The Faith Line, as Eboo describes it, does not separate people of different religions but separates religious pluralists on the one hand and religious totalitarians on the other.
When a man who leads a large Muslim community, is believed to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad, and who derives his authority from that claim, comes to the United States it should be a major news story.
When you step out in clothing that boldly states your womanhood, you are a free woman. You are no longer a slave to old rules and notions. Modernity is inherently free.
Attempts at the recent Muslim Voices festival to reinvent the qawwali, of having it cross-fertilize with other musics, made the concert seem so promising as a closing event.
Michael Jackson, pop theologian and transcendent performer, went from Jehovah’s Witness to Nation of Islam to Islam searching for the well-being embedded in so many of his songs. Farah Fawcett, who was so much more than a pretty face and healthy head of hair, courageously faced death on camera in a youth-obsessed culture.
From Left to Right, observers were quick to equate the Mumbai attacks to 9/11. But in doing so, the Left has tied itself in conceptual knots, for only consistency in the condemnation of religious violence can make for a sustainable response to the Right’s demonization of Islam.
