In one of my classes yesterday, we were discussing the Virgin Mary, particularly when she appeared as Virgen de Guadalupe, and I was reminded of how uneasy and erased I feel whenever Mary is defined as a Catholic saint. Of course, in the context of this specific lesson, she was a Catholic saint, and in …
Category: religion
Separation of church & state
It never ceases to amaze me that “religious extremists”—whatever that means—aggressively force the integration of their religious beliefs with government when this is clearly destructive to their own interests. For a religious state to prosper, the religion in question would inevitably become secularized to prevent collapse, the eruption of threatening riots, or simply dysfunction. Such …
The Western Muslim Woman, Part II: Visual Presentation and Interpretation
Having thrown out the idea of identifying with a race in part I, I feel I should make something clear: as much as I see the social construct of race to be problematic, I am not interested in ripping race away from other people. I know that others identify with race for reactionary reasons, or …
Continue reading The Western Muslim Woman, Part II: Visual Presentation and Interpretation
Interfaith Relations: Erasure
Because I'm a religious minority, it is always surprising and pleasant when there is some sort of friendly acknowledgement of my existence in everyday life, outside of depressing news stories. Receiving a Ramadan Mubarak or Ramadan Karim or simply "Happy Ramadan" from distant acquaintances and classmates when I've disclosed I'm on my way to break …
religion versus culture (hopefully the last entry I’ll ever write on this tired subject)
My last post kind of brings me to the insufferable religion versus culture debate, which I've been meaning to record, and which I am hoping has been (at least temporarily) put to rest in the comments section of a post by almostclever. In the post she writes, Then take what you learned and apply it …
God negotiates.
We all know the story of our beloved Prophet’s trip to Heaven to speak directly to God, and how on the way back the Prophet met with each of the other prophets from past eras. When Muhammad (P) met with Moses, Moses asked him what he had discussed with God. Muhammad (P) replied that God …
the fatal feminist 