Rick Perry is the anti-Herman Cain – he’s had a long relationship with muslim Americans.
Of course, President Bush also had warm relations with muslims before taking office. But still, I’ve also had firsthand experience seeing Gov. Perry’s attitude towards the muslim community and it is genuine.
Arwi, 
MT, 
Abu Noor Al-Irlandee 1:53 pm on August 11, 2011 Permalink
Aziz, do you know any accurate figures on how many current day followers there are of the different Ismaili groups, perhaps broken down by country?
islamoyankee 3:09 pm on August 11, 2011 Permalink
Our official website is here: http://theismaili.org/ but I don’t think we have country breakdowns.
MT 9:44 am on August 13, 2011 Permalink
Thanks for posting this, Aziz. It’s good to be reminded that it’s possible to be a conservative without being an unhinged bigot! Unfortunately, Governor Perry’s comments regarding climate change are cause for concern. He just isn’t taking the crisis seriously. It’s a shame, because I’d like to vote for someone other than Obama in 2012, but the alternatives aren’t attractive.
Arwi 10:36 pm on August 16, 2011 Permalink
You frequently use “secularist” to mean atheist or agnostic, but that is not right at all, secularism is about the relationship between religion and the state. Plenty of pious people are secularists, Soroush for example favors secularism on teh grounds that state power corrupts piety.