Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be bomber of Flight 253, is turning out to be a classic case study in radicalization – there’s been great coverage of his story at Talk Islam and I think it paints a picture of a man who was classicially susceptible to the allure of jihad. The silver lining of…

This is a symbolic New Year’s eve indeed. The hopelessly pedantic will argue that the decade ends next year but the overwhelming common sense consensus is that tonight marks the end of the first decade of the 21st century of the “common era”. And what a disappointing decade it was, from a global perspective –…

I was saddened to hear of the violence in Iran during Ashura, in which Ali Mousavi (the nephew of reform candidate Mir Hosein Mousavi) was among the protestors who were shot and killed by the security forces. Police denied however that anyone had died in the clashes, which witnesses said came as tens of thousands…

One of my best friends on the planet turns, um, 34 (ahem) today. Happy birthday, Aamer! Aamer has been a guest poster on this blog, and one of his favorite pieces of mine was his exposition on Hajj as a near-death experience from last year. I hope to coax more posts out of him in…

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