This hunt for a new Malaysian imam is "not a reality show."  No women are competing, though some say the Qu'ran doesn't strictly forbid it.  The prize includes a Hajj and a scholarship to a Saudi Arabian university.  Malaysians revere all things Middle Eastern, when it comes… Read full post »

Look at what Sam Nunberg, Deputy Director of Government Affairs at the Center for Law and Justice, said about plans to erect Cordoba House, an Islamic Cultural Center, two blocks from where the World Trade Centers once stood: "It would be like removing the sunken ship from Pearl Harbor to e… Read full post »

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported an estimated 350,000 people in 2008, a record high at that time, and budgeted 1.4 billion Congress-appropriated dollars to do the same in the year 2009. For those whose solution to the immigration dilemma is to deport, deport, deport, this may look li… Read full post »

My birthday a few days ago felt like an unpleasant turning-point.  From now one, my birthday can no longer be a cause for out-and-out celebration.  Now it's starting to mark something else, and I can hear ever louder the scrape-scraping of time passing.  I won't say how old I turned be… Read full post »

Tom Shales in The Washington Post claims the media is shifting blame for the handling of the oil spill to President Obama to prevent viewers from getting all worn out at watching this disaster spread and spread.  What interests me is the consensus that's been reached weeks after Deepwater H… Read full post »

In Midwestern news, the "Touchdown Jesus" statue of Monroe, Ohio, has been stricken by lightning and burned to the ground.  A reminder that we should be watching soccer. 

B.C. 

A.D.

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I like the "BP Spills Coffee" video not only for summing up BP's standard of action in reaction to the oil spill crisis, but for illustrating how removed from reality a board room has the potential to get.

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Even for the most well-meaning traveler, it's easy to fall into a group of people who speak your language or hail from your home country when you're abroad.   But if you're looking for a meaningful experience, it's important to get out of that comfort zone.  I've written an article for… Read full post »

Malaysian celebrities reminisce about their favorite Hari Raya memories in a story on the site Sun2Surf, and lament the old traditions that have been swallowed up by shopping-mall string lights and a collective haul away from the kampung to the estrangement of big-city life.  It s… Read full post »

Malaysia has been testing the waters of international opinion and may find them still a little too hot.  This is after the caning of a Muslim woman caught drinking beer was postponed until after Ramadan, then suspended temporarily as the case was put under review.  In another case… Read full post »

Issues of male-dominated interpretation, problematic scripture, women as recognized religious leaders, and stereotypes of religious women invade the majority of world religions.  This is the message of the "Change Through Collaboration" panel that will be the concluding panel discussion of the 2… Read full post »

Where I expected anger and resentment, there was none in sight.  No furious protests, no stormy exits.  A person’s individual vision of God or spirituality can be the easiest subject to offend, so I expected that today’s opening session at the WISE Conference would be the event&… Read full post »

Only half an hour after a work group session discussing “Change Through Communication” concluded in the hotel conference hall, the tables had been pushed back, the notes and the debates cleared away, and women were gathering on the clean white sheets spread out on the floor of the meeting… Read full post »

Conversation came immediately and easily to the 250 women who attended the opening banquet of the WISE Conference at the hotel Impiana KLCC this evening.  The halls had been alive with discussion since check-in began hours before, many talking as though the company they found there had been long… Read full post »

Stay tuned in to my blog for the next five days - I'll be providing a first-person perspective on the 2009 Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) Conference, to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 16-19, 2009.  As an evaluation assistant charged with gathering feed… Read full post »

The rise of the label “elitist” marks a sobering trend in American politics. Any candidate hoping to become the new President of the United States, leader of the free world, one of the most powerful figures in international politics, faces a painful dilemma this election year – whet… Read full post »