mccain - romney ?

A lot of people in the media seem to be speculating on the possibility of Mitt Romney as John McCain's running mate in '08. Personally, I think that would make the presidential race more entertaining in terms of "Grenada-esque" type of issues. Firstly, both McCain and Romney have been caught in gaffes involving the term "tar-baby". Secondly, in the wake of the way people have been talking about Jeremiah Wright, it would be interesting to have a national discussion about Mitt Romney's role as a missionary and a bishop in the Mormon Church during the period when the Church's policies were still clearly racially discriminatory. On the other hand, if a McCain - Romney ticket managed to capture the White House, then this whole situation would be significantly less entertaining.

On Sharpton and Mormonism:
when is a bigot not a bigot?

muslims against sharia? (part two)

For more impressions across the blogosphere about this odd group:

Phanari: The Secret Behind Muslims Against Sharia
Logan the Huge: "Muslims" Against "Sharia"
Dunner's: Sinking to a New Low

see also:
muslims against shariah? (sic)

on a lighter note...

God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule
Christ Converts To Islam
FBI: Muslim Groups In U.S. May Be Developing Nuclear Families
Privileged Children Of Millionaires Square Off On World Stage
U.S. To Arab World: 'Stop Hating Us Or Suffer The Consequences'
CIA Unveils New Ghetto Drugs For '98
Metric System Thriving In Nation's Inner Cities
War-Torn Middle East Seeks Solace In Religion
CIA: Syria Harboring More Than 15 Million Known Arabs
Israel Bombs Anti-Semitism Out of Lebanon
Area Man Guesses He'll Learn The Difference Between Shiites And Sunnis
God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back To All His Niggaz
God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy 'No,' Says God
Jesus Demands Creative Control Over Next Movie
Portrait Of Nude, Bleeding Man Hung On School Wall
Well, I Guess That Genocide In Sudan Must've Worked Itself Out On Its Own

9/11 conspiracy theories 'ridiculous,' al qaeda says

muslims against shariah?

I found out about Muslims Against Shariah through some comments on my post: mccain's spiritual advisor hates muslims and islam

Oddly enough, even though the group claims to be run by Muslims, their membership also includes a few prominent Jewish Neo-con bloggers. Their manifesto suggests that the Quran has suffered from textual corruption and asserts that certain passages and entire surahs should be removed from the Quran. Their manifesto also defends the Bible and justifies the Crusades! I think that the group is basically a textbook example of how when some people say "moderate Muslims" they really mean "assimilationist non-Muslim". I normally don't "use" verses of the Quran this way but the group certainly makes me think of the ayat: "And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion" (2:120) Accepting their manifesto would certainly put one outside the pale of Islam under most typical definitions. Personally I think the goal of striving to improve and reform Muslim religious institutions is praiseworthy but I think it has to be carried out in ways which are much more respectful of basic Islamic principles.

Ali Eteraz: Misguided Muslim Reformists
The Freethinker: (Non-)Muslims Against Sharia
Madhab al-Irfy: Muslims Against Sharia – Satire or neo-Con crap-artistry?
FrontPage: Muslims Against Shariah
StormWarning’s Counterterrorism: Muslims Against Sharia (?)

see also:
examples of bad attempts to reform Islam
the trouble with irshad manji
"they plan and allah plans..."
willie lynch: the next chapter

examples of better attempts to reform Muslim societies:
deobandi scholars say terrorism is anti-islam
nommo
two by eteraz
progressive islam?

fruit of islam cause man to soil fruit of looms

beware the beast man

The post about Iblis' decision to not bow down before Adam got me thinking about Islamic anthropology (see only human) and how when God announced He was going to place humanity on the earth the angels skeptically asked: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? (2:30) It also reminded me of another memorable scene from the Planet of the Apes movies:

more monkey business

A few days ago I managed to catch some bunch of talking heads on Fox discussing LaBron James and his King Kong pose on the cover of Vogue magazine and it got me thinking about the larger question of whether it is ever okay to use racialized monkey images, which of coursa reminded me of the following scene from one of my favorite movies:

see also:
monkey business (I fixed a few of hte links but some are dead)

the devil and al-hallaj

So I recently finished reading Philp Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It is a kind of an anti-Narnia series where the heroes gather a multiverse-wide army to fight against the Judeo-Christian God, typically referred to as the Authority. Given the theme, I would have expected that that film The Golden Compass (based on the first book) would have caused more of a scandal than it did. In any case, the books got me thinking of other examples (both historical and fictional) of how perspectives on God or the Devil are sometimes dramatically inverted.

One example of such an inversion in an Islamic framework can be connected to a question I've reflected on from even before the time I became Muslim: If Islam is such a radical monotheism, then why would Iblis (the Devil) get in trouble for refusing to bow down to something other than God? (For those that don't know, in the Quran the Devil "falls" when he refused to bow down to Adam)

The Sufi Mansur al-Hallaj must have had a similar question, and in a chapter of his metaphysical treatise The Tawasin entitled Before Endless Time and Equivocation he gives a rather bold answer in the form of an imaginary dialogue between Moses and the Devil:

Musa met Iblis on the slope of Sinai and said to him: ‘Oh Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating?’

He said: ‘That which prevented me was my declaration of a Unique Beloved, and if I had prostrated I would have become like you, because you were only called upon once to ‘look at the mountain’ and you looked. As for me, I was called upon a thousand times to prostrate myself to Adam and I did not prostrate myself because I stood by the Intention of my Declaration.

Sayedina Musa said: ‘You abandoned a Command?’

Iblis said: ‘It was a test. Not a command.’

Sayedina Musa said: ‘Without sin? But your face was deformed.’

Iblis replied: ‘Oh Musa, that is but the ambiguity of appearances, while the spiritual state does not rely on it and does not change. Gnosis remains true even as it was at the beginning and does not change even if the individual changes.’

[...]

If He punishes me with His fire for all of eternity I would not prostrate myself before anyone, and I would not abase myself before any person or body because I do not recognize any opposite with Him! My Declaration is that of the Sincere and I am one of those sincere in love.'

So in Al-Hallaj's mind the Devil almost becomes an almost saintly figure, not unlike the historical Sufi, rabia al-adawiyya who famously expressed her love for God apart from fear of Hell or desire for paradise. To be honest, I find Al-Hallaj's view somewhat compelling. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend some kind of Islamic form of Satanism. But I do think that Islam's radical monotheism does imply that the Devil is "on the payroll" so to speak. The Devil's act of disobedience was only apparent and ultimately he serves some valuable function as a part of the divine plan.

path of perfection: rebel music

According to their webpage, Path of Perfection is a label and distro based in ideas and feelings that truly express a reaction to everything that's happening in the world today. And given how their statement of purpose also includes references to the Natural Order, Allah, veganism and animal liberation I would guess that whoever is behind this is some permutation of the folks we've discussed before in our posts on sean muttaqi, vegan reich and the hardline movement and hashlamah.org

Interestingly enough, they actually link to one of my posts on natural Islam. Also given that I just posted on Mumia Abu Jamal earlier today, it is also kind of nice that they posted some more information on John Africa and the MOVE organization. Check it out.

dave chappelle gives salaams to fans

From MT Akbar (Chi-Town Revolutionary Guerrilla) : Dave Chapelle in the UK-Sends Salaams and Eid Mubarak to fans

new developments in the case of mumia abu jamal

Associated Press: Court: Mumia Deserves New Sentencing Hearing

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court has ordered a new penalty hearing for celebrity death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Abu-Jamal's conviction for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer should stand. But it says he should get a new sentencing hearing because of flawed jury instructions.

If prosecutors don't want to give him a new death penalty hearing, Abu-Jamal would be sentenced automatically to life in prison.

A Philadelphia jury convicted Abu-Jamal of killing Officer Daniel Faulkner after the patrolman pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in an overnight traffic stop 27 years ago.

Probably due to his name, many people seem to assume Mumia Abu Jamal is Muslim but he actually isn't a confessional Muslim. In his book Death Blossoms, he gives his credo as follows:

My belief – my religion, which I call Life – the teachings of John Africa and the example of my MOVE brothers and sisters across the state, many of whom have survived imprisonment for years and years. Their example has buoyed me up over fourteen years behind bars. Also, my faith in the power of commitment, in the power of family, in the power of love, of community, of God. I could give you one term instead of four or five. "Family," for example, means unity, commitment, love. That is "family." The other thing, of course, is laughter. Very simply, it’s human to laugh and to find humor, even in something small. Every day. Every day there is something to laugh about! That keeps me human.

See also:
mumia abu jamal - death blossoms
mumia abu jamal: hispanics, latin america and the struggle against the empire
legal update in the case of mumia abu jamal

prophetic and civil religion

Fire and Damnation Awaits Those Who Transgress White America’s Religion by BAR executive editor Glen Ford, further develops the idea that Rev. Wright blow-up isn't really about individual views and opinions but is really about white American civil religion and a black prophetic tradition.

And also, in Counterpunch, Ishmael Reed weighs in on the The "Crazy" Rev. Wright

moors and mujaddids

The Moors Gate: Bab El Magharbeh is a Moorish Science Website but I've started to wonder if they are moving in a more orthodox direction with their promotion of The Book of Assistance by Imam 'Abdallah Ibn Alawi al-Haddad (Widely considered to be the mujaddid of his day). In earlier posts they have also recommended works by Ibn Al-Arabi and Imam Al-Ghazali. I wonder how they go about bridging the teachings of Noble Drew Ali with those of the classical scholars.

see also:
moors, snakes and st. patrick
compass for a sea of scholars

we are family

From time to time I like to reflect on the mathematics of genealogy, but I quickly get overwhelmed. Barring virgin births, everyone has 2 parents. Barring, incest, everyone has 4 grandparents, 8 great- grandparents, 16 great- great- grandparents, 32 great- great- great- grandparents`and so on, doubling with every generation. If you know anything about geometric progressions you would realize that the number of ancestors a person has in any given generation will get very very large, very very quickly as we move into the past.

Now, in order for two people to NOT be related what is necessary is the near-impossible requirement that their two respective geometrically increasing clouds of ancestors not overlap. But eventually, if you go far back enough, each person's theoretical number of ancestors in a generation will exceed the total population on the planet. In other words, there doesn't seem to be enough room on the planet for two people to really be from different "tribes". We are all at least distant cousins.

A special corrollary of the realization that we are all related is the fact that we are all related to royalty (or any sufficiently prolific historical figure). For example, everyone today of European descent is apparently descended from Charlemagne. A good discussion of this idea can be found in an old article which appeared in The Atlantic entitled The Royal We by Steve Olson

Last year, in a surprising turn, it was discovered that Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are cousins. And more recently, last month, Juan Cole over at Informed Comment wrote about how: Queen Elizabeth II was Descended from the Prophet Muhammad (saaws). (although this has been known among professional genealogists for a long time.)

See also:
britney spears may convert to islam
kerry descended from the prophet muhammad?
i'm back...
al sharpton and strom thurmond

there is nothing wrong with rev. wright

Here's a link round-up for the Reverend Wright issue:

The Real Rev. Wright: The Footage Fox and the Other Networks Won't Show. Shows some of the "controversial" comments with more context. Also TRINITYCHGO has posted dozens of other videos from Trinity United Church of Christ onto YouTube.

The two articles The Wright Dust-Up Shows and Proves That Many Whites Don’t Know Black People at All and There's Nothing Wrong with Rev. Wright both place Wright in the broader prophetic tradition of the Black Church.

Then The White Preacher Double Standard: How Hagee, Parsley and the Rest Get Away with Everything and GOP: Only Our Pastors Can Say Crazy Sh*t contrast how Wright has been portrayed to how the media treat white Christian clergymen who say outlandish (or bigoted, or hateful, etc.) things.

Finally, Pastor of Hillary's Former Church: Don't Use Wright to Polarize and Is It Hillary's Turn to 'Denounce and Reject' a Problematic Pastor? mention how Ms. Clinton might have to do some soul searching of her own before she thinks about using the Rev. Wright as a political club against Obama.

see also:
jeremiah wright and the black church
mccain's spiritual advisor hates muslims and islam

“do good works, engage politically, and get involved”

altmuslim.com: “Do good works, engage politically, and get involved” is an interview of the first Muslim U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison by Wajahat Ali.

obama: the death of white supremacy?

In Barack Obama: The Death of White Supremacy?, Amiri Baraka, Chinweizu, Floyd Hayes. Lloyd McCarthy, Jonathan Scott, and others discuss what would and wouldn't change in the wake of an Obama presidency.

immigrants of african descent should remember the shoulders we stand on

ChickenBones: Immigrants of African Descent Should Remember the Shoulders We Stand On by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

two by eteraz

I thought I'd share two pieces from Ali Eteraz's series on Islamic Reform.

The first is The making of the Muslim left. In it, Eterez recommends

"creating a viable and well organised Muslim left. It would be an intra-religious movement as opposed to a universalist one (though obviously it doesn't shun allies). It would be a cousin of the international left, but in a Muslim garb. Just as the Muslim right found Islamic means to justify the destructive ideas from the enlightenment (Fascism, Marxism, totalitarianism, evangelical religion), the Muslim left should find Islamic means to justify the positive ones (anti-foundationalism, pragmatism, autonomy, tolerance)"

I have reservations about some of the specific bullet points in his platform (listed in the article), but I definitely agree that if the above principles gained a foothold in the Muslim world and spread it would be a good thing.

In the second article, The Islamic Reformation, Eteraz rightly points out that unfortunately the "Islamic Reformation" has already begun. What do I mean by that? Something I've realized for a while now is that since becoming Muslim I've gained a greater appreciation for the older forms of Christianity such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy. (I was raised Protestant) And whatever else you might think about the ideas of the Reformation or the sins of the ancient Church, it is pretty clear that the Protestant Reformation irreversibly shattered the unity of Christianity and unleashed high degrees of religious violence across the face of Europe. And in an similar way, the zeal of some of the Islamic "reformers" has undermined the tolerance which is a basic part of classical Islam (see people of direction) and has led to the creation of less tolerant, non-traditional sectarian groups.

For further exploration of the comparison between orthodox/traditional Islam and Catholicism check out:
protestant islam
more protestant islam
reverse missionaries
the radical middle way
"...being the last one around"