in brightest day, in blackest night

I hope y'all can forgive the mildly juvenile, but still culturally relevant diversion: I had stopped regularly reading comic books by the time that John Stewart's Green Lantern appeared. But in a lot of ways I think he is the most refreshingly universal black science-fiction superhero. In most of sci-fi, whiteness is framed as universal, and blackness is framed as provincial and local. The advanced being from the next galaxy over is generally the authoritative-sounding white man with silly putty on his face. Most black characters, on the other hand, will sound and act as if they were from 125th and Lennox Ave (give or take a light year).

In contrast to the more "ghetto-centric" blaxploitation era superheroes like Black Lighting (and variations like Black Vulcan, Soul Power, Static and Juice) or Power Man, and even in contrast to the more Afrocentric heroes like Storm or Black Panther, John Stewart is on a whole other level. (A few others in the same ballpark, which come to mind from the world outside of comic books are Mace Windu and Benjamin Sisko).

Wikipedia: Green Lantern (John Stewart)
Book of Oa: The Unofficial John Stewart Biography
Wikipedia: List of Black Superheroes
Wikipedia: History of Black Superheroes
Wikipedia: African characters in comics

Grenada's past:
race and dc comics
black comic books
birth of a nation: a comic novel
"'x-men' is not a cleverly named documentary about the nation of islam..."
on the serious tip...
aaron mcgrudder
afrofuturism/rebirth of a nation

a muslim response to the pope

Zaytuna: A Muslim Response to The Pope: For They Know Exactly What They Do by Imam Zaid Shakir gives a pretty thoughtful analysis of the pope's controversial lecture in the context of other comments and policy decisions coming out of the Catholic Church recently.

evil eye protection

I'm really not superstitious. In fact, for a while now I've been really getting into the idea (associated with Asharite theology) that God is not just the First Cause, but the Only Cause. In other words, in a radical and thorough sense, everything which happens in the world is directly caused and willed by Allah. So in addition to stars and talismans not influencing your destiny, matches don't really cause fires and medicine doesn't really cure diseases. Instead, God creates the medicine and the healing and God is just in the habit (the sunnah of Allah) of making one follow the other.

Alternatively, (to point to a commonly used example from the Quran on this point) since there is no necessary connection between fire and burning, it makes sense that God could say "O Fire! be thou cool, and (a means of) safety for Abraham!" when Nimrod tried to burn Abraham alive. Fire doesn't have the power to burn by itself.

In this view, there is also no such thing as a miracle because whether God follows his own habits or not, everything that happens is willed and created by Allah. The created world doesn't even have the power to sustain its own existence for an instant, so another consequence is that Allah is continually recreating the cosmos from moment to moment, almost like a projector shining successive picture frames on a screen.

But all the above is really a preface. To make a long story short, I mainly wanted to share that a few days ago I ran into some friends (a married couple) who generously gave me a beautiful blue fatima's hand. I had mentioned to them some "evil-eye" issues going on in my life along with my fascination with the khamsa and moments later they offered me one (which they had actually bought for themselves in Cairo). It is hanging on my shelf right now. It is definitely one of the most interesting presents I've gotten in a while. In any case, I wanted to be able to say how pleased I was with the gift, without people accusing me of shirk. I know very well that it has no power to help or harm, but ultimately that's not the point.

a day in the life of a caribbean muslim

say hello to the blog: A day in the life of a Caribbean Muslim by a Jamerican Muslimah living in Minneapolis, MN

people in me

ApoC: People in Me by Robin Kelly is a brief and slightly personal look at polyculturalism and black identity.

immortal technique and adisa banjoko

Holla at a Scholar!!: Immortal Technique and Author Adisa Banjoko Team w/ Educators for Forum on Immigration Rights! THIS SAT!!!

still muslim like me

Last year I wrote an entry called muslim like me about non-Muslims selectively practing some aspect of Islam (either fasting in Ramadan or wearing hijab) as a way to express political/ social/ spiritual solidarity with Muslims. (Unfortunately, the link to the Scarves for Solidarity story has expired.)

A good discussion of this phenomenon recently appeared over at the Woman of Color blog in an entry called Ramadan, solidarity, critiques and the internet.

And in Michigan, the Arab American NOWAR Committee is co-ordinating several solidarity fasts throughout the month of Ramadan. For more information (especially if you want to participate) check here.

ramadan reading: the virtues of dhikr and al-ghazali

So I finished The Virtues of Ramadan by Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalvi a few days ago. Now I want to go on to reread his book The Virtues of Dhikr. I remember that when I first read that book it was really reassuring because, at the time, I was feeling doubtful about the orthodoxy of "Sufism" but the book discussed a number of hadith on the value of dhikr (including group dhikr). I know some people (especially non-Muslims in the West) see "Sufism" as this cool liberal New Age version of Islam but in reality it is just Islamic spirituality which is organically grounded in the Quran and Sunnah. If you break down "Sufism" to its basic elements it consists of the practices which would be followed by any pious thoughtful Muslim. (Not that I'm claiming to be one).

Also on my Ramadan reading list is the book On Disciplining the Soul and Breaking the Two Desires by Al-Ghazali. Basically it consists of certain sections from Ihya ulum al-din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) on asceticism and struggling against the ego, translated and annotated by T.J. Winter. I've also read this one before but I could definitely use a refresher. A few years ago I went through a period of being really excited about Al-Ghazali, but more recently I've kind of mellowed out and haven't "touched base" in a while.

Anything I could say right now about how great Al-Ghazali is would probably sound really lame so I'll just leave you with a couple of links:

A biography of Imam al-Ghazzali by Dr. G.F. Haddad

As a continuation of my muslim art of war idea, here is an excerpt from al-Ghazali on Jihad al-Nafs (with links to other scholar's comments on the same topic).

And here is a huge Al-Ghazali Website with a ton of his writings.

Enjoy.

more 9/11 blues

From the AP by way of Third Resurrection:

A Spanish university professor with a long beard and dark complexion said Thursday he was briefly forced off an Air Berlin airliner during a layover on the Spanish island of Mallorca by German passengers who feared he was an Islamic terrorist. (full story)

yet another helping of the post 9/11 blues

the racial gap in the grandstands

Businessweek: The Racial Gap In The Grandstands explores how and why African Americans are losing interest in baseball while Latinos seem to be getting more involved. The piece is a bit clumsy in the sense of not acknowledging that many Latinos (especially the players) are also "black". But it still describes an interesting phenomena.

See also:
latinos and baseball

blacks in cuban med school

Since 2001, the Latin American School of Medical Sciences (LASMS) in Havana, Cuba has been admitting students from various countries in Latin America and Africa, as well as low income minority students from the U.S. into its six year medical program (particularly African Americans and some Hispanics). Since the program began in 2001, it has maintained that all of tuition, housing, and meals are free. In some cases the only necessary financing by students is for the trips to Cuba for school and back home again.

Black Electorate: African American Education Free Outside U.S. Borders - Blacks In Cuban Med School by Zekita Tucker

latinas choosing islam over catholicism

Yesterday, Weekend Edition on NPR (National Public Radio) had a piece on Hispanic women converting to Islam. In the life of this blog I've linked to many such stories. A little more than others, this one emphasizes how the Latinas who converted found Islamic gender roles appealing.

NPR: Latinas Choosing Islam over Catholicism

see also from Grenada's past:
npr on latino/hispanic muslims
interview with samantha sanchez
south florida latina converting to islam
the emerging latino muslim community in america
many hispanics finding faith in islam
more hispanic women are converting to islam
latino muslims of the bay area
latino muslims seek answers
my journey as a muslimah
more hispanics turning to islam
ranks of latinos turning to islam are increasing
robert karimi
muslims march with latino community - july 18th
ole to allah
ramadan around the world
clippings on latino muslims
islam in latin america and latino muslims

the akashic records

I'm feeling a little New Age-y today. On Friday I had lunch... wow, won't be saying that for a while...on Friday I had lunch with some folks and we were talking about Rudolf Steiner and a book of his called Christianity as Mystical Fact. The book ended up being a good springboard for conversation (one topic was literal vs. metaphorical language) and it made me more curious to learn more about Steiner.

Steiner believed in something called the Akashic Records which is supposed to be a kind of comprehensive non-physical library of information which can be accessed by individuals with certain spiritual abilities.

Levi Dowling, the author of Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ claimed to have gotten the information for his gospel from the Akashic records. And according to Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson), The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ was one of the sources (in the "ordinary" non-mystical sense) of Noble Drew Ali's Circle Seven Koran.

It occurs to me that in the Quran (and hadith) there are many different references to a Book, or the Pen, or writing (e.g. [22.70] Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heaven and the earth? Surely this is in a book; surely this is easy to Allah.) and that possibly some of these references are consistent with the concept of the Akashic records. The Quran tends to evoke the anthropomorphic image of angels following us with pieces of paper (made from trees?) writing down what we do (in what language?) with ball-point pens. But perhaps that concrete language is really refering to something different like the Akashic records? Allahu alim.

ramadan mubarak y'all

it's the first day and I'm already staring at the clock waiting for the sun to set... maybe I should go outside. That way I could get some fresh air. Read a good book. Look at the sky... and wait for the sun to set.

pope benedict: the first year

Alternet: Pope Benedict: The First Year by Matthias Beier (originally in Tikkun). A reasonable overview of the current pope and some of his Eurocentric tendancies. (The more I think about it, "Eurocentric" is just the right term to use. "Nazi" is inflamatory and inaccurate. "Islamophobe" is to blunt and doesn't cover everything. But "Eurocentric" really does cover a wide range of his implicit and explicit actions.)

the neocon's lexicon

In These Times: In The Neocons’ Lexicon Salim Muwakkil deconstructs the contradictions which lie behind the Right's use of the term "Islamofascism".

the world faces us hegemony or survival

Chavez's September 20th speech to the UN General Assembly

ramadan on saturday?

In a surprise move, ISNA and the Fiqh Council of North America are anouncing that they are using astronomical calculations in order to determine the beginning of Ramadan. The Fiqh Council's explanation of their position is given here. I'm not sure what to think. On the one hand, I've always been told that sighting with the naked eye is what is important. And something in me finds this "old school" approach appealing. At the same time, I'm also tired of all the disagreement (even at a local level) over when Ramadan begins. At least the Fiqh Council's approach seems to have some potential for promoting greater unity among Muslims in North America. Also, it wouldn't be the first time that greater scientific knowledge has had some impact on the religious behavior of Muslims in North America. When Muslim immigrants first came to the US, many of them tended to pray southeast (We are mostly north and west of Mecca) but once they had a better understanding of geodesics they started to pray northeast. Perhaps this is similar?

ramadan right around the corner

Wow, it seems like Ramadan is sneaking up on me. It is right around the corner... less than a week away. To get ready I'm going to try to review the rules on fasting in some of my "favorite" fiqh books. I also want to reread the section The Virtues of Ramadan from Tablighi Nisab by Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhalvi. I feel like this year Ramadan will be harder than usual. I don't think I want to get into why. It just will be. Keep me in your dua.

more on pope benedict and islam

The often-insightful Juan Cole has recently produced two entries in the wake of Pope Benedict's gaffe on his Informed Comment blog: Pope: Manuel II's Views of Muhammad are not My Own and Pope's Trip to Turkey in Doubt (Both the entries and the comments are full of good information on the subject)

Also, for a more "big picture" perspective, you might want to check out: Benedict XVI and Islam: the first year by Islamic scholar, Abdal Hakim Murad

And finally Papal Insults: A Bavarian Provocation by Tariq Ali.