Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (Twitter). The author maintains a website.

At one time in my life, I read many self-help books. I've read other books which deal with behavior and psychology, but this one made enough insights to me for me to consider it a self-help book, and I mean that in a positive way.

Part One introduces the personality traits which cluster into the opposite poles of introvert and extrovert and how the modern United States has adopted "The Extrovert Ideal." Young adult broadcast media protagonists are rock stars (Hannah Montana), spoiled scions (Suite Life of Zack and Cody) and teen detectives (Veronica Mars). Business leaders are portrayed as having boundless energy and charismatic personalities. Politicians are "deciders." Introverts are potential Unabombers. "If you don't toot your own horn, nobody will" is almost a truism.

Review: The trials of Abu Ghraib: an expert witness account of shame and honor by Stjepan Gabriel Meštrović

I did my review through a series of Twitter status updates using the hashtag #TrialsAbuGhraib. If you use Twitter, please add your comments using that hashtag.

Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality by Martha Craven Nussbaum

Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality by Martha Craven Nussbaum

I earlier published a review of Professor Nussbaum's The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age. That book skims through arguments she fleshed out in greater detail and with different historical examples in Liberty of Conscience.

I want to reproduce a few passages which described some aspects of U.S. history which I'd never heard.

U.K. Christian Theologian Keith Ward on Laws Prohibiting Blasphemy

Leonard Levy, in his book Blasphemy: Verbal Offense Against the Sacred, from Moses to Salman Rushdie, quotes Keith Ward as a person who, in the wake of the persecution of Salman Rushdie, changed his opinion from support of the United Kingdom's blasphemy laws to their rejection. I acquired the source document to understand Ward's views in more depth.

Film: Sin Visa (Director Ana Simoes)

Dr. Ramzi Salti, Lecturer at Stanford University and host of the radio show and blog Arabology, reviewed the Spanish film Sin Visa. I have not seen the film.

Sin Visa is an independent, poignant film that broaches the topic of immigration in a powerful, thoughtful and unique way. At a time when immigrants seem to be systematically portrayed en masse by so many media outlets, this film succeeds in humanizing the immigrant experience by reminding us all of the individuality and uniqueness of every immigrant that has ever crossed the border. ... read more ...

Meet the Qo'sbys: Halal in the Family by Aasif Mandvi

Comedian Aasif Mandvi has put together Halal in the Family, a series of short videos in the sit-com format about the Qu'osbys addressing various aspects of Muslim-non-Muslim interaction in the United States.
Information about the videos and some of the serious issues underlying them is available on the Halal in the Family website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Review: Redeployment by Phil Klay

Redeployment by Phil Klay (Twitter) (Penguin Books, Paperback, 9780143126829, 304pp.)

Author Phil Klay is scheduled to come to my city, Augusta, GA, on April 17, 2015. I intended to go and confront him, not because I knew anything about him or his book, but mostly because of my anger over the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the worldwide assassination program by drone and other global war on terror calamities. 'Murica's embrace of the movie American Sniper also increased my bitterness, which I expressed on Twitter. This one best sums up what I thought I'd feel about Phil Klay and his book:

Until #USA pols in #prison for #WarCrimes, any movie which focuses on psychological trauma of US soldiers is war propaganda #AmericanSniper
— Ayman Hossam Fadel (@aymanfadel) January 25, 2015

Review: The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age by Martha C. Nussbaum

The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age by Martha C. Nussbaum (Belknap Press, Hardcover, 9780674065901, 304pp.) Publication Date: April 2012

How can the industrialized, formally democratic societies of Europe and North America increase religious pluralism? European nations "have understood the root of nationhood to lie first and foremost in characteristics that are difficult if not impossible for new immigrants to share. Strongly influenced by romanticism, these nations have seen blood, soil, ethnolinguistic peoplehood, and religion as necessary or at least central elements of a national identity." (p. 13) Other nations, such as the United States and India, define "nationhood in terms of political ideals and struggles," thus somewhat opening the door. (p. 16)

"Tracks in the Snow" - Exhibit on Minnesota Muslims

"Tracks in the Snow" the Minnesota Muslim Experience http://t.co/rLuwK7uNQe
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) April 7, 2015

From the Duluth, Minnesota Zeitgeist Arts Café website:

Who are Minnesota Muslims? They are a small but rapidly growing part of the state’s community. Conservative estimates suggest that there are about 120,000 – 150,000 Muslims in Minnesota. Learn about the untold stories of this community at the Tracks in the Snow traveling exhibit featured at Zeitgeist Arts from April 4th through April 24, 2015.  ---- read more ----

Everyday Iran on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Women dishing up a family gathering lunch. #Qazvin, #Iran. Photo by Mehdi Bidel @mehdibidel #everydayqazvin #everydayiran #everydayeverywhere خانم‌ها در حال کشیدن غذای یک مهمانیِ خانوادگی. #قزوین، #ایران. عکاس: مهدی بیدل

A photo posted by Everyday Iran (@everydayiran) on Apr 1, 2015 at 12:08pm PDT

As elements of the United States government continue to press for war with Iran, perhaps the most effective action for peace is to remind people everywhere that the victims of war will overwhelmingly be everyday Iranians, not the stereotyped, cartoonish villains whom warmongers portray with their rhetoric. For this purpose, I ask people to follow and share the pictures of Everyday Iran on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook.

Tweets by @everydayiran

Download 422 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Culture

For lovers of art & art history, it's Eid! When I searched for available books in the thematic category "Islamic Art," there were 56 results. I'm downloading now Mirror of the Invisible World: Tales from the Khamseh of Nizami. Read the article at openculture.com, then check out the publications available for download.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is open seven days a week and is located in New York City, New York, United States of America.

Teacher Confronts Islamophobia with "The Garden of My Imaan" by Farhana Zia

"You mean a Muslim is coming here?!” http://t.co/OBr5Hpqvbu pic.twitter.com/gnIakR3qaf
— Teaching Tolerance (@Tolerance_org) March 19, 2015

Amy Vatne Bitliff used Farhana Zia's The Garden of My Imaan in her public middle school.

Then two days prior to Zia’s visit, one of my students who had really been pushing against the text said, “You mean a Muslim is coming here?! They chop people’s heads off. If she’s coming here, I’m not coming to school." ... read more ...

The level of fear and prejudice that fell from my student's mouths this week as we read a book about a Muslim American girl was staggering.
— Amy Vatne Bintliff (@amybintliff) October 16, 2014

As an anti-bias educator, preparing for Farhana Zia's visit has propelled students to explore anti-Muslim fear. We have all grown so much!
— Amy Vatne Bintliff (@amybintliff) October 16, 2014

Review: How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi (Penguin Press HC, The, Hardcover, 9781594201769, 304pp.)

The author relates the stories of seven Arab-American youth from Brooklyn, New York.

It's hard for me to relate to the stories in this book because I'm much older than the subjects, I've never lived in a place with a lot of Arabs (or great ethnic diversity) and I've never had the family, financial and legal struggles many of them had.

Nevertheless, the stories were engaging, and I read the book quickly. Each subject's story made me think about things differently, and I suspect each reader would draw unique lessons for himself or herself.

Review: Snow White: An Islamic Tale by Fawzia Gilani

Wood Turtle reviewed Snow White: An Islamic Tale by Fawzia Gilani. I have not read the book, although I have reviewed others she has published.

Could Film "Unmosqued" Generate Discussion at Your Masjid?

Professor Shabana Mir reported on the discussion which occurred at the masjid in her city following a screening of the film Unmosqued.

Merchants of Doubt Movie Trailer

I had reviewed the book upon which this documentary is based.

Walls of Freedom: Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution

Egypt officials seize books on revolution street art http://t.co/1aD8mTN3E2 #NewsfromElsewhere pic.twitter.com/XF0fjOkyAx
— BBC Monitoring (@BBCMonitoring) February 19, 2015

To purchase the English version of the book, visit the publisher's web page. The book has its own website. The Facebook page has ongoing developments, including the Egyptian government's efforts to erase the graffiti.

This article reports that the copies were seized in Alexandria over a fee dispute, not censorship.

Censor says Walls of Freedom book does not incite rioting but simply documents Egypt's revolutionary graffiti http://t.co/hhZkoVZPNI

— Mada Masr مدى مصر (@MadaMasr) February 23, 2015

Review: Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

When I was a child, before DVRs and Tivo and even video cassette recorders, the first big TV event I remember was the ABC miniseries "Roots" based on Alex Haley's book of the same title. I have this memory (or imagination) of people looking at their watches and saying, "I know what you are telling me is important, but I gotta get home to watch the next episode of Roots." I thought I had watched it, but I had forgotten everything except Kunta Kinte's capture and somebody saying, "Lizzie, Lizzie." I was fortunate to acquire a minimally-scratched used recording of Avery Brooks's abridged narration of the 30th anniversary edition, which included an illuminating forward by Michael Eric Dyson.

Having read Alex Haley's first breakthrough book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Marable Manning's biography of Malcolm X, in which Haley plays a prominent role, I felt like I heard the Nation of Islam's influence, especially in Haley's description of Kunta Kinte's village in The Gambia and his rejection of the descendants of African slaves whom he encountered.

So much has been written about this book. I strongly encourage readers of this blog to read or listen to a copy or at least watch the miniseries.

Review: The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim by Nicholas Kulish & Souad Mekhennet

The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim
By Nicholas Kulish & Souad Mekhennet
(Doubleday, Hardcover, 9780385532433, 320pp.)
Publication Date: March 25, 2014

I originally learned about this book following tweets regarding a January 10, 2015 newspaper article by Nicholas Kulish entitled "Old Nazis Never Die." Many twitter users came to the conclusion that escaped Nazis exerted strong influence in Egypt and Syria, and many attributed some of the animosity in those countries to the Zionist project to Nazi-style anti-antisemitism. A French film, which I have not seen, explores Nazis who fled to Egypt and Syria. See this article written by its director, Géraldine Schwarz, and published in Le Monde of January 2, 2015.

So I wanted to read this book to learn about this influence, but that is not its main focus. The authors focus on the process of denazification after World War II, from whose chaotic, unfocused, politicized origins emerged human rights laws and eventually war crime tribunals.

Review: The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein

The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein
Hardback, 240 pages ISBN: 9781781681374
May 2014

Note that the author of this book is not this Ken Silverstein, who writes in energy industry publications.

If you care about the poor or the environment, be prepared to vomit in your mouth at nearly every other page of this account of the oil and other resource extraction industries.

Ken Silverstein devotes a chapter to each of the following categories of players in this woeful tragedy: the fixers, the dictators, the traders, the gatekeepers, the flacks, the lobbyists and the hustlers.

Nadia's Ramadan - Film for Use in Public Schools

Unity Productions Foundation has produced a short film, Nadia's Ramadan, with a professionally made lesson plan, for use in public schools.

Please approach your children's public schools to see how this resource can best be utilized.


Nadia's Ramadan - Preview from Unity Productions Foundation on Vimeo.

Reclaiming Malcolm X & Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative

The Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative is sponsoring a series of programs under the label "Reclaiming Malcolm X." I don't want to try to summarize my impressions because I want you to listen to the programs as the recordings become available and participate in face-to-face or online discussions.

Review: Does God Belong in Public Schools? by Kent Greenawalt

Does God Belong in Public Schools? by Kent Greenawalt (Princeton University Press, Paperback, 9780691130651, 261pp.)

Professor Greenawalt's book examines different common claims made by parents, students and school employees that public schools have violated the Free Exercise clause by interfering with their practice of religion.

Review: The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond

I love popular science books. I hope that many would be translated into languages Muslims often speak, particularly Arabic, since many educated Arabs only read Arabic, unlike Urdu, for example, of which I'm told its educated speakers typically can read English.

One of the authors whose books I suggested should be translated is Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse. His latest book, The World Until Yesterday: What We Can Learn from Traditional Societies?, also deserves the widest possible audience.

By comparing how modern and traditional societies handle war, raising of children, care of the elderly, health risks, religion, language and diet, The World Until Yesterday stretches our conception of the ranges of choices available to us in a matter similar to the best science fiction.

Review: On the Means of Beholding The Prophet in a Dream by Yusuf ibn Ismail al-Nabahani

On the Means of Beholding the Prophet ﷺ in a Dream  

by Imam Yusuf b. Isma'il al-Nabahani, translator Imam Abdul Aziz Suraqah.  

A Muslim's Book Shelf reviewed the book:

This book presents 40 means that Imam Yusuf al-Nabahani has collected in order to see Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in a dream. ... read more ...

I have not read the book.

Sanad Collective: Letters to the Beloved Writing Competition

Letters to the Beloved ﷺ

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmātullahi wa barakatūh

Sanad Collective is inviting you to express your feelings for the Prophet ﷺ by composing a letter, from you to him ﷺ. ... read more ... 

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim Podcast

Who's a 'good' Muslim & who's a 'bad' Muslim? And who gets to define? They try. http://t.co/8Ax9KBnbCy pic.twitter.com/4edyIa2bsU
— David Beard (@dabeard) January 19, 2015

Anti-Terrorism Messages Lack Substance

This morning, I heard a segment on USA National Public Radio entitled Building Ties to Counter Religious Extremism in LA. The segment features two law enforcement types extensively, and two Muslims, Amina Mirza Qazi and Salam al-Maryati, who present different points of view. I've written on this blog extensively on the Global War on Terror, so I'd encourage you to review those posts.

ATL Discusses "Mornings in Jenin" by Susan Abulhawa, Jan 31, 2015, 6pm

This book has also been translated into Arabic. This blog entry is an adaptation of an e-mail I received from Ingrid Torsay through a mailing list. See if this is going on in a city near you.
-------------------------------------------------
Atlanta is participating in the One Book, Many Communities project, organized by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine. We will discuss Mornings in Jenin by Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa. Please join us for a lively discussion and a pot luck supper:

31 January, Saturday, 6:00 PM
Our Lady of Lourdes (cafeteria)
25 Boulevard NE
Atlanta, GA  30312

The 'One Book, Many Communities' project by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine aims to introduce readers to the richness of Palestinian literature, and create a broader awareness and understanding of Palestinian history and the struggle for self-determination."

Communities throughout the world will be reading and discussing Mornings in Jenin. Just a few of the places are Rome, Venice, Bologna, Trieste, Naples, and 3 or 4 more in Italy; Dèvillac, France; Tel Aviv, Israel; Malmö and Stockholm in Sweden; Ramallah, Palestine; Quebec and Toronto in Canada; and several cities in the U.S.

Everyone is welcome. The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library has four copies available. Come even if you have not finished reading. Contact information: Ingrid Torsay (404) 438-6598 or by e-mail

Update: Jan 16, 2015 23:15: The author Susan Abulhawa is excited about the worldwide response to this project.

I just searched #lap1book, not realizing how much is already happening online with it. A tremendous and heartfelt THANK YOU to you all!!
— susan abulhawa (@sjabulhawa) January 16, 2015

Updated February 17, 2015: Yousef Munayyer's review of the book.

Review: In God's Path: Arab Conquests and The Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert Hoyland

Stuart Kelly reviewed In God’s Path: Arab Conquests and The Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert Hoyland in The Scotsman of January 7, 2015.

This kind of book always eschews its embedded nature in contemporary discourse: it’s the facts, man, not a comment on the contemporary cradled in archaism. That is true, but it would be beneficial to everyone if both Muslims and non-Muslims read it, realised their shared history, understood their differences, and appreciated that the stories can always be retold, reinterpreted, revised and reimagined. A Norman knight and a Korean monk can give us insights into Islam; Islamic writing, thinking and behaving can hold up a mirror to the West as well. Read more

I have not read the book.

David McRaney on the Stereotype Threat - Another Way in Which We Are Not So Smart

David McRaney's book You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself presents phenomena which, in our modern view of the supremacy of reason and free will, should not impact humans' behavior. One is the stereotype threat (Chapter 42, pp. 232-3):

"Psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson conducted a study in 1995 where they had white and black Americans take the Graduate Record Examination. The GRE is a standardized test usd by many colleges to determine whether or not to accept graduate students. ... Steel and Aronson told half of their subjects they were testing for intelligence, which they hypothesized would add an extra level of stress the other half wouldn't feel. When they got back the results, the white students performed about the same whether or not they were told it was a test of how smart they were. The black students, though, primed by the strereotype threat, performed worse in the group who believed the test would reveal their true intelligence. According to Steel and Aronson, the social stigma of being an African-American messed with their minds. Attempting to fight the stereotype, they had unwelcome thoughts walking around and making noise in their brains while they solved word problems and figured fractions. The white students, free from those fears, had more mind space in which to work. This same sort of experiment has been repeated with gender, nationality, and all sorts of conditions. Psychologists call it the stereotype threat. When you fear you will confirm a negative stereotype, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy not because the stereotype is true, but because you can't stop worrying that you could become an example proving it."

Play Dramatizes Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies of Atrocities of Occupation

"It's What We Do" attempts to bring reality of Israeli soldiers' testimonies to US audiences.
Josh Ruebner of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation recommended this project. Please consider supporting it.

Check out promo 4 new play by @azizatwit on Israeli soldiers' testimony to @BtSIsrael on brutality to Palestinians https://t.co/y66hEFDMzf
— Josh Ruebner (@joshruebner) December 11, 2014

Pam Nice is involved in the project.

Review: The Lives of Man by Abdallah ibn Alawi Al-Haddad

A Muslim's Book Shelf reviewed The Lives of Man by Imam Abdallah Ibn Alawi Al-Haddad, translated by Mostafa al-Badawi. The new edition has ISBN 1887752145

I have not read the book.

Review: The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent by Piya Chatterjee and Sunain Maira (eds)

Bill V. Mullen reviewed The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent, edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunain Maira, and published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2014.

[T]his is, far and away, the most affecting, comprehensive, and visionary collection of essays published to date on the politics of contemporary higher education. The book memorably sketches out what Raymond Williams called the “structure of feeling” in today’s university: the lived experience of ideological contestation, economic restructuring, professional vulnerability, political imagining, and political foreclosure. In this achievement, The Imperial University is sui generis: it should be bookmarked by historians of neoliberal higher education and used as a brick by those seeking to build an invigorated academic Left. ... read more ...

One of the essays in this volume is by Steven Salaita. Bill Mullen has written in defense of Steven Salaita.

Salaita firing shows where Zionism meets neoliberalism at US universities | Tithi Bhattacharya & Bill V. Mullen http://t.co/FXPttxtJ9j
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) September 4, 2014

I have not read the book.

Film: Where Should the Birds Fly? by Fida Qishta -- Now Available

I had earlier promoted funding of this movie. It is now available by DVD and by streaming through Distrify. The film's website has a link to a guidebook.

Review: An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

Wrote a feminist novel! http://t.co/434qwffhFH
— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) November 15, 2014

Julie Kearney wrote a review of An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

Rosecrans Baldwin also did a review for NPR.

Read our interview w/ @rabihalameddine, whose novel, An Unnecessary Woman, is on shortlist for the Nat. Book Award http://t.co/zc68JE16GO
— The AAWW (@aaww) November 14, 2014

I have not yet read the book.

Free (English) eBooks from Yatakhayyaloon - Arabic Language Science Fiction - Nov 15 & 16 Only

To get our free eBooks go to your local Amazon site and search for Yatakhayaloon. They are free all day 15th & 16th. @SindbadSciFi
— يتخيلون (@yatakhayaloon) November 15, 2014

Review: Aisha: The Wife, the Companion, the Scholar by Reşit Haylamaz

Amanda Quraishi reviewed Aisha: The Wife, the Companion, the Scholar by Reşit Haylamaz. It's not clear to me if the author wrote the book in English or Turkish, his native tongue, and then somebody translated it.

I have not read the book.

The publisher is Tughra Books.

Updated December 4, 2014:

@aymanfadel @resithaylamaz @tughrabooks @muslimahmerican Yes it is translated from Turkish, but most people say it is a good translation...
— Tughra Books (@tughrabooks) December 4, 2014

Review: "How Big is Allah?" by Emma Apple

Reem Faruqi reviewed Emma Apple's illustrated children's book "How Big is Allah?." I have not read the book.

Quote: Chris Hedges on Friendship and Comradeship in "War is Force that Gives Us Meaning"

In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges (Twitter) explains why the bonds among soldiers are likely comradeship, not friendship.

There are few individual relationships – the only possible way to form friendships – in war. There are not the demands on us that there are in friendships. Veterans try to regain such feelings, but they fall short. Gray wrote that the “essential difference between comradeship and friendship consists, it seems to me, in a heightened awareness of the self in friendship and in the suppression of self-awareness in comradeship.”

Comrades seek to lose their identities in the relationship. Friends do not. “On the contrary, “Gray wrote, “friends find themselves in each other and thereby gain greater self-knowledge and self-possession. They discover in their own breasts, as a consequence of their friendship, hitherto unknown potentialities for joy and understanding.”

The struggle to remain friends, the struggle to explore the often painful recess of two hearts, to reach the deepest parts of another’s being, to integrate our own emotions and desires with the needs of the friend, are challenged by the collective rush of war. There are fewer demands if we join the crowd and give our emotions over to the communal crusade.

The only solace comes from simple acts of kindness. They are the tiny, flickering candles in a cavern of darkness that sustain our common humanity.

Find the book in your local library.

Documentary Film "American Promise" Free Online Thru Nov 8, 2014

The United States Public Broadcasting Service's POV series is streaming American Promise online through November 8, 2014. A February 2014 interview with the film's producer and director, Michèle Stephenson (Twitter) updates the 2004 film. A companion book to the film is Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson with Hilary Beard. The film has an official website.

I haven't yet watched the movie or read the book.

Quotes from Dune by Frank Herbert

United States National Public Radio's Science Friday Book Club in 2014 read Dune by Frank Herbert.

Readers were asked to record their favorite quotes and submit it to the show. The whole series is incredible. Here are a few quotes I recorded. You can listen to the ones NPR selected from all listeners.

The text is available on line at archive.org. But buy the book. Also, check out the Calvin and Mu'addib Tumblr.

Prescience

The prescience, he realized, was an illumination that incorporated the limits of what it revealed — at once a source of accuracy and meaningful error. A kind of Heisenberg indeterminacy intervened: the expenditure of energy that revealed what he saw, changed what he saw. And what he saw was a time nexus within this cave, a boiling of possibilities focused here, wherein the most minute action — the wink of an eye, a careless word, a misplaced grain of sand — moved a gigantic lever across the known universe. He saw violence with the outcome subject to so many variables that his slightest movement created vast shiftings in the pattern. The vision made him want to freeze into immobility, but this, too, was action with its consequences . The countless consequences — lines fanned out from this cave, and along most of these consequence-lines he saw his own dead body with blood flowing from a gaping knife wound.

 Kynes's Father on the Masses and the Leavings

"Arrakis is a one-crop planet," his father said. "One crop. It supports a ruling class that lives as ruling classes have lived in all times while, beneath them, a semihuman mass of semislaves exists on the leavings. It's the masses and the leavings that occupy our attention. These are far more valuable than has ever been suspected."

Keynes's Last Thought

Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error . Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.

Interview with Kecia Ali on "The Lives of Muhammad"

Joseph Richard Preville and Julie Poucher Harbin produced an interview with Kecia Ali about her new book The Lives of Muhammad. It was published at IslamiCommentary.org on October 9, 2014.

I have reviewed Professor Kecia Ali's book Sexual Ethics and Islam. I have not read this book. I have linked to other interviews Professor Preville has done. United States National Public Radio has published a review.

Via @nprbooks: Many Views Of Muhammad, As A Man And As A Prophet http://t.co/5iDqOZocXP
— Joseph R. Preville (@JosephPreville) October 20, 2014

I have not read the book.

The Africans: A Triple Heritage by Ali A Mazrui

Professor Ali Al-Amin Mazrui died today.

Prof. Ali Mazrui has died http://t.co/zRzkwxcCN1 - a great scholar and wonderful human being. He will be missed!
— Sheila Musaji (@SheilaMusaji) October 13, 2014

Review: Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson

"Quando dou comida aos pobres chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres chamam-me de comunista."

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909 – 1999), Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Brazil, 1964 to 1985

Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson. 

University of Minnesota Press, 2011, 289 pp.

Professor Alondra Nelson (Twitter) has written a book which all activists should read. It focuses on the advocacy, activism and ideology of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in healthcare.

Crowdfunding for "Sexual Assault in the Muslim Community, " a Documentary by Nadya Ali

Here's the link to the Kickstarter project.

Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story - Storified on Twitter

Film: Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station is an important dramatic reenactment of the last day of Oscar Grant's life. Ryan Coogler was the director, and Forest Whitaker was the producer.

Review: Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities by Mumtaz Ahmad, Zahid Bukhari & Sulayman Nyang (Eds)

Faiza Rahman wrote a review of Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities by Mumtaz Ahmad, Zahid Bukhari & Sulayman Nyang (Eds). It was published in The Express Tribune Sunday Magazine, August 31, 2014.

Entry in Worldcat.org

I have not read the book.

"I don't want a lot of gab from a bunkshooter in my religion" by Carl Sandburg

I don’t want a lot of gab from a bunkshooter in my religion.

I won’t take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth and never cherishes any memory except the face of the woman on the American silver dollar.

This is an excerpt from Carl Sandburg's poem To a Contemporary Bunkshooter. It was first published in collection entitled Chicago Poems in 1916. I first heard it on an audio cassette book. Here is a performance I found on YouTube.

Watch "An American Mosque" Online By July 28

I had plugged the 27 minute documentary film "An American Mosque," but somehow I missed it on both Georgia & South Carolina public TV stations. You can watch it online for free through July 28. It really is well done. Here is the film's website.


AN AMERICAN MOSQUE - WATCH BY JULY 28 from David Washburn on Vimeo.

Review: Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do by Robert Boston

I am a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Robert Boston (Twitter) is the latter organization's Director of Communications, and he is the author of numerous books. His latest is Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a talk he gave in Augusta, GA, and I enjoyed his company at lunch before the talk.

Support Steven Salaita, Academic, Activist and Target of Zionists

On Corey Robin's blog, I learned that the University of Illinois Chancellor has rescinded an offer of employment to Professor Steven Salaita.

In the meantime, do something for Steven Salaita. Write a note to University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise (best to email her at both chancellor@illinois.edu and pmischo@illinois.edu), urging her to rescind her rescission. ... read more ...

Professor Salaita has a website (not working when I wrote this), a Twitter account and a Goodreads author page.

Another way of supporting Professor Salaita is to read and promote his books. I own The Uncultured Wars: Arabs, Muslims and the Poverty of Liberal Thought. Consider buying or sending other books for me to review or submitting a review yourself.

The most recent publication I found was an essay entitled "Normatizing State Power: Uncritical Ethical Praxis and Zionism" in The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent, edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira.

Updated 2014-08-06: Mohammad Fadel of the University of Toronto published the letter he sent. There is a change.org petition for people to sign.

Updated 2014-08-07. Electronic Intifada reports that Professor Salaita was "fired," not that his job offer was revoked. US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has issued an action alert with suggested measures you can take. Illinois AAUP Committee. A Statement on Steven Salaita and UIUC.

Updated 2014-08-09. Rather than update with each important article, I'm simply going to give you the link to all Corey Robin's posts tagged Steven Salaita and Electronic Intifada posts tagged Steven Salaita.

Download for Free: The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, edited by Audrea Lim

Leading international voices argue for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
In July 2011, Israel passed legislation outlawing the public support of boycott activities against the state, corporations, and settlements, adding a crackdown on free speech to its continuing blockade of Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements. Nonetheless, the campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) continues to grow in strength within Israel and Palestine, as well as in Europe and the US. ---- read more & download eBook or buy paperback

I don't have a Kindle and I'm not sure how to use an .epub file, so I used http://www.zamzar.com/ to convert the .epub file to a PDF.

Verso Books is an excellent publisher!

Documentary: The Newburgh Sting

HBO premiered the documentary "The Newburgh Sting" on July 21, 2014.

The film has a Twitter account.

Heaven's Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance by Harris Irfan

Ziauddin Sardar, editor at The Critical Muslim, wrote a review of Heaven's Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance by Harris Irfan. The Independent (UK) published it on July 17, 2014. The book has a companion website.

Things changed when the "rocket scientists of Deutsche Bank", Goldman Sachs, HSBC and other big boys arrived on the scene. They saw Islamic finance as an opportunity for quick profit. Muftis and Mullahs were hired at footballers' salaries to make some of their product "Sharia compliant", and bankers such as Irfan to sell them to an unsuspected Muslim public. Soon we had products such as sukuk (the equivalent of interest on bonds), hilah contracts (which substituted bank charges for interest) and Islamic finance became embroiled in hedge funds, derivatives and other dubious instruments justified in the name of Islam. read more ...

Updated August 7, 2014:

The Islamic finance industry is at risk of diluting its principles as it nears $2trn writes @harris_irfan in new book http://t.co/pQEzu88jKI

— Gregor Stuart Hunter (@gregorhunter) August 7, 2014

The Perils of American Muslim Politics

Abdullah Al-Arian and Hafsah Kanjwal wrote The Perils of American Muslim Politics, which Jadaliyya published on July 10, 2014.

These broader shifts across the United States political establishment showcase an increasing tendency within American Muslim activism—particularly since 9/11—to reorient its engagement with policy-making circles (including government, think tanks, private institutions, and media) in a way that risks becoming reappropriated and rearticulated for a new political reality. Read more ...

"Worldly ambition inhibits true learning." - Andrew Bacevich, "Washington Rules"

Worldly ambition inhibits true learning. Ask me. I know. A young man in a hurry is nearly uneducable: He knows what he wants and where he's headed; when it comes to looking back or entertaining heretical thoughts, he has neither the time nor the inclination. All that counts is that he is going somewhere. Only as ambition wanes does education become a possibility.

Broadcast of "An American Mosque" on USA Public TV

Update 2014-Aug-16: This film is available to watch free online through July 28.

Tune in at 10:30pm to PBS NYC, premier of #AnAmericanMosque, inspiring film on a Muslim community’s reaction to... http://t.co/PJCUcLEYqw
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) June 25, 2014

Review: Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror by Anand Gopal

Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror (Anand Gopal's New Book) - http://t.co/g6Xxdvf6zD pic.twitter.com/qyeu0gqjHj
— Juan Cole (@jricole) June 23, 2014

Entry on IndieBound.org

Central Park 5 Available Online for Limited Time

I can think of no crime that the "Law and Order" reactionaries in the United States exploited more than the 1989 attack on a white female jogger in Central Park in New York, for which five black and Hispanic youth were convicted based on circumstantial evidence and coerced confessions. Later evidence emerged which exonerated them and revealed the identity of the assailant. Recently, New York City settled with the five men. The Ken Burns PBS Documentary Central Park Five has been made available to U.S. internet users to mark this milestone in the case.

Free eBooks Available from Getty Museum of Art

250 titles backlisted from the Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California are now available for download for free. h/t

Photo: Download over 250 art books for free here... http://t.co/qTzt1F2sfQ
— G. D. Falksen (@gdfalksen) April 3, 2014

Review: Domestic Violence in the Islamic Tradition by Ayesha Chaudhry

MMW's @krista_riley reviews "Domestic Violence in the Islamic Tradition" http://t.co/23EIKh9271
— Muslimah Media Watch (@MMWtweets) June 10, 2014

Entry at Worldcat.org.

COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I've watched the first 7 episodes of COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I hope you are watching the series as well. Episode 7, The Clean Room, tells the story of Clair Patterson's studies measuring lead to determine the rate of decay of radioactive elements and thus the age of our planet. Along the way, he realized that lead pollution was increasing human exposure to lead, and he advocated for its regulation. Unsurprisingly, the petroleum and chemical industries resisted regulation and supported scientists who argued against Patterson's claims. This reminded me of Merchants of Doubt, a book I reviewed.

Full episodes are still available online.

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn Al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy.

"This book should be read by any historian of pre-modern science and medicine, not only by Islamicists," writes Leigh Chipman ... read more

Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson

Rod Such reviewed Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson on May 7, 2014 in the Electronic Intifada.  Stanford University Press is the publisher.

Review: A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil

Namita Bhandare reviewed A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil. The complete text of the review is available online. The publisher is Women Unlimited.

Book review: ‘The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas’ by Anand Giridharadas

Michael E. Young of The Dallas Morning News reviewed The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas. The entire review is currently online.

Law & Order: SVU S14E04 - The Writers Get it Wrong

Michael Muhammad Knight critiqued "Acceptable Loss," an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2012.

As long as writers treat religious identity as the sole factor that determines every Muslim’s motivations or behavior, or imagine Islam as a source of universal norms, their Muslim characters will never be fully human. Read more ...

Law & Order: SVU - S15E17 - More Anti-Muslim Tropes & Support of Police Misconduct

Most people will remember Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S15E17 Criminal Stories because Alec Baldwin is the guest star. As always in the Law & Order franchise, there is a gruesome crime which forms the background for the episode. In this case, an Indian Muslima named Heba is raped by her brother's corporate bigwig boss and colleague in his office after a charity dinner in which she volunteered. She lies and claims that men shouting anti-Muslim slurs raped her in Central Park. Because of Heba's lies, the case against the perpetrators weakens. Alec Baldwin's character is a reporter, and he publishes a story about the bigwig's father's influence in publicizing Heba's initial lies to the police. Some of the jurors read this story, and the judge declares a mistrial.

Umberto Eco: Heresy and Ur-Fascism

My local book club read Umberto Eco's In the Name of the Rose. While the book itself is a mixed bag through which I struggled (which is not an indictment of the novel, since I struggled through Moby Dick as well), there's a remarkable chapter about the origin of heresy. If you don't want to read the novel, it's worth borrowing it off the library or bookstore shelf and turning to Second Day, Chapter Nones (p. 196). Here are some highlights of the dialogue between William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk.

The Trials of Muhammad Ali - Free Streaming Online Until May 4

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was." Watch @MuhammadAliDoc online through May 4th: http://t.co/GTyXrYfboo #TrialsofAli
— Independent Lens|PBS (@IndependentLens) April 15, 2014

The Trials of Muhammad Ali

Börgen Episode 23 "The Right Shade of Brown" and the Issue of "Integration"

Adam Price surrounded by the cast of his political drama Borgen

I watch Börgen on Link TV. In season 3, the series's protagonist Birgitte Nyborg decides to leave her party, The Moderates, because it agreed to support a law which would allow the government to deport immigrants for minor offenses. In episode 23, "The Right Shade of Brown," the founders of her new party, The New Democrats, are discussing who should represent The New Democrats in a TV forum on immigration. They decide they want an actual immigrant to represent them. The first condition they place is that the immigrant must be a Muslim, not an Inuit from Greenland, since Muslims are the problem in immigration/integration. Then they decide it can't be an Indonesian or an Ugandan, because they don't look "Muslim."