As director, I am pleased to inform you that today the website for the Study Contemporary Muslim Lives Research Hub at Macquarie University was officially launched. Study Contemporary Muslim Lives (SCML) is a research hub based within the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University. It undertakes research on social, cultural and political aspects of contemporary... Continue Reading →
Burma, ethno-Buddhism, racism and religious persecution
I have written before about Burma (Myanmar) and its persecuted Rohingya population as well as the lack of interest both in the ASEAN countries as well as in the western mass media (see The other, invisible suffering of Burma, Rohingya Odyssey: a silent cultural genocide?, Rohingya Muslims and injustice: a security issue, Rohingyas: not solely a political problem, Selling... Continue Reading →
An Islam lost in transition? Emotions, piousness and lack of intellectual genealogy
Today I have have found several messages in my email referring to a youtube video that is going viral among Muslims. The video shows a Muslim student praying publicly during his graduation ceremony at WSU (Washington State University). The public appeared oblivious to what may be perceived as a 'strange' performance by anyone unfamiliar with the Islamic style of... Continue Reading →
Shi’a Muslims: halal meat?
Recently, those who have been following the news may have noticed an increase of terrorist attacks and the general persecution of Shi’a Muslims, particularly within Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and recently Palestine together with less reported, but still significant, events in Indonesia and Malaysia, among other Sunni majority countries. In the case of... Continue Reading →
When piety kills: power, religious performance and inhumanity, the case of Hena Akhter
That body is of 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl, Hena Akhter. Her story has distracted the western mass media from the still very confused situation in Libya. Hena Akhter was sentenced to receive 101 lashes to be delivered with extreme force after a village court implemented the fatwa of the local imam, whom decided that she had... Continue Reading →