islam

CultureApril 17, 2012

No Fireworks, Only Candles: Our Work as Americans and Muslims

By Ayesha Mattu

I have no desire to set off fireworks, jump into a car and yell out the window while waving fists and flags. If I were in New York City, I would light a candle at the memorial and keep vigil. In San Francisco, I pray in a room lit only by a streetlamp, filled with sadness for those who have died in America, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and apprehension at the terrorism-related deaths to come. Our work as Americans and Muslims is far from done.

Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

Bin Laden’s Death Does Not Prove that Torture Works

By Sarah Sentilles

The assassination of Osama bin Laden has revived the so-called torture debate. Even if it did help in his capture (which it didn’t), torture is still wrong.

Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

American Indians Irate over Bin Laden Code Name “Geronimo”

By Johnny P. Flynn

The conflation of Geronimo with bin Laden once again illustrates the failure of the U.S. to consider its own history in fighting insurgent wars.

Archive, Christian Nationalism, Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

Is Norway’s Suspected Murderer Anders Breivik a Christian Terrorist?

By Mark Juergensmeyer

If Anders Behring Breivik isn’t a Christian terrorist, then the same can be said of Osama bin Laden and many other Islamist activists—whose writings show that they were much more interested in Islamic history than theology or scripture and imagined themselves as re-creating glorious moments in Islamic history in their own imagined wars.

(A)theologies, Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

Breivik Sought to Create ‘Mirror Universe’ of EU

By Haroon Moghul

Breivik’s racism is different from others that came before. It’s belonging to a generic European Christianity that makes you good, and your opposition to Islam that makes you smart.

(A)theologies, Sexuality/GenderApril 17, 2012

Coming Out Twice: Sexuality and Gender in Islam

By Susan Henking

As scholar Scott Kugle knows well, to be both Muslim and gay means the possibility of having to “come out twice”—with the likely chance of encountering either homophobia or Islamophobia (or both), depending on the context.

(A)theologiesApril 17, 2012

Why 9/11 Changed Everything Nothing

By Paul Harvey

The cliché that 9/11 “changed everything” is nowhere less true than in the post-9/11 impulse to declare war immediately. War was a choice as well as an echo: a choice Americans made, and an echo of how Americans have made decisions in times of previous conflict.

CultureApril 17, 2012

Looking at Death: Images of 9/11, Before, During, and After

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

What might it mean for a synagogue, a church, a mosque, or a temple, to set up a video screen in its sanctuary and play these images of death from September 11—and then turn around and respond to them? What reinvented rituals might result from a ritualized, contextualized reception of these images? Such communal framing gets us beyond the questions of morbid voyeurism because it eliminates the one-way dimension and places images within a social setting. It further allows us to reflect and come to terms with dying, thereby stirring the potential for a good death.

Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

“Who Was Muhammad, Was He Violent?”: Teaching Islam Ten Years
after 9/11

By Abbas Barzegar

Whether we like it or not, Islam has become an indelible part of the culture and consciousness of 9/11. Ironically, the questions I regularly encounter have not actually changed much over the last ten years: Who was Muhammad, was he violent? What is Jihad? Why the scarves?

Politics/LawApril 17, 2012

The War on Terror is Over; Tahrir Buried It

By Mark Juergensmeyer

Assuming religious politics will play a significant role in the new government after the elections, will it be radical, moderate, or just the familiar gridlock experienced by most democracies?