While exploring the public articles on the wonderful Oxford Islamic Studies Online website just now, I came across this valuable overview of Shariah by William & Mary professor Tamara Sonn. A while back I wrote some (far less inspired) entries on other, comparably complex and misunderstood topics in Islam for a reference work (the table of contents of which is unfortunately and inexplicably nowhere to be found online), so I appreciate the sophistication of Sonn's piece. It's the scholarly equivalent... Read more

Interesting commentary by David Weigel of the libertarian Reason Magazine on the psychological pull exerted by the racial dimensions to Obama's victory even on his ideological foes. We all saw Colin Powel, Jesse Jackson and other prominent African-America leaders get choked up. Deep down even GOP stalwarts know that McCain was on the wrong side of history this time. (I wonder if even Justice Clarence "Racism's History" Thomas cheered in his lonely chamber when the results came in.) Obama's hard-nosed... Read more

Willow Wilson has a thoughtful and eloquent review of that novel on Hazrat Aisha that made headlines, The Jewel of Medina. Read more

As if to prove the theological contention that God’s mercy cannot not be earned, Akram’s Razor somehow made it onto Beliefnet editor Dilshad Ali’s Top 10 Islam blogs. There are so many far smarter, funnier, better-writtens blogs out there, so I’m flattered and suprised, and of course it’s ultimately just one person’s opinion. Perhaps this is some variant of the Seinfeld “Bad Seed” phenomenon in the Blogopshere where the laziest, most resolutely unprofound commentator is assumed to, despite all outward... Read more

Speaking of whites rioting… Gang angry at Barack Obama win beat me, says Staten Island teen A black Muslim teenager said he was beaten on Election Night by four white men furious that Barack Obama was elected the nation's next President. Ali Kamara, 17, was walking home when four white men leaped from a gold car and started kicking him and smashing him with a baseball bat at about 10 p.m. near his Staten Island home. Very disturbing, though not... Read more

An interesting point, though to be fair they're ahead in terms of female heads of state (for that matter, so are Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, India, …). Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again – Yahoo! News Overnight, Americans did something their harshest critics in Europe have yet to do: elect a person of color as head of state and commander in chief. That gives U.S. citizens some bragging rights, even if a lot of us would just... Read more

Rain down, oh Lord, a righteous schlacking at the voting booths that the Neocon chicken hawks and Bible-thumping zealots may be laid low for the ceaseless horrors they have visited upon the nation over the last 8 years. And that the GOP may learn enough from this huge trauma to turn away from this vicious, know-nothing counterfeit conservatism.  Amen. Read more

Speaking of Islamophobia, check out Jews On First's hard-hitting examination of the dishonesty of the film by "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West", the pseudo-documentary by all your favorite Islamophobic hate-peddlers that was recently mailed to millions of people. The report is entitled "Rebutting Obsession." Its subcaption is "Historical Facts Topple Film's Premise That Violent Muslim Fundamentalists are Nazis' Heirs, Expose its Fear-mongering."  Need I say more? Kudos and thanks to our friends at Jews On First for taking... Read more

Millions of Americans have been deprived their foremost civic right of voting due to felony convictions, even long after having paid their debts to society. America is alone among the world’s democracies in tolerating a shameful state of affairs where, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, An estimated 3.9 million Americans, or one in fifty adults, have currently or permanently lost the ability to vote because of a felony conviction. 1.4 million persons disenfranchised for a felony conviction... Read more