NYT: In Lower Manhattan, 2 Mosques Have Firm Roots

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/nyregion/14mosque.html

NYT Letters: Reverberations From a Muslim Center

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/opinion/l14mosque.html

CNN: Obama throws support behind controversial Islamic center

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/13/obama.islamic.center.support/index.html

US Muslims prep for Islamic holiday _ around 9/11

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMbpXmav21wOg-JUsAi0lnDqXP4wD9HIHJU01

via Haroon Moghul

Daniel Pipes tumbles, and trips

http://journeyintoamerica.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/daniel-pipes-tumbles-and-trips/

CNN: Issues facing Muslim youth. Tayyibah Taylor, editor of Azizah Magazine, and Shaykh Jihad Brown of Tabah Foundation

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/08/11/intv.tayyibah.taylor.part1.cnn.html

CNN: Understanding Islam - Tayyibah Taylor, editor of Azizah Magazine, and Shaykh Jihad Brown of Tabah Foundation talk about the role of Islam

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/08/11/intv.tayyibah.taylor.part1.cnn.html

via Shaykh Faraz

NYT - Obama Strongly Endorses Islam Center Near 9/11 Site

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/us/politics/14obama.html

Mayor’s Stance on Muslim Center Has Deep Roots - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13bloomberg.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp

Ramadan or not, hunger hits Pakistan flood victims

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jX_KetVCMo64AOZxSMudPWArFrJgD9HHR6700

Organizers of Muslim Center Underestimated Its Opponents - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/nyregion/11mosque.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

NYT "Dispute Over Ad Opposing Islamic Center Highlights Limits of the M.T.A.’s Powers"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/nyregion/12mta.html

Quote from Shaykh Hamza on Ramadan

All of these blessings of Ramadan come with the obvious caveat: nothing is automatic. This is not the system that God set in place in our lives and the world in which we live. Without effort and sincere trust, Ramadan can easily be just another 30 days in a year, no special moment. Even for those who fast, who mechanically deprive themselves without striving to reach deep into their souls for spiritual lessons, replenishment, and climbing, the month comes and goes with only the sense of inconvenience and then a celebration at the end. Then life goes on as it did the months of the year before. One cannot help but notice a tragedy in this: God so generously opens portals in time, truly special opportunities for us to grow, learn, and build for our Hereafter, yet people turn away from it with casual notice and perfunctory interest.

-from 'Appendix Two: Ramadan and Purification' of Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, pg. 187-188

Friendship

Friendship is often an amusement, sometimes an education, at least a reprieve from loneliness, at best a human connection of the highest and grandest kind. Contradiction is implicit is the very nature of modern friendship. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the sign of an intelligent person is the ability to keep two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time and still function. With friendship, the two contradictory ideas are these: first, friends can be an immense complication, a huge burden, and a royal pain in the arse; and second, without friendship, make no mistake about it, we are all lost.

-Joseph Epstein, Friendship: An Expose , pg. 251

Chris Hedges: The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_tears_of_gaza_must_be_our_tears_20100809/

Mosques in America: Protests, Arguments and Attacks - Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2010/08/08/us-mosque-protests.html

Battles Around Nation Over Proposed Mosques - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html

Tony Judt, Chronicler of History, Is Dead at 62

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/books/08judt.html

It's a trip, I just started getting into his work and looked up and posted his bio a few days ago...

Also see: http://www.economist.com/node/16789126