Most of you (even desis) will no doubt have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’m really psyched to have discovered this treasure trove of two decades of back issues of the unique Kathmandu-based magazine on pan-South Asian politics and culture, Himal Southasian. Haven’t read it in a while, but I used to read it fanatically. Need to resubscribe. Those of you South Asian expats or 2nd-gen desi-whatevers looking for a stimulating and cutting edge alternative to the MSM... Read more
I have a post at Religion Dispatches on the perverse ironies of the unspoken complacency with which the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is often celebrated. Here’s the final paragraph. Religion Dispatches – MLK’s ‘Dream’ Unrealized and Undigested It seems to me that given America’s glaring gaps today in economic justice at home and principled, constructive involvement in the outside world, King’s "Dream" speech should if anything play as a stinging reminder of how little of his mission... Read more
Do read this bracing and lyrical meditation on the misappropriation of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in American popular culture and politics. Remembering Martin Luther King: Beyond the Sanitization of a Dreamer | The Zeleza Post Powered by ScribeFire. Read more
A few months ago I blogged about a disturbing case in the 1960s that has come to light of FBI officials conspiring to send somebody to jail for a crime they knew they hadn’t committed. Here’s more haunting food for thought from the witch hunts of a previous and far more geopolitically tense era about vague accusations of Islamic extremism. In the late 1960s, elements in the government (i.e., the FBI) deliberately withheld evidence that would have exonerated the Reverend... Read more
Richard Silverstein over at Tikun Olam posted a gutsy debunking of the latest "evidence" being held by war-mongerers up as proof of Hamas (and, by unspoken but unmistakable extension, all who support the Palestinian right to self-defense) being frothing at the mouth with genocidal anti-Jew hatred. This kind of hysterical and offensively dehumanizing rhetoric is not only misleading and dis-informative vis-a-vis the realities on the ground in the conflict, but highly counterproductive to the cause for peace in that it... Read more
Am I imagining it, or is the man who orchestrated the disastrous rightward shift of the Democratic Party and who while in office often seemed to focus more on expedient posturing and poll-watching accusing Obama of being too centrist?!? The "liberal" president who did all but re-run Reagan’s infamous "welfare queen" ads in his quest to make the Democrats tough on the poor…sorry…"welfare abuse". Who abandoned a distinguished and eminently moderate appointee for a civil rights post and personal friend... Read more
Aasem at Non Skeptical Essays has a stimulating post on Islamic Law. Here’s an excerpt from Dynamics of Change in Islamic Law (I): Normative Pluralism: In my view, the most important crisis that Muslim society miserably failed to handle during Islam’s sojourn into modernity is diversity. By diversity, I mean religious heterogeneity in any form, may it be the pronouncement of legal injunctions, opinions regarding societal norms or something as personal as individual religious practices. I don’t have the eloquence... Read more
Have only written one piece so far, but I’m am now pleased to call myself a contributor to the interesting new progressive blog on religion Religion Dispatches. My first post is on the topic of "UK Muslims & the "War on Christmas": Interesting and ironic news from the British front of the "War on Christmas." In the UK, some seemingly unlikely champions for the Christmas spirit are entering the lists. Muslims and Hindus are urging people not to throw the... Read more
While I’m at it, a month earlier Juan Cole had wrote an astute assessment of “Combating Muslim Extremism” and how abysmally Washington is failing in this area for all the tough talk, also The Nation. Some notable excerpts: The Republicans are playing Russian roulette with America’s future with their bigoted anti-Muslim rhetoric. Muslims may constitute as much as a third of humankind by 2050, forming a vast market and a crucial labor pool. They will be sitting on the lion’s share... Read more
There’s an insightful article in the January 7, 2008 issue of The Nation by Gary Younge entitled "In Europe, Where’s the Hate?" on the abject hypocrisy of some of the shrillest voices in Western societies baying for Muslim blood…err, I mean… speaking out against ‘Islamofascism’ The article begins as follows: Over the past year or so the rural Italian idyll of Colle di Val d’Elsa has played host to a bitter battle for Enlightenment values. On one side, the hamlet’s... Read more
Akram's Razor
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