Catching Up

There’s been some great posts among the websites I regularly read as well as some noteworthy stuff elsewhere as well. Here’s a quick round-up for you:

Thebit discusses in his very learned way an essay about the genre of Islamic apologetics that produce evidences from the Quran for modern scientific discoveries. The logic behind the genre goes that since the Quran was revealed before knowledge of these things, this is proof of the Divine nature of the Quran. It’s flawed for a lot of reasons, but a friend of mine summed it up best when he said, paraphrased, that if a muslim scientist studied the Quran and produced from it a new scientific discovery, that would be noteworthy. But interpreting the Quran to reflect the knowledge of a scientific discovery that has been made by non-muslims using modern science is quite unexceptional. The Holy Quran is far above needing this sort of defense.

Al-Muhajabah, the Niqabi Paralegal has the complete low-down on the Sultana Freeman driver’s license case, including relevant case law for you law nerds. Although she herself veils, A-M explains why Freeman’s case is not so supportable from an Islamic point of view. I also didn’t think her complaint was justified in Islam, regardless of what she might be entitled to in US law. In any case, she joins a long line of muslims of questionable character that have wound up in court. It certainly strains one’s powers of sympathy.

Borneo Chela is a brand new blog from an American studying the deep and wide field of treeshrews in Sabah. As a fellow countryman on the island, Jason gets a big shout and a spot on the blogroll. (His taste in website design is stunning too )

And speaking of Sabah, Lionel from Kota Kinabalu backs me up by dissing Pop Shuvit. According to him, the Malaysian rap group to watch for is the Teh Tarik Crew. I’m sceptical but I’ll keep my ears open.

Last but not least, Anak Alam has a cache of excellent articles on Shafii fiqh and related issues from the erudite Sidi Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti. I particularly liked the one on Jahl al-Murakkab, Compound Ignorance. I didn’t know that (simple ignorance)! Anak Alam is off to Tunisia, so you all should check back in a little while for his travelogue.