Moulid: Beyond Rashid Rida’s Tolerance
As children we did not know the meaning of the moulid we used to recite and sing. Nor did we try. When we pestered our elders for a little bit of glosses on those sonorous, full-bodied verses, they discouraged: ‘You don’t know the meaning of the Qur’an either.’ Piety stayed well outside all meanings. So […]
Can I date my fiancé
This question is sort of motivated by the Q and A you have carried last time about the age for marriage. The problem we face today is that issues regarding the violation of women’s rights and injustice against women are debated only after they became controversial. After they are hotly discussed by the media, we […]
‘West Throws Away A lot of Our History’
DR. ENGSENG HO is a renowned anthropologist and Islamic scholar who teaches at Duke University. His study on the diaspora of Hadhrami descendants of the Prophet – The Grave of Tarim – is a remarkable contribution to the study of Muslim histories, and a groundbreaking work combining historiography and anthropology, by extensively using the tool […]
I Have Read a Pope
On ‘Pope Francis: His life in his own words’ is valuable read for many reasons. Through his own words we come to know a man whose actions and words reflect his deeply rooted humility. This is the first time in two thousand years that a rabbi has written the forward for a book on the […]
Why Not a Türk bayram (Turkish Feast) This Time??
During my stay in Gulf, I noticed weekdays flying much faster. However, I always wish for the weekends to arrive, because weekends meant getting out of the usual old routine, breathing fresh air, hanging out with family, trying out new flavors and revitalizing our palettes. Experimenting with new dishes is always exciting, be it local […]
How early is early marriage?
Does everyone understand the word “early” here to be of the same caliber? The minimum legally approved age of marriage is less than 15 in some countries. Such laws are neither limited to developing countries, nor to state religion. In Europe, for example, Catholic canon law sets 14 as the minimum age for the marriage […]
Muslimgauze: Beyond the Hypnotic Sufi Gimmick
Why am I not blessed with the kinda music which Bryn Jones dished out under the banner Muslimgauze? This is the question one can’t help asking in a climate of fear and victimhood. Next month 15 years will have been over since the passing away of Jones. We listen to politics trumpeted. But once in […]
In An Antique Land: The Ironies of History
After reading In an Antique Land, a cynic might say that Amitav Ghosh has contrived a novel. The novel, of course, attempts to create a landscape which shelters many mindscapes and social spaces using the building blocks of memory, history and an anthropologist’s dairy notes. Though a novelist needs to have raw materials to work […]
I Have Read a Pope
On ‘Pope Francis: His life in his own words’ is valuable read for many reasons. Through his own words we come to know a man whose actions and words reflect his deeply rooted humility. This is the first time in two thousand years that a rabbi has written the forward for a book on the […]
Nelson Mandela: The Captain Of His Soul
This is a belated remembrance of Nelson Mandela-the first, objective obit in Interactive. This attempts to see Mandela’s illustrious life without any reference to streams of thought and ideologies that influenced him-like multiculturalism, Islam and Gandhism (articles on each of these were already carried). This is part of our project to initiate continuous discourses on […]
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