November 2006

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30    

Pure Blog

flickr

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from t h a b e t. Make your own badge here.

May 24, 2006

The State of the Ummah II

The State of the Ummah (courtesy of Dervish)

Well, in keeping with GMT (Good Muslim Time) I have finally bothered to get around to this. Over 2 months late(r). My apologies, especially to Umm Yasmin, because I did promise to help move this carnival along. I still think this carnival should be a regular feature across various Muslims blogs. Hopefully, they can do a better job than me with the time-keeping aspect.

So I would like to open The State of the Ummah II: Beyond hatred and apologia: contemporary Muslim responses to sacrilegious treatments of Islam, the second blogging carnival, first dreamt up by Umm Yasmin. I received less submissions than I was hoping, so to make this a worthwhile task I've also trawled the internet looking for suitable posts to supplement the ones I was emailed. Thank you to anyone who did email their submissions.

I don't know if these posts answer the theme of the carnival in its entirety: why does supposedly offensive art provoke such a reaction among contemporary Muslims the same way far more offensive and dangerous material passed off as a series of 'facts' does not? I shall leave that for the good reader to decide.

The State of the Ummah II
I conducted my own mini-carinival, by collating some responses to the cartoons and protests in "Some blogs on those cartoons" and question the publicity given to these sorts of controversies given by (sometimes) violent Muslim reactions in "'Who's fault is the Danish boycott?'". In the end I had to say "I'm with stupid (unfortunately)", at some of the idiotic Muslim responses.

Svend White had the best collection of posts on this topic, in my humble opinion. He asks "Who's fault is the Danish boycott?". In fact, Svend has an entire category dedicated to this affair.

Ali Eteraz questions the American Muslim reaction to the publication in some American university newspapers, first in "An Open Letter to the Muslims at Univ. of Illinois" and then in "Cartoon Controversy at NYU: Muslims Allege Racism".

Anarcho Akbar criticises Europeans who abuse freedom speech, suggesting they practice quite the opposite in "Cartoon Capers".

Mere Islam first chastises those Muslims who engaged in largely pointless violence in "An Idiot's Guide to Offensive Cartoons". Then they set about informing people "Why Muslims Are Angry". Finally, they take apart Daniel Pipes' views on the cartoons and "Islamic imperialism" in "Danish Cartoons, Double-Standards and Daniel Pipes".

Umm Yasmin reminds us that "Free Speech is All Relative Depending on Who's Doing the Speaking".

Aziz Poonawalla suggests that the whole affair should be used as "Provoked Introspection" for Muslims.

Umma Zaid tells us that Muslims need to get their priorities in order, especially in the wake of events in Iraq, in "We Hold These Things to be Sacred".

Moiz Khan reflects on where Muslims are in the aftermath of the protests in "Caricatures 2".

Indigo Jo points to a "Debate on the cartoons in Prospect", and exhorts Muslims in other countries to think about how their actions might affect European Muslims, who are under pressure from both left and right in "Do they STILL not get it?". Finally, he refutes a radio presenter's views in "Feltz gets in on the cartoon affair".

Baraka posts on Wafa Sultan, and how the media enjoy extreme voices at either end of the spectrum in "Wafa (Faithful) No Longer".

Laury Silvers, at the Progressive Islam Team blog, exposes "The Con of Moderate Islam" (i.e. Muslims' whole approach to controversies is wrong).

Jamal, at Opinionated Voice, sends a "Message to the Ummah", exhorting Muslims to be better people and rise above the low-level baiting, while they rightfully defend the Prophet's (upon whom be peace) character and lif. He also has a series of posts on that link too.

Izzy Mo talks about "Defending the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salaam)", by questioning an academic's view of mocking concepts considered sacred to religious people. She also offers us a part of a paper she submitted as part of her course in "Excerpt from my final paper".

Sepoy, of Chapati Mystery, gives us his scholarly perspective on things in "Figure of Speech", in which he outlines Europe's fascination with depicting the Prophet (uopn whom be peace), as well noting that he has long been depicted in various forms -- by Muslims themselves in many cases.

March 09, 2006

Reminder: The State of the Ummah II

The State of the Ummah (courtesy of Dervish)

I've had limited and intermittent internet access over the last few days, as I'm out of the country right now. In fact, I may lose comminucations within the next few minutes. So, I've been unable to put up any submissions/choices for The State of the Ummah. I will be posting the submissions by the end of this weekend. Insha'allah. You can still post me submissions should you wish to do so. Details here.

March 05, 2006

Reminder: The State of the Ummah II

The State of the Ummah (courtesy of Dervish)This is another reminder to submit your recommended posts for The State of the Ummah II. The theme is Beyond hatred and apologia: contemporary Muslim responses to sacrilegious treatments of Islam.

The submission email is thestateoftheummah [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk.

The final submission date is (still) 11:59PM 06 March 2006 (I'm out on the high seas, so this deadline might be pushed back a little). Sadly, I've only received a handful of submissions; looks like I will be populating the carnival with my own choices although the point of this carnival is for the dear reader to submit their links.

Full details found by clicking on this link. Do what it says.

Or else.

February 26, 2006

Reminder: The State of the Ummah II

The State of the Ummah (courtesy of Dervish)Don't forget to submit your recommended posts for The State of the Ummah II. The theme is Beyond hatred and apologia: contemporary Muslim responses to sacrilegious treatments of Islam.

The submission email is thestateoftheummah@yahoo.co.uk.

The final submission date is (as yet) 11:59PM 06 March 2006.

Full details found here.

February 19, 2006

The State of the Ummah II

I will be hosting The State of the Ummah II a Muslim blogging carnival. Started by Umm Yasmin last year, the idea of the carnival is to allow Muslim bloggers to showcase their best writing. It is hoped that the Carnival will be picked up by other bloggers and so "travel" across the blogosphere. At the moment there is no fixed interval, although I would suggest two to four weekly intervals at different blogs. If you're interested in picking this up after me, please contact Umm Yasmin.

Last year's carnival was an open affair with no particular theme, but this year I have decided on a theme: Beyond hatred and apologia: contemporary Muslim responses to sacrilegious treatments of Islam.

The Danish "cartoon controversy" has become a huge story. The publication of those cartoons have been blown out of all proportion, but the issues raised are real enough. Of course, this isn't the first time such a "clash" has occurred. For this reason I've decided on a topic which revolves around Muslim responses to productions (novels, plays, visual arts) that are deemed sacrilegious. The emphasis is on responses to the arts, because equally offensive material is produced every year under the guise of news, history or politics, but there are no such widespread angry response (these might be considered worse because they are being passed off as "fact"). As the theme of the Carnival suggests, I am looking for those posts which engage with the issues, not merely suggest they stand for "free speech" or "against Islamophobia". Posts needn't be limited to the recent Danish controversy, although I suspect most of them will be about those 'toons (which, as an individual who grew up reading comics and watching animation, I have to say are aesthetically unpleasant. That's twice the insult!).

And now for the small print (thanks to Umm Yasmin for letting me lift bits from her weblog):

What is a blogging carnival?
A blogging carnival is a regular or semi-regular forum where bloggers nominate posts, typically centred around a particular theme or fulfilling certain requirements, to a specified blog (either hosted permanently, or floating around the blogosphere). When the due date is up, the Carnival host then collects all, or the best of, the posts and creates an uber-post of links for Carnival members and interested visitors to surf.

For a good example of what this is all about see The State of the Ummah I. You can find an index of carnivals here and a bit more about a blogging carnival here.

How does it work?
Send your nomination to the following email address: thestateoftheummah [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

Include the following information in the email:

  • The name of your blog with a link (with a hyperlink).
  • The title of your submitted post and a link to the post (with a hyperlink).
  • A couple of sentences to describe your submitted post (which may be edited by the host).
  • Optional (for host and blogger): a trackback link.

An example will help:

Dervish
The Scriptures on Forgiveness
Description: A short collection of verses from the Bible and the Qur’an on forgiveness.
Trackback

The due date for submitting a post is: 11:59PM, 6 March 2006, Greenwich Mean Time. (Click here to convert to your own timezone.)

What are the rules?
The rules are as follows:

  • The State of the Ummah is open to all bloggers who hold to the basic Muslim credal statement: la illaha illa Allah, Muhammad arrasul Allah, “there is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God”. A non-Muslim blogger who writes an exceptionally good post about Islam and/or the Muslim world, which is not antithetical to Islam or Muslims, may submit their post for consideration.

  • The point of The State of the Ummah is to give readers a taste of the state of Muslim blogging today, what informs Muslims, what Muslims believe, what Muslim life is like etc. For the second Carnival, the topic is: Beyond hatred and apologia: contemporary Muslim responses to sacrilegious treatments of Islam.

  • Bloggers can sumbit one post from an individual blog. You can nominate a post from your own and/or other blogs. (I might include posts which are themselves collections of other posts).

  • The nominated posts must be submitted to the given email address before the deadline. Posts submitted after the dealine might be considered, but please don't complain if they do not appear on the Carnival!

Go get nominating.

August 05, 2005

The State of the Ummah I

Umm Yasmin has opened the inaugural Muslim blogging carnival, The State of the Ummah I. Go and read.

Contact

    thebit1979[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk

Search


Powered by Rollyo
Blogs that link here
Technorati

Add me to your del.icio.us network t.hab.et


  • Carnival of Brass

    • Get The Carnival of Brass RSS

    Brassfeed

    • Get the Brassfeed RSS

    Islamic Resources

    Subscribe

    Powered by TypePad
    Member since 08/2003