Category Archives: Islam and Christianity

The Latino Ummah

Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Terrorism Issue


Latino Muslims Define Their Identity 10 Years After 9/11

by Jorge Luis Macias, The Huffington Post, September 9, 2011

It has been 10 years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but many Latino Muslims say there is still a lack of understanding about their religion and its practices.

A 2007 study conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that Latino Muslims accounted for an estimated 4 percent out of a total of about 2.5 million Muslims living in the U.S. But a look at the individuals behind those numbers reveals a group of people who say they have become ambassadors for Islam despite the common stereotypes they say are still leveled by many in the U.S.

According to the Pew findings recounted in a 2011 report, while 40 percent of the U.S. population believed Muslims in the U.S. support extremism, only 21 percent of U.S. Muslims said there is support for extremism among them in the U.S.

“The first misconception is to associate violence with Islam,” said Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a Muslim chaplain and attorney born in Puerto Rico. “Another misconception is that somehow Islam aspires to some sort of world domination, and that his followers want to impose Islamic Law in the countries in which they live, which couldn’t be further from the truth.” Continue reading The Latino Ummah →

Muslims of Color

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bible and Holy Land, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islamophobia 101


press release says it all:

To the American people and all others who may read this child’s coloring book, We Shall Never Forget is designed to be a tool that parents can use to help teach children about the facts surrounding 9/11. This book also describes basic freedoms in America. We suggest parental guidance. As the 9/11 events are shown countless times on national media, this book will help children understand the meaning of these events. The book was created with honesty, integrity, reverence, respect and does not shy away from the truth. In this book you will see what happens to a terrorist who orders others to bomb our peace loving wonderful nation.

Here is propaganda so blatant and smiley gross that it deserves a place alongside the insidious emulation of Lenin by the Soviets and idolization of dictators the world over. The cover image is an interesting spin on the separation of church and state in our land of the free: here we see the tattered American flag flying above a cross illuminated by a beam of light from above, at the feet of which lie a firefighter’s helmet and police hat. To label the libel in this colorfully designed “Kid’s Book of Freedom” a “Graphic Coloring Novel” strikes me as a misspelling; is it not more aptly named a “Pornographic Coloring Novel,” to be rated so for the sensational violence mongering rather than any out-of-place showing of body parts?


Continue reading Muslims of Color →

Discounting on Apocalypse

Apocalypse Watch, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Luke R. E. Publican


There is the real world which we see nightly on the news, even if filtered through journalistic hubris in which people are killed, maimed, maligned and the gamut of human interaction. Then there are the “prophets” who keep cropping (usually crapping) up with visions of impending doom. The recent prayer event that Rick Perry attended was organized by some of the most bizarre religionists in our country. As noted on yesterday’s Fresh Aire, some individuals are crusading a brand of “spiritual warfare” that comes close to the real thing. These include what most normal people, including the vast majority of Evangelical Christians, would call nut cases: charismatic preachers who claim visions from God, but somehow need more money to get the vision across.

I visited one of these “prophet” sites of a fellow named Sid Roth. He looks like the kind of guy who you would meet at a Jewish Community Center and his site is all about Jews, that is all about how to convert Jews to his version of Christianity. You have to wonder about a flashy website that has a banner declaring “It’s supernatural!” as a registered trademark. There is also that “Messianic Vision”, which is blind to what most Christians believe and certainly to just about everything rational in the world today. One thing that is all over the site is the “Donate Now” prompt. However, I do find it ironic that one of the DVDs for sale at a discount is entitled “Will America Survive 2011?” Is it being discounted so more people will buy and view it (which I somehow doubt as a financial move) or because thus far it is surviving and probably will, so why not try to unload the DVDs now. Indeed there are people stupid enough in our land that will buy this DVD after 2011, just as those who predict the end of the world (or think it already ended) always keep a few followers.

A short surf of some of the sites on the network of media prophets came up not only with Sid (I do wish he were a professional comedian with that first name) but with a Faisal Malick, a Muslim who converted to Christianity and now tries to convert Muslims with slick media programs. Continue reading Discounting on Apocalypse →

Be careful what you pray for

Anthropology/Sociology, Bible and Holy Land, Humor and Satire, Islam and Christianity


Today’s New York Times contains a commentary by Timothy Egan on “Rick Perry’s Unanswered Prayers.” Perry, who today is declaring his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, has been governor of Texas since his predecessor George W. Bush left that office to become president. Despite the fact that both Bush and Perry wear religion on their sleeve, the front of their chest, indeed on just about every bit of clothing (I am not sure about tattoos), both seem to have a poor record of getting their God to do their bidding. Unless this God west of the Pecos has a wicked sense of humor, I think the debacle of the Iraq War is an answer only to the prayers of arms dealers and Blackwater International. But Perry has no problem putting the ball (like the economy or the drought in Texas) in Jehovah’s court. Last April he declared a three-day prayer for rain. Not a drop has fallen since. Now he thinks the time is ripe for another Texas governor to run for president. Let us all hope he does not have a prayer.

I mention this goobernatorial prayer fiasco as a contrast to an istisqā’ (Islamic prayer for rain) that I witnessed in the highlands of Yemen in the spring of 1979. At that time, when I was conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a highland valley full of tribesmen and women (with nary a terrorist in sight, as is the case today), the usual spring rains were late in coming. There is within Islam a specific prayer that the community can offer up to Allah in times of drought. I have no way of knowing whether Allah has a better track record of sending rain than Jehovah does in Texas, but here is my own experience. Continue reading Be careful what you pray for →

Gems of Arabic Literature #2: Political Advice

Islam and Christianity, Islamic History, Orientalism


With the virtual flood of book digitalization quite a few obscure books are now available online either at archive.org or through Google. I recently came across a gem: a translation of a high school Arabic text used in Aden by the British at the start of the 20th century. The title page was shown in a previous post. The full text can be downloaded as a pdf here. The excerpt above offers some sound political advice, relevant even to leaders today.

Dueling Manifestos

Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue


A manifesto for a Muslim-free Europe, an Infidel-free Middle East

by Imran Khan, Al Jazeera, July 24, 2011

I have just finished reading a terrifying document. It’s called 2083: A European declaration of Independence.

It’s full of advice for the budding Christian martyr. Handy tips on how to build bombs and make poisons; on how to use video games to hone your shooting skills.

I came across it on a far right website.

At 1511 pages long it’s a work of extreme prejudice – against Muslims predominantly.

Ultimately, the author wants a Muslim-free Europe.

The author’s name is Andrew Berwick. He datelines the document London 2011. He spent 3 years of his life writing it and clearly believes, with a passion, every single word.

The Norwegian media claim this document is written by Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect behind the brutal attacks in Norway.

At the end of the book are pictures of Breivik himself, dressed as a blond haired and blue eyed hero of the Knights Templar.

Christian crusaders, the book suggests, have returned and are alive, well and living in London.

His last diary entry is dated 22 July 2011. There seems to be little doubt that Berwick is Breivik.

I have covered extremists of all hues for a decade now. What worries me about this document is the parallels that exist between this and another document found in a Manchester, United kingdom flat in 2005.

That document was dubbed the ‘al-Qaeda military manual’. It has a similar theme to the 2083 document – An infidel-free Middle East; Handy tips on bomb making, etc. Continue reading Dueling Manifestos →

Tabsir Redux: The Land and the Book #1: Looking for an Omnibus?

Bible and Holy Land, Islam and Christianity, Lithographs, Palestine, Travel


Jaffa from Thomson’s “The Land and the Book”

Almost 150 years ago one of the most popular travel accounts of the Holy Land was penned by an American missionary named William M. Thomson. Born in Ohio, my own home state, the 28-year old Thomson and his young bride arrived in Lebanon in 1834 as Protestant missionaries. This was a mere 15 or so years after the first American missionaries had made the Holy Land a mission field. At once an entertaining travel account and Sunday School commentary on the places and people of the Bible, this may have been one the most widely read books ever written by a Protestant missionary.

Reading Thomson is like reading one of the early English novels. The language is less familiar, although still thoroughly Yankee and the devotional tone has long since disappeared for a readership buying out The Da Vinci Code as soon as it hit the bookstores. The biblical exegesis, literalist yet frankly pragmatic at times, is intertwined with astute and at times humorous accounts of the people Thomson met along the way. But the style is not at all dry or discouragingly didactic. From the start Thomson engages in a dialogue with the reader, making the text (which stretches over 700 pages in the 1901 version) a rhetorical trip in itself.

Here is one of the forgotten books of a couple generations back. Easily dismissed as an Orientalist book, in the sense propounded and confounded by Edward Said, it is nevertheless a very good read. With this post I begin a series to sample the anecdotes and local color presented by Rev. Thomson. The times have indeed changed, but such textual forays into the night reading of a previous generation of Americans are well worth the effort. Let’s begin with the author’s own invitation. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: The Land and the Book #1: Looking for an Omnibus? →

On Mahometism, 1833 style: #2

Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia, Lithographs, Muhammad, Orientalist Images


A History of the Church, p. 95

One of the books owned by a great, great aunt of mine in Cleveland was A History of the Church, etc., published in 1833. In a previous post, I offered some excerpts from its coverage of “Mahometanism.” The author is a certain C. A. Goodrich, who is decidedly Protestant and as unfriendly to Roman Catholicism as he is to Islam and Hinduism. Near the end of the book is a section entitled “The Story of the World” by Josiah Conder, originally published in the Missionary Annual for 1833. Its comments on the various religions, including Islam, is quite fascinating, again as a reflection of a time when the United States was barely half a century old. Continue reading On Mahometism, 1833 style: #2 →