Daniel Pipes On Islam and Democracy

I’ve always appreciated that Daniel Pipes - unlike Robert Spencer - takes the time and effort to differentiate between Islam and what is usually termed Islamism, the political ideology of groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Given that Pipes is a staunchly right-wing figure, I found this article of his refreshing in substance. I don’t […]

Manji On Cultural Relativism, Neo-Cons and the Post-Modern Left

Irshad Manji has a solid point.
President Bush, are you reading?

Irshad Manji and An-Na’im at Heretic Muslims Conference

Too bad I couldn’t be there to attend it. The idea for the conference’s theme was inspired by An-Na’im himself who is prominently featured today at the front page of the Christian Science Monitor.

Muslim reformer’s ‘heresy’: The Islamic state is a dead end

I am so ecstatic over the publicity his immensely important scholarly work is […]

Open Letter to ‘Fitna’ Maker

Hey Geert Wilders,
I’m disappointed. Hype… so much of it, and all we got was some boring so-called film that did the usual de-contextualized cherry-picking from the Koran and showed video portions of the very Muslim lunatics who do the same shit for the sake of preaching their politically-motivated heinous garbage.
Is that all you’ve got? The […]

Mona Eltahawy: Our Own Worst Enemy

Dear Mona, thank you for saying it so eloquently and telling it like it is. I salute you!
… With a prayer for all those souls murdered in the name of my religion, I confess I am not so concerned about Europe. And I don’t care about cartoons in Denmark. Newspapers there have every right to […]

Wafa Sultan’s Recent Interview

In her first interview, she made numerous valid points even though she wrongly implied that Islam itself is the problem. In this new one though, she’s just outright angry and nasty, making a very passionate anti-Islam rant by suggesting that the terrorism supposedly started 1400 years ago.
Right.
1) Calm down
2) Stop the broad strokes of your […]

Irshad Manji to Host Prof. An-Na’im

… and the launching of his new book “Islam and the Secular State“, one I’ve been anxiously looking forward to.
The event will take place at the first of several “Conversations with Champions of Moral Courage“, a project by Irshad Manji. It’s happening in NYU’s Graduate School of Public Service.
You can read more about Irshad’s […]

Turkey Classifying Not Revising Hadith

Okay so Islamonline says this and the BBC says that. Who’s lying here?
Maybe Mehmet Gormez is just telling them different stuff. You should also check out Ali Eteraz’s perspective on this whole matter and Tom’s at Reuters Religion Blog.
The BBC’s article is apparently exaggerating stuff.

Veiled Threats In the House

Check out this post and have a look at my comment below the one made on “February 28th, 2008 1:16 pm”.
Ah, the joys of running a blog like this one.

Muslim Leaders Write ‘Harmony’ Letter To Jews

How dare they!
UPDATE:
The discussion has turned into one about Islamic reform, since it looks like Turkey is in the process of publishing a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam.

Gay Africans and Arabs Come Out Online

Andrew Heavens has written a superb piece on Arab and African gay bloggers. It mentions fellow Sudanese blogger Ali who is gay and tells the story of my post’s aftermath.
I believe that the coming out of Arab and African gays online is a good thing. It’s a wake up call to all the naive ones […]

You Started It!

“No, the Eskimos did! No wait, you started it first! Aaarrgghhh!”
I almost died with laughter when I saw this cartoon. Hilarious and pure genius! Can’t we all just get along? Why not?
Come on Danes and Jews, we promise to stop but only if you do so first. Cool? Seriously, because if you don’t, I’m telling […]

Anti-Semitism = Islamophobia

I may be generalizing but I’ve come across discussions in the blogosphere in which some Muslims accuse their critics of being Islamophobic and on the other hand, some Jews accuse their critics of being anti-Semitic when in fact those specific critics (whose views I’m very familiar with) are neither the former nor latter.
In such cases, […]

Sharia Arbitration Courts In UK

Glad to see Ali Eteraz opposing them and providing logical reasons more eloquently than I could.

Islam and Sexuality: “The Perfumed Garden” and Our Present Reality

I regularly come across too many Sudanese and Muslims who aren’t comfortable talking about sex. To them I say, chill out and stop being so uptight. I can imagine them cursing me inside their heads right now. “How dare this idiotic retard put the ’s’ word near that other holy word!”

keep looking »