From the NY Times:

Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father.
“Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads.

Overdoing it abit. As quoted at this website http://thekenoshakid.blogspot.com/2008/06/bacongate.html

Supposedly, “The View” had its “Best of Breakfast” segment set up before it booked Michelle Obama as a co-host for today’s show. But such a huge deal was made out of the Obamas’ lust for bacon, that I’ve started wondering if it was intended as a denial of the rumor that Obama is a Muslim.

Is the Obama campaign in danger of overdoing the I-am-not-a-Muslim routine? After all, it’s not bad to be Muslim.

I have noticed that a number of ethnic and religious groups have no problem expresing thier views in a way that identifies who they are (i.e., writing Ed/Op pieces, wearing t-shirts that identify their political affiliation — Jews for McCain, Catholics for McCain, Catholics for the Environment,etc.). But, Muslism are consistnetly in the shadows. The other day I was wearing a Muslims for Obama shirt that I made myself (since the Obama campaign doesn’t sell them online) and was accosted, not by a non-Muslim but by a fellow Muslm.

Karachi at dusk

We've had a lot of angst, and whatnot about the events in Karachi. Please do read the piece below. Kamal is a friend, too, but he's evolved into one of the most objective observers I know in the business--anywhere. [Yes, more so than I.]

Mohsin Hamid’s latest op-ed is pretty good. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to know how things looked/look from the perspective of the every day life in Pakistan.

"Civil Society" has become the new touch phrase in Pakistani politics. And it’s gotten to the point where people express the same kind of cynicism about it that is usually reserved for words like "Islamist", and "War on Terror", and, well, "Progressive Islam". A friend on one of our alumni mailing lists was getting pretty disgusted by Nawaz Sharif’s piling on to the Civil Society bandwagon.

Tariq Ramadan has an excellent piece about being presented by Tony Blair as the token progressive Muslim. I am often surprised at how often non-Muslims, particularly the current crop of politicians, think that to qualify as a ‘moderate’ or ‘progressive’ Muslim one needs to be apolitical and uncritical of the powers-that-be. Fortunately, Ramadan’s willing to give Tony a smack in the face with a wet fish.

President George Bush’s "war on terror" rhetoric has strengthened terrorist groups by helping them to create a shared identity, the development secretary, Hilary Benn, warned yesterday.The Foreign Office reportedly asked politicians and diplomats to drop the phrase last year.

(Originally written: 2/25/07)

Let’s be blunt: I want stuff to happen, and I’ll generally do my darndest to make it happen—as long as the means are morally permissible, of course. Three examples will suffice.

Today, while my mouth was dry and my stomach rumbling, I opened an email from MPAC (it does not seem to be up on thier site, yet). It was an editorial from one of the few national Muslim organizations that I trust, so I read it from start to finish. Salam al-Marayati wrote about the need of American Muslims to pressure the US Government to benefit more from American Muslim inputs when making policy. As I was reading, I thought that this was actually a good idea. It would finally put American Muslims in publicly prominent positions that help America. This would be a stunning public refutal of Islamophobic charges that Muslims are just freeloaders and freeriders in America. I have no doubt that Mr al-Marayati does not intend to achieve the typical Islamist goal of penetrating our government to assist fellow Islamists overseas like some immigrant Muslim organizations wistfully desire. Instead, I think he genuinely desires this as a public relations coup, one that our community badly needs.