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New: My TEDGlobal Talk — Video
The talk I gave at TEDGlobal twelve days ago just went live! Here it is — on Muhammad, the relationship between faith and doubt, and the travesty of fundamentalism: Anything you can do to...
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Beyond Tarzan and Jane
I just came across these four short clips from an interview I gave a few months ago — so impromptu and off the cuff that I’d forgotten I did it. Tarzan and Jane come up in the first one, when I’m asked...
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Mehdi Hasan — Pow!
If you haven’t already heard of Mehdi Hasan, he’s the political editor of Huffington Post UK, the former political editor of The New Statesman, and stunningly eloquent. Plus he thinks even faster...
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7 Years, 600 Lashes
Don’t dare think in Saudi Arabia. And don’t even dream of having an opinion. This AP report is a pretty good indication of what would happen there to The Accidental Theologist: The founder of a liberal...
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“Why would you write a book?”
“You’re a Muslim, so why would you write a book about the founder of Christianity?” That’s how Fox News’ Lauren Green began her challenge to Reza Aslan’s right to write about Jesus. The video of her...
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Canceled in Turkey
Under the heading Disappointing But Not Exactly Surprising: There will no Turkish edition of The First Muslim. My Turkish publisher received a reader’s report on the book from an un-named “academic...
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Adoring ‘Darling’
Here’s my review of Richard Rodriguez’ “Persian carpet of a book” in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Yes, it’s a rave. No, I’ve never met him. Yes, I’d love to: On rare occasion, a writer makes a...
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A Rainbow Gathering
If you haven’t yet heard of it, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to the Ravel/Unravel project. “Unravel your assumptions” is their motto. And they’re asking you to help them ravel your unraveling...
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Hajj Distress
I am distressed by this news report in today’s Detroit Free Press. The first four paragraphs: A group of metro Detroiters visiting Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage said they were attacked...
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“Do Arab Men Hate Women?”
Two excellent minds — liberal activist and journalist Mona Eltahawy and Huffington Post UK political editor Mehdi Hasan — went head to head at the Oxford Union on whether, per the provocative headline...
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Shameless Advice
The advice-to-young-people racket is utterly shameless. Even William Burroughs gave in to the temptation, proving that the best advice-to-young-people may be to ignore all advice-to-young-people....
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Who ISIS Hates
I know Muslims are sick and tired of the Islamophobic refrain of “Why don’t they speak out against ISIS?” Some refuse to accept the terms of the challenge, seeing it as a demand that they apologize...
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Muhammad’s Tears
The cover of this week’s Charlie Hebdo leaves me speechless, in a good way. And in tears too. (And yes, it is indeed deeply Islamic in spirit.) Filed under: Islam, light, sanity Tagged: Charlie...
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