Lovely cover- but the contents only work if you're not too hardheaded to think about them.

I met Dr. Sherman Jackson* in February of last year, shortly before "Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection" was published. I heard him speak at Harvard, and weaseled my way into where he was dining with Aminah McCloud, and a few Harvard faculty. Dr. Jackson spoke of his latest book, to be released later that spring, which deals with the development of black American expressions of Islam that are unique to the black American experience. It's more analysis than survey, so anyone unfamiliar with the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Americans, or other black American groups should read McCloud's "African American Islam" first.

Where is the Progressive Muslims in real life?

I want to know where I can find them?

I am forced to interact with Islamists since they are the only ones who extend a welcoming hand.

Where is the PMU in San Diego?

I only see MSAs at the various campuses in the area.  Does anyone have a suggestion?  Does anyone know of Progressive Muslims in the area?

Recently, I have been telling people that I converted or reverted to Islam (the preferred term of choice in many Muslim circles).  Many of my friends and associates find this revelation both surprising and amusing.  Most consider this to be simply a fad, some trend or phase in my life, but something that is not going to be permanent or long-lasting though.

My significant other has accepted my choice, though he has no intention of reverting anytime soon.  To him religion is merely a “cult with power.”

The BBC reported some good news about Chechnya after a long time today. 

There is of course a big element of tragedy in it. In 2000, Fatima Bazorkina saw television footage of her son being questioned by Russian military personnel. The questioning ended when a Russian general present ordered that he be taken away and shot. He was never seen again. It's all too common a story for the Chechens. Incidentally, the general was later given a medal.

The one good thing to have come of this particular case is that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the Russian government on it. I would hazard a guess, though, that no one will take away that guy's medal.

Since starting my current reasearch project, I've come across a few more jerks than is normal for this time of year. (Maybe the migratory pattern has changed? Should look into that.) Several were Ahmadi- haters, which inspired me to show some Ahmadi love. Hug an Ahmadi today!

Why I (heart) Ahmadis:

1. They were the first to make translations of the Qur'an readily available to American Muslims. Yusuf Ali's translation wasn't readily (i.e. cheapily and widely) available until well after Maulana Muhammad Ali's work was in the hands of many.


2. They have better written literature to introduce people to Islam; their stuff also tends to lack the psychedelic cover art that the Wahhabis put out. That stuff, however, is great when you put on Hendrix and whip out a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Awesome, man.
   

Given the discussion of community and idenity and such, I thought I would share a few pictures from my visit to the Saratoga Country Fair yesterday. I went with my best buddies Mike Knight and Kathleen Self. I don't know about them, but I was feeling mighty white among my people. All was as it should be except that there was no mayonnaise available anywhere and no visibly Jewish farmers. Yes, there were Jewish farmers in the North East.

Wafa Sultan has now weighed in as Islam's newest "voice in the wilderness," daring to speak out where no one else will. No need to go into specifics here. This has already been covered a million times with respect to Irshad Manji. The whole scheme is an intellectual three-card monty. They hawk the promise of 'the truth about Islam' but never produce the goods. Those who listen to them and promote their intellectually impoverished and historically inaccurate positions are either in on the con or marks who keep falling for it no matter how many times they've lost. But there is another level to the con of moderate Islam. This is the con we run on ourselves by rushing to speak moderately whenever non-Muslims demand it.

I want to send a thank you note to the show "What Not to Wear." Actually, I did. I wrote them way back when and thanked them for teaching me that I could wear clothes that flatter my figure and my character. I am 5-10 and weigh 170ish of well-distributed womanhood. I am the product of peasant genes on both sides of my family. I look like one of those women who could pull a plow all day long, give birth to her baby in the field, tuck the newborn in her dress to suckle, and keep plowing because she can just sense that the rain is coming soon and she's got to get the seeds in….you know that kind of woman. This is not a woman who wears certain kinds of women's clothes well. After I grew out of Punk, I never knew what to wear. I was dowdy. Then when I became a Muslim, I added long and baggy to dowdy. Long skirts, long shirts, comfortable shoes. Drab. Why? Partly because I just didn't know how to dress, partly because I just didn't know what dressing modestly meant, and partly because I had no sense of myself as a woman.

Sent July 12, 2006:

Dear Wikipedia editors,

Recently I was rather flabbergasted to discover that in your article about progressiveislam.org, a site to which I contribute, I am listed as a 'conservative'. As someone who marched in the streets of Colorado to protest Amendment 2 in the mid-nineties, spent her college years working for the Kennedy Foundation, and votes as a registered Democrat, you can imagine why I might be surprised. Since I don't think there's a conservative on earth willing to admit me to their club—of which I have no desire to be a member—with such a list of credentials, would you please remove this adjective from the article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProgressiveIslam.Org)? I'm at a loss as to why it was included in the first place.

Robert David Coolidge has posted a call for a return to "the core" of Islam to unite American Muslims in their diversity. A pdf of his piece "Reasserting the Core of American Islam" is available through Imam Zaid Shakir's website. I have some concerns with his essay, not least of which is his odd contention that Progressive Islam is dead (someone forgot to send us the memo, I guess).  At this time, I will only address his call for a unifying core for American Muslims.  I hope that readers will read his piece and add their own insights in the comments or in the reader blogs.