As often happens, my Facebook life overlaps my Patheos life. This morning I was sipping my coffee and getting ready to head to work when I happened upon a “mathhab” discussion on a friend’s status update. What is a mathhab? It is a school of thought. Briefly, there are four major scholars whose religious rulings are commonly referred to by Muslims seeking knowledge. These scholars lived way back when, and at the time they were not consciously creating these schools... Read more
About fifteen minutes ago, MSNBC told me that they were calling the election and reporting that President Barack Obama had won and would be elected to a second term. I’m not shedding tears of joy. I’m not jumping up and down or yelling “alhamdulillah” at the TV. Wouldn’t want to wake the kids. And my mild satisfaction at the victory of President Obama is leavened by the reality of all the troubles in the world. With the re-election of President... Read more
Election day. The airwaves are full of pundits and politicians making one last desperate push to send their guy across the finish line first. Every four years we go through this with but a brief respite between campaigns. Along with the talking heads of the mainstream media, the Muslim Ummah weighs in on the candidates, for, against, and abstaining. Every time there’s an election you can be sure the battle lines will be drawn. Not Republican vs Democrat, or Libertarian... Read more
My husband and I just returned from a wake for the father of my husband’s best friend. The man who passed away had lived a long and full life, but had declined rapidly over the last two years, finally succumbing to a heart attack. He lingered for a while on life support, and after the family made the painful decision to cease all supportive interventions, he lived a few days longer, passing from this world on Thursday. My husband did... Read more
Of course, the most common water-cooler conversation today is last night’s presidential debate. Common consensus is that Governor Romney brought the battle to President Obama, while the president kind of stunk it up. The more I watched the debate, the more my own position crystallized. I’m not voting for either of them. I’m done. There are those who would criticize me for “abdicating my responsibility” but in an untenable situation, sometimes no action is possible. If you are standing in... Read more
Facebook mysteriously restored all my old notes to me yesterday. I now have access to old recipes and stuff I wrote back before I was blogging, or when I was blogging but was too lazy to click over to the other site to post. This note was one of three I wrote to try to help people approach Islam without the preconceptions that are so common. There are three notes total so I’ll post them individually: I have found that... Read more
Sometimes, when it’s been awhile since I’ve written a blog post, my editor will gently poke me to remind me that, hey, I’m a writer! She’ll inbox me with an innocuous question. “Did you see that article about such-and-such?” I, being quick on the uptake, take the subtle hint and check out all the news to see what’s topical and interesting. Of course, even before she contacted me I knew what was the most interesting, fascinating news that affected me... Read more
It’s pretty well known that I’m a Nascar fan. I didn’t see any races this weekend because I’m also an NFL fan so I was saving my limited TV time for the games on Sunday. I was watching CNN’s Headline News this morning when they broadcast a story, complete with video, about Nascar driver Tony Stewart and his penchant for grabbing women’s butts. This time the victim was the wife of fellow driver Kevin Harvick. I was really astounded at... Read more
“May Allah Guide Them, or Break Their Backs” A couple of days ago I typed this sentence in a blog post. I was referring to the people involved in making the low-budget film that portrayed Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, in a negative light. Worse than than, it was horrible, awful, blasphemous for Muslims. I got a lot of feedback from my post, much of it favorable, but there were several people... Read more
Every family has one. That relative who makes you cringe. The black sheep of the family. The trouble maker. The bad seed. The bum. When I became Muslim over nineteen years ago, I immediately became a sister to all the more than one billion Muslims on the planet. Quite lovely and touching, when you think of it. A black-skinned man in Sudan is my brother. A lady with straight black hair and pale skin in China is my sister. A... Read more
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