Islam General Archives

April 06, 2010

Class Demographics Explain Better MENA/Muslim Integration in USA?

The Washington Times, not normally a spurting fountain of Muslim-friendly coverage, praises the relatively successful integration of Muslim immigrants in America when compared to that of Europe. (The newsstory mostly concentrates on inter-faith dialogue, but the broader implication of better relative integration (e.g. “melting pot”) in America comes through loud and clear.) While I do enjoy a nice dose of American exceptionalism, and I do think it may apply here in some ways, let me nevertheless throw out a less nationalistic hypothesis on relative integration levels. I am too lazy and busy to find and crunch the appropriate numbers and surveys to confirm or refute it, but here it is: Could some of the relatively better Muslim/MENA integration in America be simply due to the fact that Muslim immigrants there have tended towards the educated professional and middle class, rather than being a large class of laborers as may be the case in lots of Europe?

Continue reading "Class Demographics Explain Better MENA/Muslim Integration in USA?"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:20 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

March 27, 2010

Ongoing Social Vents: Yemen Child Marriage, Saudi Poetess Scolds Muftis, etc.

Molestation Contestation: Yemen Battles Over Child Marriage Laws.

Muftis Get Rapped: Poetess Socks It to the Jeddah Valley PTA. "I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas. . . barbaric, angry and blind, wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt".

Non-Mideast Non-Muslims Riot Over Non-Danish Video Images. But, but, but,only Muslims get violent when imagery of their sacred founder gets offensive, right? Others never do that, at least these days, right? Occasionally elsewhere too though, theatrical performances can also unite a few Muslims and Christians (see last paragraph) in shared death-threat issuance. This must be what is meant by the unifying power of art. . . .

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 23, 2010

Explaining the Day to Day Mechanism of Popular Anti-Coptic Bigotry in Egypt

Blogger Nadia Elawady relates the ordinary day to day practices of shunning and mythologizing that nurture anti-Coptic prejudice among Egypt's Muslims. " I remember befriending Mariam . . . Quickly my [fellow] Muslim friends explained I could not befriend her. She’s Christian, I was told. So what, I asked. In Egypt, it’s not all right, was the answer. By the end of that same year I had heard my Muslim friends say it was yucky to drink out of a cup a Copt had drank from; they explained that the way to identify a Copt was by their odd smell and their oily hair. . . " One can infer from her post that such things are increasing and are pervasive among the more educated classes.

Continue reading "Explaining the Day to Day Mechanism of Popular Anti-Coptic Bigotry in Egypt"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:34 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

March 16, 2010

Guy Fakes Salafism in Yemen & Spills the Hummus on the Goings-On (Real and Imputed)

Not exactly a Black Like Me story, but an American a-religious white guy writer sham-converts (or reverts, if one can do that shamically) to a salafi Islam in Yemen to study the natives and non-natives there, including Americans who go over there for Islamic or Arabic education. One was the guy who shot up the Arkansas military base. Aqoulite Shaheen takes down some of the odder generalizations and assumptions of the sham-converter down below in the comments. (A modern tip of the whig to commenter Antiquated Tory for the link at Global Post.)

Continue reading "Guy Fakes Salafism in Yemen & Spills the Hummus on the Goings-On (Real and Imputed)"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 29, 2009

Sad note for Europe, Swiss Minarets banned

Remarkably petty and bigoted measure, Swiss Vote to Ban New Minarets (NYTimes):

Of 150 mosques or prayer rooms in Switzerland, only 4 have minarets and only 2 more minarets are planned. None conduct the call to prayer.

Close to 90 percent of Muslims in Switzerland are from Kosovo and Turkey and do not adhere to the codes of dress and conduct associated with conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, said Manon Schick, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International in Switzerland.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:54 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

November 12, 2009

Onion on Ft Hood

Nice little entry on Ft. Hood massacre reaction by the indefatigable (whatever that means) Onion.

FORT HOOD, TX—Following Army psychologist Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting rampage on the Fort Hood military base . . . fellow Muslims across the nation sent him a message today, saying "thanks a fucking bunch, asshole," to the 39-year-old killer. "Hey, great, eight years of progress right down the shitter" . . . .

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2009

Egypt - Religious Flexability

New York Times has an interesting article, built around an interview with Gamal al-Banna, brother of the famous Hassan al-Banna... on "diversity" in views being published relative to religious thinking: Hints of Pluralism Begin to Appear in Egyptian Religious Debates .

I am not entirely convinced of the thesis, that with alternative media, a more liberal, flexible face is getting published or read more than in the past. Perhaps, but Gamal al Banna's thinking, as thumbnailed in the arty, strikes me as relatively typical of the sort of thing that the prosperous, confident middle class and elite say in private. Not in public, but in private. Or among intellectuals of whatever social class.

Now, one thing that is most important is the lack of official cover:

It is difficult to say exactly why this is happening. Some of those who have begun to speak up say they are acting in spite of — and not with the encouragement of — the Egyptian government. Political analysts said that the government still tried to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned but tolerated Islamic movement, to present itself as the guardian of conservative Muslim values.

My observation is it's better to not have official encouragement. In general in the MENA region, to have official encouragement in religious areas is almost automatically to going to discredit you. What one does need is simply official forebearance (i.e. not hauling you off to court as an apostate).

Nevertheless, while I have some doubts as to the real current penetration of more liberal approaches to religious thinking (I might call it lifting the dead hand of salafism and returning to real thinking), it is without doubt a real opportunity to have fairly free press and alternatives outlets at least airing ideas.

“Salman Rushdie was less of a disaster than Sayyid al-Qimni,” said Mr. Badri in a television appearance on O TV, an independent Egyptian satellite channel. “Salman Rushdie, everyone attacked him because he destroyed Islam overtly. But Sayyid al-Qimni is attacking Islam and destroying it tactfully, tastefully and politely.”

But this time Mr. Qimni did not go into hiding. He appeared on the television show, sitting beside Sheik Badri.

 Whether the promoters of the ideas will have the street cred to successfully moved forward, well....

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Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

August 09, 2009

The Real Itchin' in Religion: Not the Text, Stupid

Some insightful, as in "I wish I'd said it" commentary, some days back by blogger "Thoreau" at Unqualified Offerings. Adapted below from a lead post and then some later comment by him, he notes in passing some things of direct relevance to those who look at issues of religion and violence and traditionalism, etc. specifically as regards the largely Muslim Middle East and the alleged Muslim requirement to go forth and jihadify. In sum, the idea that people are driven, or even set their norms, by some robotic response to purported permanent religious injunctions in the sacred writ is non-real world, i.e. not religion as actually practiced by real people anywhere. (And to add to his commentary, I would note that most sincere religious observance/piety/consciousness in people tends to proceed from the poetic part of the individual human character as well as the social and cultural.) His discussion started with the tension alleged between religion and science; see below the break here for fuller quote.

Continue reading "The Real Itchin' in Religion: Not the Text, Stupid"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:56 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 06, 2009

Obama Talking to Just Arabs/Iran/MENA?

So says the Jakarta Post. That's in Indonesia. Jakarta, that is, not the Post. Well, the Post too but there are Posts everywhere.

At least three - democracy promotion, religious freedom and women's rights - of his seven points are more relevant to a region who's [sic] governments are bastions of despotism than [to] the average Indonesian,. . . . for the majority of Indonesians - Muslim or otherwise - these three issues are fundamental ways of life already held dear. . . Not surprisingly Indonesia's most eminent Muslim thinkers were products of Western scholarship, not Al-Azhar or Arab Universities . . ..But in Cairo he put an Arabic frame on a cultural dialog which most Muslims may not relate to.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 07, 2009

Muslim Defiant Piousness Cures Swine Flu

Videos like this one really irritate me.

In fact, the whole Muslim obsession with prayers or the length of women clothing gets on my nerves, particularly when actual issues are overlooked.

Quick notes to my fellow Muslims:

Continue reading "Muslim Defiant Piousness Cures Swine Flu"

Posted by Iskandar Haddad at 01:22 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

April 12, 2009

Reading Race in MENA: Black Imam of Mecca and American reads

While not a terrible article, the New York Times coverage of the new 'black' Imam in Mecca is subtly irritating for its facile American centric lens. A Black Imam Breaks Ground in Mecca - Biography - NYTimes.com
It's easy to be rather too nitpickily peevish about such things, but nevertheless a bit better context should have been easy to achieve here:

Officially, it was his skill at reciting the Koran that won him the position, which he carries out — like the Grand Mosque’s eight other prayer leaders — only during the holy month of Ramadan. But the racial significance of the king’s gesture was unmistakable.

Sheik Adil, like most Saudis, is quick to caution that any racism here is not the fault of Islam, which preaches egalitarianism. The Prophet Muhammad himself, who founded the religion here 1,400 years ago, had black companions. [Lounsbury: Ahem such as a certain Bilal...]

“Our Islamic history has so many famous black people,” said the imam, as he sat leaning his arm on a cushion in the reception room of his home. “It is not like the West.”

It is also true that Saudi Arabia is far more ethnically diverse than most Westerners realize. Saudis with Malaysian or African features are a common sight along the kingdom’s west coast, the descendants of pilgrims who came here over the centuries and ended up staying. Many have prospered and even attained high positions through links to the royal family. Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, is the son of Prince Sultan and a dark-skinned concubine from southern Saudi Arabia.

But slavery was practiced here too, and was abolished only in 1962. Many traditional Arabs from Nejd, the central Saudi heartland, used to refer to all outsiders as “tarsh al bahr” — vomit from the sea. People of African descent still face some discrimination, as do most immigrants, even from other Arab countries. Many Saudis complain that the kingdom is still far too dominated by Nejd, the homeland of the royal family. There are nonracial forms of discrimination too, and many Shiite Muslims, a substantial minority, say they are not treated fairly.

Emphasis added.

While I would be the last to deny colour prejudice is present in the region - MENA, the Gulf, Mashriq, Maghrib - the highlighted part really is myopically American, tying explicitly colour and slavery into an automatic association. That certainly was not the case for most of Islamic history, and seeing the Nejdi prejudices as primarily or even essentially racial strikes me as rather misunderstanding Saudi society (or Gulfie society) via the eyes of American cultural norms.

The colour prejudice is there, but given slavery was except its last decades perhaps, never colour exclusive (although one should not forget that towards the end, the low-end slavery was more or less exclusively African), it is hardly the sole driver, and the profound prejudices against outsiders, including pale Lebs for example, is much more that of a parochial tribal society than the implied counterpart to American or even old European colour prejudice as such.

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Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:52 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 23, 2009

Sullivan & Overheated Blithering on about Dubai (Dhimmitude to ban nakedness.... really)

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (March 23, 2009) - Dhimmitude In Dubai

Dhimmitude In Dubai

The joys of theocracy, even in an international city-state whose population is 80 percent foreign:

Reading Andrew Sullivan's blog in between tracking financial sector meltdown and scheming to keep my little empire going, I ran across this absurdly overheated characterisation of the new rules for Dubai's vast commercial waste lands.

As I wrote in an email to him, this is absurd bollocks as an over-reaction.

Continue reading "Sullivan & Overheated Blithering on about Dubai (Dhimmitude to ban nakedness.... really)"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:12 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 19, 2008

House Niggers: Obama, Race & MENA

First, for regular 'Aqoul readers and contributors, my apologies for the ongoing absence. Think of it as a recharge period. Frankly there has not been much interesting for me to say (that I can say, given most of the most interesting things I would comment on have been rather too 'sensitive' for me).

Second, today's Al Qaeda media event - Ayman az-Zaouahiri's fine little exposition of unconscious (or perhaps not so unconscious) Egyptian and Arab racism in describing Obama as a Abid el Beit, a house slave, using a word (Abd/Abid) that in the East has somewhat nasty overtones in dialectal (versus classical/formal) usage.

I refrained from writing anything on Obama during the election as I rather thought that there was nothing much to add. I suppose this is a moment to add that the reaction across the board to Obama's election was ecstatic, including among the Arab financial professionals I have the most contact with. I should perhaps put up some more personal observations if that seems interesting on the Lounsbury pages, but none of this is terribly surprising (and unfortunately professional obligations prevent me from sharing the best and most revealing reactions, although I should say that I was stunned to discover that the illiterate grandmother of my cousins not only following the
US elections but asking her children for updates on US elections eve and day).

However, the Zaouahiri demarche is interesting to comment on and discuss. The use of a fairly racially charged phrase I found rather interesting.

Continue reading "House Niggers: Obama, Race & MENA"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:39 PM | Comments (17) | TrackBack

September 08, 2008

On Hidjabs, Sexy or Not (encore), public sexualities etc.

One of our comment leavers drew my attention to this arty by a certain Naomi Wolf, pubished in Egypt in this instance, on questioning typical Western reactions to the Hidjab and the Chador / Burqa...

An interesting article - at first I had this Naomi Wolf confused with the Canadian Leftist git of not terribly similar name, except first - and I think I would largely agree, although it perhaps too readily excuses some items.

Further comment later, must off to meeting go.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:47 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Ban Ramadan, and.... Chinese policy & its Muslim Minority.

Banning observance of Ramadan, hardly strikes me as intelligent reaction on part of CP China to Uigher seperatism, indeed it strikes me as precisely the sort of thing that will backfire.

But I am not a China hand, so must treat carefully. However, the most basic Muslim feelings on Ramadan are fairly intense. However lax observance among Turkic folks I have seen has been, the importance theoretically has always been affirmed.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:36 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

August 02, 2008

Random Thoughts on Quranism

An interesting Internet phenomenon that was not brought here on Aqoul as far as I know is the Qurani branch of Islam.

The axiom underlying this branch’s approach to Islam is the rejection of Hadiths. To make it simple for the non Muslims out there, Sunnis consider two main textual sources for Islam: The Quran, and the Hadiths (The Shias also have the same kind of sources, except they disagree on which Hadiths are authoritative – but I will leave Shias to those who actually know the topic). The Hadiths are those sayings and traditions attributed to the prophet, compiled two to three centuries after his death.

The rejection of the Hadiths is not something new. Long before Quranis (or Quran-Aloners) began having more echo, many Sunnis engaged in a selective rejection of Hadiths traditionally classified as authentic. Those are not conservative Sunnis usually, but few went as far as claiming a complete schism from the mainstream Sunni understanding of Islam.

Continue reading "Random Thoughts on Quranism"

Posted by Iskandar Haddad at 05:37 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack

August 01, 2008

His Hair Was Perfect: Werewolves of Gaza

(Apologies to the late Mr Zevon.) Turkey's so deeply meaningful war over hatwear nearly overthrew the government, and apparently its recent being sent to its room without supper is causing the AKP to temporarily write off the struggle, um, whole cloth. But those profound Turkish wars of meaning over hatwear give way to Gaza, where the struggle over the true hair of steadfastness has reached crisis proportions. It appears that Hamas is now shaving the moustaches off Fatah activists, in retaliation for the jackbooted debearding of Hamas loyalists by Fatah. An ominous development for a society already beset by settlers wielding sidecurls in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on Treatment of Follicles. Is history so soon forgotten, or are they just returning to their roots? Is it not time to get more bangs for the buck, and yes, rogaine one's freedom? And didn't Munich teach that even a small moustache needs to be stopped early? Turkey has stopped hair-covering, but hair itself remains appeased. Can anyone not see the civilization at stake in all this? What coiffure-textile combination do you feel best reflects optimal social values? Or is this person the secret key to global harmony?

Continue reading "His Hair Was Perfect: Werewolves of Gaza"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 12, 2008

France, Islam & Integration

As brought up in the open thread, a strange court case coming out Fransa: France rejects Muslim woman over radical practice of Islam, worthy of a moment of reflexion.

The headliner is

France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa on the grounds that her "radical" practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

although deeper in the article one may be able to pull out something more fundamental (or perhaps better put, reasonable, than her choice of clothing as the basis of the citizenship denial, notably lack of integration and mastery of French society.

Of no great surprise, the woman did not wear the Saudi style ninja costume in her native Morocco; apparently imposed by her husband in France. Without having further information, one would suspect a family arranged marriage of a country girl to a cousin or contact in France who's gone reactionary in France.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:21 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

June 22, 2008

Islamic Finance Bubble

A quick note, prompted by a very decent set of audio-visual summaries at FT on Islamic Finance, and a note within the presentation that the Islamic Finance industry has not been effected to date by the global credit crunch (although noting exposure to Gulf Real Estate).

It strikes me that as impressive as the growth has been in the past seven years, it corresponds rather precisely with the big Gulf boom driven by hydrocarbon prices. There is much loose talk of huge new Muslim markets, counting up the global number of Muslims - African, Asian, etc. - as potential market numbers (see the articles here). This, like your average "MENA" but really Gulf Fund, playing with regional numbers to inflate potential is utter bollocks. Much boosterism comes from the Gulf, and more from City bankers with a thin understanding of the variations in the Islamic world and the extent to which poorer markets with more liberal approaches to Islam are going to be genuinely willing to pay a premium for services (or be exposed to more risk - although that is more likely to be disguised). Perhaps worth a further discussion, but it strikes me that Islamic finance growth right now is intimiately and almost uniquely driven by asset inflation in the Gulf, that makes everything look attractive.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:18 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 07, 2008

News you can't choose: Items of interest

From our newsroom, discussion of a news clip (and I do mean clip) on FGM support in Egypt.

I think the foreign intelligence hinted at by inside "sources" in latest stories is the other I-word (see other stories from a few years back), and not Iran, as is being assumed.

Humankind's vital war on disliked headgear and neckwear continues as Ataturkville's high court tells girls to take it off, take it all off, since a girl or woman has a right to the integrity of her body (see FGM), except when putting a cloth on her head.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 01, 2008

Martyr, She Wrote: Zawahari Slammed For Males-Only Al-Qaeda

Hell hath no fury as a wannabe mujahedah scorned, it seems. Ayman al-Zawahari's comments, that al Qaeda cannot accept female fighters, has alot of pro-al Qaeda women's abayas in a wad. Websites are full of anger over his suggestions that they should be stay-at-home moms, merely nurturing, raising and feeding the next generation of pointless mass murderers. (I don't know if Rosie the Riveter or Zenobia or Xena, Warrior Princess would approve either side in that debate.) Via Thoreau at Henley.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack

April 23, 2008

Another Good Conspiracy Theory Down the Drain

Al Qaeda says an Israeli conspiracy didn't do 9/11. And, it adds, Iran started the Israel conspiracy rumor. Is that itself a conspiracy rumor?

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:43 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

March 07, 2008

Saudi Arapia? Hib-hob from the Land of the 2Moskz

Over at the Washington Post, Faiza Ambah tells the tale of a Saudi hip-hop crew who dream of stardom and self-expression. Unfortunately, their Saudi parents and kinfolk are not so enamoured of these kids now performing a real-life version -- allowing for musical genre differences -- of the movie Dirty Dancing (whose own star is, incidentally and sadly, fighting for his real life).

But even as they rap in praise of Islam and their mothers, and against the war in Iraq and terrorism, their biggest hurdle has been convincing family, friends and Saudi society that they are not simply trying to imitate a decadent Western lifestyle.

Continue reading "Saudi Arapia? Hib-hob from the Land of the 2Moskz"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 25, 2008

Selling Islam

How can your business make money off the religious? The Lounsbury has already covered Islamic finance, so I'm not going to comment further about that. You could create an Islamic car. Turns out it is as simple as adding a compass (to point to Mecca) and ensuring the glove compartment is roomy (so that you can put in a Quran and headscarf). Other people are talking about setting up a Muslim airline. Features included halal food and gender-segregated seating.

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Posted by dubaiwalla at 12:00 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

December 02, 2007

Prediction: Teddy Bear Thing Started As Spite

This sentence is in one story: "The row erupted after a secretary at the school complained to the Sudanese authorities about the naming of the bear." I cannot find it but somewhere I came across a reference to the Teddy Bear Teacher as having apologized to a faculty member who was offended. Prediction: this will turn out to have started as a spite attack by someone in the school staff who, for whatever reason, did not personally like that teacher and found an issue to attack her on that would get the dopey and the offenderati riled up. Could be wrong here, but the spidey senses are starting to tingle as this kind of information trickles in.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 29, 2007

To Myrtus: On Women's Headgear

I've had a courteous but frank exchange of views with the anglophone Dutch-Moroccan blogger Myrtus on the small matter of women's headgear. I responded to an article of hers, in which she had in turn responded to a comment of mine. You'll find my response below, after some courteous - what else? - prompting from another equally courteous blogger.

Since that post was written, Laila Lalami has published a very good piece on the headscarf issue in France for the Nation, and I cannot refrain from citing her last lines:

The foulard in France, therefore, is nothing more than a fig leaf; however long one stares at it, the eye will eventually have to face the nakedness of racism and discrimination.

To paraphrase another French philosopher: I do not approve of the headscarf, but I will defend to the death the right of women to wear it

Hear, hear.

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Posted by Ibn Kafka at 06:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 24, 2007

Not in my name

This short entry to denounce the recent verdict againt a victim of rape in Saudi Arabia. Ibn Kafka also has an excellent post about this (in French).

Saudi Arabia claims that it applies Islamic law. In doing so, this medieval country is tarnishing - again - my identity as an Arab and as a Muslim.

If you are like me, sick and tired of this Tartuffesque regime, let it be known how much you want it to change. Not to the equally retarded bigots, but to their influential friends.

Posted by Iskandar Haddad at 06:09 PM | Comments (30) | TrackBack

November 10, 2007

Infidel Review: Packaged Phobias

Yes, in in breaking news, the long-awaited mysterious review of Hirsi Magan/Ali has been sighted.

It is perhaps not off to share as well, The Financial Times very able critical review of a related genre of Islamophobic literature, that of the statistically illiterate "Eurabia" genre to which in many ways Hirsi Magan/Ali belongs.

Continue reading "Infidel Review: Packaged Phobias"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:45 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

October 21, 2007

Real Fascism Awareness Week: DC-area Holocaust Commemoration

Sunday October 28 from 6 to 8 pm in Sterling, Virginia, near Washington DC, a rather nice event for those interested and local. The All Dulles Area Muslim Society is organizing a presentation featuring a Holocaust survivor, called, perhaps unsurprisingly: Reflections on The Holocaust: A Story of a Holocaust Survivor, and designed for "all of Humanity to Remember and Learn the Lessons of the Holocaust." More info below.

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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 11, 2007

Ayaan Hirsi Ali proves that even stupidity is dangerous

Today I was mulling over how the average person might view Ayaan Hirsi Ali based on the image she has cultivated for herself. A commenter on Brian Whitaker's blog captured this perception quite well:

Below is a segment from an colunm written a couple of days ago by Sam Harris & Salman Rushdie. It from the LA Times.

"Hirsi Ali was immediately forced into hiding and moved from safe house to safe house, sometimes more than once a day, for months. Eventually, her security concerns drove her from the Netherlands altogether. She returned to the U.S., and the Dutch government has been paying for her protection here -- that is, until it suddenly announced last week that it would no longer protect her outside the Netherlands, thereby advertising her vulnerability to the world.

Hirsi Ali may be the first refugee from Western Europe since the Holocaust. As such, she is a unique and indispensable witness to both the strength and weakness of the West: to the splendor of open society and to the boundless energy of its antagonists. She knows the challenges we face in our struggle to contain the misogyny and religious fanaticism of the Muslim world, and she lives with the consequences of our failure each day. There is no one in a better position to remind us that tolerance of intolerance is cowardice."

Try telling Ayaan Hirsi Ali that Islam Is not fascism.

There are two problems here. One is that (ill-informed) people apply the actions of a few murderous whackjobs to an entire religion. The second is that Ayaan Hirsi Ali actively encourages this misconception by making grossly uneducated assertions about Islamic tenets/beliefs, which are then lapped up by people who don't know any better.

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Posted by eerie at 08:14 AM | Comments (58) | TrackBack

September 07, 2007

Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day

Osama bin-Laden on Sept. 7 2007* -- "19 young men were able, by the grace of [God], the Most High, to change the direction of [America's] compass."

Osama bin-Laden on, um, Sept 7, 2007 -- "burning living beings is forbidden by our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of men?"

In addition to terrorist, criminal, fanatic, and other filth-and-foul words, we can now add "what a fatuous dick".

Continue reading "Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

F**kin' Alif, Dude! Arabic School Opens in Brooklyn

The Khalil Gibran International Academy school has opened in New York, part of the public education system. Being a wacko libertarian, I have my reservations even about public schooling as a general concept, but allowing it to be a virtue and necessity, still what advantage is it to have a specialized school devoted to Arabic culture and language for kids in Brooklyn USA? Folks, there does exist a private education option for establishing such things, if felt needed. This has a Euro feel of separateness to it, combined with the related US cult of the Great God Diversity. But I thought we yanks had passed on the "separate but equal" thing in public schools. Naturally, of course, the Daniel Pipes squadrons of haters-of-all-things-even-appearing-Muslimish-and-socially-acceptable made an unbelievably laughably weird xenophobic stink over it (Pipes: "learning Arabic in-and-of-itself promotes an Islamic outlook"). They even got the first chosen principal fired for correctly explaining that intifada in Arabic means a shaking-off, thereby apparently establishing that a school that teaches the Arabic language should most definitely not teach it accurately.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:47 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

August 25, 2007

Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place

I must say something nice about the Washington Times, which normally has MENA-related fare along the lines of FoxNews and this type of swill. I saw this story a short time back of a travel-writer's visit to Syria in the dead-wood version, but not online. Now I see it is online. Amazingly, the writer actually seems to have taken note of the place and reported it and experienced what normal travelers there would notice, although one might find it too saccharine for its non-comments on the ubiquitous Leader & Family photos, or the pervasive poverty. Still, entitled sincerely and without guile The Kindness of Syrians, it is well done and refreshingly rooted in relevant reality; excerpts for you link-avoiders below the break. (Elsewhere on deeper questions of wealth and poverty, AbuFares has this to say; more on that at another time. Now back to the W. Times.)

Continue reading "Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 05, 2007

Honor Off Her: Fadlallah Fatwas Honor-Killing Out of {Shia} Islam

The practice of hyperpatriarchal societies of murdering suspect sexually-impure females, known as honor killing, and prevalent in the MENA region, in the ME far more than the NA parts, has been ruled unIslamic by Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah, Lebanon's leading Shiite Muslim figure. (This has appears to me a bit underreported, though to their semi-credit the story is noted by the creepshow bigots at Jihadwatch who then go on to argue that a fatwa against honor killings isn't really a fatwa against honor killings, because well, you know, it, um, well , it, anyway it makes sense to ignorant hate-spewers who claim to "get it" about Muslims, unlike us poor "dhimmis".) The fatwa, as some coverage notes but others in comments report differently, is not replicated much in Sunni circles to date. An analogy may be to southern American Christians who accomodated race-segregation even when some religious were not in favor, out of fear of public prejudice in favor of the practice. In any event, the fatwa's a cool thing, and it did not require the efforts of Irshad Manji. As far as I can tell, no comment by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on this, possibly because it doesn't compute?

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:48 PM | Comments (37) | TrackBack

July 19, 2007

The Muslim Sartorialist

Ever heard of the Sartorialist? It's basically a photo blog done by a guy with a keen eye for fashion. He photographs people in trendy European and North American cities and adds little blurbs about why he thinks the outfits are interesting.

Now, I've always taken note of fashionable Muslim girls around me. They are masters of layering, texture and coordination. Whether it's at the mall, a pretentious cafe or even my gym (where one stylish muhajabat routinely schools me on the treadmill), these ladies are not held back by their headscarves. Unfortunately, most of the photos you find on news sites are of women wearing frumpy hijabs, dowdy overcoats and ominous-looking ninja getups (as Lounsbury likes to call them). Western media is inundated with photos of shapeless baby-blue Afghan burkas and Saudi niqabs, so it's hardly surprising that most non-Muslims think this style of dress is ubiquitous.

Continue reading "The Muslim Sartorialist"

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July 12, 2007

Tunisia & Women's Rights: Real Developments?

I turn this issue over to a better-informed readership. A Globalist article argues that Tunisia provides a real regional model for a legislative and public policy system that would protect the rights and hopes of women in home and professional life, and do so consistent with religious sentiment and scholarship. "What really sets Tunisia apart from other Arab countries and most majority-Muslim states," Andrea Barron writes, "are its policies on marriage, divorce, child support, abortion, honor crimes and domestic violence. After all, what does it matter if a woman can attend university, own her own business and run for political office if she cannot choose her own husband and be free from violence perpetrated by her own family members?" So, are the benefits in Tunisian women's legal rights genuinely real; if so, have they been a cause or the effect of social changes? And where does the, ahem, not quite freedom-loving/democratic nature of the Ben Ali government fit in to all this, if at all?

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:21 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

July 07, 2007

Trinity & Religious Debate: It Ain't Just A River in Texas

Folks, this one is an academic discussion for those not negatively oriented towards religiosity, religious dialogue and esoterica. Save your "it's all superstition" comments for Hit & Run. It comes from personal observation of sorts, especially when a translator I needed argued that Allah should not be translated as God because the word "God" in English suggests a "triune deity". I don't want to get into the Allah=god question, here; instead this brought out something I have detected when discussing religions academically with Muslims: Muslims' vast overrestimation of the Trinity in ordinary Christian consciousness (as opposed to doctrine). Without endorsing all what I read here, the author notes that in Christian-Muslim polemic "Christians are usually keener to debate other topics; and we [Muslims] tend to conclude that this is because they themselves are uncomfortable with aspects of their Trinitarian theology." He conveys his impression that is not necessarily the case and to the extent he does I think that is correct.

Continue reading "Trinity & Religious Debate: It Ain't Just A River in Texas"

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July 03, 2007

UK Muslims & Reaction: A voice of reason and not whinging victimhood

Very briefly given limited time, I draw attention to a very good arty by Asim Siddiqui in The Guardian that very properly takes on the mealy mouthed response and whinging victimhood whining of rather too much of the UK Muslim community (and professional Muslim activists - of course I am generally contemptuous of activists as a general matter). [Added: I would also recommend this: My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror]

Some particular highlights that I think key:

The events of the last few days have been sobering for us all. The response from some UK Muslim groups (influenced by Islamist thinking) is still largely to blame foreign policy (undoubtedly an exacerbating influence but not the cause), rather than marching "not in my name" in revulsion against terrorist acts committed in Islam's name. By blaming foreign policy they try to divert pressure off themselves from the real need to tackle extremism being peddled within. Diverting attention away from the problems within Muslim communities and blaming others - especially the west - is always more popular than the difficult task of self-scrutiny. ... so long as the world is presented as one where the west is forever at war with Islam and Muslims there is nothing we can do to appease the terrorists and those who share their world view. Instead it is this extremist world view that must change.

Continue reading "UK Muslims & Reaction: A voice of reason and not whinging victimhood"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:34 PM | Comments (88) | TrackBack

June 24, 2007

Foregoing their Commission? Saudi Virtue/Vice Cops on Trial

D'apres this Washington Post story, it seems that the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the morality cops, are on trial. Some of Saudi's finest face charges for brutality, including killing, of suspects detained for, I don't know, flirting, willful shimmying, being within six meters of unbearded non-familial genitals, or whatever it is they arrest folks for. But whatever may be the foibles and popularity of enforcement of extremely conservative mores, there does seem to be a popular line in the sand (MENA stereotype imagery, sorry) being drawn against arbitrariness and in favor of due process. Procedural due process is a good thing in itself. {Note to the over-self-righteous: Of course, (adopting superior cultural tone here), we never have such things here as "vice squads", general alcohol bans, or police killing old ladies in places where consenting informed adults are merely alleged to be consuming or distributing a vice-inducing product.}

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:20 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 18, 2007

Ayaan Anti-Hirsute Ali: Son of Deuteronomy of Gath

Monty Python's Life of Brian meets real life as this woman gets to speak in public as if she knows what she is talking about. Saracen-slayer Ayaan Hirsi Ali was speaking at the National Press Club and I accidentally heard it on the radio. At first I didn't know who it was until a stream of simple-minded inanities about Islam versus the West narrowed it down fast. No transcript available, only memory, but I had to belly-laugh and nearly spew as she explained Islam's rigidly came from the fact that it takes its Scriptures as literal and divinely authored unlike, um, Christianity. In the Christian Scriptures, she explained, the books are not fixed as being written by God, but are said to be written "by people . . . like Paul . . . and Deuteronomy." (That's exactly what I heard, folks.) What an expert guide for us on religion and progress! O, why did I have to be a Monty Python fan?

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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:30 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

June 16, 2007

Gaza Stripped: Two Demi-Quasi-States, One People

It appears the folks who rather justly complain of having no country, now appear to have two. Well, three, if you count the old Likudnik view of Jordan. Or in the negative numbers, if reality functions as a point of reference.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:59 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack

June 02, 2007

Skool's out

At a time when the interpretation of Islam is a key issue worldwide, this seems a strange and even worrying development:

ABU DHABI — Applicants for the posts of imams and muazzens in the mosques across the country will be exempted from the requirement of academic qualifications in Shariah and Islamic Studies if they are found to have memorised the Holy Quran.

The Authority issued the decision after discovering that many applicants for these posts in the mosques do not have degrees in Islamic Studies and Shariah but have memorised all the chapters of the holy book, Dr Mohammed Matter Al Kaabi, Director General of the Authority told Khaleej Times.

Surely a more sensible approach would be to run some kind of training or diploma course for those without degrees? Memorising a text does not make one a scholar of it. I could memorise the Quran, given enough time and a Romanised transliteration, but I still wouldn't understand a word of it.

Posted by secretdubai at 05:15 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 28, 2007

Sexy Abaya Fashion & Breathless American Journos

While not entirely terrible, the Washington Post arty For Cloaked Saudi Women, Color Is the New Black - indeed in some ways quite an interesting piece on new Abaya fashion - was moderately annoying. I suppose it's from the Saudi-centered vision (of course it is an arty about KSA, but given my experience that much of the non-Islamic world takes KSA as if it were the standard...)

Of course it does raise fond images of sexy Abaya fashion as seen outside KSA. Never mind the baroqueness of Maghrebine Caftans...

Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:18 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

May 23, 2007

Keep your Sunni side up: Lebanon conspiracy theory #637

Seymour Hersh propounds this conspiracy theory of sorts regarding the rise of Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon. I don't buy it offhand, but there's plausibility in a Saudi role in promoting Sunni anti-Shiite counterweights, with US winks and nods. Any takers?

What I was writing about was sort of a private agreement that was made between the White House, we're talking about Richard -- Dick -- Cheney and Elliott Abrams, one of the key aides in the White House, with Bandar. And the idea was to get support, covert support from the Saudis, to support various hard-line jihadists, Sunni groups, particularly in Lebanon, who would be seen in case of an actual confrontation with Hezbollah -- the Shia group in the southern Lebanon -- would be seen as an asset, as simple as that....There is a supreme overwhelming fear of Hezbollah and we do not want Hezbollah to play an active role in the government in Lebanon and that's been our policy, basically....

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:23 PM | Comments (42) | TrackBack

The never ending list of new bans in Islamic finance

Before I mention this amusing theoretical case of a usurious zero interest rate, a few comments about today’s FT Alphaville’s entry on Islamic finance:

Islamic finance - based on a strict interpretation of the Koran that bans the use of interest in transactions

Usury. The Quran bans usury. What the Quran explicitly bans isn’t the topic of the Islamic finance debate. It’s whether any amount of interest constitutes usury.

Concepts such as derivatives and hedge funds, for example, are considered particularly controversial, given the Koran’s ban on gharar (speculation).

Ben Smith, the author of this entry really needs to get his info outside Tora Bora, because there’s no such ban whatsoever in the Quran. The discussion about gharar comes from some hardly known jurisprudence, and it's not even a prohibition. Even the obscure ramblings of those yawn provoking troglodytes have a more nuanced (well, confused) view on it than the one presented above.

Continue reading "The never ending list of new bans in Islamic finance"

Posted by Iskandar Haddad at 12:31 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

April 26, 2007

Finance 101 for Muslims

It is sad to say this, but finance is to today’s Muslims what medicine or astronomy was to medieval Europeans. I’m so sick of coming across people condemning themselves to poverty because they decided to follow the widespread confusion promoted by ulemas who are criminally ignorant about finance and even about traditional Islamic jurisprudence itself. So here, I decided to write this intro to finance in the hope that it will enlighten at least some of the Muslims who are hesitant when it comes to dealing with interests.

I’ll try to make it as simple as possible and will avoid circus monkeys jargon, sometimes even overly simplifying for clarity’s sake. It’s for lay people, so finance geeks look away, or your eyes are going to hurt. This is very long, so here are the sections:

I The law of gravity: supply and demand
II Money’s just an asset
III The time value of money
IV Risk
V Putting it together: interest rates
VI You do want that loan: why borrowing is necessary
VII The fallacies behind Islamic finance
VIII Islamic jurisprudence and the case of the last Caliphate
IX Pass it on

Continue reading "Finance 101 for Muslims"

Posted by Iskandar Haddad at 03:12 AM | Comments (29) | TrackBack

February 18, 2007

Eunuchs & Islam, or Andrew Sullivan's Gullibility

Possibly alone among my fellow authors, I have a soft-spot for the moderately incoherent Andrew Sullivan, despite his fundamental gullibility and superficiality so common to editorialists, illiteracy in science and economics, and tendency to dip into the well of accidental bigotry with respect to race and non-Western things. His general philosophy is close enough to my own that I generally read around the inanities.

Today, in amusing myself reading the blog I stumbled across this in which in typical editorialist fashion he regurgitates some utterly idiotic bigotry from a reader, without bothering to fact check, who claimed:

The Koranic reference to "slaves not attracted to women" is not meant to be interpreted as gay people, but rather to eunuchs. Just another traditional practice from the folks who brought us 9/11.

Charming. Even more charming that he quotes it as a "correction" to his almost as rubbish-quality "reflecting" on Arab sexuality and women.

Continue reading "Eunuchs & Islam, or Andrew Sullivan's Gullibility"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:29 AM | Comments (72) | TrackBack

January 18, 2007

Allah v. God v. G-d v. YHWH v. The LORD

On Lounsbury's journal, a debate I will now hijack has been going on. That debate suggests a more basic underlying religious vocabulary dilemma that goes back decades at least: the selection by many Muslims to use "Allah " instead of "God" when discoursing religion in English. I personally oppose it but as I am not Muslim I have no direct stake in the underlying religious taboos, if any. But I do find it linguistically annoying and highly misleading, for reasons addressed further on.

Update: Courtesy of commenter Dawud is this Islamic scholarly explanation of why the term "God" is a halal one for "Allah".

Continue reading "Allah v. God v. G-d v. YHWH v. The LORD"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:22 PM | Comments (75) | TrackBack

January 02, 2007

Eid 'Em & Weep: Was Saddam's Death-Timing Sectarian?

Nir Rosen suggests that the timing of Saddam's death on the Sunni Eid was a sectarian message: as there are no lawful executions on Eid, therefore legally the true Iraqi Eid must be the Shiite one. Is there any merit to this implication, O informed readers? Was it clearly a gottersaddamerung message for the Sunni side of the street? A look and listen at the lynch-mobbish hanging of Saddam (sensitive readers, don't go there) suggests a very sectarian sendoff. Faithful Aqoulite MSK has helpfully made note in comments of one blog and one NY Times account.

Continue reading "Eid 'Em & Weep: Was Saddam's Death-Timing Sectarian?"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:43 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

December 30, 2006

Eid Mubarek and Economics

On the occasion of wishing, to the extent I am capable of such, readers Happy Holidays, Eid Mubarek and similar canned sentiments, a quick suggestion.

For the Islamic world, the Eid is a great time to reflect on the current inefficiencies in the markets, on why one can't do haouli forward contracts for an Eid delivery on a sheep, and generally on how consumption spikes in MENA reveal failures in the subsidies systems.

You might take time to reflect if an Islamic MBA would help introduce such ideas into conservatives venues, or ask what private investment may actually be doing. Regardless, the region is tipping on the edge of catastrophe due to the Americans' incompetence, but I remain hopefull that other trends, like massive amounts of capital and investment will tide things over.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 29, 2006

Something is rotten in the state of Islamist politics

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is one of the two most prominent leaders in Sunni Islam. He might not have the stature of the pope, but when he speaks, people listen. So what does he think is the chief objective of every Muslim?

Could it be:

1. Being a good person, and living in harmony with one's neighbors?


2. Following the five pillars of Islam?


3. Defending Prophet Mohammed against slanderous attacks by enemies of Islam?

If you correctly guessed C, you win nothing - the first two would not have merited a mention here.

Continue reading "Something is rotten in the state of Islamist politics"

Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 10:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 26, 2006

Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide

Since I'm sick and daytime television is unbearable, thought I might write a bit about the emerging controversy around Sheikh Hilali, an Australian imam who recently made some rather provocative observations about women during a speech on marital relations and adultery.

The story is splattered across the front page of The Australian, which offers an mp3 version of the speech, along with an edited English transcript (which I'm sure only captures the boring parts).

Currently, the primary media hook seems to be that Hilali compared unveiled women to meat that gets snatched up by cats because it is left outside, uncovered. This is clearly drawn from the one-page English transcript noted above, which contains little substance save for the frankly bizarre and crude remarks about cats, meat and fridges (and some gratuitous mudslinging at People of the Book).

Continue reading "Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide"

Posted by eerie at 11:45 AM | Comments (33) | TrackBack

October 16, 2006

Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2

Today I got the giggles.

We chose a small makeshift mosque that was close by as the big neighbourhood one was too far to walk after a long day and so we made our way to the small one round the corner. It was tiny, barely holding a hundred people and the women's section held barely a third of that number. The moment I walked in and saw that there was a curtain, a CURTAIN, separating the male and female section, all the piety I had managed to muster evaporated as all I could think of was that the billowing curtain might be blown high enough to expose the two worlds. There would be havoc.

As we began to pray an old woman a couple of feet away from me began whispering visciously in my direction. Alarmed slightly I edged away from her but this only seemed to infuriate her further. After a few more ignored hisses, she grabbed me by my cloak and dragged me in one surprisingly firm move towards her. As I staggered in alarm my mother looked at me barely surpressing a laugh and whispered "You were too far away from her, there shouldn't be any gaps between worshippers." This I knew but had never witnessed it so dedicatedly implemented. I managed to regain my composure and keep praying, bemused by the small, bent octogenarian's strength.

Continue reading "Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2"

Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 09:10 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

October 14, 2006

Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati

Last week, a devout Muslim friend and I had another productive talk about the state of Muslim-West relations over lunch. Actually, it wasn't lunch per se, more a stroll through the local bookstore as she was fasting and I was not.

I really don't know why she likes me. Perhaps she is trying to draw me back into the fold as it were, but I enjoy her company and find her observations astute and refreshing (as an aside, I am always amused when women view me as a "project", someone who needs to become more social, outgoing, faithful, less eccentric, etc).

In any case, the Muhajabah, while strolling through my favorite corner of the bookstore (World History/International Political Science, obviously), made an observation that recalled recent discussion of "Professional Offenderati" here on Aqoul:

"Do you think these wild-eyed types in Pakistan call their bosses to ask for the afternoon off because they need to throw things at the US embassy and burn the Pope in effigy?"

Continue reading "Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati"

Posted by eerie at 04:38 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

October 09, 2006

Tarawih in the Kingdom

I stepped into the women's section of the neighbourhood mosque, my mother by my side and the imam's quranic recitations booming in my ears. The praying area was on the upper floor of the mosque, ornate, sweet-smelling and half full by the time we got there. The imam had already finished isha'a prayer and started on tarawih so we quickly joined the last line and started praying under the brilliant chandelier and, thankfully, an air conditioning vent.

One thing that has always moved me is the reverberation of the congregation as they say "Amen" after the end of a quranic verse. As women are not allowed to raise their voices in prayer if men are in earshot, the rising chant after each verse is a deep rich tenor. These moments always affirmed - as far as I was concerned - the virtues of group prayer and the significance of communal religion. A lone worshipper believing more in a personal spiritual relationship with one's Maker, I am not a fan of mosque prayer but taken with the spirit of Ramadan and not wishing my mother to go on her own, I found myself smiling at the familiar "Amen" that emanated from the (not overlooked) male congregation below.

Continue reading "Tarawih in the Kingdom"

Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 05:03 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack

October 07, 2006

Mr Straw & The Niqab

It appears that Foreign Secretary Straw's comments on the Niqab, the face veil, have set off a bit of a storm. From The Financial Times to The Times coverage of his original comments regarding prefering women not wear the face veil as divisive through to coverage of The Poodle's craven and inconsistent pandering (the sooner he is gone the better, I await with impatience) and The New York Times (but "British Official", come on, how about [former] British Foreign Secretary? [mea culpa, I entirely forgot about Beckett's very existence]).

I am not sure if that is good or bad, but it bears some commenting on. First, when I first saw the comments I wasn't sure if he meant the hijab, which would have been annoyingly tedious, or the niqab, which I agree with. I am pleased to see it is about the covering of the face. There is a vast and important difference between the ninja get-ups that are so very Saudi Wahhabite neo-Islamic rot, and a woman covering her hair with a scarf.

Continue reading "Mr Straw & The Niqab"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:58 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack

October 03, 2006

My Fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere

Apart from daily scans of the Aggregator, I don't have a lot of time to spend reading blogs of any political/religious stripe. I'm not sure how often our contributors venture out into the wider blogosphere either, let alone cultivate relationships/flamewars with other blogs. My mental image of 'Aqoul somewhat resembles a secluded house on the outskirts of a chaotic city, a bit like Professor X's mansion (I'm sure this will lead to a bizarre side discussion on which X-Men are most like our authors/regulars, but let's try to stay focused).

In any case, I don't follow the daily mumblings of ignorant morons wanking on about dhimmitude and the infinite evils of Islam, nor do I routinely comment on blogs other than this one. Perhaps I'm a victim of the echo chamber effect, but I think it has more to do with wanting to spare myself the frustration of seeing the same Islamophobic glurge repeated over and over until it magically becomes fact.

Continue reading "My Fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere"

Posted by eerie at 08:16 PM | Comments (35) | TrackBack

October 02, 2006

The reality of Islam and the Republic

I almost missed this fairly important note in the Financial Times on European Islam and the wild-eyed whinging that seems to be becoming the rage in certain circles in North America regarding the Muslim minority in Europe: The reality of Islam and the Republic.

First, the author of the opinion piece, FT’s European Editor, has an excellent summary of the mythology, playing off of a recent publication, Integrating Islam: Political And Religious Challenges in Contemporary France.

Continue reading "The reality of Islam and the Republic"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 01, 2006

Violence, Christians, Muslims - More Fallacious Framing

I caught an interesting article in the Washington Post on Somali shopkeepers and violence which I think is a decent point of illustration of the easy, fallacious framing that often occurs.

Now, in this instance, the article focuses on the xenophobic reaction of Xhosa to Somali shopkeepers, telling known by a name derived from Islamic and Somali vocabulary - baraka, which as many readers know is simply the Arabic for "blessing(s)," although not as the journo incorrectly puts it "God's blessings" as a phrase, merely understood, as in English low church usage that it's God that does blessing. Somalis are known as barakas. Now, the article, aside from some ethnic superficialities, is quite good. However, in reading it and reflecting on how such stories get framed I rather thought it typical of, in particular, Western journo reporting in Africa and elsewhere on violence where an ethno-religious cleavage exists.

[Crossposted from The Lounsbury]

Continue reading "Violence, Christians, Muslims - More Fallacious Framing"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:34 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

September 26, 2006

Indigènes: Underlining fallacious framing

I thought I might return to a film that I have mentioned in the past since it is now out in the cinemas, at least in Europe, Indigènes, which tells a story that, as a French historian puts it in his discussion of the film, has been "obscured" in French and generally in Western recounting of WWII (and Maghrebine of their own history, at least following the anti-colonial reaction). I confess my personal interest arises from a family connexion with the tale, insofar as one of my grandfathers was a naval officer transported these fellows across the Med...

That is, the participation - indeed the dominant role of Muslim African (be they Maghrebine or sub-Saharan) soldiers in the "French" army liberating France - an item that I have mentioned in the past in connexion with the idiocy of ignoramuses such as Irshad Manji tying the Islamic world to the Nazis. It is also an item of interest in reflecting on the fallaciousness of simple minded Clash of Civilisation whanking on.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:10 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

September 16, 2006

Potpourri: Benedict, Islam, and Less Obvious Targets

I tend to think the Pope's recent Islam-related comments, which were first addressed here by Lounsbury below, constituted an intentional opening salvo, or a water-testing, in Benedict's un-John Paul II-like approach to non-Catholics, including Muslims. Though Benedict and his predecessor were bascially of one mind theologically, and also in terms of internal Church governance, when it came to relations to outsiders they had quite different outlooks. John Paul II was a city boy from a time and part of Poland that wasn't quite as narrow and bigoted about, say, Jews and others, as the rest of Poland. It was a relatively secular and cosmopolitan Poland JP II knew and favored. He had friends of all stripes, including Jews, some of whom or their families died in the death camps. Benedict's origins and approach are quite different, and the swipes he took in the yawn-inducing address were taken at more than just Islam as a target.

Continue reading "Potpourri: Benedict, Islam, and Less Obvious Targets"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:34 AM | Comments (58) | TrackBack

September 15, 2006

Popery

A very quick comment on the emerging Popish scandal regarding comments and the like.

First, I rather consider the whole thing absurd. Second, the choice of quotation was, well a bit on the queer side, but there it is. Third, the manner in which this is being reported in the Arabic speaking media is...well piss poor. Fourth, as a general matter, one finds in MENA that there is a strong popular sensation that "religion" should not be "insulted" - you find this even among fairly liberal people. Of course, it is all too human that people are particularly sensitive to slights against their own religion - or percieved slights - but it would be unfair to say it is only "own religion" as the general sacralness of the "religions of the book" remains a fairly strong sentiment.

There is also certainly no small aspect of "seeking to be offended" as the Islamist radical types pimp offendedness to feed off gut reaction.

This would all be less of an issue had not the Americans made the region such a bloody basket case of a mess with Iraq.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:35 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

August 23, 2006

Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff

Egyptian author Mona Eltahawy confronts her own presumptions about Les Barbus, presumptions derived from her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia. By les barbus, I refer of course to a nickname used elsewhere for those conservatively pious, sometimes Wahhabi, Muslim gents who tend to sport long beards. They are often presumed -- can we say profiled? -- to harbor intolerant or reactionary social and religious views (not to mention explosives). The author herself concedes holding such statistically valid presumptions presupposing judgmental viewpoints on the part of conspicuously beadred Muslim men. But she soon comes to discover that such presumptions aren't always a reliable guide to each individual, especially after encountering a new person of the barbus type who turns out to be worth getting to know as a three-dimensional being in his own right, during meetings they had in and around a conference in Copenhagen on modern Muslims .

Continue reading "Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:24 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 05, 2006

Anger as Analysis: Part II

Moorishgirl’s recent article in The Nation and a followup comment by our man Whitaker have compelled me to revisit the issue of telegenic female Islam critics and continue our Anger as Analysis series. My first installment focused on Irshad Manji and her inability to examine Islam objectively due to negative childhood experiences in her minority Twelver community (Uganda and Canada). Part II is a reflection on Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her controversial approach to critiquing Islam and its adherents.

Continue reading "Anger as Analysis: Part II"

Posted by eerie at 10:09 PM | Comments (112) | TrackBack

May 24, 2006

Iran & The Faux Law, Backtracking

The infamous Jews and Xians have to wear special clothes fiasco has now seen a full retraction, although for those looking for reasons to bash something, our dear Saudi cretins appear to be still in the business of producing hateful rubbish in the service of the Wahhabi hate mongers who so dearly love to dress themselves up in more-Muslim-than-thou clothing.

In other matters, Hirsi Ali - Magan has taken her US media campaign to a new level with a fine NYT piece of puffery about the poor oppressed media darling. Or as the phrase in the arty goes, "her daring approach to Islam, her arranged marriage in Africa, her exotic beauty." Sexy it is, Sexy.

A fair comment, however, from the arty goes:

"She irritates me deeply with her one-sided view of Islam," said Jan Beerenhout, a former Amsterdam municipal official and a convert to Islam. "But I feel ambiguous. She was offensive to the Muslims from rural areas who practice an archaic form of the religion. But if she had not spoken out, many wrongs would have remained taboo."

Certainly it does appear to the causal observer such as myself that Dutch society and social commentary suffers from a bit of constipation in re the Muslim minority - my impression is of little balanced convos, but rather black and white. Could be wrong, of course, relying on second hand knowledge.

Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:15 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

May 23, 2006

Anger as Analysis: Part I

Irshad Manji, Wafa Sultan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Why am I always picking on them?

Ostensibly, we have much in common. We are women born into faiths and cultures where gender inequality is widespread and can manifest itself in terrible ways. If anything, I should be able to relate to women who distance themselves from normative Islam (or renounce it altogether) and maintain a deep appreciation for the individualism, plurality and relative freedom found in Western societies.

Instead, I am appalled at how casually they draw conclusions about an entire religion based on narrow personal experience and the substitution of angry rhetoric for serious examination.

Continue reading "Anger as Analysis: Part I"

Posted by eerie at 09:14 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack

May 20, 2006

Islamic Finance - Scholar Shortages

Some weeks ago one of your fine 'Aqoul authors raised the issue of Islamic finance, and its present situation.

While perhaps less sexy than the faux-reports of Iranian Nazi-esque clothing restrictions on minorities, understanding a bit about economic developments in the region is more useful to readers wanting to actually have a sense of MENA developments (as opposed to merely whanking on in general ignorance about the horrors of the Arab world, etc), and The Financial Times has been running quite a number of interesting articles on the region - well actually about the Gulf, but the confusion of Gulf with all of MENA/Arab world is so general I almost cannot complain.

Continue reading "Islamic Finance - Scholar Shortages"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:31 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

May 17, 2006

Ayaan and Lessons on the Blog Whankosphere

Some sad lessons pop up once in a while in "blogging" (I do hate the term), among the the written confirmation of the facile idiocy that passes for commentary online, above all "far away" things. The utterly idiotic, wrong-headed ignorant whanking about the supposedly "Islamic immigrant" "intefada" that popped up during the French minority riots last year. This largely among American commentators with fuck all of an any information about France, the socio-religious profile of "immigrants" (3rd generation French born 'immigrants') hysterically shrieking on about an Islamic radical 'intefada' (hello Andrew Sullivan et al -none of whom by the way ever corrected or retracted their... well distortions and outright lies).

Continue reading "Ayaan and Lessons on the Blog Whankosphere"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:56 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack

May 01, 2006

Irshad Manji: In the Beginning vs. The Trouble with Islam Today

True to my bleeding-heart Jewish agnostic hippie upbringing, and at the urging of both my even more bleeding-heart hippie mom and our Editor in Chief, last night I went to a talk by Irshad Manji, part of an interfaith lecture series held at a Reform synagogue and sponsored by several local religious institutions.

Ms. Manji opened with a hearty “shalom” to the audience, and launched into the tale of her disillusionment with the Muslim religious establishment, which began when, as a child growing up in the Vancouver area, her parents (ethnic Indian refugees who had been expelled from Uganda under Idi Amin) sent her to what she said was the one local madrassa for her religious education on Saturdays.

Continue reading "Irshad Manji: In the Beginning vs. The Trouble with Islam Today"

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March 28, 2006

On Apostasy and Moderate Islam

Stacy Yadav summarizes the argument of Muhammed Abd al-Malik al-Mutawakkil on apostasy and sentencing, from his book Islam and International Human Rights Declarations. Rather than summarize a summary, I'll just say, "Go read it." I don't know much about Mutawakkil, but from Stacy's description he is making the kinds of arguments that actually have a chance of reaching the "pious middle".

Posted by tomscud at 11:40 AM | Comments (25) | TrackBack

March 23, 2006

Wafa Sultan: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - The Full Sultan Jazeera Transcript

Due to the tempest created by Wafa Sultan, 'Aqoul has decided to translate the Arabic transcript of the Al-Jazeera show on which Wafa Sultan for most intents and purposes made her debut. Hosted by Faisal al-Qasim, The Opposite Direction is held in debate format and usually deals with controversial issues touching upon taboo subjects like the Saudi royal family.

Continue reading "Wafa Sultan: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - The Full Sultan Jazeera Transcript"

Posted by Meph at 04:04 PM | Comments (166) | TrackBack

March 18, 2006

The Kills Are Alive With The Sound of Music: The Al-Qaeda Soundtrack

Fellow blogger, Chris Roach, an American paleoconservative*, writes a relatively nuanced reflection on the use of music in al-Qaeda recruitment/propaganda videos. Although his recurrent Islamophobia (more in other entries) can be irritating at times, allowing for that, this attempt to get at the stylings of Arabic music and the esthetics of Islamic art may contain some thoughtful criticism of music or good artistic debate fodder, even if wrong. "There is something jarring about this experience," he writes, "listening to lyrical and well-crafted music, most often in the classically minor key of the orient, while viewing awful images of murder and mayhem."

Continue reading "The Kills Are Alive With The Sound of Music: The Al-Qaeda Soundtrack"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:57 AM | Comments (83) | TrackBack

March 15, 2006

Fatwas and Wafa Sultan

Responding to a comment on my sarcastic 7-step guide to becoming a Muslim reformer, it occured to me that most Westerners have no idea what constitutes a fatwa, and that Wafa Sultan has used this misconception to her advantage in the New York Times.

First, the comment about my entry:

Crooning “Oh, oh, I’m under a death sentence, oh, oh, they’re coming to chop off my head, oooooh I’m so scaaaared” is lame snotty mockery when the target of your mockery actually is under a death sentence and people actually are getting killed.

I admit my comments were flippant and not intended to trivialize the problems faced by people who are intimidated and threatened by both secular and Islamist entities in the Middle East (such as the lovely and very brave journalist, Mona Eltahawy). Still, the ensuing debate has uncovered a number of popular and dangerous misconceptions, which will be cleared up here and there as I find them.

Continue reading "Fatwas and Wafa Sultan"

Posted by eerie at 12:52 PM | Comments (49) | TrackBack

March 13, 2006

How to be a Muslim reformer

After reading an article on Wafa Sultan (the up-and-coming Muslim reformer) in the New York Times today, it occured to me that I should get on this reformer bandwagon before the market gets saturated. I'm articulate, telegenic, exotic (yet oh so fluffy and Westernized), not to mention female (oppressed by rigid Islamic paternalism, naturally). Too bad I've got so many other little schemes on the go and can't spare the time for this one. However, I've written a handy little guide for aspiring refuseniks, male or female, Muslim or non-Muslim. Hopefully it will inspire readers to lead the charge in enlightening the benighted Islamic world.

Continue reading "How to be a Muslim reformer"

Posted by eerie at 04:22 PM | Comments (41) | TrackBack

March 11, 2006

Danish Cartoon Protests: Roundup

Continue reading "Danish Cartoon Protests: Roundup"

Posted by eerie at 06:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 09, 2006

Irshad, Ijtihad and Irony

Don’t ask me why, but every once in a while I like to irritate myself by reading about Irshad Manji. Watching the surprised reactions to the recent Hamas electoral victory made me realize that in many Western circles, there is a naive belief that democracy & freedom = liberalism and that encouraging democracy in the Middle East will automatically result in secular, liberal (and by extension pro-Western) utopias. Visiting Irshad Manji's website the other day, it occured to me that the same sort of muddled thinking is behind her Project Ijtihad initiative to “support the liberal reformation of Islam”.

According to Manji, recovering the "lost" tradition of ijtihad will somehow free Muslims from their intellectual slumber and result in the widespread acceptance of so-called liberal values. Naturally, she doesn't define the term "liberal", but based on her highly biased and monolithic description of Islam (obviously derived from personal experience more than actual research on regional/cultural variations, historical context, etc), one expects that she would use some sort of handwaving “politics I agree with” definition. Manji also doesn’t bother to elaborate on the concept of ijtihad (which is a rather complex topic in Islamic legal theory) beyond the vague exhortation that Muslims start “thinking independently”.

Continue reading "Irshad, Ijtihad and Irony"

Posted by eerie at 07:10 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack

March 05, 2006

Bedfellows & Commerce: Israel's Zim Lines Supports DPW (Updated)

Sadly my work is distracting me from the fun of the ongoing Bigotted Know Nothing Nativist Ignoramus Mob Madness surrounding DPW's takeover of UK's P&O and the incidental acquisition of the operating leases for port operations at six major US ports (although in the UK and globally sanity has prevailed*), I wanted to augment my dear friend and colleague, Secret Dubai's post on Israeli support for Dubai and DPW with specific reference to the Israeli shipping line Zim's statement of support; I should say it comes as no surprise to anyone with experience in the region that some Israelis would step forward on this, even in a politically delicate situation - not so oddly it is the moderates on all sides trying to do business that know each other.

Continue reading "Bedfellows & Commerce: Israel's Zim Lines Supports DPW (Updated)"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:57 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

February 20, 2006

Let’s Do the Time Warp: Gay Pride vs. Islamic/Official Intolerance in Russia

It seems Andrew Sullivan’s rant of the week is that Chief Russian Mufti Talgat Tajuddin has called for the prohibition of a planned gay pride parade in Moscow, recommending that marchers be beaten – and in a rare show of solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Christian community, recommending that they join together in beating gays. Tajuddin was joined in his opposition to the parade shortly thereafter by Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar, though the Rabbi stopped short of recommending violence.

Before Andrew Sullivan leaps to the conclusion that Russian Muslims are at the forefront of homophobia and gay-bashing in the Russian Federation, he may want to bear in mind that the occasion for the parade was to be the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexual behavior in the Russian Federation.

Continue reading "Let’s Do the Time Warp: Gay Pride vs. Islamic/Official Intolerance in Russia"

Posted by evaluna at 11:10 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

February 02, 2006

Cartoons, Manufactured Outrage, Tolerance & Dissent

Well, reading the papers sadly the entire overblown cartoons of the Prophet controversy continues. Our dear Meph pointed me to this amibiguous but largely unfortunate French editor fired over cartoons news, and interestingly via trackbacks, I also ran across this article and a comment which I think needs blasting .

Now the, some further thoughts on this entire fiasco:

Continue reading "Cartoons, Manufactured Outrage, Tolerance & Dissent"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 31, 2006

More Comments on Complete and Utter Nonsense

As the good Lounsbury has recently outlined, a surge of hysteria has gripped the Islamic World in reaction to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. Since he has done a superb job in skimming the Arab media I will limit myself to venting my spleen re grass roots Saudi and religious Arabic channel reaction. The gaggle of 'activists' (namely, bored housewives with no grasp or desire to grasp the fact that not all the world is actually under an Islamic monarchy, nor I would imagine, do they have a desire that their holiday destinations in Europe be run by The House of Saud) here in Riyadh have bombarded each other with text messages, e-mails and phone calls fanning the flames of a false sense of purpose and ironically manifesting a cultural arrogance and ethno-centrism equal to that which they are attacking.

Continue reading "More Comments on Complete and Utter Nonsense"

Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 12:00 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack

January 29, 2006

France, Islam & Discrimination: Further to the idiocy of the "European Intifada"

Further to my ongoing comments of the situation in France, the riots that some ill-informed, bigotted or just plain stupid commentators blew up into a "Muslim intifada" in Europe, an interesting article on current French efforts on addressing rampant discrimination in France.

(A side set of reading by the way from 2003, note the prescient commentary, intifada my ass, I note there is a clear connexion with MENA directly, besides the issue of Muslim minorities in Europe and the potential echoes within the Islamic word, the parallels in terms of illiberal economies with severe labour rigidities leading to high unemployment and difficulties in findings jobs)

A few comments, then.

Continue reading "France, Islam & Discrimination: Further to the idiocy of the "European Intifada""

Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:38 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Democracy, Liberalism, Consequences

The election of Hamas has set off quite a lot of overdone hand wringing with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and with respect to 'democracy promotion.'

I am going to ignore the I-P conflict as an endless toothache, although frankly in the medium term this is probably a boon as Hamas seems likely to be a more effective player than the corrupt and broken PLO/Fatah.

Rather, a few words on democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa.

The first words are, I am no fan of it, and frankly largely do not believe in it on the terms that it is pimped to the general public, etc. However, the handwringing post-Hamas victory requires some comment.

Continue reading "Democracy, Liberalism, Consequences"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:03 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 25, 2006

Maghreb & Islamic Liberalism: Superficialities & Hope for a Liberalising State, Islamic Feminism, etc

Returning to commentary, although forewarning this is post chemo and may lack a certain clarity:

Via Daniel Drezner's post on That's some interesting Islam in Morocco, I found this article from Der Spiegel on Morocco - one of my favourite countries in the MENA region - discussing Mohammed VI's efforts to modernise the socio-political culture:

The Quiet Revolution: Morocco's King Aims To Build a Modern Islamic Democracy
by Helene Zuber.

Compare, by the way, to this article from almost six years ago:

New Hope, Old Frustrations - Morocco: the point of change
by the ever Left Ramonet.

An interesting, but rather flawed article I would say.

Continue reading "Maghreb & Islamic Liberalism: Superficialities & Hope for a Liberalising State, Islamic Feminism, etc"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 23, 2006

Recrimination and Measures for Haj Safety

Faiza Ambah at Christian Science Monitor tells of efforts to create a longer religiously-validated time for the pillar stoning during the Muslim Haj in order to avert deadly crowd rushes like the one of this past year and others in the past several years. Meanwhile, recriminations abound, as different accounts from a pilgrim and a Saudi security official tell:

Continue reading "Recrimination and Measures for Haj Safety"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 16, 2006

Returning to France, Riots and 'Intefada' vs Discrimination - Discussions and Questions

Returning to a subject close at hand, the issue of the French riots in the Fall of 2005 and drivers or reasons. That is, over the silliness of such people as Andrew Sullivan and others blithering on about an Islamic uprising (intefada) in Europe.

This fine article from The Washington Post helpfully highlights in a current fashion the real issue, which while not unconnected with the issue of religious minority (indeed intimately in some ways, but not in the manner crudely drawn by idiots such as Totten and Sulivan), is most fundamentally economic. An obvious issue if one has something more than a passing engagement with France and generally the issues facing continental European minorities (that is those from outside Europe and its old colonies).

Continue reading "Returning to France, Riots and 'Intefada' vs Discrimination - Discussions and Questions"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

"It's got sex, of course it's bloody Aqoul material"

I shall link and say no more.

[Editor Lounsbury: Oh piffle, let's quote it, in full - re a quite stupid al Azhar Uni faculty member's fatwa against the evils of being naked while banging your spouse...]

Continue reading ""It's got sex, of course it's bloody Aqoul material""

Posted by dubaiwalla at 08:16 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

December 09, 2005

A Cross-Religion Project of Possible Interest

This may be of interest to readers and their associates.

The Children of Abraham project (their website has yet to be updated to reflect this project) is currently recruiting 16-18-year old Jews and Muslims to work together on a Muslim-Jewish Relations Guidebook to Mutual Discovery.

The group is searching for 18 exceptional young people (nine Muslims and nine Jews) from eighteen different countries to participate in an historic project. Together, they will create an unprecedented Muslim-Jewish Relations Guidebook to Mutual Discovery. [The Guidebook] will be distributed to Jewish and Muslim communities all over the world atthe end of 2006.

Applications are due no later than January 20th. To suggest a candidate, e-mail houda@children-of-abraham.org and copy office@shalomctr.org.

More detail below.

Continue reading "A Cross-Religion Project of Possible Interest"

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 30, 2005

Vatican warns Catholics against marrying Muslims

Well looks like the pool of prospective husbands for Muslim women might get even smaller now.

Interesting lack of distinction between marriages between Catholics to Muslim men and those to Muslim women (if the latter even exist blatantly without some sort of metaphorical gun pointing). It seems experiences with Muslim men have given the fairer sex of the faith a bad name.

Again

Posted by Meph at 01:13 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

November 23, 2005

Sharia Products: Market grows for Muslim investors

Laying in bed mildly delusional from anti-haemorrhagatic drugs and other items, I thought I might indulge myself in a reflexion on an interesting arty from The Financial Times on Islamic Finance and products.

The arty in question Market grows for Muslim investors covers some interesting territory even if it is a bit general.

As I can not think of a better time to indulge in commentary on sharia products than when slightly delusional from from anti-haemorrhagatic drugs, what follows are some comments on the text itself:

Continue reading "Sharia Products: Market grows for Muslim investors"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 11, 2005

Last item on France, Muslims & the Maghreb

Sadly I have little time to devout to what is clearly an important topic at present, which is indeed the riots in France, their meaning and the storm of ill-informed English language commentary on the same. Unfortunately such trivial issues as valuing illiquid assets pledged as capital contributions, fund structures and other fine things require my time.

Continue reading "Last item on France, Muslims & the Maghreb"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 29, 2005

Threesomes: Halal or Haram?

Last night, following a rather serious discussion on the root causes of gender inequality in MENA, Meph and I pondered the following weighty question:

Does Islam permit threesomes?

Neither one of us could recall any explicit ban on threesomes in the Qur’an or Hadith, but then again neither one of us had the vaunted expertise of a scraggy-bearded Islamic scholar. Clearly there was a need for further research.

Now, aside from facilitating high-minded discussion between two women on different continents, the internet is also a massive clearinghouse for fatwas, or rulings based on Islamic law. Burning questions can easily be answered by consulting any number of fatwa websites and searchable databases online. Opinions on everything from yoga to female tennis players are issued and posted on the internet by leading scholars, muftis, charlatans and utter quacks. According to Asharq Al-Awsat, more religious edicts have been published in the last decade than in the last 1400 years:

Even the Egyptian Grand Mufti has become exasperated with the soaring number of fatwas (religious edicts) and the confusion surrounding them in the media. He has recently called for increased supervision and the appointment off a specialist body as the sole authority to issue these edicts.

Continue reading "Threesomes: Halal or Haram?"

Posted by eerie at 12:30 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack

October 04, 2005

Ramadan Competition (updated)

Once again we have the peculiar situation of Ramadan beginning on different days in the region

Middle East Muslims begin Ramadan. Although not noted, Morocco and Tunisia, like Oman are going to start a day later.

Whether true or not, there is widespread perception (among Maghrebines) that these decisions (in the case of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) are political - to show "indepedence."

A queer dynamic.

[An Update & Clarification]

Per a comment made, I believe I should expand and clarify for certain sub-literates who were or are unable to parse this and thus came to the rather queer understanding this comment was motivated by a lack of understanding of how Ramadan works:

Continue reading "Ramadan Competition (updated)"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:57 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 01, 2005

Irshad Manji Left Guilt and Likoudnik Agitprop

Although this is an immensely tardy comment, I must thank eerie for the reference to The Globe & Mail letter from Tarek Fateh, which drew my attention to Irshad Manj's odd statement or claim regarding Muslim guilt in regards to the Holocaust. I confess I know Irshad (a fine name I may add) only by the few articles on her book & her articles and interviews. Rather simply, her book isn't available to me in this non-anglo environment.

Continue reading "Irshad Manji Left Guilt and Likoudnik Agitprop"

Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:07 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

August 29, 2005

Hijab Fashion, Getting Noticed in Your Slinky Little ....

In keeping with purient interests, as well as our commitment to rooting about the dark corners of the MENA world and its cultural off-shoots, I draw your attention to this amusing little article in The Washington Post entitled

Balancing Religious Sensitivity, Fashion Sense: Young Women Follow Islam's Ancient Tenets on Modesty -- but With a Modern Twist

While the arty actually deals with surburbanite sub-Con muslim girls in the Washington DC area, the actual issues therein are very familiar to the MENA region proper.

There is also a helpful little slide show to introduce you to Hijab sexy chic. Actually one of our young subjects is quite fetching in the scarfy hijab she chose. Fashion accessories...

Posted by The Lounsbury at 01:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 26, 2005

Polygamy

Allow me to present to you snippets from an article from my local newspaper:

Polygamy can solve some social ills, such as reducing the number of women turning into spinsters and the natural longing to have children in the case of an infertile wife, Muslim scholars have said.

"Polygamy is beneficial for women more than men."

"Women are known for their jealousy which has been taken into account by the Islamic Sharia. But because the public interest is always above personal interest, women must accept their husbands having a second wife."

"In the UAE and some other countries, the media has ruined the image of polygamy to the extent that it became a socially unaccepted phenomenon, especially among women. Yet, polygamy is a solution and helps women avoid becoming spinsters."

And my favorite:

"Through experience, I've noticed that when a man marries a second time, his relationship with his first wife strengthens. A second marriage is a psychological drive."

I suggest you read the whole article.

I wonder whose consumption this could have been meant for - I'm guessing it was not for the typical reader of an English-language paper here. In fact, I'm more curious about why this was printed than about the content itself.

Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:56 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

August 11, 2005

Emory Law School: Islamic Family Law Resource

Currently reading Women's Rights & Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform, based on a series of studies conducted by Emory Law School.

The book presents case studies of Muslim societies in Egypt, the West Bank & Gaza and the United States. It also includes a general survey of domestic violence in the Middle East. This study is particularly interesting to me because it attempts to describe the interaction between shari'a, social attitudes and state law in the region. I may write something about it later, but for now I offer this useful link to Emory's Islamic Family Law website.

Note that the data is current as of 2002 and may not include more recent legal reforms/reviews in countries like Morocco (I'm smirking at you, Lounsbury).

Posted by eerie at 10:12 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

August 06, 2005

Who Speaks For Islam in the West?

After doing a bit of follow-up reading on secretdubai’s discussion of UAE government control over mosques, I came across an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (linking to Google results to avoid registration prompt, just click on the first result):

Leaders clash over who speaks for Muslims in Canada - July 29, 2005

As a small group of conciliatory Muslim leaders met with Prime Minister Paul Martin last night, a war of words broke out between two other leaders whose irreconcilable world views stand as bookends to the diverse opinions of nearly 600,000 Canadian Muslims.

"Imams like Aly Hindy are holding the entire Muslim community as a hostage. A vast number of Muslim Canadians don't want to have their leadership from almost medieval imams," Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress told the CBC yesterday.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hindy -- who has given more than 20 news media interviews this week urging Muslims not to co-operate with Canadian security agencies -- once again took to the airwaves to say that people like him, and not Westernized Muslims like Mr. Fatah, are the true voice of Islam in Canada.

The controversial imam defended his decision not to put his name on the recent sheaf of signed statements from Islamic leaders condemning recent terrorist strikes in the United Kingdom. "We've already condemned terrorism, this is obvious," Mr. Hindy said. "Why don't the churches, for example, condemn terrorism done by George Bush and Tony Blair?"

Continue reading "Who Speaks For Islam in the West?"

Posted by eerie at 03:47 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack

UAE message of peace

While rogue preachers throughout the West are free to push a perverted form of Islam to impressionable young men, in the UAE the message is one of peace and tolerance: true Islam.

Abu Dhabi: Imams of all mosques across the country have strongly denounced the stream of bloody violence in Muslim countries and the entire world, describing those who carry out bloody acts as evil. [...] The imams said terrorism is against Islamic teachings and all other religions and human principles, because Islam is the religion of peace, justice and tolerance. Those who carry out bloody acts are not Muslims and have nothing to do with Islam.

There are several reasons why things are different in the UAE. The first is that the population - national especially - tends to be more highly educated and suffers less poverty than a lot of muslims living in more deprived areas elsewhere in the world.

But crucially, the UAE government actively prevents any misinterpretation of the prophet's message by supervising the appointment of preachers and content of weekly sermons:

"The Federal Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs distributes weekly guidance to both Sunni and Shi'a Sheikhs regarding religious sermons and ensures that clergy do not deviate frequently or significantly from approved topics in their sermons. All Sunni imams are employees of either the Federal Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs or individual emirate ministries. In 1993 the Emirate of Dubai placed private mosques under the control of its Department of Islamic Affairs and Endowments. This change gave the Government control over the appointment of preachers and the conduct of their work."

Western governments should have the guts and wisdom to do likewise.

Posted by secretdubai at 02:47 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

July 28, 2005

Theological Question of No Relevance

This question has no bearing on anything modern or political, just idle intellectual curiosity, if anyone in the brain trust can help: What is the consensus - if any -- among Islamic scholars on the Christian figure St. Paul (Boulos)? Is he regarded as a corrupter of original Christianity, a victim of distortion etc.? Yes, I know a trip to the Encyclopedia of Islam would probably help but I'm too lazy at the moment.

Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:36 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack