09 November 2001

Yes, This Is About Islam Salman Rushdie on Islam on the building conflict in the New York Times: Of course this is "about Islam." The question is, what exactly does that mean? After all, most religious belief isn't very theological. Most Muslims are not profound Koranic analysts. For a vast number of "believing" Muslim men, "Islam" stands, in a jumbled, half-examined way, not only for the fear of God — the fear more than the love, one suspects — but also for a cluster of customs, opinions and prejudices that include their dietary practices; the sequestration or near-sequestration of "their" women; the sermons delivered by their mullahs of choice; a loathing of modern society in general, riddled as it is with music, godlessness and sex; and a more particularized loathing (and fear) of the prospect that their own immediate surroundings could be taken over — "Westoxicated" — by the liberal Western-style way of life. The full article is here (via Camworld) And you shouldn't miss this, Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. Cleaning my room A bachelor in New York: When people meet me they often think me quite capable; a year or two later they might thing me still capable, but less mature than they thought - not that I am immature, but my ability with language often casts me in the eyes of others as a sort of emotional savant, and I am not - I am a 27-year-old goof, and I am as much an idiot as the next guy, as much a seeker after comfort and as little likely to hold any keys to life. I just know how to make it sound good, and unfortunately, people associate this ability with wisdom, an association I can avow as entirely false. And one of the indicators of my immaturity has been this chaos, this hurricane of objects with myself at its eye. Why can't they come out to Brooklyn, they ask themselves. Why can't Paul, who seems mostly sane, let me up into his apartment? 9:03:52 PM