Talk Islam

Updates from shahed RSS

  • 01:14:04 pm on July 22, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    This is one of the oddest (and as a parent, frankly disturbing) things I’ve seen in a while: Indian Muslims at a 500-year old baby-dropping ritual.

    (The ritual is 500 years old, not the baby.)

     
  • 09:46:42 pm on July 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    Slots are filling up for the 47th annual Muslim Youth Camp, a week-long family camp held in the California mountains August 10-16. There are kids attending this camp whose grandparents attended as kids! If you are interested in a slice of Muslim-American history, and want to see a program that has proven itself able to create a stable Muslim-American identity for the past half century, come and volunteer to be a counselor or teacher. All ages welcome. Go to muslimyouthcamp.org for more information, or get in touch w/me.

     
  • 06:26:27 am on July 9, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    Here’s an interesting trailer for a documentary about Muslim children in Texas learning to memorize the Qur’an. And here’s another trailer for a proposed documentary series, the first episode of which also focuses on Muslim life in Texas.

     
  • 01:59:42 pm on July 3, 2008 | 2 | # |
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    I’ll be speaking this Saturday at the ISNA South Central Conference in Houston. The topic: using the Web to shape public discourse on Islam and Muslims.

     
  • 07:14:13 am on June 24, 2008 | 9 | # |
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    Looks like Barack Obama took action regarding the hijab gaffe only after Rep. Keith Ellison confronted him, somewhat heatedly, behind closed doors at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting.

     
  • 02:06:43 pm on June 5, 2008 | 4 | # |
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    Egyptian government workers spend an average of 27 minutes a day working. Lengthy prayer breaks are cited as a major contributor to the problem. The solution? According to a fatwa from Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, limit prayer breaks to 10 minutes.

     
  • 10:37:30 pm on June 1, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    Bahrain just appointed a Jewish woman ambassador (probably to the US).

     
  • 05:17:54 pm on May 25, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    The sad thing is, despite all this, the rumors are still persistent.

     
  • 12:44:04 pm on May 24, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    A new book entitled Why I’m A Democrat asks 55 Americans why they support the Democratic Party. My case as to why Muslims should be Democrats can be found on pages 173-8.

     
  • 11:25:45 am on May 9, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    Here’s a nice review of an upcoming PBS documentary on Muslim comedians, which will be showing on May 11th (HT: Fatemeh Fakhraie)

     
  • 11:08:30 am on May 7, 2008 | 17 | # |
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    Per the request of the music director of SXSW (that’s “South by Southwest” for the acronymically-challenged - it’s one of the largest music-related events in the USA), I’m organizing a lineup of Muslim bands of all genres for next year’s SXSW, to be held in Austin in March 2009.

    The audience will be mostly non-Muslim indie music fans (and possibly more than a few record label folks), so the artists we select need to have the talent and the crossover appeal to pull it off (i.e., I think we’ll have to pass on bubblegum pop like the 786 Boys). Would prefer unsigned artists to give them a shot at visibility.

    Any suggestions for artists we should court? I’d like to see Kareem Salama, Liza Garza, and Tyson, for starters.

    I think they want to call it “Allahpalooza”. Not sure if that will fly.

     
  • 10:27:37 pm on April 30, 2008 | 0 | # |
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    The State Department and the Dept. of Homeland Security are doing an about face when it comes to framing our extremist adversaries. A recent internal document, “Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims”, shifts the focus on religion to those opposing extremists, rather than cloaking extremists in Islamic terms that some feel may lend them credibility.

     
  • 07:58:17 pm on April 2, 2008 | 1 | # |
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    it’s seven years after 9/11, and I can’t believe a reporter asked me the meaning of “assalamu alaikum”