Film Review: Pluralism in America

This Fourth of July I had the extreme pleasure of going to the world premiere of Islam in America, the latest project of Dr. Akbar Ahmed and his wonderful team of motivated youngsters. The film takes a look at the various Muslim communities across America, from big cities in the East to small towns in [...]

Peace is Supposed to Make You Squirm

In a recent high profile interfaith dialogue between the Pope and other notable Muslim and Catholic leaders, the Pope announced that political and religious leaders everywhere must honor the rights of each individual to their faith. He further stated that Muslims and Christians are members of one family.
While the Vatican has protested attacks on Christians [...]

The Importance of Talking

As you may have heard, Colin Powell has come out and endorsed Obama over McCain. I don’t think the endorsement itself will do much in terms of gaining votes among undecided voters, but I could be wrong. I think the best thing about the endorsement is what Powell said about all the rumors surrounding Obama.
President [...]

Combating Disfigurations, Part Two

And now for phase Two, the Jewish alternative.
“The Arabs, including and especially the Palestinian Arabs, have been the aggressors throughout the nearly 100 years of the Arab-Israel conflict.”
This quote from Rachel Neuwirth’s article confirms what I had already suspected about her. She represents a faction of Zionist thought that does not want peace, does [...]

Combatting Disfigurations, Part One

Part One
Back in Miami, when I was but a young Odalisque (18 years old, really), I used to visit this book discussion group at the swanky Books and Books in Coral Gables. It was frequented by some very amazing businessmen and professionals who really wanted to talk about a lot if important global issues.
I’m still [...]

This isn’t Star Wars

Here’s a video of Dr. Ahmed on This Is America with Dennis Wholey. My favorite bit is when Dr. Ahmed describes the circumstances in which modern generations of Muslims are growing up in dictatorships and impoverished and how that is what fuels their anger, not any over simplified romantic ideas of good vs. evil and [...]