veiled4allah

quick link

Serbia's Sandzak: Still Forgotten (PDF), a report by the International Crisis Group about Sandzak, a predominately Muslim region in Serbia. The report has a lot of useful information about the region's history and current situation.

the taxman cometh

It's never a happy day when you have to write a big check to the Infernal Internal Revenue Service. Usually, I have enough taken out in withholding that I don't have to pay anything, or I even get a refund. But this year, I was self-employed for several months (working as an independent contractor), which means that I have to pay the self-employment tax that covers income tax, Social Security, and so on. Ouch!

lame filler post

For lack of anything better to post :-/ check out the new redesigned Six Apart website. There's an entire section of the site devoted to my department. The nice ladies pictured there are some of my colleagues; however, it's not a picture of the entire Support team. There are four of us who are not pictured. The team is now seven strong and I think we'll be bringing another member on board in the coming months. When I started last fall I was the fourth employee in the Support department. As you can see, we're growing rapidly. I've been swamped with work since I posted here last, hence the lack of new content. I usually manage to post some articles to my clip blog so people can always go read those. I've actually been considering interspersing links to those entries with the entries here just so that people will go look at that blog. That's especially true when there's a lack of content here. If I were you, I would go there just to have something new to read. However, if people would rather look at the same old entries on this blog, I guess that's up to you. I understand it may not be to everybody's taste, but I get more hits on a daily basis to another blog that I haven't even updated in months than I do to a nice blog that's updated pretty much every day with new articles about current events. What's not to like? :p OK, enough whining from me. I'll try to be better about posting to this blog, inshallah. But if not you know what to do.

happy new year

I hope 2005 will be a better year than 2004 was. Despite the depressing nature of much political and world news over the last year, I have much to be thankful for on the personal front, like getting a great job. All praise is due to Allah SWT. And for my readers, may the upcoming year bring you many blessings and much goodness.

random Google bomb attempt

Total incompetent. Inspired by Minority Report.

William Shakespeare, Sufi?

On a lighter note, I found this:

The influence of William Shakespeare on western culture has made him arguably Britain's greatest export. Now it is being claimed that his work resembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect. The argument will be put forward next month at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. It comes as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture. While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbled with espionage and Catholic political activism, the new theory will attempt to persuade Shakespeare scholars that the playwright was a member of a religious or spiritual order which can best be compared to the philosophy of Sufism. The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will put forward this thesis in his lecture on 23 November. 'Shakespeare would have delighted in Sufism,' said Lings, who is 96 and an adherent of Sufism. 'We can see he obviously knew a lot about some kind of equivalent sect or order.' Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes, depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism. 'It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of atheism,' he says. 'It was the beginning of the ideas of enlightenment and the beginning really of the modern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost of tradition.'

I have no idea whether Lings is on to something or is all wet. But it's an interesting read!

recommended reading

If you're looking for more background information on Darfur, check out Two Views on Darfur: The Mechanics and Politics of Ethnocide by Conrad Barwa at Head Heeb.

one of my occasional updates

I've been posting some articles to my clip blog, but don't seem to have much to say on my own for this blog, lol. I've been working steadily at my new job, and it's going along even better than I hoped, al-hamdulillah. I just submitted an invoice billing them for $300 for my first week's work. And the second week's work is continuing at the same pace. This is at least twice as much money as I thought I'd be making! :invasion:

recommended reading

Juan Cole debunks right-wing claims about Iran. As usual, he knows far more about the Muslim world and its factions and politics than do most of the war hawks to whom all Muslim people seem to look alike and thus they assume that all Muslim people think alike.

Father's Day

Thanks for everything you do, Dad :)