Odds and Ends, The April Edition

Ok seriously? No one had anything to say about my Sadr post where I compared him to a monkey? (and oddly enough, in that photo, he does seem to possess some Planet of the Apes type features) I'm shocked. Or y'alls are just jaded. All 7 of you.

Odds and ends for the day, not important enough to deserve their own post, but interesting enough for me to mention them.

1. Snarfquack has ceased responding to my e-mails, and I feel dejected. I had been trying to get him to spell out his views a bit more, hoping it would collapse under his own logic, but no such luck. He apparently doesn't want to play that game, and I don't want to dangle any hope of my own conversion in front of him as bait.

2. A couple of weeks ago, it was the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq. Some kinds around school decided to have a "birthday" celebration and were singing out on the quad while wearing masks of the different people in the Bush administration. It was cute and all, but pointless. Until they started passing out free cupcakes. Cupcakes make everything legitimate.

3. I done gots a good grade on my Islam and Nonviolence paper, so look out for some heavy posts on those things.

4. I'm tired. Send me coffee.

Respeck!

So its been a while since I last posted. I had a really intense week last week due to the writing of a 20 page paper on Islam and Nonviolence. I had a great time writing it, but then again, it was a paper that was "due" and that's never fun. If I get good grade I'll post an excerpt or two.

So today's blog post comes to you courtesy of Daniel Pipes. He's in the Bernard Lewis-Sam Huntington school of thought, but he's good for blog inspiration.

Today I found a little thingie he wrote about some Islamic government officials pushing for an internation law that would make it illegal to trash talk people's religions. Now obviously, these officials want a law to protect Islam and not necessarily any other religion, but I think the idea of an international law protecting religion is a pretty okay idea.

A law as such shouldn't make it illegal for anyone to criticise a religion, but rather to extend laws against hate crimes to include violence against religious traditions (that is if it does not already do so) and to ensure that every religious community is being given their freedom. Now such a law may already exist, I don't feel like trolling through all the UN resolutions that have ever been passed.

Islam is completely compatible with this idea. Back in the day, Islamic societies were waaayy more progressive in preserving religious freedom for non-Muslims than the European societies were with minority faith traditions. To back up this claim, I'm going to give the link to one of the resources I used for my paper. It's a fairly extensive look at the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims, and the best characterization that honors all parties involved.

To read Islam, Nonviolence, and Interfaith Relations by M. Mazzahim Mohideen, click on the link, then scroll all the way down to the last chapter of the collection and click on that. You'll be downloading it in a PDF format.

PS. I wore that sign for a part in a play. I was not wandering around DC wearing that and blending in with some of the crazies in front of the White House. No, just some theater crazies.