Thursday, November 1, 2018
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
NYT: The Muslims of Early America by Peter Manseau
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/opinion/the-founding-muslims.html
SO GOOD!
Check out Peter's website: http://www.petermanseau.com/
and book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21423325-one-nation-under-gods
I had the good fortune of having him sign my copy of One Nation Under Gods: A New American History (2015) at the NYU Bookstore last night, alhamdullilah.
SO GOOD!
Check out Peter's website: http://www.petermanseau.com/
and book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21423325-one-nation-under-gods
I had the good fortune of having him sign my copy of One Nation Under Gods: A New American History (2015) at the NYU Bookstore last night, alhamdullilah.
H.A. Hellyer & John Milbank: "Muslims of the West: "Civilisational traitors"?" & "Christianity, Islam and the self-betrayal of the West: A response to H.A. Hellyer"
Muslims of the West: "Civilisational traitors"?
In Campaign’s Homestretch, Trump Tosses Out Ideas to See What Sticks
First there was the tax cut. Then troops were sent to the border. Now President Trump wants to end automatic citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
Frustrated that other topics came to dominate the news, Mr. Trump has sought to seize attention and galvanize his base, our correspondent writes.
8h ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/politics/midterm-elections-trump.html
Wajahat Ali: The Muslims Are Coming It’s the hate directed toward Islam that has motivated so many to enter the political arena.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/opinion/election-muslim-candidates-politics.html
It’s the hate directed toward Islam that has motivated so many to enter the political arena.
Wajahat Ali is a playwright, lawyer and contributing opinion writer.
It’s the hate directed toward Islam that has motivated so many to enter the political arena.
The Muslims are coming! For some Americans — those who support a travel ban, a wall along the Mexican border and increased restrictions on refugees, all while holding on to the ridiculous belief that the world’s 1.8 billion Muslim hate America, despite the fact that it’s home to nearly 3.5 million of us — that statement probably inspires fear. But it’s true: Nearly 100 Muslim political hopefuls have filed to run for elected office this year. Only a dozen or so ran in 2016. In July, The Associated Press interviewed Muslim candidates about this record number. The reporting revealed that it’s precisely the bigotry and hate that has been directed toward Islam — including in remarks and tweets by President Trump — that has motivated so many Muslims to enter the political arena, where they now stand poised to advance policies that directly reflect their faith and also benefit all of their constituents.
A majority of Muslim candidates are not running with their religion on their sleeves, but instead as Democrats promoting unabashedly progressive platforms. “It is important that people recognize I am someone who is a public servant working to create a better society, who just happens to be a Muslim refugee,” Ms. Omar told me in a phone interview. While she represents a district that is mostly Christian and white, she believes her constituents don’t care about her religion or identity as much as they do about whether she’ll champion their causes in Washington. These Muslim political veterans and upstarts certainly aren’t the first to demonstrate that deeply held religious beliefs can inspire a commitment to social justice. But at a time when the hypocrisy of many who claim to represent the Christian religious right is especially glaring, they provide the latest reminder that being devout doesn’t have to — and shouldn’t — go hand in hand with attacks on women, minorities and poor people. “It’s not about just being out there and flaunting your faith,” Ms. Tlaib told CNN in an August interview. “I always tell people that I’m exposing Islam in such a pivotal way, an impactful way, through public service.” Ms. Omar beat her closest Democratic rival by more than 20,000 votes while calling for the canceling of student debt, raising the minimum wage and increasing the number of refugees admitted to this country. Please disable your ad blocker. Advertising helps fund Times journalism. Unblock ads “It is part of my Islamic teaching to make sure we are charitable,” Ms. Omar told me. “A huge part of the Islamic faith is that you can’t sleep with a full belly if your neighbors and those around you aren’t sleeping with a full belly.” Abdul El-Sayed — who recently lost his race for the Michigan governor’s nomination but started a PAC to support liberal candidates — echoed the sentiment. Dr. El-Sayed calls himself “openly, honestly and unapologetically Muslim” and told me he believes “privilege begets responsibility.” That Islamic value inform his progressive politics. Nonetheless, both Ms. Omar and Dr. El-Sayed said critics have tried to use their religion against them. “Islamophobia comes with the territory,” Dr. El-Sayed said. They’ve each been hounded by the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has been traveling the country “investigating” Muslim candidates running for office. This includes disrupting their talks and asking whether they support Hamas. Ms. Omar refuses to be intimidated. “We say what we want to say,” she said. “They cannot continue to instill fear in us and stop us from achieving critical conversations.” Unfortunately, many Christian Republican voters are still encouraged to fear Muslims. “Running on Hate 2018,” a report by the nonprofit organization Muslim Advocates, examined 80 campaigns using anti-Muslim messages leading up to the midterm elections and found that almost all of the candidates engaged in these tactics are Republican. The evangelical leader Franklin Graham has said Islam is an “evil” religion. After Dr. El-Sayed lost his race, a message appeared on the Twitter page of Corey Stewart, a Republican Senate candidate from Virginia, that read, “Michigan almost elected a far left ISIS commie.” It was quickly deleted and Mr. Stewart said that it was sent by someone with access to his account. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who has been indicted on a charge of campaign finance violations, said his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, was a national security risk because of his Palestinian Muslim roots and because his grandfather was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack. (Mr. Campa-Najjar is a Christian and his grandfather died 16 years before he was born, but who needs facts? Certainly not President Trump, who warned last week, without any proof, that “unknown Middle Easterns” were among the “caravan” of Central American migrants walking toward the United States to seek asylum.) These are reminiscent of the attitudes behind the anti-Catholic hazing of the 1950s that forced John Kennedy to assuage fears that he was “not the Catholic candidate for president” but instead the “Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.” But Kennedy won the presidency, and now a quarter of United States senators and six Supreme Court justices are Catholic. Hana Ali, seeking a seat in the Tennessee legislature, is taking a cue from President Kennedy. She told me she’s running as a Democrat, a proud Tennessean and an American who also happens to be Muslim. In Tennessee, she has seen firsthand the damage of the opioid crisis and the dire consequences of her state’s failure to expand Medicaid. She doesn’t have the built-in progressive network of a liberal Detroit or New York or the luxury to ignore Trump supporters. Instead, Dr. Ali, a physician, health care executive and proud immigrant, is knocking on doors trying to win voters over with a Democratic platform, one smile and hug at a time. Win or lose, she told me, she wants her campaign to inspire her children and the next generation. “If this woman who lives in the middle of Tennessee can run for office as a Democratic candidate, then it opens up a lot of doors for a lot of Muslim women, future generations and communities who are watching from a distance,” she said. Muslims are here, they’re running for office, and a few are going to Washington, where they’ll do something many members of Congress have failed to do for a long time: serve God by serving people.
Wajahat Ali is a playwright, lawyer and contributing opinion writer.
Amid Scrutiny, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Shaped Trump’s Pittsburgh Response
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/politics/ivanka-kushner-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html
Since the shooting, the White House has emphasized Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner’s relationship to Judaism and their relationship to the president. 6h ago
The guns used in the synagogue attack were purchased legally by the suspect, an investigation found. 1h ago
Since the shooting, the White House has emphasized Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner’s relationship to Judaism and their relationship to the president. 6h ago
The guns used in the synagogue attack were purchased legally by the suspect, an investigation found. 1h ago
Kara Swisher: I Thought the Web Would Stop Hate, Not Spread It
This is what the internet has come to: thugs like Mohammed bin Salman funding tech companies to host the vitriol of thugs like Cesar Sayoc and Robert Bowers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/opinion/cesar-sayoc-robert-bowers-social-media.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/opinion/cesar-sayoc-robert-bowers-social-media.html
NYT Editorial Board: Brazil Lurches to the Right
Jair Bolsonaro joins the club of reactionary populists rising to power.
NYT: Pittsburgh Unites in Grief, Even as It Splits Over Trump’s Visit (Oct. 30, 2018)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/funerals-synagoguge-shooting-jewish.html
- Hundreds came together to mourn those killed in an anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue. Others marched in protest as President Trump paid his respects.
- If Mr. Trump’s visit was intended to bring healing, it instead laid bare the nation’s deep divisions.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
(Book) A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-Faith World: A philosophy for success through education (2014) by Matthew L.N. Wilkinson
***WINNER: Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize, International Association of Critical Realism.***
A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-Faith World provides a comprehensively theorised and practical approach to thinking systematically and deeply about Islam and Muslims in a multi-faith world. It makes the case for a contemporary educational philosophy to help young Muslims surmount the challenges of post-modernity and to transcend the hiatuses and obstacles that they face in their interaction and relationships with non-Muslims and visa-versa.
It argues that the philosophy of critical realism in its original, dialectical and metaReal moments so fittingly ‘underlabours’ (Bhaskar, 1975) for the contemporary interpretation, clarification and conceptual deepening of Islamic doctrine, practice and education as to suggest a distinctive branch of critical realist philosophy, specifically suited for this purpose. This approach is called Islamic Critical Realism.
The book proceeds to explain how this Islamic Critical Realist approach can serve the interpretation of the consensual elements of Islamic doctrine, such as the six elements of Islamic belief and the five ‘pillars’ of Islamic practice, so that these essential features of the Muslim way of life can help Muslim young people to contribute positively to life in multi-faith liberal democracies in a globalising world.
Finally, the book shows how this Islamic Critical Realist approach can be brought to bear in humanities classrooms by history, religious education and citizenship teachers to help Muslim young people engage informatively and transformatively with themselves and others in multi-faith contexts.
Reviews
"This remarkable integration of Islamic wisdom with critical realist theory energetically tackles some of modern Britain’s most pressing issues in curriculum design and community integration."
Tim Winter, Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge; Dean, Cambridge Muslim College "
"Muslim communities in the UK have important contributions to make to the local communities and broader societies in which they live. Yet to date, these communities, and Islam more broadly, are often the subject of misunderstanding and vilification. Whereas Islamic legal and political traditions have, at key points, inspired and informed Western political and intellectual traditions and British Muslims have historically made, and continue to make, important contributions at every level of British life, portrayals of their religion and identity still often seem to focus on terrorism, intolerance, and issues such as FGM and forced marriages. A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-Faith World makes a comprehensive case for a contemporary educational philosophy in our schools, with a view to playing a key role in creating mindsets that are resistant to radicalisation and encouraging of productive, intercultural relations. Dr. Wilkinson’s analysis of the history curriculum’s potential role in creating a forum for discussion to address the ignorance that leads to the misunderstanding of our communities adds real value to this important discussion, and to the wider debate around how we educate our children"
Rt. Hon. Sadiq Khan MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Shadow Lord Chancellor & Shadow Minister for London
"This book shows how the philosophy of critical realism and the Islamic tradition can meet with the type of intellectual fertility that characterised the meeting of Islamic thought with the philosophy of the ancients that sparked the European Renaissance 800 years ago. It returns to the contemporary Islamic intellectual tradition an intellectual depth and rigour that it has often lacked and it will be of enormous help to teachers of young people who wish to show their charges how Islam can be a productive member of the family of faiths in the modern age."
Professor Roy Bhaskar, World Scholar, Institute of Education, University of London
Using detailed research into the experience of Muslim boys, Matthew Wilkinson examines the intellectual, social and spiritual blocks to young Muslims engaging in British democracy and to owning the open-minded intellectual tradition once characteristic of Islam. One important remedy is a rigorous history education. Young Muslims need historical knowledge if they are to connect 'being authentically British to being seriously Muslim' and to participate fully in the civic life of Britain. Far from suggesting that British history is not important, Wilkinson argues that it is centrally important, and that its completeness requires a rigour in identifying interconnections across British, European and world history. History teachers wishing to reflect on the past, present and future relationship of Islam with Britain will find much food for thought in this book."
Christine Counsell, Senior Lecturer in History Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge "
Matthew Wilkinson combines broad and deep scholarship with practical experience and penetrating philosophical analysis in this survey of Islam in a multi-faith world. He presents a persuasive case for a new theoretical approach to education regarding Islam and Muslims in Britain today and illustrates its application in some humanities subjects. His telling remarks on religious education and citizenship, in particular, are very topical and relevant. If fully adopted, his approach could transform education in our schools and the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in our society".
John Keast OBE, Chair, Religious Education Council of England; Wales
"Matthew Wilkinson is an expert in the education of young Muslims as well as in the teaching of Islam in UK schools. His book delivers exceptional insights into our secondary education system and is of value to anyone interested in reflecting on the challenges raised by living in contemporary multi-faith Britain. Dr. Wilkinson’s book makes an important contribution to today’s debate about how we educate our children and I have no doubt that it will become a standard work in the fields of education, Islamic and interfaith studies."
Dr. Edward Kessler MBE, Executive Director, Woolf Institute, Cambridge
"In our rapidly changing world all of us, Christians and Muslims alike, need as much help as we can get in relating what we believe to the often confusing problems of daily living. The traditions in which we stand, properly understood, give us stability and enrichment to approach these, but they still require wisdom in application. I warmly commend this book for the thoughtful contribution it offers to the gaining of that wisdom for both teachers and learners."
Lord Richard Harries of Pentregarth, Former Bishop of Oxford
"This book makes an important contribution to an ongoing debate both about the way subjects on the curriculum are framed and about how the diversity of contemporary British society can and does renew and refresh that debate. Dr. Wilkinson is well positioned to understand and reflect the implications of the social cohesion debate as it impinges on curriculum reform and has, here, identified many of the factors which could make a difference to how that debate is at present conceived. As such, this book is to be very much welcomed and will start a new and engaging phase of discussion at a critical moment for fresh thinking about the way that faith in general, and Islam in particular, are addressed in our schools."
Mary Earl, University Lecturer and Convenor, Initial Teacher Training in Religious Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
"With his expertise and experience, Matthew Wilkinson’s thoughtful narrative is valuable reading for learners, educators and policy-makers, and all others who seek to deepen mutual understanding and tolerance between believers in contemporary, multi-faith Britain. I highly commend it to all."
Rt. Hon. Simon Hughes MP, Minister for Justice and Civil Liberties
About the Author
Dr Matthew L.N. Wilkinson is a Research Fellow at Cambridge Muslim College, Affiliate Lecturer at the Woolf Institute, Cambridge and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London.
The book is borne out of the author, Matthew Wilkinson’s, 23 years of humanities teaching of young Muslims and practice and research-based experience of Islam. Matthew embraced Islam in 1991 after reading theology at the University of Cambridge, where his Part 1 exam was recognised by a scholarship. After gaining a traditional Islamic education and British teaching qualifications (QTS secondary history), Matthew taught history, religious studies and citizenship in mainstream and Islamic faith schools for 15 years. Thereafter he gained a PhD on an ESRC studentship at King’s College London on the relationship between history curriculum and British Muslim boys. More recently, Matthew has lectured in history and religious education at the University of Cambridge. He has also acted as an expert witness in Islamic theology and Muslim identity.
Product details Series: New Studies in Critical Realism and Education (Routledge Critical Realism) Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (November 4, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415813190
ISBN-13: 978-0415813198
https://www.crcpress.com/A-Fresh-Look-at-Islam-in-a-Multi-Faith-World-a-philosophy-for-success-through/Wilkinson/p/book/9781138898813
Video with the author: https://vimeo.com/126697873
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