

muslim scholars were paid to aid u.s. propaganda

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.

The Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations company, was told early in 2005 by the Pentagon to identify religious leaders who could help produce messages that would persuade Sunnis in violence-ridden Anbar Province to participate in national elections and reject the insurgency, according to a former employee.

From Common Dreams: (full story)

again third resurrection

Ok, the Third Resurrection (Blackamerican orthodox Muslim group blog) is getting underway... check it out... make comments... make suggestions... let me know if you want to join.

interview with a christmas card

Well, I finished the Anne Rice book. It's not bad. A little slow moving at first. But Rice actually manages to build some tension in the story (which is pretty amazing especially considering the novel starts when Christ (as) is seven-years old and only covers about a year.) The book is fleshed out with plenty of mundane historical detail to give the reader a good sense of what life was like in Palestine and Egypt of that era.

In the second half of the novel, Rice continues with more Smallville-ish moments where Jesus alludes to or has interactions with characters we know will play larger roles later in the story.

The other remarkable aspeect to the novel is the way in which Rice sticks literally to the most conventional elements of the story, from the Wise Men, to the star, to angels saying "Glory to God in the Highest", even to the length of saying it snowed in Bethlehem on the night of Christ's birth!

Given the job Anne Rice did with this first slice of the story, I think it will be interesting to see what she does with the later years.

see christ: the prequel

kwanzaa gains momentum among caribbean blacks

Ok, this should be the last Kwanzaa post for a LONG while...

Kwanzaa, which traditionally showcases the inner strength, struggles and accomplishments of African-Americans, is quickly becoming a popular holiday for black Caribbean people, as well.

As they began dabbling in the celebration, they found they shared similar roots.

"We're all Africans. We've just been dropped off in different places," said Amanayea Abraham, a cultural consultant for the West Palm Beach-based African-American Cultural Arts Organization.

From BlackElectorate.com: Kwanzaa Gains Momentum Among Caribbean Blacks by Karla D. Shores

babel fish

I just added Altavista's Babel Fish (translator) to my blog. There are some kinks. It seems to be able to translate one blog entry at a time but not much more than that. To translate any given entry, what you can do is first click on the time at the bottom of the entry you want (so then you get one entry showing) and then on the side bar, click on the flag appropriate to the language you want the entry translated into. Enjoy.

i'm franklin, who are you?

Ok, I actually was sort of hoping to get this result, but the fact that I did is funny on so many levels. You don't even know.

You are Franklin!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

imani

Today is the last day of Kwanzaa and today's principle is Imani or faith; to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

I'm a little pressed for time today, so I will limit myself to a few brief comments:

First, I would point out that here there is an obvious but superficial similarity between Karenga's notion of imani and the Islamic concept of iman (also commonly translated as "faith" or "belief"). While Karenga seems to be talking about having faith in created things, the Islamic concept of iman is centered on the Supreme Being who is uncreated.

So, secondly, unlike two days ago when one could argue that Nia and Niyyah could co-exist and complement one another, I would say that here the two terms, iman and imani are harder (if not impossible) to reconcile. Karenga seems to be turning Blackness into an idol, but from an Islamic perspective idolatry is the one unforgivable sin.

So, thirdly, what we should do is start with God and an inclusive notion of justice and taking care of your neighbors and "kinfolk". That might allow for some general feelings of racial solidarity, but it shouldn't reach such extremes that race becomes an idol.