ulises mejias

[UPDATE: Asma and I were interviewed for the NPR show Weekend America about our Hajj experiences. It aired this past Saturday 1/13. You can listen to the interview here.]
Ali Shariati, an Iranian intellectual and political activist, member of The Movement of God-worshipping Socialists, called the Hajj an “antithesis to aimlessness” (1994, p. 1), […]

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by Ulises Mejias
Islamic Terrorism. Islamic Feminism. We find such terms thrown about carelessly in the media. But what does it mean to stick the word Islamic in front of terms like Terrorism or Feminism? This is one of the questions that Masjaliza Hamzah raised during the First International Congress on Islamic Feminism, which took place […]

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[UPDATE: I am adding a link to an online interview with Asma conducted while in Indonesia by the Liberal Islam Network. It’s in English.]In the aftermath of the London and Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, people with an unsophisticated view of current affairs as a clash of civilizations are again demanding that the ‘real’ Islam —the Islam […]

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[The following presentation was made at the Los Angeles Latino Muslim Association’s annual meeting, April 16 2005.]
Open Ijtihad:
Technology and New Opportunities for Community Building and Activism
I want to cover four major themes in this presentation. First, I want to say a couple of words about ijtihad, or independent reasoning in Islam. Then, I want to […]

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