Meet the Islamic Philosophers. Arabic philosophy sought to reconcile the science and empiricism of Aristotle, the metaphysics of Neoplatonism, and the revelations of the Holy Qur'an. From the first thoughts of Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, to the 20,000 pages of Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, the influence of these Muslim polymaths profoundly shaped Western thought. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis on Mar 31, 2009 - 12 comments

"Let them arrest me". Vehemently anti-Islamic Dutch MP Geert Wilders was scheduled to travel to London tomorrow to attend a screening of his controversial short film Fitna (wiki, mefi). Yesterday however, the UK's Home Secretary notified Wilders that his presence in the UK would pose a "serious threat to [...] public security" (PDF), presumably intending to refuse his entry into UK. Wilders plans to board the flight anyway, daring British authorities to arrest him. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Feb 11, 2009 - 83 comments

Fitna , a Koranic term translated as 'strife', shows footage of the attacks on the US in September 2001, and images of the bomb attacks on London and Madrid. Geert Wilders, Dutch politician and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has called his just-released Fitna a ‘respectable film’. He admitted that Muslims may not be happy with it, but emphasised that he had always stuck to the facts. He said he believes that the film is also ‘one thousand kilometres within the framework of the law’. [more inside]
posted by DreamerFi on Mar 27, 2008 - 48 comments

Ancient manuscripts lost and found, Nazis, academic backstabbing, religious fundamentalism - something for everyone in this story. (And count on Spengler for some controversial thoughts on what it all means)
posted by IndigoJones on Jan 15, 2008 - 20 comments

Five year old boy sings the Koran. So beautiful.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Oct 28, 2007 - 53 comments

Religious popular music from Upper Egypt Munshidin sing devotional songs, Tartil (a melodic recitation of the Qur'an), and Tawashih, which uses call-and-response . One of a number of interesting music resources at bolingo.
posted by Abiezer on Dec 24, 2006 - 12 comments

Keep your balls in check: The Saved Sect Website calls for Muslims to stop supporting The World Cup, as "[...]soccer plants the seeds of nationalism, and is therefore part of a 'colonial crusader scheme' to divide Muslims and cause them to stray from the vision of a unified Islamic identity."
posted by naxosaxur on Jul 3, 2006 - 47 comments

Osama bin Laden, littérateur and new-media star. A thought-provoking analysis of bin Laden's adept use of Koranic language and the Internet by Bruce B. Lawrence, an Islamic scholar at Duke who edited a new anthology of bin Laden's public statements called Messages to the World. The Western media -- says the millionaire mass-murderer formerly trained as a useful ally by the CIA via Pakistan's ISI -- "implants fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States. It means that what the enemies of the United States cannot do, its media are doing!" Know thy enemy. [via Arts and Letters Daily.]
posted by digaman on Nov 3, 2005 - 57 comments

The Queen of Sheba was a legendary beauty from the 10th century BC. She travelled to see Israel's King Solomon, bearing his son, Menelik (said to have transported the Ark of the Covenant to Auxum, Ethiopia), is mentioned in the Bible and Koran, is a muse to poets and artists through the ages and is "viewed as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and a foreteller of the cult of the Holy Cross". Little is known about her origins although stories are common through Persian, Ethiopian, Arabian & Israeli traditions. Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia claimed direct descent from her. She is said to have possibly lived in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan or Somalia. But recent archaeological work suggests she may be from further away than the legends describe.
via [much, much more here]
posted by peacay on May 19, 2005 - 11 comments

How Do You Say ASSALAMU ALAIKUM in Gaelic? Plans have been announced in the Irish Republic to translate the Koran, Islam's most sacred text, into Irish. The ambitious project aims to bring Ireland's Gaelic-speakers and Muslim communities closer together, Leslie Carter of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin said.
posted by turbanhead on Mar 11, 2003 - 14 comments

New scholarship on the origins of the Koran claims that the Koran has been misread and mistranslated for centuries. For example, Islamic martyrs are not rewarded in paradise with "virgins," that's a mistranslation. Oops. (NYT member: metafi, password: metafi)
posted by homunculus on Mar 1, 2002 - 36 comments

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, Muslims, & the Quran
"This Islamic guide is for non-Muslims who would like to understand Islam, Muslims (Moslems), and the Holy Quran (Koran). It is rich in information, references, bibliography, and illustrations. It has been reviewed and edited by many professors and well-educated people. It is brief and simple to read, yet contains much scientific knowledge."
posted by quonsar on Oct 13, 2001 - 16 comments

So what does the Koran say? After hearing the Imam Muzammil H. Siddiqi of the Islamic Society of North America read from the Koran and pray at this morning's prayer service at the National Cathedral, I was sincerely moved. I also realized just how little I knew about the teachings of Islam. I found this beautiful piece of free online Koran software tonight. I'm going to do some reading, and enlighten myself.
posted by tpoh.org on Sep 14, 2001 - 15 comments

From the "When designers grab random images" file: Many Muslim taxi drivers in Seattle are going to refuse to pick up people from a rave tonight. The rave promoters used excerpts from the Koran on the flyer announcing the event. "We had no idea what any of it meant...It looked good on there."
posted by gluechunk on Feb 17, 2001 - 5 comments