Yesterday the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia announced that the kingdom’s girls are, in the eyes of men and Allah, ready to marry at the age of 10 or 12. Rebuking those who called for the servitude marriage age to be raised, he noted that Islamic law doesn’t oppress women and cited the old ones as [...]
Tags:Egypt·Iran·Islam·Islamic apologetics·Karim Sadjadpour·Max Fisher·Middle East·Mona Eltahawy·Muslim·Pakistan·patriarchy·Saudi Arabia·sex·sexism·women·Zara Jamal
In a series of just published articles not so subtly titled Murderers and Martyrs: The Difficult Struggle of Christians in the Orient, the German newsmagazine Spiegel details the sorry plight of Christians in Egypt and Pakistan. Although the facts and reporting are unfortunately accurate, this is sure to ratchet up the already considerable levels of [...]
Tags:Bernard Lewis·Christians·colonialism·Coptic Christians·Copts·Edward Said·Egypt·essentializing·Germany·imperialism·Murderers and Martyrs·Muslims·Orient·orientalism·Pakistan·persecution·radical Islam·Spiegel
The recent release of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks has had several salutary effects, not the least of which is to demonstrate there is no such thing as a unified or essentialized “Muslim world” in which various countries whose citizens call themselves Muslims subordinate their conflicting interests to idealized religious goals. The “Muslim world,” in [...]
Tags:American Muslims·Christian world·Egypt·essentializing·idealized·Iran·Islam·Muqtedar Khan·Muslim nations·Muslim world·Pakistan·reified·Saudi Arabia·WikiLeaks
Over at HuffPo Religion, Cynthia Boaz has written an earnest piece that implores Americans to think harder about Islam and not simply demonize it. I agree with much of what she says but the unfortunate fact is that her plea will fall on few or deaf ears. Not many religious or political extremists are reading [...]
Tags:authenticity·authorial intent·Christopher Hitchens·Cynthia Boaz·fear·interpretation·interpretive communities·Islam·jahiliyya·jihadist·John Calvert·Koran·madrassa·Milestones·misconceptions about Islam·multiplicities of Islam·Muslims·oppression of women·Pakistan·political extremism·reader response·religions of the book·religious extremism·religious writings·Sam Harris·Saudi Arabia·Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism·singular Islam·Stanley Fish·truth·truths about Islam·violence·zealotry
