Subrident Sunni Sister: Blahg Blahg Blahg » Homeschooling Muslims: One Mother Speaks: “The recent NYT feature on homeschooling Muslims in California has created a mini-stir on the internet / blogosphere. As a reader noted, it’s negative in some way, but in a way you’re unable to point your finger to. As a former home schooler, I can’t even say that I was let down by the way the article was written. It’s what you’ve come to expect. “

The Radical Middle Way - Home

Being a Real Man; Is there a Crisis of Authority in Islam?; Alienated
Youth or Outdated Institutions?; Becoming Scholars: The Challenge of
Being Classical and Relevant; Spiritual Awakening, Reaching Muslim 2.0:
Community Development for a Wired Urban Generation; The Most Sacred
Places: The Spiritual Dimensions of Pilgrimage and Hip Hop Islam? A
Discussion on Urban Music and Community Development.

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Radical Middle Way:
Audio - Lectures

Video - Lectures

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf :: English transcript

From Protest to Engagement - transcripts and videos

The Radical Middle Way is pleased to present the first of all upcoming transcripts from our February event, From Protest to Engagement.

To LISTEN to the audio recording of Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad’s lecture in London click here.

To READ the transcript of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s speech, please click here, to LISTEN to the audio, click here or to WATCH the video, broadcast on Islam Channel, click here.

To LISTEN to the audio recording of Imam Suhaib’s lecture in London (his lecture in Bradford will be uploaded in due course) click here or to WATCH the video, click here.

To watch the video of Habib Ali al-Jifri’s lecture in London (his lecture in Bradford will be uploaded in due course), click here.

Dear Self Book Discussion, Imam Zaid on the KPFA Morning Show « Knowledge Seeker

Imam Zaid Shakir, in a beautiful example of excellence to parents, published his mother’s beautiful diary…

Dear Self book discussion. Imam Zaid Shakir talks on the KPFA Morning Show.

With thanks to Zaytuna Institute for uploading the audio.

Click on the links below to:

Listen to the interview.

Buy the book in the USA.

Buy the book in the UK.

On Faith: Guest Voices: The Real Teddy Bear Tragedy

In all the heat generated by the teddy bear controversy in Sudan, we are missing a deeper reality: As irrational and backward as the reaction in Khartoum might seem, it is yet another example of some Muslims attempting to assert themselves and exercise a little authority in the face of the immense onslaught of Western hegemony in the region.

The facts are that Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher at a private school in Khartoum, had her 7-year-old students name a teddy bear and they overwhelmingly chose “Muhammad.” The students took turns taking the bear home and wrote a diary about what they did with it, which was compiled into a book with a picture of the bear and the title “My Name is Muhammad.” Some parents were offended and the Sudanese government responded by arresting and charging Gibbons with insulting the Prophet of Islam.

The charge is without merit, of course. But it is worth noting that for Muslims, the idea of calling any object other than a human being “Muhammad” is sacrilegious. With Jews, Muslims share a prohibition of making physical images of any living things. An exception is made for children’s toys. Calling the image of any animal Muhammad, a name that Muslims won’t utter without a benediction is, for them, beyond the pale. Turks even prefer the contraction Mehmet to avoid using the name in common circumstances. Westerners have a hard time understanding such reverence in a markedly irreverent age.

Top 10 ChangeThis Downloads for March 2007

The ChangeThis site has some useful material. [Please note: We assume the definition of the human being as a ‘thinking animal’ and not as merely “sheep on two legs.” Not everything posted here is an endorsement of its contents… but it may make you think, and may benefit you…]

Here are the top 10 downloads in the month of March.

100 Ways to Kill a Concept by Michael Iva
The Upside of A**holes by Bob Sutton
How To Be Creative by Hugh MacLeod
The Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin
Lonely Planet by Elizabeth Johnson
25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself by Raj Setty
The Silent Revolution by Elizabeth Edelsheim
Talking Strategy by Chip and Dan Heath
How Toyota Can Save Your Life by Mark Graban
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
Frontline Leadership by George Reavis

How to tackle dreaded tasks - Lifehacker

The Happiness Project blog offers six tips for powering through procrastination to accomplish dreaded tasks. A sampling:

• Do it first thing in the morning. If you’re dreading doing
  something, you’re going to be able to think of more creative excuses as
  the day goes along. One of my Twelve Commandments is “Do it now.” No
  delay is the best way.
• Have someone keep you company. Studies show that we enjoy
  practically every activity more when we’re with other people. Having a
  friend along can be a distraction, a source of reassurance, or just
  moral support.

We’ve looked at plenty of procrastination-killers in the past, like the 10-minute rule and 50 ways to get your stuff done. What’s your favorite way to face down a terrible task? Don’t procrastinate–put it in the comments, now! —Rick Broida

Six tips for tackling a dreaded task [The Happiness Project]

Psychology Today: Tiny Attractors: Boy Meets Girl

Boys and girls don’t simply prefer to stick with their own kind. Kids are fascinated by creatures of the opposite sex, but strongly averse to them. As in, “ewwwww.”

Read the article… consider, with it, the sunna of increasing separation between boys and girls from around 5 or 6 years; and encouraging that from age 7; and then making it the norm from age 10… Subhan Allah wa’l Hamdulillah

YouTube - How Online Courses at SunniPath Academy Work

At Berkeley Law, a Challenge to Overcome All Barriers - New York Times

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1960s, Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the flagship law school of the University of California, learned early about racial discrimination. After all, his father, one of the few African-American graduates in Harvard Law School’s class of 1953, could not get a job in a Philadelphia law firm.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Petra seeks to become ‘world wonder’

The ancient Jordanian city of Petra has probably not seen such a buzz of activity since civilised life ended there in the 8th century AD.

Psychology Today: Straight Up: Don’t Be a Slouch

Good posture is in a slump. Our days at work and school are filled with non-ergonomic tasks and habits—staring at computers, lugging heavy shoulder bags, and cradling the phone in the crick of our necks. Now our backs are paying the price. According to a Duke University study, back pain is costing the country $90 billion a year.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf “: Thoughts on the Science Delusion” - Zaytuna Videocast 4 - Google Video

CommUnity of Minds : Working Together

Richard Dawkins is an Oxford professor and the author of a series of best-selling books that popularize a version of evolutionary theory. According to Dawkins, evolution is driven by “replicators”—genes, and also “memes,” viruses of the mind that spread and persist in human populations. Those genes and memes that replicate most effectively become dominant, with every consequence for the natural world and for civilization and history. The usefulness of this notion, which does have the virtue of simplicity, is a question obscured by the demands Dawkins has placed on it. By his lights this is the universal etiology, a fully sufficient refutation of religion in every form and the basis for a new view of humankind. Under the name of Darwinism it has been thrown into the rhetorical wars that seem, to the combatants, to pit science against religion. As argument it has taken on the character of this environment, getting lost in the miasma of its own supposed implications.

Marginal Revolution: The real questions behind global warming

The key issue is what we can expect from China and India. As I understand the evidence, if China and India continue to grow, the United States cannot succeed in much limiting global warming on its own. Let us assume, somewhat dubiously (many European countries are further from Kyoto targets than is the United States), that Europe is already on board, what are the options? read more

Urdu’s last stand Ehsan Masood - openDemocracy

A new education policy in Pakistan signals a shift from the idea of Urdu as the country’s everyday working language, says Ehsan Masood.

What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran - New York Times

HERE is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article
we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence
Agency’s Publication Review Board after the White House
intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded
substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded
on their own that the original draft included no classified material,
but that they had to bow to the White House.

Marginal Revolution: Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Poor

…in [south Chicago], as in so many American ghettos,
confronting the local gang requires wading through some very murky
waters.  This community is in many ways held together by a
prevasive underground economy, and here, in the gray areas of ethics
and legality, gang members and residents are inextricably linked. 
In practice, many residents might have no direct involvement in shady
trading.  However…the underground economy manages to touch all
households, whether as a direct source of income, as a place to acquire
cheap goods and services, or as a part of the public theater. 
Thus, it is not easy to separate the innocent from the perpetrator…

That is from Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor.  You may recall, he is the guy who helped Steve Levitt crack the finances of a drug gang; here is a home page for him.

This book treats crime, gangs, poverty, micro-finance, the
foundations of cooperative behavior, urban economics, Jane Jacobs, what
the police maximize, and why so many barbershops rent out their back
rooms to prostitutes, all rolled into one fascinating and profound
volume.

So far this year Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling On Happiness and David Warsh’s Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations are the only non-fiction books I have urged you to buy.  This book joins that list.  Very highly recommended, and Steve Levitt loves it too.

NPR : The Right to Be Fully American

I am an American and like almost everyone here, I am also something else. I was raised to believe that America embraces all people from all faiths, but recently, that longstanding belief — along with both parts of my identity — have come under attack. And as an American Muslim of Pakistani descent, this attack is tearing me apart.

BlackBerry Orphans - WSJ.com

The growing use of email gadgets is spawning a generation of resentful children. A look at furtive thumb-typers, the signs of compulsive use and how kids are fighting back.

The meanings of the Noble Quran (2 Vol) with explanatory notes by Mufti Taqi Usmani - Azhar Academy

A new English translation of the meanings of the Qur’an by one of the most eminent scholars of our time, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani.

A brief introduction of each surah has been added wherever necessary. The respected author has also added explanatory notes to facilitate understanding of the text for a common reader.

250 free templates for MS Office - Lifehacker

Productivity blogger Dumb Little Man has compiled a monster list of 250 free Microsoft Office templates.

There’s a lot here - everything from address books to wills. Templates are great because half the job is done for you before you even get started; it’s a great way to make your worktime more productive. And there’s such a wide variety on this list that I’m sure you’ll find something right up your alley.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Maverick’ risk to science debate

Scientists have been urged to become more involved in public debates about their research or risk it being dominated by minority “maverick” views.

The warning has been made by Royal Society president, Lord Martin Rees.

Language Log: Doublespeak and the War on Terror

A briefing paper entitled
Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism
by
Timothy LynchCato Institute seems to be getting
belated attention. It appeared in September, but this
AP report

by Calvin Woodward came out today. The briefing paper addresses the attempt of the
Bush Administration
to make more palatable its violations of civil liberties by using doublespeak,
e.g. dubbing “warrants” “national security letters” in the hope
that the courts will be fooled into thinking that judicial oversight is not required,
or describing the suicide attempts of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
(referred to by the Bush Administration as “detainees”, as if they were witnesses to a
traffic accident asked by the police to remain until they could be interviewed)
as “self-injurious behavior incidents”.

of the

M-Dollar: Watch your language: tribe sues Microsoft over Mapuzugun Windows

Microsoft’s going to court over an intellectual property language dispute, but I’m not talking about problems in C# or Visual C++. The Mapuche Indians in Chile are taking Microsoft to court because the company created a version of Windows in Mapuzugun, a language that is the native tongue of about 400,000 Chileans.

According to the AP report,
Microsoft was hoping to bring the Mapuche Indians into the digital age
with a Mapuzugun version of Windows. Apparently, the Mapuche people are
fine with becoming digitized, but tribal leader Aucan Huilcaman claims
that Microsoft should have consulted his people before the company
created the software.

“We feel like Microsoft and the Chilean Education
Ministry have overlooked us by deciding to set up a committee [to study
the issue] without our consent, our participation and without the
slightest consultation.”

The core issue in this case is whether or not someone can own a language….

Koonj: Shabana’s blog » Blog Archive » Testosterone for the sake of God

Here’s an interesting news article about my alma mater. Punjab University, Lahore - next to Anarkali Bazar. Across from the Museum, near Kim’s Gun and Government College.
(Check out the title photo. Isn’t it interesting how they dimmed the “normal” women in dupattas and chadars, and sharpened the image of the burqa-clad woman?)

Sadly the details about IJT are true. Its excessively politicized character has profoundly damaged the structure and culture of higher education in Pakistan. The IJT is the student branch of the Jamaat-e-Islami (founded by Maulana Syed Abdul Ala Maudoodi), to which I owe my own early (EARLY, not later) ideological training.

I escaped much of the Jamaat’s political influence because my family was bewildered by my religious fervour.

It reminds me of Roald Dahl’s observation about some priests who came to visit his high school… “If these are God’s salesmen on earth, then there must be something seriously wrong with the whole business…” [ya`ni, with their understanding of religion and its purpose]