A Moderate Voice of Islam

Here is King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Washington Post: Our religion calls us to live and work for justice and to promote tolerance. Daily, we share God’s blessing: Salaam Aleikum — “Peace be upon you.” This is the true voice of Islam, but it is not the voice that Americans always hear. Instead,… Continue reading A Moderate Voice of Islam

Eid Mubarak

A Happy Eid to you, dear readers. Today is Eid-ul-Fitr here in Atlanta, the day celebrating the end of Ramazan, the month of fasting. So I have Eid here today, while my wife in New Jersey will have hers tomorrow. What’s the deal with that? I have no idea. Eid is celebrated on the new… Continue reading Eid Mubarak

History of Abrahamic Religions

I am interested in finding out more about the history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Not from the point of view of their followers, but from good scholarly sources which discuss independent sources for the history of the early periods of these religions as well as the history of the Bible and the Quran (based… Continue reading History of Abrahamic Religions

What Sort of Muslim Are You?

I decided to ignore the results of my last beliefnet quiz and took the “What sort of a Muslim are you?” quiz. Here are the results: You are a secular Muslim. You are a cultural or secular Muslim. You might identify yourself with the Muslim community, but like Kareem Abdul Jabbar, you have no problems… Continue reading What Sort of Muslim Are You?

Muslims, the West and Media

Aziz Poonawalla has a series (1, 2, 3) of posts on the silence of the media in showing the non-extremist Muslim majority. First, some quotes from Aziz: Let me assure him [Steven Den Beste] and you that as a Muslim, I don’t really CARE how Islam is perceived by non-Muslims. I care how Islam is… Continue reading Muslims, the West and Media

Gujrat Riots

Aziz Poonawalla (yes, him again) has the best collection of links to stories about the Hindu-Muslim riots in the Indian province of Gujrat earlier in the year. Suman Palit responds to Aziz with the “root causes” of the hatred of the Hindu fundamentalists for their local Muslims. I don’t agree with his interpretation though. He… Continue reading Gujrat Riots

Beliefnet’s Belief-O-Matic

I found it interesting that the top-most faith in the quiz I took yesterday was Reform Judaism. I asked my wife, brother and sister about the quiz. Their top-most faith also came out to be Judaism, orthodox in one case and reform in the rest. However, the rest of their ranking was very different. I… Continue reading Beliefnet’s Belief-O-Matic

Belief-o-Matic

What religion are you? The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa. Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths… Continue reading Belief-o-Matic

The Arab-Israel Conflict

I recently finished reading the book Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris. It’s a long read (more than 700 pages) with a comprehensive history of the conflict starting in 1881 and ending with the election of Sharon. Benny Morris gives a very balanced and nuanced account of the conflict.… Continue reading The Arab-Israel Conflict

Wahabis as Born-Again

Bin Gregory notes that: Wahhabism is the ideology of discontent. A study just waiting to be conducted is to compare affilliation with wahhabism to lack of religious upbringing [outside of the gulf, of course]. My own observation is that wahhabism appeals more to those who were irreligious in their youth and are then “converted”, and… Continue reading Wahabis as Born-Again