Clipmarks | Yafi07's clips

Historical Dictionary of Sufism

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:58:03 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07
clipper's remarks: By John Renard

With more than 3,000 entries and cross-references on the history, main figures, institutions, theory, and literary works associated with Islam's mystical tradition, Sufism, this dictionary brings together in one volume extensive historical information that helps put contemporary events into a historical context.

Historical Dictionary of Sufism (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements)
By John Renard

Tags: sufism

Muslims pray in Synagogue

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:04:02 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.dawn.com

RESTON: On Friday afternoons, the people coming to pray at this building take off their shoes, unfurl rugs to kneel on and pray in Arabic. The ones that come Friday evenings put on yarmulkes, light candles and pray in Hebrew.

The building is a synagogue on a tree-lined street in suburban Virginia, but for the past few weeks — during the Muslim holy month of Ramazan — it has also been doubling daily as a mosque. Synagogue members suggested their building after hearing the Muslim congregation was looking to rent a place for overflow crowds.

Both groups say the relationship won’t be over when Ramazan ends in North America over the weekend. The rabbi and imam are talking about possibly even making a joint trip to the Middle East, and Friday prayers will still be held at the synagogue.

Tags: muslims, jews, prayer

Found in Translation: How a Thirteenth Century Islamic Poet Conquered America By Ryan Croken

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:26:14 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07
clipper's remarks: A very thoughtful assessment of Coleman Barks translations of the poetry of Rumi put in the context of the climate in the USA of propaganda and militarism against Muslim countries. (Which will hopefully change with Obama)

Clip Source: www.religiondispatches.org

The best-selling poet in America today could never have known that someday there would be such a thing as America. Born over eight centuries ago in what is now Afghanistan, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, a Sufi mystic, has traversed some rather astonishing cultural and temporal boundaries to become one of the most improbable leaders in American letters. A study of Rumi’s success, however, would not be complete without exploring the relationship between the poet and his most popular translator, Coleman Barks.

Poetically, this is significant. But politically, it is momentous. Although something may have been lost in his “translations,” something more priceless has been found: in this American Rumi we have acquired a dazzlingly cogent ambassador of a slandered religion and a most unlikely cultural bridge that could not have come at a better time.

Tags: rumi, poetry, islam, usa

Israel's Righteous Fury

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:49:57 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: electronicintifada.net

My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice -- even louder than the one heard during the criminal attack against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel is engulfed once more with righteous fury that translates into destructive policies in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity is not just annoying, it is a subject worth dwelling on, if one wants to understand the international immunity for the massacre that rages on in Gaza.

There are no boundaries to the hypocrisy that a righteous fury produces. The discourse of the generals and the politicians is moving erratically between self-compliments of the humanity the army displays in its "surgical" operations on the one hand, and the need to destroy Gaza for once and for all, in a humane way of course, on the other.

Tags: israel, palestine, gaza

Ali Abunimah on Gaza

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:40:18 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Palestinians are at a loss to describe this latest catastrophe. International civil society must act now

"I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." Those chilling words were spoken on al-Jazeera on Saturday by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defence official in the Sderot area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. For days Israeli planes have bombed Gaza. Almost 300 Palestinians have been killed and a thousand injured, the majority civilians, including women and children. Israel claims most of the dead were Hamas "terrorists". In fact, the targets were police stations in dense residential areas, and the dead included many police officers and other civilians. Under international law, police officers are civilians, and targeting them is no less a war crime than aiming at other civilians.

The orders of Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, to hold back medicine were just as lethal and illegal as those to send in the warplanes.

Tags: gaza, palestine, israel

Ship taking medical supplies to Gaza under attack

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:31:38 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com

Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship! TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Dignity departed from Larnaca Port in Cyprus at 7pm (UST) on Monday 29 December, bound for war-devastated Gaza with a cargo of over 3 tons of desperately needed medical supplies donated by the people of Cyprus.

The Dignity, a Free Gaza boat on a mission of mercy to besieged Gaza, is being attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters. The Dignity has been surrounded by at least half-a-dozen Israeli warships. They are firing live ammunition around the Dignity, and one of the warships has rammed the civilian craft causing an unknown amount of damage. Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon.

At our request, the ship was searched by Cypriot Port authorities prior to departure, to certify that there was nothing "threatening" aboard - only emergency medical supplies.

Tags: gaza, medical supplies, mercy ship

Fighting a Dangerous Disease from Outer Space

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:07:23 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: ecoworldly.com

Space Satellites Over China to Battle Dangerous Snails

Underwater snails don’t sound very menacing. But some snails carry a kind of flatworm parasite called schistosoma. The parasite causes schistosomiasis, the second most widespread tropical disease after malaria. In China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, there are billions of these snails, each one no bigger than the tip of your pinky finger.

“Really, the only prevention is to not touch the water,” said Ibaraki. “What we hope we can do is point to the most dangerous areas for schistosomiasis transmission based on predictions we can calculate about the snail habitat.”

Tags: snails, schistosoma, china

Jewish-Muslim Women's Circle

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:02:13 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07
clipper's remarks: "A few years ago, Jewish storyteller Audrey Galex, of Atlanta, was looking for a Muslim partner for a storytelling project, so she called Soumaya Khalifa, founder and Executive Director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau in Atlanta. Their plans to meet at that time fell through. "

Clip Source: www.interfaithstory.org

Of course, baking together is only one part of the goal. “To get to know each other, break down stereotypes and grow that circle of people in a grassroots effort,” explained Soumaya of the group’s aims. Like Audrey, Soumaya seeks to create cross-cultural awareness and tolerance. Conducting diversity-training classes is part of Soumaya’s human resources job at Georgia Pacific. As executive director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau-Atlanta, she oversees and does outreach to schools, religious institutions, companies and groups to educate about Islam and Muslims.

Aicha also acknowledged the power of groups, such as the baking circle: “Interfaith contact is really needed to remove the walls that develop in the hearts of people, through the media and stereotypes. Stereotypes become words and images and leave humanity out of it. When people get to know each other, there is a lot more understanding and problem-solving.”

Tags: interfaith, jewish women, muslim women

Bio fuel from a rainforest fungus

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:12:04 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

PARIS: A reddish microbe discovered at a secret location in the rainforests of northern Patagonia has been found to expel hydrocarbon gas, with promise as a new source of biofuel.

Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term "myco-diesel" - a derivation of the word for fungus - to describe the various hydrocarbons that it produces as a gas.

"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment," he said.

Strobel, a 70-year-old veteran of the world's rainforests, said that he came across the fungus, called Gliocladium roseum thanks to "two cases of serendipity."

The first lucky break happened in the late 1990s, when Strobel's team, working in Honduras, came across a previously unidentified fungus called Muscodor albus. By sheer accident, they found that M. Albus releases a powerful, volatile (meaning it readily evaporates into a gas) antibiotic which kills other fungi.

Tags: biofuel, fungus, rainforest

Shamanic Burial Site in Israel

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:58:18 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Scientists in Israel unearth one of the earliest known shaman burial sites

The Israeli team found the bones in a small cave in the lower Galilee region of present-day Israel that was a Natufian burial ground for a least 28 people.

The woman was also interred with some unusual grave goods, including the complete tortoise shells and select body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens, as well as a complete human foot.

"It seems that the woman in the Natufian burial was perceived as being in a close relationship with these animal spirits."

The 12,000-year-old grave dates back to the Natufian people who were the first society to adopt a sedentary lifestyle, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Leore Grosman and colleagues said.

LONDON - An ancient grave unearthed in modern-day Israel containing 50 tortoise shells, a human foot and body parts from numerous animals is likely one of the earliest known shaman burial sites, researchers said on Monday.

Tags: shaman, israel, burial site

The War in the Congo

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:33:07 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

Every day I think about the people I met in the war zones of eastern Congo when I reported from there. The wards were filled with women who had been gang-raped by the militias and shot in the vagina. The battalions of child soldiers – drugged, dazed 13-year-olds who had been made to kill members of their own families so they couldn't try to escape and go home. But oddly, as I watch the war starting again on CNN, I find myself thinking about a woman I met who had, by Congolese standards, not suffered in extremis.

The more we bought, the more the invaders stole – and slaughtered. The rise of mobile phones caused a surge in deaths, because the coltan they contain is found primarily in Congo.

The UN named the international corporations it believed were involved:

But instead of stopping these corporations, our governments demanded that the UN stop criticising them.

Congo is the richest country in the world for gold, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite, and more.

Tags: congo, mobile phones, war

Zardari and corruption

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:56:44 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

- Tariq Ali
- guardian.co.uk,
- Sunday September 07 2008 09:35 BST
- Article history

He may be a pliant partner for the west, but with his record of corruption, Zardari is the worst possible choice for Pakistan

singled out by fate to become Benazir Bhutto's husband and who, subsequently, did everything he could to prevent himself from being returned to obscurity – is about to become the new President of Pakistan

There will be no expressions of joy on the streets to mark the transference of power from a moth-eaten general to a worm-eaten politician.

Tags: zardari, pakistan president

Rumi's Daughter

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:56:58 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07
clipper's remarks: Continued from above
Rumi's Daughter is both a delightful and informative novel. It comes to us from Muriel Maufroy, French-born author and ex-journalist for the BBC World Service who currently lives in London. Partly imagined and partly factual, it recounts the life of Kimya, the adopted daughter of Maulana Jalalud-Din Rumi (1207-1273) who is known today both for his mystical love poetry written to his beloved God and the Sufi Order of the Whirling Dervishes founded after his death. Nothing is really known about Kimya's origins, and we know very little about her life in Rumi's household. Yet through her enchanting depiction, Maufroy lovingly evokes the spirit of a vivacious and ingenuous young girl. She brings to life this child of seven in all her innocence and simplicity as the girl awakens to a world of wonder and embraces the life of a mystic, even before she meets Rumi and Shams. This book is especially unique, in that it offers a glimpse into Rumi's life from the women's point

Clip Source: astore.amazon.com

Rumi was one of the great mystical poets of all time, a vibrant figure whose unorthodox views on love still resonate today. Although little is known about his life, we do know that he lived in Anatolia, had an extraordinary spiritual friendship with a man named Shams, and brought an adopted girl, Kimya, into his family. This stirring novel is Kimya’s story—of how she finds herself drawn to the mysterious Shams, and how, by marrying him, her soul begins its true journey into fire. Set against the decline of the Byzantine Empire and the Mongol invasions, this tale of a tempestuous love affair combines all the timeless themes and passions of Rumi’s own verse.

This review was originally printed in Sufi, 69, Spring 2006. It is reprinted here with permission from Alireza Nurbakhsh, editor of Sufi.

Tags: rumi, sufi women, spirituality, islam

Eternity is Now

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:59:28 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07

Clip Source: henrycorbinproject.blogspot.com

Delighting in one of the wonderful comparisons of which he was so fond, Corbin recounts a conversation with D. T. Suzuki in Ascona in 1954: "...we asked him what homologies in structure he found between Mahayana Buddhism and the cosmology of Swedenborg in respect of the symbolism and correspondences of worlds: I can still see Suzuki suddenly brandishing a spoon and saying with a smile 'This spoon now exists in Paradise... We are now in Heaven,' he explained. This was an authentically Zen way of answering the question; Ibn 'Arabi would have relished it. "

- Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, 354

Boddhisatvas in the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves in Turfan, on the Silk Road, Xinjiang, western China.

Tags: ibn arabi, suzuki, eternal now

Sailing to Gaza

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:34:14 GMT

clipped by: Yafi07
clipper's remarks: These boats are sailing through international waters along the coast of Gaza to help the Palestinians. What they are doing is completely legal but their safety is being jeopardized by Israeli sabotage. Read the full story at the website.

Clip Source: sabbah.biz

A Statement from the International Human Rights Workers Aboard the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty, Sailing to Gaza

“The electronic systems which guarantee our safety aboard the SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty have been jammed and scrambled. Both ships are flying Greek flags, and are in international waters. We are the victims of electronic piracy. We are currently in GMS P area A2 and we are relying on our satellite communications equipment to make a distress call, if needed.

We are civilians from 17 nations and are on this project to break the siege of Gaza. We are not experienced sailors. As a result, there is concern about the health and safety of the people on board such an emergency develop.

We are currently experiencing rough sea conditions, and we call on the Greek government and the international community to meet their responsibilities and protect the civilians on board our two ships in international waters.”

Tags: gaza, human rights, ss free gaza

Clipmarks | Yafi07's clips

Historical Dictionary of Sufism

Historical Dictionary of Sufism (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements) By John Renard

Muslims pray in Synagogue

Found in Translation: How a Thirteenth Century Islamic Poet Conquered America By Ryan Croken

Israel's Righteous Fury

Ali Abunimah on Gaza

Palestinians are at a loss to describe this latest catastrophe. International civil society must act now

Ship taking medical supplies to Gaza under attack

Israeli Navy Attacking Civilian Mercy Ship! TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!

Fighting a Dangerous Disease from Outer Space

Space Satellites Over China to Battle Dangerous Snails

Jewish-Muslim Women's Circle

Bio fuel from a rainforest fungus

Shamanic Burial Site in Israel

Scientists in Israel unearth one of the earliest known shaman burial sites

The War in the Congo

Zardari and corruption

He may be a pliant partner for the west, but with his record of corruption, Zardari is the worst possible choice for Pakistan

Rumi's Daughter

Eternity is Now

Sailing to Gaza

Historical Dictionary of Sufism (Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies and Movements)
By John Renard