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.

Our tribe feels slightly antagonistic towards your tribe

This is a review of a review which reviews other works. That's right kids, I'm opening up an international relations/anthropological working paper wormhole.

Over at the offices of Dr. Ahmed, two of my colleagues worked very hard to create a fantastic working paper that responds to Stanley Kurtz's review of Dr. Ahmed's works. Frankie and Hailey really have written a great paper that you may download here, entitled Good Anthropology, Bad Islam?..

These are a few of my favorite excerpts:

"The next president of the United States will have to take urgent steps to repair this kind of damage. They can start by shifting a great deal of American aid from military expenditures, which only exacerbates the problem, to development projects and educational aid. For an example take Pakistan, which has received over $10 billion from the United States to fight the war on terrorism, which it has used to buy tanks, planes, and helicopter gunships used to subjugate tribes like the Wazir and Mahsud without success. If half that money, lets say, were put toward educational programs, especially curriculums that stressed the place of knowledge, or ilm, in Islam and provided an alternative to narrow minded madrassas, which are often the only choice for parents wanting to give their children an education, Muslims would applaud America. This would be tangible proof, in addition to symbolic efforts, that Americans do not hate Islam and wish to engage with its followers. This may just counter the harmful effects of the global Western media, or push coverage in a more positive direction and in turn influence Muslim media, which tends to mirror, in reverse, Western media."

"There exists a great unsatisfied demand for dialogue. American diplomats
need to be in the markets, mosques, and madrassas of Islamic countries making connections with political and religious leaders, showing respect for local cultures, and lending an empathetic ear to Muslim grievances. The United States has been unable to meet that demand, or, perhaps even worse, realize that it even exists."

"What we found when we viewed America from the outside was a country that was in
danger of losing sight of the ideals that made it great in the first place. For many of the Muslims we spoke to the perception they had once had of a open, free America with democracy, human rights, and the best medicine and education in the world had been transformed into a dark fortress that builds walls around itself, tortures people, incarcerates people indefinitely without trial, spies on its citizens, and launches one disastrous war after another. These Muslims were angry about many problems in their societies, but they were also angry this horrific vision of America had replaced their prior belief that America was a beacon of hope and democracy to be emulated in a dangerous world. Our conclusions in Journey into Islam are focused on ways to improve US relations toward the Muslim world but are also prescriptions for America to rediscover its own ideals, which will actually greatly assist its ability to deal with the world of Islam."

Mr. Kurtz, look out. Dr. Ahmed has got a whole team of young kids ready to write all sorts of reaction papers that politely disagree with you and debunk your ideas. We're like...nerdpunks, intellectually inquisitive and post modernly rebellious, but without the safety pin piercings. Well, there was that one time when I didn't feel like shelling out the money for a nose ring, but that didn't really work out so well. Point is, my colleagues are hardcore awesome. Great job guys!