"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."

Interview with Composer and Pianist Malek Jandali

I purchased the album "Emassa (Homs) by Malek Jandali, and I came across an interview he gave to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina public radio station. He's also on Twitter!

@NPR interview @DukeU @Ibishblog clarifying how Assad dictatorship is connected to corrupted NGOs in our U.S. Capital http://t.co/C6CALQndQB
— Malek Jandali ♫ ☮ ♥ (@MalekJandali) March 31, 2014

Interview with Maud S. Mandel, author of "Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict"

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Maud S Mandel on her book Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on March 31, 2014. You can also listen to an interview from March 21, 2014 from a Memphis, Tennessee radio station. I have not read the book.

Interview with Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, author of "A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations"

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Twitter) on his book A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on January 20, 2014. I have not read the book. H/t

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam on his book "A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism" http://t.co/RUXh7B28hX
— bint battuta (@bintbattuta) March 25, 2014

Minority Report Law? Cheney’s 1% Preemptive Doctrine of Prosecution and the Case of Ziyad Yaghi

Satyagraha911.org conducted an interview about the case of Ziyad Yaghi, a Muslim US citizen victim of the "War on Terror." The interview covers Ziyad's background, trial and imprisonment. Laila Yaghi, Ziyad's mother, Dr. Mel Underbakke of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms and journalist Siraj Davis participate in the interview.

Minority Report Law? Cheney’s 1% Preemptive Doctrine of Prosecution and the Case of Ziyad Yaghi... http://t.co/pbhprQigQt
— siraj davis (@sirajdavis) March 23, 2014