religion

Washington Irving, Tales from the Alhambra (New York: Lea and Carey, 1832). Legend of the Arabian Astrologer. IN OLD times, many hundred years ago, there was a Moorish king named Aben Habuz, who reigned over the kingdom of Granada. He was a retired conqueror, that is to say, one who having in his more youthful […]

Islam

Everything you Always wanted to Know about Muslim Fasting Month of Ramadan *But were Afraid to Ask

The Conversation

By Mohammad Hassan Khalil | – Editor’s note: Mohammad Hassan Khalil, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University, answers six questions about the significance of the Muslim month of fasting. 1. Why is Ramadan called Ramadan? Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, […]

Donald Trump

Amid Trump’s Immigration ban, Muslim-Americans step up on Covid-19 to donate Masks, PPE, to Hospitals and to help Unemployed, Homeless

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Muslim-Americans have stepped up to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus in ways that may not be apparent from watching cable television. They are disproportionately a first- and second-generation American community who have faced discrimination at Trump’s hands, and are among the targets of his two-month ban on […]

Islam

Veiled Muslim Women abruptly Find Acceptance amid Coronavirus Face Masks: “Nobody is giving me Dirty Looks”

The Conversation

By Anna Piela | – Americans began donning face masks this week after federal and local officials changed their position on whether face coverings protect against coronavirus. This is new terrain for many, who find themselves unable to recognize neighbors and are unsure how to engage socially without using facial expressions. But not for Muslim […]

Christianity

What Christians can Learn from Islam about Easter: The Qur’an denied Jews were Responsible for the Cross

Juan Cole

Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – That the Qur’an recognizes the virgin birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus is something worth remembering on Easter. In a nativity scene about Jesus’s supernatural precociousness, the Qur’an has him speak in the cradle, saying, (Mary 19:33): “So peace be upon me, the day I was born, […]

Islam

Witness to History: Early Muslim Rock Inscriptions Speak of 769 A.D. Epidemic in Medina

Juan Cole

Saudi epigraphist Mohammed Almaghthawi (@mohammed93athar) has published some rock inscriptions from around Medina in western Arabia that are dated to 769, which speak of an epidemic outbreak in that year. This outbreak is otherwise unknown to historians. The inscriptions ask God to deliver them from this calamity, and clearly take pride in the city of […]

Antisemitism

Knowledge of the Holocaust wanes for Millennials, Gen Z, Even as Anti-Semitism Rises

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Jonmaesha Beltran | – (Cronkite News) – PHOENIX – Seventy-five years after the atrocities of Auschwitz, memories of the Holocaust are fading for younger generations who learn little about genocides in school, according to education advocates who believe they have the answer: Make it Arizona law to teach about the horrors of the Nazi’s […]

Entertainment

Arif “The Greatest Ears in Town” Mardin: How a Turkish Muslim Nurtured the Music of Aretha Franklin, Dione Warwick, and Nora Jones

Shalom Goldman

Middlebury, VT (Special to Informed Comment) – In the mid-twentieth century many American jazz musicians converted to Islam . Some took Muslim names ( Ahmed Jamal and Yusef Lateef) ; others identified as Muslim but kept their Christian names (Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner). These musicians helped shape the sound of American music and no less […]

Fundamentalism

Could Instability in Lebanon Further Strengthen Hezbollah, or Will the Sectarian order Collapse?

Tareq A. Ramadan

Detroit (Special to Informed Comment) – Since its inception as a French mandate at the San Remo Conference in 1920, Lebanon has lived on the cusp of chaos economically, militarily, and politically. For many, life in the mountainous country has been synonymous with major political crises (like the events of 1958 and Operation Blue Bat, […]