Juan Cole: Is LindJohn's (Lindsay Graham and John McCain) notion of an Enemy Combatant Racist? points out the irony in how members of hate groups can commit acts of violence and Paul Curtis can even attempt to kill the President of the United States without anybody calling for them to be considered an enemy combatant.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
peter king calls on fbi to put him under close surveillance and profile redheads
Juan Cole: Rep. Peter King Calls on FBI to put him under Close Surveillance and Profile Redheads is meant as satire but has more truth in it than King would like.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
game of thrones vs. brave new world
Here's where I'm "at" as a Muslim in regard to homosexuality: I accept the orthodox ruling that homosexual acts are forbidden. (Being straight, this isn't really any sort of special challenge) The Quran and hadith are abundantly clear on this point, more clear than the Bible in fact. For example, Bible-believers who want to argue that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not really about homosexuality actually have some ammunition in passages such as:
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it [Ezekiel 16:49-50]
while in the Quran the men of Sodom are addressed differently saying: "Most surely you come to males in lust besides females; nay you are an extravagant people." [7.81] or again "What! do you indeed approach men lustfully rather than women? Nay, you are a people who act ignorantly." [27.55]
At the same time, I also don't really have much of a visceral reaction ("ick response") to homosexuality either. And much of the time I find "natural law" type arguments unconvincing.
That said, the following thoughts recently occurred to me as a way of framing some of these issues:
Suppose you are in a society where blood is thicker than water and people locate a great part of their identity in their biological families; e.g. Lannister, Stark, Capulet, Montague, Hattfield, McCoy (And many "traditional" stances assume this as an axiom). Then marriages don't just involve the couple getting married but they have political implications for both families (and so "arranged" marriages make a certain amount of sense). Furthermore, one of the important functions of marriage in such an environment is to create concrete natural connections between families through children (a new grandchild, cousin, etc. common to both sides).
But, in a really fundamental way, gay marriage can't play that role. Even when the gay couple "has" children, at least one family, possibly both, aren't getting a new blood relative. (and the child is possibly disconnected from some of its biological relatives). So from a traditional perspective, gay marriage is ultimately incomplete. Instead of being about families being joined, gay marriage is more fundamentally about the sex lives of the individual couple.
To be fair, people's feelings about marriage and family have been changing for a while now in various ways (e.g. towards greater individualism, increasing divorce rates, changing attitudes about adoption, limits on parental rights etc.) which probably has softened the ground for gay marriage. New reproductive technologies have allowed for surrogate mothers, sperm donors, egg donors to all be distinct from "mom" and "dad". Gay marriage is just one more thing bringing us one step closer towards Huxley's Brave New World where biological lineage and reproduction are separated from family and emotional relationships.
Monday, April 01, 2013
a muslim meditation on easter
RNS: Between Good Friday and Easter: A Muslim Meditation on Christ and Resurrection by Omid Safi is an interesting reflection on the Easter holiday. Safi's take on the subject strikes me as surprisingly "Christian". Over the years I've had my own thoughts on the subject, but have tended to put my energies into trying to make sense of the docetism of "they neither killed him, nor crucified him".
see also:
good friday
the cross and the lynching tree
muslim easter hymn
day after day after day
easter memories
Saturday, February 23, 2013
"con los teroristas"
Given the lyrics it was pretty much ineviteble that the meme would "evolve" in this direction:
Harlem Shake (al qaeda edition) is a collection of clips of "terrorist-looking" people moving and dancing to the Harlem Shake song, but doesn't really follow the "rules" of the meme (unlike the other examples). I doubt that the scenes were originally filmed with the intention of making a 'Harlem shake video'.
Harlem Shake (Terrorist Version) and (Terrorist Version 2) seem to be from a Dominican comedy group and features a number of "terrorists" standing in a basement around a "hostage" tied up to a chair.
Harlem Shake (Al Qaeda) - or not features three "terrorists" out in the woods with three "captives" on their knees and I'd guess that it was put together by frat boys. Both of these last two examples are oddly homoerotic but it doesn't seem uncommon for the meme.
Friday, February 22, 2013
the fader explains the harlem shake
The Fader: Explains the Harlem Shake gives a fairly thorough history of the meme's origins.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
tahajjud to end violence and inequality in chicago
In 2012 there were 506 homicides in Chicago, and there have already been 48 homicides in the city this year.
Many of us are heartbroken by these violent deaths, yet we feel helpless and hopeless when it comes to finding a way to prevent them. But there is something that each and every one of us can do: Pray.
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) once said "prayer is the weapon of the believer." Taking this power of prayer seriously, we are asking everyone to commit to make the Tahajjud (night vigil) prayer on the early morning of Thursday, February 21st.
In the Qur'an God has said:
"And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory." Sura Al-'Isra [17:79]
How to pray Tahajjud:
Tahajjud is performed two rakat (cycles) at a time, reciting out loud. This prayer is preferred in the last third of the night (approximately between 2-5am) and can be prayed individually or in a group.
We ask that you petition God to end both violence and inequality. We understand that the violence in Chicago, and in many other cities, does not happen in a vacuum, but that it is fueled by concentrated inequalities from education and policing to healthcare and jobs, problems that especially plague the south and west sides of our city.
What: Tahajjud to End Violence and Inequality in Chicago
When: Thursday, February 21st, 2-5am
Where: Anywhere (including the comfort of your own home)
Who: You!
Many of us are heartbroken by these violent deaths, yet we feel helpless and hopeless when it comes to finding a way to prevent them. But there is something that each and every one of us can do: Pray.
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) once said "prayer is the weapon of the believer." Taking this power of prayer seriously, we are asking everyone to commit to make the Tahajjud (night vigil) prayer on the early morning of Thursday, February 21st.
In the Qur'an God has said:
"And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory." Sura Al-'Isra [17:79]
How to pray Tahajjud:
Tahajjud is performed two rakat (cycles) at a time, reciting out loud. This prayer is preferred in the last third of the night (approximately between 2-5am) and can be prayed individually or in a group.
We ask that you petition God to end both violence and inequality. We understand that the violence in Chicago, and in many other cities, does not happen in a vacuum, but that it is fueled by concentrated inequalities from education and policing to healthcare and jobs, problems that especially plague the south and west sides of our city.
What: Tahajjud to End Violence and Inequality in Chicago
When: Thursday, February 21st, 2-5am
Where: Anywhere (including the comfort of your own home)
Who: You!
For a more general treatment see:
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
happy mawlid!
Hamza Yusuf: If You Don't Like the Mawlid, Watch Out!
Deoband.org: Mawlid, Deoband and Hanafi fiqh
Al-Balagh: Further Question about Milad
Masud: The Mawlid: The Conservative View
Living Islam: Comments on Mufti Taqi Usmani's Fatwa on Mawlid
Friday, January 18, 2013
the grand (hip-hop) chessboard: race, rap and raison d'etat
The Grand (Hip-Hop) Chessboard: Race, Rap and Raison d’État by Hishaam Aidi is a fascinating survey of the ways in which hip-hop (and in another era, jazz) has been a voice of resistance, but has also been used by different governments as a form of "soft power".
the foundations of an american muslim antipoverty movement
This talk was part of an antipoverty conference organized by the Muslim group, United For Change. Clips from other talks are available here.
tons and tons of free left-of-center books
A centralized location for your leftist literature is a huge trove of books from Adorno to Zizek; Dabashi on Islamic Liberation Theology, Said's Orientalism, the new Malcolm X biography by Marable, books on the Panthers, post-modernism and post-pocolonial studies, plenty Fanon, Freire and Foucault, seasoned with heaping doses of Nietzsche and many others. Enjoy.
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