MetaFilter posts tagged with Islam and culture

The Struggle For the Soul of Islam

reenum — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:29:06 -0800

Back in 2004, the Chicago Tribune published an investigative series about the state of Islam after 9/11. They hit many prescient topics, such as: - Islam's origins and how militant groups developed within the faith. - An anecdote about how hard line fundamentalists won over the congregation at a mosque in Bridgeview, IL. - The Saudi financing of militant groups. - Egypt's shift from moderate Islam to fundamentalism. - Tensions in Iran between hard liners and people yearning for greater freedom in society. - The growth of the International Muslim Brotherhood within the United States. - The story of Ismail Maasawabi, a Palestinian youth who became a suicide bomber in Gaza. - How Turkey has remained a moderate Muslim state. - The influence of madrassas in the growing fundamentalism in Pakistan. - The conflict between moderate and fundamentalist groups in Indonesia. - The spread of Islam in Europe. - An anecdote about an Islamic school in France. - How the children of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. balance these two cultures. -The role American foreign policy has played in the rise of fundamentalism.

Zeitoun

reenum — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:14:17 -0800

Abdelrahman Zeitoun is a Syrian American businessman who spent the days after Katrina paddling around New Orleans in a canoe, saving elderly people and feeding stranded pets. His efforts were brought to a halt when he was detained by the Bush administration on suspicion of being a terrorist. Here is an earlier story about Zeitoun's exploits. Zeitoun also wrote about his experiences during Katrina and about being detained. You can see Zeitoun talking about his ordeal here. Eggers, like with his last book, has set up a foundation in Zeitoun's name where the profits from the book will go to help Katrina's victims.

Persia

homunculus — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:05:12 -0800

Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran. "A glorious past inspires a conflicted nation."

Historical fun

Mossy — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 03:43:36 -0800

Muslim heritage is an intriguing and rather pretty website detailing contributions of a thousand years. Make sure to see the timelineand events sections. Their new "weblog" seems to be shaping up to be interesting too, have a rummage.

Write this one in your diary Anne!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 10:07:20 -0800

When Iranian paper Hamshahri (in Persian) launched a contest for Holocaust cartoons, an Israeli group responded in turn with a contest of their own for cartoons that make fun of Jews. Too bad it closed yesterday, or the Dutch branch of the AEL could submit theirs. (WARNING: some of the linked content may be offensive to readers' ethnicities, cultures, religions, or tastes.)

The New Face of World War

Gyan — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 01:38:07 -0800

World War IV As Fourth-Generation Warfare

I'm naked under this burka...

rzklkng — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:33:18 -0800

They hate Flickr for it's Freedom. An ISP (and government controlled monopoly) in the United Arab Emirates has decided to ban access to Flickr for it's citizens, apparently due to the complaints of a couple of UAE expats in the UK and Canada. Of course, said blockage won't apply to them. Most interestingly, they blame the rest of the world's non-flesh-fearing photographers as opposed to their ISP (and by proxy their own oppressive government.) Now Flickr joins Skype, AtomFilms, Friendster, AOL, and anything from Israels top-level domain, as outlawed content and services in the UAE (related study here). Well, if they don't care, why should we? Via linkfilter.

A View from the Eye of the Storm

stbalbach — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 00:35:19 -0800

A View from the Eye of the Storm. An Arab intellectual in Europe ponders on the Muslim world and comes to some interesting conclusions. Israel is a sideshow. Iran is the most dangerous country in the world.. in the long run the only way for us (the West) to win the war of terror is to force the problem nations to reform both politically and culturally.via Steven Den Beste weblog

Air-conditioned Islam

languagehat — Thu, 09 Oct 2003 10:24:26 -0800

The new Islam. Husam Tammam and Patrick Haenni in Le Monde (English version) describe the new forms of Islamic culture taking shape in Egypt. I follow the Islamic world fairly closely, but this was news to me. Does it herald an Islam that can live with the rest of the world (and vice versa)?

This entry, both with the hijab [veil] and the nashid [religious chant], into consumerism and syncretism with non-Arab models, has led to an implicit questioning of the old puritanism of the 1970s and 1980s - and above all a questioning of the principle of the ideologisation of religion. The change is important: we could trace similar patterns in the Islamic economy, increasingly affected by the ups and downs of international finance; or in Islamic charity, which has been rethought, within a framework of neoliberalism, as a security net to replace the state's withdrawal from this area (a withdrawal the Islamists have widely supported).

(Via Path of the Paddle.)

swift — Tue, 26 Feb 2002 09:44:08 -0800

Muslim states hate us because their culture is backwards and corrupt, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. The writer, tired of America-bashing, explores the inferiority complex of the Arab world: "Like Third World Marxists of the 1960s, who put blame for their own self-inflicted misery upon corporations, colonialism and racism--anything other than the absence of real markets and a free society--the Islamic intelligentsia recognizes the Muslim world's inferiority vis-à-vis the West, but it then seeks to fault others for its own self-created fiasco. Government spokesmen in the Middle East should ignore the nonsense of the cultural relativists and discredited Marxists and have the courage to say that they are poor because their populations are nearly half illiterate, that their governments are not free, that their economies are not open, and that their fundamentalists impede scientific inquiry, unpopular expression and cultural exchange." via kuro5hin

redhead — Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:52:18 -0800

Ever wonder about the Islamic Calendar? finishing up the month of Rajab about Oct 16 "The number of months with Allah has been twelve months by Allah's ordinance since the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of these four are known as sacred" (Holy Quran, ch., v 36)Muharram, Rajab, Dhul Qadah and Dhul Hijja are considered to be sacred months. Fighting during these sacred months is considered to be a sin. I am so ignorant of other cultures.

vbfg — Mon, 17 Sep 2001 09:57:15 -0800

Here's an interesting take on the whole western ideals v eastern ideals idea. The collapse of the Soviet Union as harbinger of the collapse of the west? Well, maybe not from the perspective of your average neo-libertarian. From the perspective of someone who didn't buy into the Enlightenment, from where springs both liberal democracy and marxism, then it may just look like one process. Interesting article from the 'Other Side of the Hill'.