Garfield minus Garfield. Why do I find this so amusing?
Latest Updates RSS
-
muse
-
razib
-
willow
Comics reporter makes ill advised jihad wisecrack. Happily, the comics community has called him to task about it.
-
Lawrence of Arabia
So I have been working on the portrayal of Islam in early Franciscan documents (especially the various lives of St.Francis), and ran across this little tidbit, in David Burr’s Spiritual Franciscans, about two of my favorite Franciscans: Peter John Olivi and Ubertino da Casale (of Name of the Rose fame). Olivi argues, for instance, in his commentary on the Apocalypse of John (1298) that
Continued decay of the Church will lead to rule by a pseudopope who, with the aid of a secular authority, will support a carnal version of Christianity, persecuting those who observe evangelical poverty. These carnal leaders and the carnal church which they represent (Babylon) will eventually be destroyed by a non-Christian (presumably Muslim) army. Thus will end the persecution of the mystical Antichrist, but that of the great Antichrist will then begin. Another king/pseudopope combination will join in a persecution aimed more explicitly at Christianity itself. Here, too, Olivi seems to anticipate an important role for Islam. Finally, with Christ’s aid, this second persecution will end and the seventh period will begin.
All this of course so that the renewal of Christian life initiated by Francis could reach its consummation.
-
aziz
I’ve been involved in some laptop surgery this weekend, swapping a hard drive and reinstalling Windows from scratch. What have you all been up to?
UPDATE: And don’t forget to call your mother.
-
muse
A sobering look at the neglect of immigration detainees in the US. Paging Emma Lazarus.
Yusif Osman was a U.S. legal resident from Ghana and had been living in Los Angeles for five years. After a companion carrying false ID landed him in immigration detention, Osman was facing deportation on smuggling charges, an allegation he denied. While at an immigration detention center outside San Diego, he died suddenly. His story highlights the poor care some immigrants have received in the scores of immigration facilities across the United States
-
aziz
The muslim smear is alive and well in West Virginia:
Carmen Silliman has collected a sheaf of poisonous e-mails that have flowed into her in-box. “We do not need a Muslim to lead the good ole USA,” reads one. Obama is, in fact, a Christian.
Neil Gillies, an Obama supporter who runs a local environmental nonprofit group, glumly recounted the gibes that his wife, a schoolteacher, hears regularly from her students. “They’re convinced [Obama] is a Muslim, a terrorist, a guy who’s coming to take away their guns,” Gillies said. “It’s just sad.”
-
aziz
Indscribe marvels at the survival of the Uighur language. Wang Daiyu introduces us to the term, ninjabi.
-
shahed
Here’s a nice review of an upcoming PBS documentary on Muslim comedians, which will be showing on May 11th (HT: Fatemeh Fakhraie)
-
Lawrence of Arabia
Pakistan seems to have said “No, thanks!” to the appointment of the former commander of Gitmo to the top U.S. military post in Pakistan. And one has to ask, what was the Pentagon thinking?
-
muse
Islamic Divorce Ruled Not Valid in Maryland. The state’s highest court unanimously ruled that “talaq” deprives the woman of due process and is contrary to the state’s public policy.
-
willow
From Eteraz: Philly Mosque Refuses to Bury Cop Killer
-
shahed
Here’s why we have to keep McCain from the White House in November. In case there was any doubt.
-
aziz
The Iraq War is the first American war since the Revolutionary War to be financed entirely on credit - and will end up costing as much as World War II.
-
razib
aprosos of the apostasy post below, God’s Rule - Government and Islam: Six Centuries of Medieval Islamic Political Thought :
The Prophet was remembered as havinggiven them the choice between conversion and death. But it was only Arab pagans that he had eradicated: did non-Arab peers have to be similarly treated? After some debate, the jurists decided that the Zoroastrians…were an exception, they had once possessed a book…and/or that the Prophet had accepted jizya from Zoroastrians (in eastern Arabia)…But the jurists could not agree on other pagans. Some took the Prophet’s eradication of Arab idolaters to mean that all pagans had to be given the choice between Islam or death, whatever their ethnicity. This was the position of the Shafi’ites…Others argued that the Arabs were a special case and that it was the Prophet’s treatment of Zoroastrians which had universal significance: all non-Arab pagans should be treated as Zoroastrains. That was the position of the Malikis and Hanafis…aruging that all unbelievers were eligible for dhimmi status, full stop.the hanafi position is one reason adduced as to why this school is popular in the turkic and south asian world; it was more practical since non-muslims were thick on the ground. but it is interesting to note that shafis are dominant in southeast asia, where there are large non-muslim pagan minorities (buddhists and hindus).
-
thabet
From a H-Net review of Claudia Koonz’s The Nazi Conscience:
One of the biggest obstacles to the creation of an antisemitic consensus among both bureaucrats and academics, [Claudia] Koonz found, was that it proved almost impossible in the natural sciences to pin down any verifiable biological differences, to document the racial taxonomy that Nazi ideology insisted must exist. Instead, racial revisionism really took root in the humanities and social sciences. Along with anthropology and ethnology, Koonz notes that “history came into its own as the queen of the racial sciences” (p. 203), generating a flood of bibliographies, archival reports, monographs, and articles to underwrite both ethnic fundamentalism and antisemitism.
Of ethnic fundamentalism, Koonz says:
I use the term “ethnic fundamentalism” to describe deeply anti-liberal collectivism that was the hallmark of public culture in the Third Reich. The term bears an affinity with both religious fundamentalism and ethnic nationalism. Like the former, ethnic fundamenalism claims to defend an ancient spiritual heritage against the corrosive values of industrialized, urban society. Like the latter, ethnic fundamentalism summons its followers to seek vengence for past wrongs and to forge a glorious future cleansed of ethnic aliens. Its leaders, often endowed with charistamtic aura, mobilize followers to participate in a moral universe that is accessible only to those who share a language, religion, culture or homeland.
-
Admin
TalkIslam is now a true Folksonomy - I have added the WP_Folksonomy plugin which lets any user add tags to posts. This is a good thing.
-
aziz
A Malaysian court has permitted a woman to renounce her conversion to Islam, in effect allowing apostasy.
-
thabet
Forbes’ special report on Islamic finance.
-
aziz
I’ve long been fascinated by depictions of Islam in science fiction. Notable examples are the religion of Buddislam in the Dune series and the prayer circle in the movie Pitch Black. I’ve also noted many references to Islam or muslim characters in passing as I’ve read science fiction short stories over the years. Now there’s a solid reference of Islam in SF available that compiles references to Islam in SF literature by non-muslim writers, as well as scifi written by muslims. Islam has ranged from the “safe other” upon which to project fear, to more sympathetic portrayals - the latter more so in evidence since 9-11.
(Via io9)
Talk about:
art bangladesh books china christianity Comics community economics Egypt faith finance history human rights India iran Iraq Islam islamic law islamophobia islamsphere Israel jafi language law mccain media meta muslims Obama Pakistan palestine philosophy politics racism religion saudi arabia science secularism Terrorism Ummah united kingdom united states war crimes war on terror womenCarnival of Brass: Islamsphere
