Muslims lived in America before Protestantism even existed. The first words to pass between Europeans and Americans (one-sided and confusing as they must have been) were in the sacred language of Islam.
Christopher Columbus had hoped to sail to Asia and had prepared to communicate at its great courts in one of the major languages of Eurasian commerce. So when Columbus’s interpreter, a Spanish Jew, spoke to the Taíno of Hispaniola, he did so in Arabic. Not just the language of Islam, but the religion itself likely arrived in America in 1492, more than 20 years before Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door, igniting the Protestant reformation. Moors – African and Arab Muslims – had conquered much of the Iberian peninsula in 711, establishing a Muslim culture that lasted nearly eight centuries. I was an Isis sex slave. I tell my story because it is the best weapon I have.
Countering Terrorism...With Racism? - by Anuj Shrestha and Nazia Kazi. Survivors of 9/11 attack urge Theresa May to release Saudi Arabia terror report she suppressed. Saudi Arabia, Exporter of Oil and Bigotry. Photo A college senior boarded a flight and excitedly called his family to recount a United Nations event he had attended, but, unfortunately, he was speaking Arabic.
Southwest Airlines kicked him off the plane, in the sixth case reported in the United States this year in which a Muslim was ejected from a flight. Such Islamophobia also finds expression in the political system, with Donald Trump calling for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country (“Welcome to the U.S.A.! Now, what’s your religion?”) And Ted Cruz suggesting special patrols of Muslim neighborhoods (in New York City, by the nearly 1,000 police officers who are Muslim?).
How Islam Created Europe. Europe was essentially defined by Islam.
And Islam is redefining it now. For centuries in early and middle antiquity, Europe meant the world surrounding the Mediterranean, or Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”), as the Romans famously called it. It included North Africa. Indeed, early in the fifth century A.D., when Saint Augustine lived in what is today Algeria, North Africa was as much a center of Christianity as Italy or Greece. But the swift advance of Islam across North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries virtually extinguished Christianity there, thus severing the Mediterranean region into two civilizational halves, with the “Middle Sea” a hard border between them rather than a unifying force. How Not to Talk About Muslims After a Fringe Terrorist Group Attacks. 1.
Stop calling Daesh “the Islamic State.” Women's secret films from within al-Raqqah of Islamic state. Islam and Politics: Crash Course World History 216. Mohammed: the Anti-Innovator click on image for video. Transcript.
You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia Support for ISIS in the Muslim World - Perceptions vs Reality - Metrocosm. According to a Brookings report from last January: 40% of Americans believe most Muslims oppose ISIS.14% think most Muslims support ISIS.And 44% (the plurality) of Americans believe Muslim views are evenly balanced on the issue.
American perceptions of Muslims’ support for the Islamic State are all over the map. The Genesis of #HateHurts. Misunderstandings of Religion. Iranian artist imprisoned for cartoon of local politicians. Atena Farghadani is a 28-year-old Iranian artist.
She was recently sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison for drawing a cartoon. Iranian artist Farghadani faces indecency charges after shaking man's hand. Artist Atena Farghadani, 29, serving 12 year sentence for satirical cartoonsDrew politicians who restricted women's access to birth control as animalsShe and lawyer Mohammad Moghimi charged after shaking hands in prison By Jenny Stanton For Mailonline Published: 13:35 GMT, 8 July 2015 | Updated: 13:44 GMT, 8 July 2015 An Iranian woman sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for drawing satirical cartoons of politicians is now facing new charges - for shaking a man's hand.
Artist Atena. Shaking hands with your lawyer is not a crime, rules an Iranian judge. By now, many of us have at least seen the trailer for The Revenant, with Leonardo DiCaprio cast as Hugh Glass, a fur trapper and hunter who embarks on a mission for vengeance after being left for dead by his cohorts in the wake of a bear attack.
As it turns out, Hugh Glass was a real guy who had a pivotal role in the westward expansion of the fur trade, and by extension, America. And he was even more of a badass than we see in the movie—though not for the reasons you might expect. The lucrative fur trade was a driving force behind American exploration, as Eric Jay Dolin explains in his chronicle, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. Mountain men Lewis and Clark did not find such a route. Dolin estimates only a few thousand men pursued this risky path. How the Shia-Sunni split in 632AD led to Iran and Saudi Arabia’s power games today.
I’ve been asked by a bunch of people today to comment on this essay “Economic Inequality,” penned by self-described “essayist” Paul Graham, who is also the subject of a poem I recently wrote titled, “Paul Graham is Asking to be Eaten.”
When my friend Danilo asked me to respond to this, I said that the essay was too vapid and lacking in substance to critique. Historian Demolishes Idea The Quran Is More Violent Than Bible: Christians Have ‘Holy Amnesia’ « To hear Fox News tell it, the Muslim faith – and therefore the 1.5 billion people who practice it – are inherently unable to integrate and live within Western society. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson argued that point explicitly, adding that Islam is so at-odds with American values that a Muslim couldn’t be trusted to be president.
Inevitably, those who make these claims do so by painting the religion of Islam with a very wide brush. They assume all Muslims are terrorists. They call on all Muslims to condemn each and every atrocity committed in the name of Islam or risk being labeled terrorist sympathizers. They assume Muslim refugees are hidden ISIS agents. ISIS. Mindless terrorists? The truth about Isis is much worse. What ISIS Really Wants. What is the Islamic State? Iranian Women Post Pics With Their Hair Flying Free To Protest Strict Hijab Laws. Wearing the Islamic hijab veil is mandatory for women in Iran, and in 2014, Iran's morality police warned, fined or arrested 3.6 million women for inappropriate dress. Saudi court sentences poet to death for renouncing Islam. A Palestinian poet and leading member of Saudi Arabia’s nascent contemporary art scene has been sentenced to death for renouncing Islam.
A Saudi court on Tuesday ordered the execution of Ashraf Fayadh, who has curated art shows in Jeddah and at the Venice Biennale. My Friend, the Former Muslim Extremist.