As the Amazon book description has it: My “ornithological treatise” Bad Birder’s Birding Report is actually illustrated nonsense verse in the tradition of Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Gillette Burgess, and Dr. Seuss. Featuring 125 poems and 130 illustrations, it mentions more than 150 species of birds, including virtually all of the most common North American species as well as several”exotics,”…
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Many Muslims find Claire Khaw’s Secular Koranism congenial but unnecessary. After all, the Islamic way of life, complete with rules to live by a.k.a. legal principles and even some clear injunctions, is already based on the Qur’an, so why secularize it? But Khaw isn’t telling Muslims they ought to live by Qur’anic principles. We already know that. Her primary audience…
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by Salim Mansur Auden’s lines, “Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return”, recall the oldest counsel of the wise elders – the shamans, oracles, avatars, priests. In Vedantic scripture Auden’s lines is akin to the meaning of “karma”, the moral principle of consequence of consequence. Or inversely, as Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount,…
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Watch the video at the Al-Andalus Tribune Substack Islamic Studies scholar Salim Mansur is a deeply knowledgeable, sincere, spiritually-engaged seeker of truth with the courage to face both the shortcomings, mistakes, and failures of today’s Muslim community, and the even more egregious failures of contemporary Western civilization—including the ones professors are not supposed to talk about, like the 9/11 false…
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Kevin Barrett for Magrebi.org and Al-Andalus Tribune On August 25, corresponding to the 12th of Rabi al-Awwal, Morocco celebrated Mawlid al-Nabi, the Prophet’s birthday. While not on the same level as the two major Muslim holidays, the two Eids, the Mawlid is an important occasion in Morocco. My family celebrated with festive cous-cous (the kind with lamb, raisins, and almonds,…
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Why did God create us in diverse nations, races, and tribes? Two memorable Qur’anic verses, taken together, suggest an answer. “…So compete with one another in doing good. Wherever you are, Allah will bring you all together [for judgment]. Surely Allah is Most Capable of everything.” (2:148)* “O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and…
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By Laurent Guyenot Kevin Barrett is one of the most active and insightful (and funny) thinkers on Israel and Jewish power. His Substack newsletter is often featured on the Unz Review. He is also a convert to Islam, holds a PhD in Islamic studies, and lives in Morocco with his family. A polyglot who studied in Paris, he speaks excellent…
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by Salim Mansur “To God belong the Names Most Beautiful.” — The Qur’an (7:180) “God is beautiful and He loves beauty.” — Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. [Note: I wrote this tribute in honor of Professor Abdus Salam on his passing in November 1996 and was published in the London (UK) based Sufi journal in the Spring 1997 issue. I…
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By Salim Mansur Our age is indeed the age of intellectual organization of political hatreds. It will be one of its chief claims to notice in the moral history of humanity… To come down specifically to the political passions—the “clerks” [Benda means in French by “clerks” what is meant in English by “intellectuals”] were in opposition to them in two…
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Foadebate In a recent interview I conducted with Professor Kevin Barrett, a well-known political analyst and Islamologist, we examined this very question in depth. Barrett pointed to Momdani’s election as mayor of New York—despite the intense climate of Islamophobia and influential Zionist lobbying—and described the event as both “unexpected” and “performative.” It was unexpected because a Muslim figure, openly defending…
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