There’s a big difference between practicality and indifference. Reading an opinion on the 3rd December edition of SD about how the University Union is not serving the interests of their students and focusing instead on ‘irrelevant’ issues that do not directly serve the interests of ‘average students who do not really care that much’.
How do [...]

Minggu ini “Solidarity with Palestine Week”, anjuran Action Palestine, University of Manchester. Setiap hari ada aktiviti untuk menyedarkan massa tentang malapetaka kemanusiaan yang bermaharajalela di bumi Zaytun sana. Dokumentari, perbincangan, ceramah, tayangan filem, hampir semuanya berkisar tentang penderitaan pribumi Palestin yang ditenyeh-tenyeh oleh penjarah Israel dan dilayan di luar tatacara manusiawi.
Setakat ini [...]

Assalamualaikum.
OK, apologies to the unmentioned friend from whose statement this title is derived. No offence!
It had been a very lovely Eid in Manchester. Full of diet-crashing delicacies and mind-boggling extravaganza that makes the quadriceps-torturing walks to find the houses worthwhile. And of course, the warm hospitality of hosts and friendly company of fellow visitors make [...]

Pengarang buku ini adalah pelopor Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), sebuah institut berdekatan rumah saya di Chicago. Beliau kini sudah uzur selepas diserang strok beberapa tahun lalu, iaitu sebaik sahaja menerbitkan buku di sebelah kiri ini, West Africa, Islam, and the Arab World, yang boleh saya anggapkan sebagai magnum opus [...]

assalamualaikum.
These are the photo of the flyers that are being distributed around campus and residential halls (I got mine from the Gemini takeaway next door when I went to get some apple pies).

There are also posters on stop-the-war demonstration in London, on the 8th of October.
It is interesting to see that in countries like the [...]

Assalamualaikum.
Salam sejahtera.
Saya tidak pasti siapa yang mengucapkan ungkapan ini.
“Orang bijak berbicara kerana ada perkara yang perlu dikatakan, orang yang kurang bijak berbicara kerana dia merasakan perlu untuk berkata-kata.”
Entri Najwan yang terdahulu, mengkritik secara ’satira horatia‘, perihal remaja/belia Malaysia yang tidak pandai berwacana. Memandang satu-satu isu secara superficial - hanya pada permukaan, tanpa analisa mendalam, atau [...]

salaam.
I found it pretty funny that certain groups of feminists seem to equate being male with being powerful, anything manly as something positive and to be striven for. Hence their struggle to turn females into males, in looks, occupation, carriage, personality, thinking, career, and everything under the sun, and call this ‘conversion’ success. Women who [...]

I have hitherto never come across such a notion of an “anthropology of Islam”. It was only when I was introduced to the pioneering works of Clifford Geertz’s Islam Observed (1971) and a provocative critique of his work by Daniel Martin Varisco, Islam Obscured (2005), that I realized the various nuances of Islamic studies and [...]

Assalamualaikum.
The third part of my ‘Extreme Medicine’ series. Feels like such a long time has passed since my last entry on this, I hardly knew where to begin! Well, most of this entry is based on what I remembered - and understood - of Dr Heng Aik Cheng’s speech. Really, what an impressive man.
He was [...]

Inner logic is often in common use by anthropologists to understand local communities. Though the intent is to be appreciative, it is often criticized as overly apologetic, or at least sympathetic in most cases.
Having said that however, if sacred scripture and doctrinal truths can be shown as logically plausible, then inner logic can (in fact, [...]