Category: Islam and Other Religions

An interesting discussion has been going on about the historical treatment of religious minorities by Muslims and Christians in the blogworld. As usual, the discussion covers dhimmis (is dhimmitude a word?) and the Inquisition. It revolves around the Middle East and Europe (as is common for discussions about Islam; somehow Africa or Asia are rarely… Continue reading Treatment of Minorities

Bill Allison at Ideofact is discussing the idea that we are still finding the Great War (1914-18). He discusses the effect of the end of the Ottoman rule on radical Islamists. It is a typically great series of posts (see this post for the series). In his latest post on the subject, Bill refers to… Continue reading The End of the Ottoman Empire

Previous Posts of this series: Cousin Marriage and Forced Marriage in Pakistan. I did some research for this post. Actually, I asked my sister to tell me what Abdur Rahman Al-Jazairi had to say about the topic in his book “Kitab-ul-Fiqh alal-Madhahib al-Arba’a” (Book of fiqh according to the four schools [mentioned in this post]… Continue reading Forced Marriage in Islam: Post #2

See my first post in this series on cousin marriages here. I’ll start out by quoting from Amnesty International’s reports about forced marriages in Pakistan as well as what sometimes happens if a woman marries someone of her own choice. Please note that even one such case is heartbreaking, but as always it is not… Continue reading Forced Marriage: Post #1

Islamic scholars have over time worked on a number of religious issues, e.g., commentary on the Quran, collection and authenticity of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (known as Hadith (singular) and Ahadith (plural), and fiqh which is the codification of religious rules for everything under the sun. Unfortunately, there is not much material available on… Continue reading A Personal Note about Islamic Books, Law, etc.

Bill Allison had a post recently on the subject of cousin marriage recently: Quite a sad story about marital practices in Saudi Arabia from Arab News, in particular, the practice of marrying daughters off to their cousins. An excerpt: The final word comes from Maha, another woman. “There is the tradition of keeping a girl… Continue reading Marriage: Between Cousins

Surfing the web, I found this interesting site about Muslim/Islamic philosophy. It has a book “A History of Muslim Philosophy” edited by M.M. Sharif available online. I have just started reading it and would share the authors’ and my thoughts over time. It seems to cover Mutazlilism and Asharism and Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd… Continue reading Muslim Philosophy

Eid Mubarak, everyone. Today is Eid-ul-Azha, which the celebration of Abraham’s offer to sacrifice Ishmael (Isaac according to the Bible, but Ishmael in the Quran). To commemorate that event, those Muslims who can afford it sacrifice cows, goats or lambs. Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is also going on at this time. For some links… Continue reading Eid Greetings

Browsing through the religious data in the CIA World Factbook, I found out that Swaziland, a small landlocked country in Southern Africa (area 17,363 sq km slightly smaller than New Jersey and population 1.1 million) has a Zionist religion. No, this has nothing to do with Zionism. According to the CIA entry, Swaziland has the… Continue reading Zionist Church of Swaziland