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There’s been a deluge of fantastic op-eds in support of the Park51 project, but this one in particular by Elizabeth Wurtzel at the Daily Beast really caught my eye. In part: I’m surprised that American exceptionalism hasn’t taught people opposing Cordoba something about the process of joining this society. The United States has been defined…

This guest post is a short story by Wajahat Ali, reprinted with permission. “I promise.” The young boy – ashamed, dishonored, and fearing the wrath of a vengeful, omnipotent Allah – promised his Pakistani immigrant father with conviction and resolve. “I promise not to eat during my fast. I will only eat at maghrib, after…

If all goes to plan, I’ll be a guest on NPR Los Angeles’ To The Point program this afternoon, hosted by Warren Olney. The topic will be “Religious Tolerance and the Mosque at Ground Zero”. Should be fun. UPDATE: Here’s the link to the show. How did I do?

This year, there’s been more divergence than usual about the beginning of Ramadan, since the visibility of the moon has been very poor (especially in the Western Hemisphere). You can get a sense of the problem from calculated visibility maps which suggest that the moon would not be visible by naked eye for most of…

The Anti-Defamation League has betrayed itself and its own principles, by coming out against the Park 51 project (which is still being characterized incorrectly as the “ground zero mosque”). Their press release (in full below) is even worse than the denunciation of the project by Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich, because they explicitly concede that…

As promised earlier in the week, here are the interview questions and answers from Sharif el-Gamal, CEO of SoHo Properties and lead developer of the Park 51 project. I am sincerely grateful to Sharif for taking the time to answer these questions and speak directly to the broader Muslim community. 1. How will you use…

Lost in all the noise and recrimination of modern Islamophobia about mosques and minarets and burkas and whatnot, is the simple fact that the vast majority of muslims, jews and christians are neighbors, and members of the same civic fabric, and act accordingly towards common interests. Case in point: A project to transform a derelict…

This is a fantastic 18-minute talk by Naif al-Mutawa, discussing superheroes inspired by Islam: (via Ezra Klein) Related – the official website of The 99. Also, this image is too subversively cool not to share, but it’s unknown who actcually painted it.

The controversy over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” project (which is not actually at Ground Zero, and of which the mosque aspect is only a tiny piece) continues unabated, with Sarah Palin entering the fray calling upon all “peaceful muslims” to “refudiate” the project because it “stabs hearts”. Of course, Sarah Palin (like myself) is…

I had no idea that Mike Tyson was a muslim until I heard last week that he had traveled to Mecca for umrah (the minor pilgrimage, identical to the Hajj except that umrah can be performed anytime during the year and does not fulfill the muslim’s religious obligation to perform Hajj at least once in…
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