Muslim girls don sporting jilbabs

Nike rocks!!!! They got together with Muslim girls in a Kenyan refugee camp and designed sportswear that would allow them to play sports comfortably without revealing their bodies. Check it out:



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Wafa Sultan

There have been a number of articles* recently about one Dr. Wafa Sultan, a Syrian expat. She has gathered attention because of an interview on Al-Jazeera (which appears to have been edited). In it, she makes many valid points about the behavior of Muslims and Muslim societies, but in newpaper interviews, she takes it a step further by appearing to blame it on the religion of Islam itself.

It's a shame that she does not see the differences between religion and the human beings that pervert it... She has clearly bought into the most extremist interpretation of the Qur'an that is available. Which is too bad.

But that's her business, really... What bothers me about this situation is two things:

1) some articles about her label her as a "Muslim", even though she herself says she is not one. I guess it makes people who like to spend their time grumbling about Islam feel empowered to hear these things coming from someone they label as an actual "Muslim."

2) Due to being labeled a Muslim, she is being invited by all sort of hate groups to speak about Why Islam is Bad. What is the ultimate goal here? What is the "solution" to this "problem?" Find a way to convert Muslims en masse away from Islam? What about those who won't convert? Should they be eliminated? Let's be honest here, if a group makes makes a concerted effort to denounce another group of people--not just their behavior, but the very basis of their existence, isn't there only one direction they could be going? Such groups are clearly not interested in engaging with and empowering those Muslims who do NOT subscribe to the extremist point of view Dr. Sultan believes is the true definition of Islam.

Dr. Sultan is free to her opinions, but I would hope that she would take a step back and think about the agendas of those who are suddenly hoisting her onto their shoulders.

By the way, here's an excellent commentary from MuslimWakeUp on Dr. Sultan's views.

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Muslim seminary issues fatwa against attacks on all religious shrines

I'm very happy to hear about this fatwa. This is edict is in the true spirit of Islam.

``The Prophet Muhammed has given clear directions that proper protection should be given to the religious places of other communities,'' said Maulana Khalid Rashid, the seminary's head cleric. ``The people who attack (Hindu) temples in the name of religion are doing a disservice to Islam. This is an anti-Islamic act.''

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"O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another." Qur'an [49:13]

Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing

This is scary... What can we, as American Muslims, do to help people know us better? I'd love to see comments on this.

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

(snip)

Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.

(snip)

Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that the survey responses "seems to me to be a real backlash against Islam" and that congressional leaders do not help the problem by sometimes using language that links all Muslims with extremists.

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What is Your World View?

You scored as Cultural Creative.
Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

What is Your World View? (updated)
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What Price Xenophobia?

Here's a very interesting article about the Dubai Ports deal. It talks about the culture of Dubai, why we consider them an ally, and what the real motivations are of those who oppose the deal...

Like other great cities of trade and intrigue, from Istanbul and Beirut to Singapore and Hong Kong, Dubai has also been extremely useful to intelligence services that want to keep an eye on the people moving through it. Various U.S. government agencies have exploited Dubai as a window into the Iran of the ayatollahs, the warlords’ Afghanistan, the lawless wilds of East Africa. And in the fight against Al Qaeda, Dubai’s cooperation has been quiet but considerable.

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A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds

Two more articles about Imam Shata from the New York Times:

To his congregants, Mr. Shata is far more than the leader of daily prayers and giver of the Friday sermon. Many of them now live in a land without their parents, who typically assist with finding a spouse. There are fewer uncles and cousins to help resolve personal disputes. There is no local House of Fatwa to issue rulings on ethical questions.

Sheik Reda, as he is called, arrived in Brooklyn one year after Sept. 11. Virtually overnight, he became an Islamic judge and nursery school principal, a matchmaker and marriage counselor, a 24-hour hot line on all things Islamic.

Part 1
Part 2
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Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam's Future

This is an excellent article from the New York Times profiling an Imam from New York who spends a great deal of his time hooking up singles. Hey-HAY!!

Christian singles have coffee hour. Young Jews have JDate. But many Muslims believe that it is forbidden for an unmarried man and woman to meet in private. In predominantly Muslim countries, the job of making introductions and even arranging marriages typically falls to a vast network of family and friends.

In Brooklyn, there is Mr. Shata.

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Osama picks Bush (Wouldn’t you?)

From the MSNBC website:

In this story Bush appears to endorse the view put forth by a whiney John Kerry that Bin Laden’s videotaped message put him over the top in 2004. Bush said there were “enormous amounts of discussion” inside his campaign about the 15-minute tape, which he called “an interesting entry by our enemy” into the presidential race.

“I thought it was going to help,” Bush said. “I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush.”

Come now. If Bush can figure it out that an Osama intervention is going to help him, then, so too can Bin Laden. Just as Fidel Castro offered, through emissaries, to endorse the candidate he hated most in our elections once (jokingly, one presumes) bin Laden, who knew that Bush’s team did nothing to prevent 9/11 despite considerable signals, let him get away at Tora-Bora, pulled agents out of Afghanistan to send them to Iraq, recruited gazillions of potential terrorists for his organization with his chaos-inducing invasion of Iraq and spread more hatred of the United States than our worst enemies might have hoped for, purposely intervened on behalf of Bush. Whether it mattered, no one can say. What we can say for sure is that with an approval rating of 34 percent and the Middle East sliding towards Armageddon, it’s one of the worst things ever to happen to this country.

They lied to us about the insurgency, too here. No surprise there.

Ex-Official: Iraq Abuses Growing Worse

Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.

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