Ismaili Studies: A Review

this was a fascinating article on one of the Islamic Sects. I like them, mind you, if nothing else, they show that they have a mind of their own and they use it as well. Unlike, well, many other people that I know and adore.

I quote the abstract:

In the course of their long and complex history dating to the formative period of Islam, the Ismailis have often been accused of various heretical teachings and practices and a multitude of myths and misconceptions circulated about them. This is mainly because the Ismailis were, until the middle of the 20th century, studied and evaluated almost exclusively on the basis of the evidence collected or often fabricated by their enemies. It was only from the mid-20th century onwards that studies based on Ismaili sources came to dominate the field, leading to a much less biased understanding of the Ismailiyya.

Go for it chaps

The Quilliam Foundation does NOT represent Islam

I received an email in my Facebook account about this FB group which has been formed. Reading the comments and the commentary, I am still not sure why the authors would say that the QF does not represent Islam? I am not sure who or what is the representative of Islam but clearly a big tent doesn't work here!

The people who started the group are Muslims and they are speaking for themselves and anybody else who follows them. This habit of becoming the self appointed guardians of Islam and pointing to each other and thumping them has perhaps killed more Muslims than all Palestinians killed by their arch enemy Israel. Ironic, eh?

It reminded me of something else which I read today. Sometimes it does feel that the Muslims are their own worst enemies, forever looking suspiciously at everybody and everything, forever paranoid and forever worried. Those MPACUK people are usually very quick off the mark to proclaim anybody and everybody as not being Islamic enough or not doing the right thing or what have you.

On another email list today, somebody was driven from it because one person accused another of being Ismaili. I was having a great discussion on that list about non-conventional sources of energy and wind power and and and, and then this sadly familiar argument breaks out. Bang goes all the interesting debate and discussion, Israel was brought in, accusations flew around the place and what was the end result? a sense of sadness that people again ended up pissing in their own plates.

Give it a rest guys, you have much bigger problems to resolve than to poke at each other.

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