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City of Brass

My friend Ali Eteraz calls the Inauguration a “secular hajj” for America: The theological comparison isn’t far-fetched. Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Rorty all suggested that politics is America’s civil religion. This makes the constitution the country’s holy text. The division of government into a legislative, executive and judicial branch is an earthly version of a…

My friend Razib has started an interesting debate on the meaning and value of the concept, “Judeo-Christian” – his initial post attracted a vigorous discussion, a response from Ross Douthat at The Atlantic, and lively discussion at Talk Islam. Frankly I think that the phrase “Judeo-Islamic” is a more defensible construct (agreeing with Razib’s general…

The following is a statement of principles written by Richard Silverstein of the blog Tikkun Olam and other American Jewish writers (many of whom contributed to the landmark collection of essays, A Time to Speak Out) regarding the ongoing Israeli operation in Gaza. As human beings, we are shocked and appalled at the mass destruction…

As Israel’s war against Gaza rages on, the foreign media must watch from the sidelines. Israel has barred access to the Gaza strip for journalists and human rights monitors, as part of an attempt to impose political control on the reporting. The closest that the foreign media can get to the action in Gaza is…

Having just returned from an overseas trip, I am particularly sensitive to the issue of racial profiling of muslims by airlines. Or more colloquially, “flying while brown”. There are any number of innocent things you can do on a plane that only seem suspicious when done by a brown; be they muslim or Sikh or…

The idea of the state of Israel is one I support wholeheartedly. A nation for the Jewish people, a homeland where they can engage in the same right of self-determination and chart their own destiny. However, this right and this dream cannot be attained at the expense of the same dream and rights of other…

I’m sure that was the pessimsitic sentiment in some circles. Such naysayers were proven wrong, of course – or at least, mostly wrong: WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) — Portions of the frostbitten United States are feeling the coldest air so far this winter and forecasters predict the cold snap could extend into the weekend. Frigid…

It’s difficult to leave Africa – literally, our flight kept getting delayed and we barely made our connection to Amsterdam. But also in a philosophical sense, it is hard to leave, because some piece of Africa stays with you. This was a fantastic, if grueling, trip, and it definitely affected my perspectives with regards to…

As I discussed in an earlier post, free media and unbiased media are not the same thing. Current coverage of the situation in Gaza by American press is a perfect example of this discrepancy. But an op-ed by Professor Rashid Khalidi in the New York Times yesterday provided a refreshingly frank look at the crisis.…

Typically, it is quite difficult for me to fast outside of the month of Ramadan…I love my coffee WAY too much (it’s now decaffeinated, though). But, there are a few days during which I am happy to do so. Two of those days are here. They are the ninth and tenth day of Muharram, the…
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