Monthly Archives: January 2013

Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Ethics, Islamic Sciences, Scholars


The importance of Evolution and Islam debate in London

by Salman Hameed, Irtiqa’, January 7, 2013

I’m now back in US and I’m glad that I had a chance to attend the London debate, Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution? It was organized by The Deen Institute and I posted some quick thoughts on Saturday.

You can find a good summary of each speaker’s presentation at Farrukh’s blog.

Here are a few reasons why I think the London debate on evolution and Islam may turn out be a game-changer in the way Muslims look at evolutionary biology, and science, in general.

This was an intra-faith debate. There is no question that the topic was controversial. However, the conversation on evolution often gets derailed by common misconceptions and juvenile creationist ideas. The debate would have been a failure, had it been simply between biologists and those who follow Harun Yahya. There is no common ground – as Yahya’s group has no understanding of science.

The reason for the success of the debate was that almost all of the speakers (with the exception of Harun Yahya acolyte, Oktar Babuna) accepted the scientific consensus on evolution. Then the question became: Can Muslims reconcile human evolution with their faith? Now this is an important question.

Here are a few take-aways from the London debate: Continue reading Have Muslims Misunderstood Evolution →

More of the Sham of al-Sham

"Arab Spring", Journalism and Media, Shi'a, Syria, Terrorism Issue


Image source: alhadath.yemen

The demise of Bashar al-Assad continues its downward spiral with bodies strewn all over Syria in the process. What makes him hang on? Can he not see what just about every pundit outside of Syria and increasingly most Syrians see in blood red letters: mene mene tekel upharsin? Even vain Belzhazzar saw the gig was up in Babylon when those lines cracked his banquet hall. Or is he raving mad in the style of Nero, who plucked his lyre while Rome burned? Or is he just a chicken without a head, but who is still trying to bury his head in the sand?

He hangs on for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, because for the time being he can. Russia has not yet told him he has to go and the United States has basically given him leave to do whatever he wants to his own people except gas them. The military has not yet deserted him in sufficient numbers and they are, thanks to Russia, very well armed. Even the hint from the U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi that Assad has been in power long enough is not likely to move the last of the pre-Arab-Spring dictators (not counting kings, sultans and emirs for life) into retirement.

The Syria of 2013 is not that conquered by Umar ibn al-Khattab, not that of Ayyubid Saladin, nor that run over by the Mongols, nor that ruled briefly at the end of World War I by Faisal of Arabia (patron of Lawrence of Arabia and vice versa), nor that which joined the ill-fated United Arab Republic initiated by Gamal Abd al-Nasser in the 1960s. But there are indeed historically-stretched fault lines. Continue reading More of the Sham of al-Sham →

Petition for a Kahlil Gibran US Postage Stamp

Contemporary Art, Immigration Issues, Lebanon, Literature


Sign the Petition for a Kahlil Gibran US Postage Stamp!

Why Gibran?

Since his passing, fans of Gibran Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) have called for a fitting tribute to the poet, author, artist, and philosopher, who remains one of the most renowned figures in the world literary landscape. For Arab Americans and Arabs daunted by political, financial and social uncertainty, Gibran holds a valuable place as the immigrant voice in America. Arab Americans and Arabs have long ago claimed Gibran’s achievements as their own, proudly holding his life and works close to their hearts.

Perhaps this protective emotional engulfing has to do partly with Gibran’s own quest to belong. Early on in his childhood, the Lebanese born poet was rendered homeless after his father was sent to prison for tax evasion, and his property was impounded. Shortly thereafter, the family emigrated to Boston’s South End, where non-English speaking Gibran was told he should Anglicize his name, and refer to himself simply as Kahlil Gibran. Continue reading Petition for a Kahlil Gibran US Postage Stamp →

Arab Constitutions and American Freedoms

"Arab Spring", Development, Egypt, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Morocco, Tunisia


Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom; source, Library of Congress

By Anouar Majid, Tingis Redux, January 8th, 2013

The deeply contentious referendum on Egypt’s new constitution last December 2012 gave me some hope that not all is lost to Arabs and Muslims in the aftermath of the revolutions that toppled dictators in the last two years. Given the rapid Islamization of the public sphere in much of the Arab world in the last few decades, I was expecting something close to a landslide, not a small voter turnout and a modest 63.8 percent in favor of the charter. As it turns out, there are still pockets of resistance that oppose the Muslim Brothers and their agenda, even though, as the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman noted at that time, the divisions are not necessarily between Islamists and secular liberals. The fault lines in Egypt seem to be more varied than what is broadcast in the United States.

Be that as it may, the thing that concerns me the most is what the Western media is talking about, i.e., the clash between those who want a nation governed by divine law and those who don’t want religion to be the absolute reference in legislation. In November 2012, I had the opportunity to make the case for the separation of state and religion to people who participated or are actually participating in the drafting of constitutions in Morocco and Tunisia, a person who ran in the last presidential race in Egypt, members of the Tunisian parliament, a leader of a major Egyptian political party, and many others who are playing some role in the future of North Africa and the Middle East. I also explained why, at this crucial juncture in the region, Arabs and Muslims can’t do better than learn from the American constitutional process and especially the reasons for separating state and religion.

Fewer documents explain more powerfully the reasons for doing so than the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, first written by Thomas Jefferson in 1777–only a year after he drafted the Declaration of Independence–and enacted into law in January 1786, with the crucial help of James Madison. Jefferson was so proud of Virginia’s Religious Act that he wanted it noted on his epitaph. Continue reading Arab Constitutions and American Freedoms →

ISLAM IN THE COLUMBIA CURRICULUM, 1886-2012

Conferences and Talks, Islam in America, Scholars


This photo shows Jackson with his student Dhalla, the financier Henry Clews (1836-1923), and Djelal Munif Bey (d. 1919), the Ottoman Consul General in New York. The other two men are unidentified.


The Columbia University Seminar on Religion and Writing and the American Institute of Iranian Studies are pleased to announce:

ISLAM IN THE COLUMBIA CURRICULUM, 1886-2012: FROM ORIENTAL LANGUAGES TO AREA STUDIES AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Faculty House (400 West 117th St)

The one-day conference will explore the history of Islamic Studies in North America in general, and at Columbia University in particular. Its starting point is the observation that Islamic Studies slipped into the Columbia curriculum when in the late 1880s Oriental languages were first added to the fledgling University’s course offerings. For a detailed schedule, please see the conference website at
https://researchblogs.cul.columbia.edu/islamicbooks/religionwriting/conference/

The conference accompanies the exhibition “Collecting Oriental Books for the Columbia Libraries, 1886–1936” in Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The exhibition explores the beginnings of the University’s Islamic book collections, and will be on view in the Chang Octagon from December 19, 2012 until March 2013.

This conference is open to the public, but we request that you register, as seating is limited. Please RSVP to icc1886@gmail.com.

For further information contact icc1886@gmail.com.

George Nicolas El-Hage: If you were mine, 2

Contemporary Art, Lebanon, Poetry


Sculpture by Chahine Raffoul

[This is the second in a series of poems translated from the Arabic of George Nicolas El-Hage’s If You Were Mine. For the first installment, and information about the poet, click here.]

Exile

My unbelief and sins and faith
And black cares watch over me
September and March come
And I am in my room, collapsing
A nightmare wears my sorrows …

It comes to me also, comes to me
News, my dark one, threw me
Into your eyes’ hollow it threw me …

Other years I wait
December and January …

The room swells in my breast
I die slowly …

The room swells in my breast
I live through seasons, unaware,
That exile is my country.
Continue reading George Nicolas El-Hage: If you were mine, 2 →

George Nicolas El-Hage: If you were mine, 1

Lebanon, Poetry


Poems by George Nicolas El-Hage

Translated from the original Arabic by Diana Malouf and George El-Hage

Introduction by Khalil Semaan, Binghamton University.

George Nicolas El-Hage was born in Mansourieh, near Beirut, Lebanon. He was educated at the Lebanese University of Beirut and in the United States where he earned an M.A and a Ph.D. in Arabic and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University in N.Y. His Dissertation (later published into a book by NDU Press, Lebanon) was on William Blake and Kahlil Gibran: Poets of Prophetic Vision. He has taught at Yale University, Binghamton University, The Lebanese University, Columbia University, Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Defense Language Institute. His academic career was equally spent between teaching, authoring, lecturing and administration.

He published five volumes of poetry, numerous research articles, books on language pedagogy and poetry in Lebanese Dialect and Zajal. While in Beirut, El-Hage studied with and was influenced by poets like Buland al-Haidari and Khalil Hawi. His poetry betrays a marked fluctuation between a deep romantic sensitivity and a tragic existential awareness which colors his reading of current universal and regional events. The tragedy of his embattled country constitutes a dominant theme in his writings. El-Hage is a supporter of the free verse movement in Modern Arabic Poetry. Nevertheless, he still appreciates the Qasida ‘Amudiyya, the classical form of traditional Arabic Poetry. He always chooses short meters and his poetry is characterized by its musical effects.

From El-Hage’s book of poetry: If You Were Mine

From the INTRODUCTION

No, I shall not tell you that I became a poet. The day I read joy and sadness in your smile and witnessed the sun rising in your eyes, I abandoned my heart, crucified on the ivory ramparts of your face, and setting sail, I strove to navigate the deep waters of inspiration. That day, I discovered my inner self in the mirror of your pure love, and I vowed to tell you this in words. These are some of them. Continue reading George Nicolas El-Hage: If you were mine, 1 →