So I Accidentally Bought a Muslim Newspaper
I ran into a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes when I saw the last remaining copy of said news paper. It had a headline that was chastising Obama so I brought it to the counter to buy it. I remember asking the attendant if it was free and he gave me a really weird look, which after reading the paper I understand. He probably didn't even want me to buy it. It says a lot of scary stuff. Mostly because it is hidden really well. I can see a lot of people reading this and not reading between the lines. I posted two of the most horrific parts.
During one Ramadan dinner I was invited to, I met members of an American group that had moved to Dubai to start a school. Now, this was an Emirati home where the women socialized with women and the men were in separate rooms. Normally, than when women are together, headscarves, abayas, naquabs (veils), and gloves come off since they are in the company of other women. In the case of these converted American Muslims, nothing came off, even during diner they ate with their gloves on. Of course it was an insult to the hostess but these women saw it as their way to live their brand of Islam. That is NOT the mainstream, just as this newspaper and these articles are not the mainstream.
What was the name of the newspaper?
I'm only 10% through it, but it's about how normal religious extremists are. They're into normal interests like cars or sports. If they're living in a foreign country, their parents find enclaves of people from their own country and live that life. The kids are caught between two worlds, and there are these extremists who target them. The extremists start out with a strict/strong brand of Islam and quickly move to logical fallacies to move people toward extremism. By chance the author got involved with the YMCA instead of these groups. Despite the word Christian in their name, they didn't try to push him to become Christian; they just taught good values. He's saying we need more YMCA-like people to offset extremists.
This newspaper is a little different because it seems to be about the African American branch of Islam. The author wants separate but equal education? We tried that over 100 years ago. I hope the book I'm reading gets into the African American brand of religious extremism.
I know very little about this, but it seems to me Islam would be better off with some sort of Pope-like figure who used to be a Caliph in charge of an empire but not [Correction: "but now"] just runs the religion and sets boundaries about what's too extreme. Maybe they have one, but I've never heard of it.
Though I do find it rather interesting that this particular paper seems to be published by African American Muslims rather than Arab Muslims. I guess that's intersectionality for ya.
I vote for the birdcage too.