The article is written by a Muslim Junior in high school about her efforts to correct stereotypes written in her AP World History textbook about gender relations in Islam. Many of the comments are disappointing and hate-filled (as is expected), though one person pasted Jamal Badawi’s “Gender Equity in Islam,” which does a great job of explaining women’s rights in Islam, using appropriate sources and explaining verses from the Qur’an.
In Birk’s version, each chapter of the Quran has been carefully copied in English in a calligraphy modeled on the urban graffiti of America’s inner cities. The stark black text is bordered by scenes from American life both mundane and extraordinary: gangsters flashing signs, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, migrants working the fields, a crowded airport lounge and a raging California wildfire among them.
Each painting relates to the sura, or chapter, it illustrates, either literally or metaphorically, Birk said.
”‘American Qur’an’ blends US life, Quranic verses - Yahoo! News
[This sounds soooooo cool! This is about a nonMuslim California artist who has been taking each chapter of the Qur’an and illustrating it in the traditional Middle Eastern miniature style with contemporary images from American life and recent history…and instead of Arabic calligraphy, he transliterates each surah using graffiti in English. His point is to bring more awareness to Islam and American culture and to make the Qur’an more accessible to everyday American life (by showing its parallels with contemporary American culture). It’s a controversial project b/c some Muslims are offended by the fact that he used images to illustrate the Qur’an.]
2 years ago
The Soloist Trailer (via takepart)
[As an almost-therapist, this is a film I can’t wait to see! -B]
2 years agoJoe Wright: Why I Hired the Homeless to Work on The Soloist
[I think the fact that he gave them employment was a good thing and it gave them a chance to tell their own story, rather than have people come, observe them, and then make their own film based on that short observation period. The latter makes me think of scientists going into a lab to observe their caged species. -B]
2 years agoOh, The Temptation on Vimeo (via Vimeo)
[So cute! That would be me trying to fast during Ramadan with chocolate cake in front of me. -B]
2 years agoMy ongoing call, however, is for non-white people to develop an understanding of race that is meticulous, logical, and systematic. Racism has a sole, functional expression: White supremacy. Racism is not historical. It’s futuristic. It is not going away. It is being refined. It is weaponized through deceit, secrecy, and violence, in that order. It’s chief tools are not clubs, bullets, or nooses, but words.
Most of all, however, those white people who say they are not racists, or that they are against racism, should be clearing race from the paths of Black people, like snowplows going through highway drifts. By doing nothing, or doing nothing effective, they cast racist suspicion on themselves through their inertness. The practice of white supremacy is a system, and it involves people giving all kinds safe harbor to racists—physical, social, financial, emotional, relational, hierarchical, psychological, etc.
”“Is Kanye the New O.J. ?”: The Real Haters Appear, In Order To Protect Taylor Swift’s White Womanhood From the Rape…Uh, the Rapper.
[An article about the Kanye West fiasco and the resulting racist tweets targeting him. -Beanay]
2 years ago