Here is an interesting article about an argument seldom raised in the debate around Park51. The author blames liberals for incriminating mosques by continuing (in their attempt to calm fears) to say that the Muslim Cultural Center is not a mosque. Excellent point indeed and I should add that Muslims do this all the time by saying things like: this woman is veiled but she's quite liberal and cool, or that man is very devout but he's not an extremist. These are not inconsequential semantic concessions. The veil in the first comment is thereby a source of trouble and closed-mindedness and devotion is understood necessarily as the sign of an extremist reading of religion. The fact that Park51 is not a mosque should not be the main argument in this debate, and making it the essence of the conversation will certainly mean that mosques bear the burden of proof that they are only innocent places of worship. This kind of Islam by exclusion strips the faith of its essence and its symbols and this will make any conversation about Islam a steep mountain to climb.
The Muslim Brotherhood today unveiled its new wiki Ikhwan (Brother in Arabic), a Web encyclopedia where registered users can edit and create content about the history of the Brotherhood and search for other brothers around the world, among many other things. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with how the Muslim Brotherhood has always embraced new media technology, particularly when it enables a quick and efficient propagation of their ideology. Since the time of its founding ... Continue reading...
One thing that has become clear since the tragic events of 9/11 and is particularly
evident today in the discussion around the building of the Islamic cultural
center in New York is the lingering confusion over what constitutes a
"modera... Continue reading...
This editorial is a bit overdue, but it's refreshing to read. The media have to tread carefully when dealing with cultural and religious tensions and not carry the most incendiary rhetoric simply because readers and viewers will flock to them.
There is plenty of ugliness in the acrimonious debate around the building of the Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York City. New Gingrich has topped it all this morning when he compared Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf and other organizers of the center to Nazis putting up a sign near the Holocaust museum. This comes after a concerted campaign of systematic distortions about the history and place of Muslims in New York City and in America and the real motives behind a bridge-building ini... Continue reading...
The University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur is organizing an international conference (Nov. 29-30, 2010) on the very important topic of Islamic marketing and branding. As the conference description says, Muslims' purchasing power is growing rapidly and there is more demand for all kinds of halal products and services. This obviously raises the need to formalize the marketing sector of this industry estimated at $700b in 2009. The conference calls for papers in interesting areas like advertising,... Continue reading...
The Egyptian teleIslamist Amr Khaled has paved the way for charismatic and image-savvy imams to prosper on television. Now Malaysian television has turned imamhood into a popular talent tv show. Imam Muda (Young Imam) features 10 aspiring imams (clerics) who compete in a typical reality tv fashion to become Malaysia's imam with the strongest youth appeal. Contestants are tested on their knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and asked for fresh ideas to revert the social and cultural "decadence" ... Continue reading...
The latest Bollywood thriller Lamhaa (The Untold Story of Kashmir) has been banned in the Middle East raising concerns about free speech in the region. Here is a list of films banned in some Muslim countries over the last few years. Just like books, films are often banned in Muslim-majority countries, but you can get a bootlegged copy just about anywhere. I was in Morocco a few weeks ago and I could buy any film I wanted banned or not, already on DVD or still playing in U.S. theaters. Governm... Continue reading...
French neoconservative philosopher Alain Finkielkraut is at it again. He called the French soccer team, which exited from the world cup in South Africa in disgrace, a "group of scum who knows only one value system, that of the mafia." Finkielkraut is obviously linking the dreadful behavior of the players to the lingering social problems of France's infamous (banlieues) suburbs where many of the players on the national team grew up. He said the tournament disaster in South Africa was a direct ... Continue reading...
Here is Ramadan on the Riz Khan's interview show on Al-Jazeera English. Interesting questions about how Muslims in the West should reconcile their religious identities with their secular societies...
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
