tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35602057287842441422023-11-16T01:41:52.478-06:00IslamicLawBlogdistribution of knowledge is a scholarly obligationIslamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-1210800523496766392020-04-12T11:53:00.000-05:002020-04-12T11:53:11.982-05:00Shut Down the Planet Every Year for Two Weeks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nqjxQgceh7IuLGL_SBjnW3QXSQ0a6DnCtIvBOg_q3KyWOLyaAx_KHD__cEnWc_y1QtOoXFjLEgf4mBjdwJpsPe8BZFJJUUDSw6lQAqI8bk88iktSqTNx62uf0XjdC8IpbW7-LHPpqZ8R/s1600/Shut+the+Planet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="513" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6nqjxQgceh7IuLGL_SBjnW3QXSQ0a6DnCtIvBOg_q3KyWOLyaAx_KHD__cEnWc_y1QtOoXFjLEgf4mBjdwJpsPe8BZFJJUUDSw6lQAqI8bk88iktSqTNx62uf0XjdC8IpbW7-LHPpqZ8R/s400/Shut+the+Planet.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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L. Ali Khan<o:p></o:p></div>
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This planet belongs to all forms of life: plants, animals,
birds, insects, humans, bacteria, and viruses. Humans have no inherent right to
monopolize the earth to the exclusion of other life forms. Our theologies and
our philosophies tell us that we are the center of creation, we are the best
life form, and we are God’s exceptional handiwork. It is time to reconsider our
fatuous egotism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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We are fragile. A microscopic virus, many times smaller than
bacteria, both invisible, can kill us all. We have no chance to survive if
viruses and bacteria combine their forces to wipe us out. That is the reality
of our self-professed supremacy. Unfortunately, plants, animals, birds, and
insects have fallen to our hegemony. Bacteria and viruses refuse to do so.
Periodically, these microbes remind us, individually and as a species, that
they can destroy us. We should be grateful that so far, they have not decided
to bring about our extinction. They can, and they might. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We are only beginning to learn that trillions of bacteria
and viruses live inside our bodies. Our human DNA is much smaller in quantum than
the microbiome DNA that a human body contains. Our hearts, livers, intestines,
skin, even our brains will cease to function if we kill the bacteria, viruses,
and fungi living inside our bodies. Each human body is a fortress of the
microbiome. Nature created humans to provide life-sustaining nourishment for
the microbiome. Do not forget that the mitochondria, the ATP motors that
provide us with energy, are the embryonic bacteria living in our cells. We die when
the mitochondria die. Viruses and bacteria can kill us, but we cannot live
without them either. <o:p></o:p></div>
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With the virus-prompted partial closure of the roads,
airways, airports, trains, buses, the planet is already better off. Remember, how
we take a sigh of relief when we see no more insects or mice running around our
homes. Likewise, the confinement of humans into their holes has been a pleasant
surprise for the creatures of the earth. The birds are happy. The dolphins have
returned to the waters in Italy, and the Venice canals are clear for the fish
to stick their heads out. In China, the largest emitter of harmful gases, the carbon
emissions have been “25% lower than normal.” All over, the air is cleaner for
everyone to breathe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is about time that humans mend their ways and allow the
earth to nurture all life forms that it creates. We must reconceptualize our
self-concept in showing our respect for the diversity of life. We must quit
being the fake bully, whom a single blow brings down to the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Every year, in the first two weeks of April, let humans shut
down what they do on earth and retreat to their homes. Impose a complete
lockdown in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, every part of the planet. Let
schools, colleges, and institutions of “higher learning” stop teaching
anthropomorphic hubris. Let the roads be empty in New York City, Mumbai,
Beijing, everywhere. Close all airports, so that no pathogenic planes are flying
to Los Angeles, Madrid, Tokyo, anywhere. Let the beaches on the Atlantic,
Mediterranean, Pacific, every lake and sea, be barren with no humans flashing
their bellies and legs, anything. Let no cruise ships be sailing in seas and
rivers. Let tourism stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is a piece of good news. Here in Kansas, the
Coronavirus has been less vengeful as compared to other parts of the country.
Here the doctors are saying openly on public airways: The Kansas hospitals are
relatively empty with fewer people going to the ER for heart attacks, strokes,
suicides, and a host of other ailments. “Fascinating piece of psychobiology,”
hesitantly says, one doctor. Better human health is one more reason to shut down
the planet every year for at least two weeks. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The planned two-week closure, every year, without a pandemic
lurking in the background will indeed be festive for all life forms, including
humans. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-15856688554348545502017-09-17T08:24:00.001-05:002017-09-17T08:24:27.785-05:00Kansas - Redefining the Heart of America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoMfL64OqGenw-16Mwey44eASxj-dAUeyw_viveQ6IGNxI8kiOEc7vzFjeFuXxBNZjb6EY727uVNbeZhBzGajVNOka37LUgEoQYRAK1WhyphenhyphenMIBpK0opopGOhE3WUsUUoPPRV9nVihrjP4R/s1600/Drawing+%252810%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="801" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPoMfL64OqGenw-16Mwey44eASxj-dAUeyw_viveQ6IGNxI8kiOEc7vzFjeFuXxBNZjb6EY727uVNbeZhBzGajVNOka37LUgEoQYRAK1WhyphenhyphenMIBpK0opopGOhE3WUsUUoPPRV9nVihrjP4R/s320/Drawing+%252810%2529.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: ProximaNova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Under President Trump, a noted Border Ruffian, the U.S. is losing moral anchor at home and in the world. In these sick times, Kansas can furnish a healthy heart that repairs the body. Relying on its existential origin as a Free State and consistent with its demographics, Kansas must reject the racist and xenophobic politics of Border Ruffians. Kansas needs to focus on economic prosperity and human dignity to unleash new energies among the various ethnic and religious communities living across the Sunflower State of fabulous prairies and hills. Mexicans, Irish, Somalis, Germans, Muslims, all are welcome to Kansas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ProximaNova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kansas-redefining-the-heart-of-america_us_59bdb293e4b0390a1564de4c">Read more</a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-44612594335104211822017-09-07T07:15:00.001-05:002017-09-07T07:18:04.293-05:00The Monetization of International Relations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="post_author_intro" style="font-family: "signika negative" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">by</span> <span class="post_author" itemprop="author" style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "signika negative" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/kaswe7eya4racab/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #1e1e1e; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; word-wrap: break-word;">L. ALI KHAN</a></span></div>
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“The point is that you can’t be too greedy.” The author of this saying, President Trump, is brazenly monetizing international relations. He demands more money from the NATO members for common defense. He urges Mexico to pay for the wall. He is slashing financial assistance to allies (except Israel). He vies to renegotiate trade agreements. He proposes to impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods in violation of international trade laws. He campaigned in the 2016 presidential election to declare China as a currency manipulator. Much like a Las Vegas tycoon, Trump views the world as a big casino where the U.S. is losing money. Trump fancies rigging the international game for the U.S. to come out as a tireless winner.</div>
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<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/06/the-monetization-of-international-relations/" target="_blank">Read more</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-63953418140406756472017-07-29T11:28:00.002-05:002017-07-29T11:28:22.624-05:00Pakistan Punishes Prime Ministers But Not Military Generals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "proximanova" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><img height="299" src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/597b675415000028008b40a1.jpg?ops=scalefit_820_noupscale" width="400" /><br />
<span style="font-family: "proximanova" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Pakistan has a horrendous history of mistreating its elected prime ministers. On July 28, the Pakistan Supreme Court disqualified sitting prime minister Nawaz Sharif under the “</span><a class="bn-clickable" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"lnid":"sadiq and amin","mpid":1,"plid":"http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part3.ch2.html"}}" href="http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/constitution/part3.ch2.html" rel="nofollow" style="box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-family: ProximaNova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">sadiq and amin</a><span style="font-family: "proximanova" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> “clause of the 1973 Constitution. The Court found the prime minister to be </span><a class="bn-clickable" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"lnid":"dishonest and untrustworthy","mpid":2,"plid":"https://www.dawn.com/news/1348191"}}" href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1348191" rel="nofollow" style="box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-family: ProximaNova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">dishonest and untrustworthy</a><span style="font-family: "proximanova" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">. Since August 1947, in seventy years of Pakistan’s existence, prime ministers have been overthrown in military coups, removed by high courts, murdered, and executed. Not a single prime minister has been able to complete the constitutional tenure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "proximanova" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pakistan-punishes-prime-ministers-but-not-military_us_597b65f7e4b0c69ef70527a5">Read More</a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-742651123308142192017-01-29T13:24:00.002-06:002017-01-29T13:24:18.393-06:00Trump's Muslim Persecution Will Fail<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwU70pf3smYZ4EZskLqTmro6rLJAZ3VdMJd3e-arvcnDOB_r3HQbl7JujETptEhv-m8jlbGwvbAUB05mwzEpTRaI7y5TVyHgMSDrs0OIs_mnxIyXwqWON6guTFa2V1TyvgHxa4S1P9T9Bb/s1600/Muslim+Ban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwU70pf3smYZ4EZskLqTmro6rLJAZ3VdMJd3e-arvcnDOB_r3HQbl7JujETptEhv-m8jlbGwvbAUB05mwzEpTRaI7y5TVyHgMSDrs0OIs_mnxIyXwqWON6guTFa2V1TyvgHxa4S1P9T9Bb/s320/Muslim+Ban.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Friday, January 27, 2017, is the day when President Donald Trump took the first step toward the official persecution of Muslims in the United States and around the world. This day, Trump signed </span><a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":2,"plid":"politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/"}}" href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;" target="_blank">an executive order</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> banning the nationals of seven Muslim countries, four in the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen) and three in Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia). The executive order was not limited to the admission of refugees. Even legal immigrants (green card holders and persons with other visas) from these countries returning to the United States were refused entry, causing immense emotional distress to the blocked individuals and their families waiting at U.S. airports. On Saturday, a federal judge blocked the implementation of the executive order with respect to the people stranded at the U.S. airports. However, The Department of Homeland Security has </span><a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":3,"plid":"http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-travel-bans-department-of-homeland-security-vows-enforce-court-order-a7551601.html"}}" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-travel-bans-department-of-homeland-security-vows-enforce-court-order-a7551601.html" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;" target="_blank">vowed</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> to enforce the executive order.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: NotoNashkArabic, ProximaNova-regular, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-muslim-persecution-will-fail_us_588e211ae4b0cd25e4904a02?" target="_blank">read more</a></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-41142576785794061542016-12-13T14:04:00.003-06:002016-12-13T14:04:58.906-06:00As always, I just delay it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-12729628832126867402016-08-14T13:12:00.001-05:002016-08-14T13:12:48.548-05:00The Hazards of Being a Scholar <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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L. Ali Khan</div>
<br />Over a period of forty years, I have <a href="http://washburnlaw.edu/profiles/faculty/activity/khan-ali.html">published</a> more than a million words in the form of books, academic articles, poems, short stories, and public scholarship such as this piece. Of all the published sentences, I am most proud of writing “<a href="http://www.legalscholar.org/">distribution of knowledge is a scholarly obligation</a>,” an axiom that captures an elegant virtue. Upon reflection, however, I myself don’t know what it exactly means or if it is even a good idea. This commentary struggles to explain the meaning of the axiom, potentially of interest to scholars in all disciplines ranging from physical sciences to social sciences, history to theology, literature to law.<br /><br /><b>What is Scholarly Knowledge?</b><br />
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Knowledge is central to the human species. Without knowledge, life would be impossible to live. In advanced urban societies, the knowledge needed to function is much more complex than in societies with nominal modernity. Fortunately, all cultures with varying degrees of openness act as public classrooms for people to acquire and share knowledge. Even in preliterate cultures, acquisition and distribution of knowledge are as natural as the gratification of biological instincts.<br /><br />Scholarly knowledge is a higher form of creative knowledge acquired through dedicated labor, not necessarily in schools and universities, which includes reading, experimenting, experiencing, observing, conversing, thinking, organizing, revising, discarding, and finessing ideas. Acquiring scholarly knowledge is not a part-time undertaking. It does not come easily or casually. Scholars as teachers, scientists, poets, artists, and thinkers spend most of their lives, day after day and night after night, in the acquisition of creative knowledge.<br /><br />Early in my childhood, I learned that scholars, such as <a href="http://www.visit360.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=178:al-khwarizmi-statue-360&Itemid=97">al-Khwarizmi</a>, are the true heirs of prophets and distributing knowledge is an act of charity. I assumed naively that knowledge is inherently good. The discovery of mathematics and laws of motion, the invention of building materials, ships, and aircrafts, the innovation in technology and production of comfort goods, the writing of poetry and plays, painting and singing, indeed the great achievements of human civilization, all have been the intellectual products of dedicated labor.<br /><br />Despite sharing elements of divinity, scholarly knowledge may or may not be good for human civilization. Scholarly knowledge cannot be defined in strictly utilitarian or moral terms. Abstract knowledge in any discipline may not be convertible into utility. And even if utilizable, scholarly knowledge may indeed be harmful. For example, the invention of lethal weapons requires scholarly knowledge. Toxic ideologies, including communism, colonialism, and exceptionalism, the byproducts of scholarly knowledge, provide excuses to commit aggression and perpetrate massacres.<br /><br />Few scholars dedicated to creative knowledge are evil and wish to inflict harm. Most scholars mean well, though some might be misguided. Many scholars believe in personal humility and good deeds, though some might team up with powerful groups for questionable causes. Despite scholarly good intentions, there are plenty of predators and malefactors, some in the form of businesses, who use scholarly knowledge to engage in profiteering and perpetrating crimes against humanity.<br /><br /><b>Propertization of Knowledge</b><br /><br />Few scholars wish to keep their creative knowledge secret. Most are not only willing but eager to share what they have written, discovered, or invented. For centuries, scholars have distributed their knowledge as charity. With the rise of intellectual property, scholarly knowledge is patented and copyrighted. Some knowledge is kept confidential in the form of trade secrets. The ancient romance of distributing knowledge for free is not completely out of fashion though a large portion of scholarly knowledge has been <a href="http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol54/iss1/1/">propertized</a>.<br /><br />The propertization of creative knowledge has been a source of power and profit for individuals and businesses in the role of editors, publishers, and vendors. Scholars after spending years of hard labor may not find a publisher. A system of privileges has been built to label the quality of academic work with where it is published. Well-connected academics may publish even minor works with prestigious publishing houses. Top institutions in the United States operate as a cartel to fix the intellectual market in their favor.<br /><br />The monetization of propertized knowledge is no less scandalous. Scholars receive royalties in pennies (5% or 10% of the sales) even when their works are published and distributed. The intellectual property businesses, more than scholars, are nervous without a worldwide protection of intellectual property, much like the weapons industry is nervous with the “nightmares” of a peaceful world.<br /><br />Knowing fully the market dynamics, most scholars everywhere in the world still behave in the tradition of prophets and not profiteers. They wish to share charitably though they know that someone else is making money with the distribution of their work products and someone else might harm peoples and properties with the application of scholarly knowledge.<br /><br /><b>Scholarly Punishments</b><br /><br />From time immemorial, rebel scholars have received various punishments for their intellectual labor. A rebel scholar lives at the margins of mainstream ideologies and conventional wisdom. A rebel scholar is rarely an apologist, propagandist, puppet, or the establishment crony. Some sort of apostasy is deeply embedded in authentic scholarly genes. An authentic scholar is highly skeptical of prizes, rewards, and recognitions because such endowments are soaked in malodorous favoritism. Even after dissemination of their work, authentic scholars seek anonymity and ordinariness.<br /><br />Yet the world locates rebel scholars for inflicting retributions. Prophets challenging existing institutions have been exiled or murdered. Socrates drank Hemlock. Galileo was forced to retract his anti-Church discovery that the Earth is not the center of the universe. Solzhenitsyn was sent for years to a labor camp for criticizing Stalin. Ibn Rushd’s (Averroes) books were burnt. Even lesser known scholars have been tortured and imprisoned and their works destroyed. In more forbearing societies, such as the United States, rebel scholars taking on the “sacred institutions” may be fired; their work is discounted as “extremist” and “out of touch;” and they may receive threatening emails.<br /><br />In moments of doubt, I wonder if the distribution of knowledge is indeed a scholarly obligation. What is wrong with living and creating in a cave? At prayer times, I draw a deep breath and send cheers to deities and muses in all corners of the world supplicating that I do not wish to be a scholar awaiting punishments.<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-45428297021329245242016-07-17T18:21:00.001-05:002016-07-17T18:23:34.536-05:00Gingrich Mistake on Shariah Deportations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="dropcap-red" style="color: #d12e2e; display: block; float: left; font-size: 31.2px; line-height: 31.2px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px;">N</span>ewt Gingrich, who holds a Ph.D. in European History and is thus a presumptively educated man, has delivered yet another questionable <a class="blank" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/newt-gingrich-calls-for-muslim-test-acknowledges-donald-trump-veep-probably-mike-pence/" style="color: #980a00; text-decoration: none;">statement</a>: “We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported.” Over the decades, Gingrich is known for making unintelligent speeches, without weighing the consequences of his thoughtless philosophies.<br />
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In 2011, Gingrich <a class="blank" href="http://www.ibtimes.com/newt-gingrich-his-10-most-outrageous-quotes-212647" style="color: #980a00; text-decoration: none;">said</a>: “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age, they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists.”</div>
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Gingrich has not yet explained how an atheist transformation of America will be dominated by radical Islamists for whom a belief in One God is central to faith. Driven by an inflated self-concept of competence, Gingrich says things and then spends a lifetime <a class="blank" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/keith-ellison-newt-gingrich-sharia-225602" style="color: #980a00; text-decoration: none;">retracting</a> his foolery. </div>
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Gingrich’s proposal of making belief as a ground for deportation cannot be taken seriously. Of course, illegal Muslim immigrants can be deported without any reason. But deporting legal immigrants on grounds of belief will be a radical development in immigration law.</div>
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<img src="http://mwcnews.net/plugins/content/pullquotes/quote5_25_start.png" style="vertical-align: text-bottom;" />The fear of the Sharia is widespread, particularly among white male circles, as is the fear of African Americans. Prompted by panic, prejudice, and phobia, some state legislators have passed constitutional amendments or legislation against the enforcement of Sharia in state courts, ignoring the First Amendment protections of religious freedom.<img src="http://mwcnews.net/plugins/content/pullquotes/quote5_25_end.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.2px;">The immensity of the Gingrich proposal ignores that millions of American Muslims are citizens of the United States, both naturalized and native-born. Under the proposal, American Muslims born in the United States, like Representative </span><a class="blank" href="http://crooksandliars.com/2016/07/keith-ellison-smacks-gingrich-calculating" style="background-color: white; color: #980a00; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.2px; text-decoration: none;">Keith Ellison</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.2px;">, who might believe in the Sharia, will stand deportation. But deported to where remains an unresolved riddle? In making dubious statements, Former Speaker of the House Gingrich comes across as a graceless leader who, as a prior lawmaker, should know better. </span><br />
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<strong>What is Sharia?</strong></div>
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It appears that Gingrich, like some other scared critics of Islam, has a poor understanding of the Sharia. The critics of Islam identify Sharia with terrorism, burqa, and harsh criminal punishments such as stoning for adultery. The fear of the Sharia is widespread, particularly among white male circles, as is the fear of African Americans. Prompted by panic, prejudice, and phobia, some state legislators have passed constitutional amendments or legislation against the enforcement of Sharia in state courts, ignoring the First Amendment protections of religious freedom. Fortunately, the federal courts have struck down the attempts to de-legalize Sharia.</div>
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For practicing Muslims, Sharia is a set of beliefs and a code of rules that govern the daily life of individuals and families. Foremost, Sharia means a belief in One God and respect for prophets, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Sharia regulates, among numerous things, the times of prayers, the rituals of prayers, the times of fasting in the month of Ramadhan, and the amount of mandatory charity annually dispensed to the poor and the needy.</div>
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Sharia also instructs Muslims to speak truthfully but gently, be kind to children, keep the aging and sick parents at home, respect the privacy of neighbors, refrain from cruelty to animals, reject <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/98097/newt-gingrich-scandal-hypocrisy" style="color: #980a00; text-decoration: none;">adultery</a>, and take care of an <a class="blank" href="http://www.salon.com/2011/03/08/gingrich_divorce_hospital_cancer/" style="color: #980a00; text-decoration: none;">ill spouse</a>. The Sharia also carries the complicated rules of inheritance, trusts, donations, partnership, financing, arbitration, evidence, judicial ethics, and rational proof-based judgments. In the Middle centuries, the common law of England freely borrowed from the rules of the Sharia. Many Sharia rules are similar to Jewish law freely practiced and officially recognized in the United States.</div>
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The U.S. Constitution protects the free exercise of Islam, that is, protects the Sharia that Muslim families practice in living spiritually satisfying lives. For the most part, the Sharia and the Constitution are compatible. In matters of incompatibility, there is no possibility that the Sharia would modify the U.S. Constitution; or, the state and federal courts would enforce any elements of the Sharia that violate the Bill of Rights or any other deeply embedded legal values. Whipping up the fear that the Sharia undermines the U.S. Constitution is based on faulty assumptions and lack of knowledge.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.2px;">If there is any danger to the integrity of the Constitution and American values of religious liberty, it comes from provocateurs like Trump, Cruz, and Gingrich. Many well-informed Americans, including </span><a class="blank" href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/287745-pence-tweet-attack-trumps-muslim-ban-resurfaces" style="color: #980a00; line-height: 16.2px; text-decoration: none;">Mike Pence</a><span style="line-height: 16.2px;">, Trump’s pick for the Vice President, oppose the hatred against Islam and American Muslims trumped up by politicians, evangelists, neocons, and other dubious characters.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-85024918082720003902016-07-08T17:59:00.000-05:002016-07-08T17:59:30.044-05:00Militants are Downgrading Jihad to Criminality <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Islamic State and other militant factions, fighting for sundry geopolitical causes, are obliterating the distinction between jihad and criminality. The utter disregard of life, the expansion of battlefield into schools and mosques, including the <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":0}}" href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/saudi-arabia-qatif-explosion-160704165007140.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Prophet’s Mosque</a>, and the cruelty associated with violence have never been the lawful means of fighting jihad for any cause, including fighting against oppression, under the guidance of the Qur’an and Prophet’s Sunnah, the Basic Code of Islam. Jihad is an integral part of the Islamic faith; criminality is the antithesis to Islam.</div>
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Muslim militants violate the Islamic law of war when they embrace <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">lex talionis</em> and adopt barbarity in answer to barbarity, and torture in answer to torture. Even if some militants are reacting to atrocities and torture perpetrated in the U.S.-administered prisons against Muslim detainees at <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":1}}" href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Abu Ghraib</a> (Iraq), <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":2}}" href="http://time.com/3629643/u-s-bagram-afghanistan/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Bagram</a> (Afghanistan), and<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":3}}" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/how-guantanamo-bays-existence-helps-al-qaeda-recruit-more-terrorists/274956/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Guantanamo</a> (Cuba), the Basic Code does not allow criminality in return for criminality. And even if some militants are reacting to criminal bombings of <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":4}}" href="https://www.thenation.com/article/us-has-bombed-least-eight-wedding-parties-2001/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">wedding parties</a> and <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":5}}" href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/29/politics/u-s-airstrike-hospital-afghanistan-investigation/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">hospitals</a>, the Basic Code does not permit hitting soft targets in return for the destruction of soft targets in Muslim communities.</div>
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In the past few years, the violence perpetrated by militant factions is more in the form of pre-Islamic savagery, far worse than <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">lex talioni</em>s. Abducting and raping women, mutilating children, setting prisoners on fire, drowning detainees, decimating bystanders in markets and worshippers in mosques, these and similar crimes can never be lawful under the teachings of the Basic Code. The Islamic State and affiliates are not engaged in jihad when they disregard the distinctions between lawful and unlawful employment of violence. Acting brutishly is not the Islamic law of war. Islamic faith civilizes the sadism of human inclinations and does not submit to impulsive vengeance. Reducing jihad to criminality is a great disservice to Islam. “Whoever comes to his Lord as a criminal - indeed, for him is Hell; he will neither die therein nor live” (Qur’an 20:74).</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Grand Criminals</strong></div>
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The word “criminals” (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">muj’rimīn</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">muj’rimūn</em>), in a plural form, connoting the corporate nature of criminality, appears more than fifty (50) times in the Qur’an. Criminality is an integral part of human culture. The Qur’an informs the readers that there are “grand criminals” conspiring to do harm in every town and community (6:123). These criminals are divided into factions; if one faction repents the others continue to engage in criminality inviting the wrath of Allah (9:66). Most often, the grand criminals are self-righteous, arrogant individuals who disregard guidance (10:75). Despite their superciliousness and a belief that what they are doing is good, the grand criminals remain in error and mental turmoil (54:47). Historically, the Qur’an reminds us, the criminals have never been successful in their pursuit and lawless ideology. “Travel through the land and observe how was the end of the criminals.” (27:69). While they face degradation and rejection in this world, the criminals will do worse in the life hereafter. They will not enter “Paradise until a camel enters into the eye of a needle” (7:40).</div>
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Muslims cannot condone criminal militancy even if a Muslim community is under occupation, alien domination, or any other form of oppression that mandates jihad. When a Muslim violates a key command of Islamic law, he or she is no longer acting as a Muslim. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim is not a tenet of Islam. Just as in a secular legal system, a citizen remains free as long as he or she abides by the law. The same is true under Islamic law. Being a Muslim is not an automatic status regardless of behavior. Criminality is incompatible with the Islamic faith. The Prophet of Islam declared that an adulterer at the time of engaging in unlawful sex, a drinker at the time of drinking alcohol, a thief at the time of stealing, and a robber at the time of looting, is not a believer while doing any of these unlawful acts (Sahih Bukhari 81:763). Likewise, a militant who violates the Islamic law of war at the time of fighting is not a believer and if he dies in the commission of an unlawful act of violence, he loses the rank of a martyr.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Rejection of Criminality</strong></div>
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More than a billion Muslims of all races, colors, languages, and nationalities celebrating the ending of the month of fasting, the holy Ramadan, all over the world, can no longer tolerate the bands of criminals supposedly acting in the name of Islam. Muslims reject any and all violations of the Islamic law of war that forbids killing innocent civilians, demolishing houses, attacking mosques and markets, stoking sectarian warfare, raping women, abducting and forcing women into marriage, bombing schools, torturing prisoners, and harming non-Muslims living peacefully in Muslim and non-Muslim lands. According to the Qur’an, Muslims by definition cannot be criminals(68:35). Any notion of jihad that permits criminality cannot be lawful under the Basic Code of Islam.</div>
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Flexibility under Islamic Law: Convenience, not Hardship</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-88295455157006630362016-06-08T23:15:00.002-05:002016-06-08T23:15:47.596-05:00Trump’s Realism about the “Mexican” Judge is Legal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Frankly, I am not a Donald Trump fan. Nonetheless, as an academic with an interest in American jurisprudence, I must say that Trump’s “racist” remarks about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are completely in line with the nuances of legal education taught at American law schools. Few legal professionals will be genuinely distraught over what Trump says about the judge.</div>
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Let’s recall his words. In speaking to an interviewer Trump <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":0}}" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/us/politics/donald-trump-university-judge-gonzalo-curiel.html?_r=0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">said</a>, “I’m building the wall, I’m building the wall. I have a Mexican judge. He’s of Mexican heritage. He should have recused himself, not only for that, for other things.” In saying this, Trump makes a realist’s connection between the existential realities of a judge and his or her decision-making, presuming that what judges do is inextricably connected to who judges are. In this presumption, Trump is positioned right in the mainstream American legal thought.</div>
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The print and electronic media are “horrified” as if Trump has committed an inexcusable blasphemy against an all-just, all-fair, color-blind American legal system. The <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wall Street Journal</em>, the bastion of white elites’ ideological hegemony,<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":1}}" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-mexican-judge-1465167405" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">condemned </a>Trump’s remarks as “obnoxious” and “odious.” The <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em>, facing a massive race-based <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":2}}" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/04/28/new-york-times-is-hit-with-discrimination-lawsuit/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">discrimination lawsuit</a>, called the remarks “<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":3}}" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/opinion/donald-trump-and-the-judge.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">outrageous</a>.” The electronic media was in a state of frenzy.</div>
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Even Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, known for making <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":4}}" href="http://www.ibtimes.com/newt-gingrich-his-10-most-outrageous-quotes-212647" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">asinine statements</a> — (such as: “I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age, they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists)( atheist and Islamist?)— called Trump’s remarks “unacceptable.” <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Popular criticisms aside, Trump’s remarks constitute a classical proclamation of legal realism. As explained below, his critics rely on the competing notion of disassociation paradigm.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Legal Realism</strong></div>
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Unlike Trump, most non-lawyers naively believe that law is a reliable objective reality, a reservoir of instructions from which the most relevant rules can be accurately pulled out and applied to a dispute and that the role of a judge is to do justice under the rules so extracted. This is the 19th-century view of the law. Legal realism, a quintessential American jurisprudence, developed in the early 20th century, is a <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":5}}" href="http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3643&context=fss_papers" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">powerful critique</a> of the authenticity of legal methods, including the predictive application of rules and the power of precedent. “The theory of precedent is simply a gimmick by which clever judges fool other people and stupid judges occasionally fool themselves.” Legal realism has birthed several movements, including the critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, and the critical race theory.</div>
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The Critical Race Theory (CRT), the most formidable child of legal realism, vigorously meshed with the current legal education, strikes harder at the formalist model of decision-making, further trashing the belief that only rules decide cases. According to the CRT, minorities have special competence to understand racism. The white folks have no experiential basis to fully comprehend racism as do African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities facing discrimination, exclusion, and micro-aggressions. Judges are influenced by a host of factors, including socioeconomic factors, racial experiences, and gender blindness. Just the law by itself is rarely determinative of outcomes in complex cases, such as <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Makaeff v. Trump University</em> case.</div>
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Under the CRT, one could speculate that Judge Gonzalo Curiel is not immune from experiencing the pangs of Trump’s proposal to build a wall and that the judge might have noted with distress Trump’s orotundity that Mexico exports “criminals and rapists” to the United States. It is perfectly understandable that a judge with the Mexican heritage may nurture experiential angst against Trump, a multi-layered tormenter.</div>
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The CRT is conceived to sensitize the legal system with respect to racial minorities. It provides an evidence-based critique of hierarchy and asymmetrical social power. Trump is turning the CRT on its head, complaining that he, a white litigant, cannot get justice from a judge with the Mexican heritage. Trump is creating moral equivalency to a similar apothegm that African-Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims cannot get justice from the establishment judges with white heritage.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Disassociation Paradigm</strong></div>
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Inversely related to legal realism is the <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":6}}" href="http://www.slu.edu/Documents/law/Law%20Journal/Archives/Khan_Article.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">dissociation paradigm</a>, a phrase I use to capture a reigning jurisprudential construct under which judges are supposed to set aside their personal views and feelings while deciding cases. In 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court invoked the dissociation paradigm to question whether Sotomayor would uphold the law regardless of her personal views. Senator Orin Hatch demanded assurances that Sotomayor’s rulings would be informed by the law, and not “personal feelings or politics.” Senator Mitch McConnell demanded justice free of “feelings or personal or political preferences.” Senator Charles Grassley lectured that Sotomayor should “apply the law, not personal politics, feelings or preferences.” See <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":7}}" href="http://www.slu.edu/Documents/law/Law%20Journal/Archives/Khan_Article.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Taking Ownership of Legal Outcomes</em>.</a></div>
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Under the dissociation paradigm, Judge Gonzalo Curiel is supposed to set aside his feelings of anguish, if any, allegedly caused by Trump’s statements about the Mexicans. If Trump were to endorse the dissociation paradigm as an effective mechanism of legal justice, Trump will have confidence that, much like thousands of white judges who dominate the American judiciary, Judge Curiel too has been professionally trained to apply the law even when the law or its outcome is incompatible with his deeply held views and feelings. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />It seems that Trump does not trust the dissociation paradigm. I don’t either. Perhaps, Trump is fearful of the backlash against his political incorrectness. I, for one, however, reject the dissociation paradigm and maintain that judges should take ownership of the legal outcomes they produce. In deciding cases, judges need not compromise their conscience and the personal sense of right and wrong. For centuries, the common law judges in England and the United States have employed their conscience to decide great controversies. Judges still do it all over the world. Yet the system expects judges to deny that they consult their interiority in deciding cases. If a judge is completely out of line, however, the judicial system does have internal mechanisms to enforce discipline, a mechanism rarely used.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Conclusion</strong></div>
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Mr. Trump comes across as a legal realist with little faith in the disassociation paradigm. That’s an acceptable cognitive framework shared by many legal professionals. Relying on this model, Mr. Trump should consider playing the virtual reality role of an apprentice judge. Would Trump be a trustworthy apprentice if a Muslim father were suing the United States for murdering his grandson, a U.S. citizen, with a drone strike? Would Trump be a trustworthy apprentice if a Mexican mother is challenging her deportation with or without the infant born in New York City? And would Trump be a trustworthy apprentice if a powerful white litigant is found to be repeatedly badmouthing a minority judge? These questions, much like Trump’s own questions about Judge Curiel, are legitimate discussion points in any law school for which no student, teacher, or apprentice may be lawfully fired.</div>
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Follow Liaquat Ali Khan on Twitter: <a class="follow-author__link" data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":8}}" href="http://www.twitter.com/abukashif" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/abukashif</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-54737432979244057762016-05-25T10:22:00.000-05:002016-05-25T10:22:00.235-05:00Transgender Dignity in Islam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":2}}" href="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-05-22-1463921322-7405675-IMG_0753.JPG" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: left; color: #2e7061; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2016-05-22-1463921322-7405675-IMG_0753.JPG" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2016-05-22-1463921322-7405675-IMG_0753-thumb.JPG" height="239" style="box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="320" /></a>The 18th century British colonists, the self-righteous Anglican males of the self-assessed superior civilization, upon arrival in the Mughul-Muslim India, were<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":0}}" href="http://www.trp.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ARSS-Vol.4-No.1-Jan-June-2015-pp.17-19.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">repulsed by the sight of Hijras</a> (transgenders) and baffled over why they were accorded so much respect in royal courts and other spheres of life. After deposing the Mughuls, and in discharging the white man’s burden of civilizing the inferior races, the British colonists enacted the <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":1}}" href="http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readings/Simhadri.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Criminal Tribes Act, 1871</a> to declare what they called Eunuchs (transgenders) a criminal tribe (among many other Indian tribes) on the theory that certain tribes were genetically criminal and must be placed under state surveillance.</div>
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By invoking the power of criminal law and associated prisons and penalties, the British colonists attacked the dignity of transgender community, degrading them in social echelons, and eventually forcing them to adopt begging, prostitution, and other questionable professions. Turning a respected community into a legally certified criminal tribe was an egregious blunder of the British colonialism (and it is hoped that Sadiq Khan, the new mayor of London, will begin to restore the full rights of transgenders at least in London municipality).</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Royalty of Transgenders</strong></div>
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Under the Mughal rule, transgenders were called <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Khawjasara</em>s, a designation of respect and dignity. The Mughals employed transgenders as security officials in charge of female quarters. This role was assigned to transgenders in imitation of their historic role in holy cities where transgenders served as facilitators between men and women performing prayers and pilgrimage. In most parts of the Muslim world, transgenders commanded respect and were considered holy and special in the eyes of God.</div>
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The spirituality of transgenders is considered as authentic as that of men and women. The Prophet of Islam treated transgenders with respect, prohibited their ill-treatment, and had good things to say about spiritually-inclined transgenders. Believing that transgenders are dearer to God, some Muslim rulers appointed them as intercessors in royal palaces, including those of the Ottoman and the Mughal.</div>
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In India, the Mughals appointed transgenders to positions of power and trust. Transgenders served as courtiers and councils, giving advice to princes and princesses. They were familiar with court etiquettes and knew the secret workings of Mughal households. They were domestic insiders. Having the controls of intelligence officers and the prestige of royal confidantes, transgenders enjoyed special powers and privileges unavailable even to the most powerful wazirs (ministers) of the kingdom. Transgenders were educated in statecraft and nuances of religion. This treatment and elevation in the Mughal courts provided a great incentive for non-Muslim transgenders to accept Islam.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Degradation of Transgenders</strong></div>
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After the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act, a vicious cycle of persecution against transgenders began in the British India. Degraded to criminal tribe with genetic flaws, transgenders lost their royal status and gradually were excluded from all respectable social circles. Such is the power of the master that slaves and servants fashion their own hierarchies of inferiority among themselves. All designated criminal tribes under the 1871 Act suffered social degradation and persecution but transgenders were the hardest hit.</div>
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In order to survive, some transgenders took to dancing performed at the birth of a new child in the community, collecting <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">wadhais</em>(tips). Some developed the joyous art of clapping and dancing. Some developed the art of lampooning and were invited to the wedding feasts of the well-to-do to make fun of the groom, the guests, and even the politicians. They played the same role of amusing private gatherings as do late-night TV comedians in the United States. Some transgenders took to begging, some to prostitution, and some to criminality, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the 1871 Criminal Tribes Act.</div>
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After the British left India and Pakistan, the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed with respect to transgenders. However, the damage done to transgenders was irreparable. Transgenders lost social respect and various stereotypes have been built to humiliate and discount the transgender community.</div>
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A pejorative word <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">khusra</em> is in active currency to denigrate the personality of transgenders. Friends might tease a feminine-looking friend as a khusra. An incompetent politician is called a khusra. In both India and Pakistan, the word khusra is associated with impotence, incompetence, and powerlessness.</div>
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In Pakistan, the people have forgotten the spiritual role that the transgenders played in Islam. Transgenders are ridiculed and insulted. Popular TV shows, such as <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Khabarnaak</em> and <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Khabardaa</em>r, make cruel jokes against transgender community. One of these shows is headed by a lawyer licensed to practice before the high courts of Pakistan.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Restoring the Dignity of Transgenders</strong></div>
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In 2009, the Pakistan Supreme Court delivered a <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":3}}" href="http://icj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Khaki-v.-Rawalpindi-Supreme-Court-of-Pakistan.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">seminal ruling</a>, recognizing the dignity of transgenders and declaring them the third gender under the equal protection clause of the Pakistan constitution. Article 25 states that “there shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex.” The Supreme Court noted that transgender persons have been neglected “on account of gender disorder in their bodies.” They have been denied the inheritance rights as they were neither sons nor daughters who inherit under Islamic law. Sometimes, families disinherit transgender children. To remedy discrimination against transgenders, the Court ordered provincial and federal governments to protect transgenders’ gender identification, right to inherit property, right to vote, right to education, and right to employment.</div>
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Despite this groundbreaking ruling in a conservative Islamic country, which must be welcome and which carries instructional values for the United States where transgenders are still fighting for equal dignity, there are some troubling aspects of the Court ruling. The Pakistan Supreme Court compares transgender persons with “<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":4}}" href="http://icj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Khaki-v.-Rawalpindi-Supreme-Court-of-Pakistan.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">disabled persons</a>“ and articulates their gender status as “<a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":5}}" href="http://icj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Khaki-v.-Rawalpindi-Supreme-Court-of-Pakistan.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">gender disorder</a>.” There is no need for courts to engage in fruitless parallels nor does it advance the rights of transgenders when a high court labels transgender as gender disorder.</div>
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The Qur’an is clear on genetic determinations by pointing out that Allah is the “One who shapes you in the wombs as He pleases.” (Qur’an 3:6). All shapes, that is, all physical traits including sexual characteristics and inclinations of a human being, come with the pleasure and permission of Allah.” Every child — male, female, or transgender—has the equal blessings of God and there is no justification for parents, courts, or governments to engage in <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"entry_text","lnid":"citation","mpid":6}}" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/09/pakistan-third-gender-population-_n_7539158.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">gender-based ill-treatment.</a></div>
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<a class="tag" data-beacon="{"p":{"mpid":0}}" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/islam/" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-radius: 5px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; display: inline-block; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; padding: 7px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;">Islam</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{"p":{"mpid":1}}" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/pakistan/" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-radius: 5px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; display: inline-block; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; padding: 7px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;">Pakistan</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{"p":{"mpid":2}}" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/united-kingdom/" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-radius: 5px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; display: inline-block; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; padding: 7px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;">United Kingdom</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{"p":{"mpid":3}}" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/transgender/" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-radius: 5px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061; display: inline-block; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 7px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;">Transgender</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-10284797063048629522016-04-28T16:15:00.000-05:002016-04-28T16:21:30.620-05:00The Story of Beelzebub, God or Demon?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The story of Beelzebub, initially known as Baal, a pre-biblical god worshipped in the Middle East, furnishes illuminating insights into how gods may reign, fall, and be resurrected. The story also tells how nations and communities fight each other not only for land, resources, and domination but also how they fight over the sources of spirituality, presenting their own gods as authentic deities and condemning other’s gods as false, dark, and perverted idols. In warfare, killing a beloved leader disheartens the community but rubbishing a beloved god leaves the community utterly disoriented and confused.<br /><br />Demonizing the enemy’s deities and demolishing temples built for the deity is an ancient form of religious warfare. In 586 BCE, the Babylonians, the devotees of Bel, another name for Baal, destroyed the Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. During crusades, the Europeans not only aimed at conquering Jerusalem, they also discredited Allah as a false god -a war tactic that inspired the annihilation of a “spiritually inferior” but militarily powerful Islamic empire. Starting in the 8th century CE, the Afghan raiders invading into India not only looted the gold from Hindu temples, they also condemned Hindu gods and goddesses as irrational deviations from one true God. In 2001, the Afghan Taliban destroyed the 1700-year-old Buddha statute in the Hindu Kush. In 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) demolished the Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria.<br /><br />Baal: The Good God<br /><br /><div>
Before the rise of Christianity and Islam as worldwide religions and before the ascendancy of One God as the sole sovereign of the entire universe, deities were territorial and limited in what they could do. The gods of Athens had little power over Egypt and the gods of Mesopotamia had slight influence over India. For centuries, communities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East had their own tribal gods, with local names and modest powers. Recognizing the petty powers of diverse deities, Buddha could rightfully claim that humans carry the potential of being superior to gods, a thesis that died with the ascent of an omnipotent One God.<br /><br />Baal was by no means a universal god. Yet Baal was much more than a local god, more imperial than Apollo or Zeus. Baal was the king of gods. Baal’s influence extended over the Assyrians, Mesopotamians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, and early Hebrews. Even before Moses inaugurated Yahweh as the god of Israelites, and centuries before the initiation of Christian Jesus and Islam’s Allah, the supreme god worshipped in the Middle East was Baal. The worship of Baal was widespread in Egypt as far back as 1400 BCE. Baal entered the Greek pantheon as Belus, with divine links to Mesopotamia.<br /><br />Baal means lord in Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Arabic, though other meanings are also associated with the word. Baal, much like Lord, was not merely a general noun. Baal was a specific name of a living god with explicit powers. Like a universal god, Baal was much more complex than a mono-dimensional deity. In rain-starved deserts, Baal was associated with dew and rain and the people prayed Baal for rain showers. In some areas, Baal was worshipped as the god of fertility because rain revives the earth, causing vegetation to sprout and grow. In coastal communities, Baal was the god of sea storms and the people begged Baal for safety from hurricanes and other furies of the sea. Baal was also seen as a god that thwarts Mot, the god of death. The people prayed Baal for the extension of life and the cure of diseases. All in all, for centuries, Baal was a good god with beneficial characteristics.<br /><br />Baal: The Lord of Flies<br /><br />Powerful waves of spiritual warfare rose against Baal that would tear him down and turn him into an arch-demon, an antithesis to God. The attack on Baal came through the writings of the Old Testament, primarily to discourage Hebrews from worshipping Baal and unifying them under the sole sovereignty of Yahweh. Sexual perversities of a group of Hebrews committed on the mountain of Peor were attributed to the worship of Baal. The Hebrew Bible itself provides evidence that many Jews were worshipping Baal. “So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel (Numbers 25:3).” The Bible institutes capital punishment to bring worshippers back to Yahweh. “And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:5).” Jews worshipping Baal were indeed destroyed. “Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. (Deuteronomy 4:3).<br /><br />Thus, Baal worship was criminalized and Baal was associated with sexual perversities. For believers, however, Baal was still a good god of rain and fertility and safety from sea storms. To further bring down the majesty of Baal, the opponents started to ridicule the name of Baal. For centuries, Baal had been known as Baal-alzabul, which means the Lord of High Place. This name was changed to Baal-alzabub (Beelzebub), which means the Lord of flies. Because flies gather around dung and other filth, the worshippers of Baal were degraded to flies and Baal, the good god, was correlated with dung and filth.<br /><br />By the time the New Testament was being written, Baal had been firmly associated with dung, filth, and sexual perversities and was known as Beelzebub in Hebrew circles. During the ministry of Jesus, a controversial question arose whether Jesus summons the powers of Baal to perform the expulsion of demons or whether Jesus commands inherent godly powers to do so. “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This fellow doth not cast out devils, except by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.” Mathew 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15. These charges were designed to discredit both Jesus and Baal, who had been degraded to the lord of demons.<br /><br />The spread of Christianity and the reading of the gospels brought down Baal from the status of god and turned him into a demon, Satan’s comrade. Baal as the chief of demons began to be firmly rooted in Biblical and non-Biblical literature as Beelzebub entered almost all translations of the New Testament. Beelzebub is one of the seven princes of Hell in Catholic demonology. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Beelzebub is presented as a sagacious companion of Satan. “Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub?” is a legendary line in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a demonic contriver conceived in the spirit of Beelzebub.<br /><br />In the 7th century BCE, when Islam was pioneered in the Middle East, Baal was no more than a repudiated historical idol. The Qur’an mentions Baal just once in the context of Elijah instructing his people not to worship Baal. “Will ye call upon Baal and forsake the Best of Creators?” (Quran 37:125). However, the remnants of Baal have remained in the Islamic Middle East in the form of old temples devoted to the fallen deity. As noted above, the ISIS destroyed a temple in Syria, which had been built to honor Baal. Muslims all over the world pray for rain but the prayer is made to Allah and not Baal. To renounce any lingering qualms about the relevance of Baal, Sura al-Waqia of the Qur’an makes it clear that Allah is the sole authority that provides fertility to the seeds sown in the earth and He is the one who sends rain from the clouds and He is the creator of life and death (thus rebutting existence of the deity known as Mot). This Sura shifts the powers once associated with Baal to Allah (56:60-70).<br /><br />Restoration of Baal<br /><br />The story of Baal is far from over. The New International Version of the New Testament replaces Beelzebub with Beelzebul, rejecting the implications that Baal was the lord of flies and restoring the original characterization of Baal as the Lord of High House. Ideas are floating in rain-filled clouds that a Temple of Baal should be erected in New York City to resurrect the ancient temple that the ISIS has destroyed in Palmyra, Syria.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-39158783967252787882016-03-09T11:18:00.000-06:002016-03-09T11:18:00.301-06:00"Phony and Fraud" Anger of White AmericansWith remarkable clarity and touch of envy, Mitt Romney describes Republican Party front-runner Donald Trump as "a phony, a fraud." Romney also affirms that "I understand the anger Americans feel today." Others have argued that the people, mostly white males, voting for Trump are "angry." The prototypical angry white male supporting Trump has been identified as the one "who didn't go to college," who feels voiceless, who lives in areas with "racial resentment," who frowns upon "immigrants," and who is threatened by "non-whites." Add to this white male anger some strong animus against the rights of women, against respect for sexual minorities and persons with disabilities.
The "angry white male" as a social and political phenomenon is not new by any stretch of imagination or polling data. It started with the massacres of Native Americans. Years ago<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD17O_iC-dor13RQbjnXsaOA9pSFuvJo55WMY37xAYH0ZDT_TH5M_RB91hTSHUIp23uNZ6ofKblnZ7-GLEF4JwHILRNAtS4s3qCA1OhIreEbKhirAFeRH0yma35N5zVneQh6zHxBWUr9l/s1600/abgry+white+man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD17O_iC-dor13RQbjnXsaOA9pSFuvJo55WMY37xAYH0ZDT_TH5M_RB91hTSHUIp23uNZ6ofKblnZ7-GLEF4JwHILRNAtS4s3qCA1OhIreEbKhirAFeRH0yma35N5zVneQh6zHxBWUr9l/s320/abgry+white+man.jpg" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /></div> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/phony-and-fraud-anger-of-_b_9395320.html">Read More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-84936148490228144352016-02-09T16:02:00.001-06:002016-02-09T16:02:07.735-06:00Secrets of Beings: The Avatars of Vishnu<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGiOAY9v_VkkKHUEM-ABn_6Vs2H_uMgxRSHDaaxVlWBnvtGB7sXdaseqBlPyv8XoqcJr1DqD2eIWQ-fjypeiJ4O6XP2ZU3fWKv_t5IFhJurDrSOQ8eqe9O5Qj_oYtfmDW8MyGs4_Doche/s1600/vishnu.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGiOAY9v_VkkKHUEM-ABn_6Vs2H_uMgxRSHDaaxVlWBnvtGB7sXdaseqBlPyv8XoqcJr1DqD2eIWQ-fjypeiJ4O6XP2ZU3fWKv_t5IFhJurDrSOQ8eqe9O5Qj_oYtfmDW8MyGs4_Doche/s320/vishnu.jpg" /></a> Though known as a Supreme Hindu god, Vishnu is a universal deity who sends his avatars to all nations, cultures, and races. Vishnu has appeared in many avatars, the most famous of which are Krishna and Rama. Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu, though controversy shadows this avatar. Some see Jesus too as an avatar of Vishnu. Over time, the Vishnu appearances are countless, but only a few recognized, fewer understood. Vishnu has appeared in the form of a fish, turtle, boar, half-lion, dwarf, and perfect man. Vishnu preserves the evolution of life on the planet. The avatar of Vishnu is dark-complexioned in India, as Jesus is portrayed to be white-complexioned in Europe and North America. Other avatars with varied complexions and facial features descend in other parts of the world. Vishnu himself is not attached to any one color or complexion.
Vishnu is meta-cosmic and meta-celestial being, boundless and illimitable. Some Vishnu manifestations are momentous and transformative, some momentary and illuminating. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/secrets-of-being-the-avat_b_9134822.html">Read More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-57480250993385489392016-01-16T13:53:00.001-06:002016-01-18T09:12:16.544-06:00Unviability of Islamic Caliphate: Who can be caliph? - Part 2A careful study of the first caliphate (632-661 C.E.) demonstrates that the ISIS caliphate launched by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in Iraq is a non-starter. A viable Islamic caliphate would most certainly abolish the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, and Morocco, the emirates of United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman, and the autocratic governments of Egypt, Syria, and Sudan. See the proposed map of the ISIS caliphate. A caliphate started by an ordinary warrior carries no weight with the Arab aristocratic families and no legitimacy with most Arab theologians, who see the Islamic caliphate as Allah's gift granted exclusively to the Quraysh tribe of Prophet Muhammad. A universal caliphate open to all Muslims of all ethnicities from Morocco to Indonesia (See the first commentary) to hold supreme office of the caliph is a heresy that very few theologians are likely to accept as a viable paradigm.
In almost all systems, the highest office is shielded from "foreigners." Consider the United States. When Republican Party presidential candidate Ben Carson stated that a Muslim should not be permitted to be the U.S. President, his statement was condemned because the U.S. constitution specifically states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." In excluding foreigners, however, the U.S. Constitution requires that the President be a natural born citizen. In addition to barring foreigners, some national constitutions do impose a religious test <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQG0DclnsXziqfMVKIwOqI0KBvlJFcoHAMx_QwZ8DNL-7cfadSyENeRXvras1CbUxtKrVP4Myy8OVAPfRE6h5521CaANlG4nG4zeDUl1kB-d5lmneczkDJK5DAivOOzl1TrYQfolnjBj4p/s1600/Global+Caliphate.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQG0DclnsXziqfMVKIwOqI0KBvlJFcoHAMx_QwZ8DNL-7cfadSyENeRXvras1CbUxtKrVP4Myy8OVAPfRE6h5521CaANlG4nG4zeDUl1kB-d5lmneczkDJK5DAivOOzl1TrYQfolnjBj4p/s320/Global+Caliphate.png" /></a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/unviability-of-islamic-ca_b_8969396.html">Read More</a></b><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-53288440204870900822016-01-08T07:10:00.000-06:002016-01-08T07:10:49.497-06:00Unviability of Islamic Caliphate: Ethnic Barriers - Part 1This series of commentaries, Unviability of Islamic Caliphate, will explain that Islamic caliphate in any form, much less in image of the fetishized first caliphate (632-661 C.E.), is an utter impossibility, even though the romance of a unified Muslim ummah, free of foreign occupations, comprised of all ethnic communities and denominations, devoted to peace, social justice, piety, and glorification of One God, is a dream ideology that fascinates millions of Muslims -- much like the utopias of global solidarity, environmental wholeness, scientific socialism, or racial purity that enchant other peoples and communities. The unviability of instituting a new caliphate questions the Western war on terror as well the wild conquest claims Muslim militants make to terrorize a nervous world.
For decades, Arab militants in the Middle East have been praying for the creation of Islamic caliphate modeled after the first caliphate established in Medina after the death of Prophet Muhammad. To the surprise of many Muslims across the world, the Islamic Caliphate State (also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) has actually inaugurated a miniature caliphate in territories purloined from Syria and Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (b. 1970), holding a doctorate in Islamic studies, is the appointed caliph.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-74268163735288971002015-12-22T16:41:00.002-06:002015-12-22T16:42:26.082-06:00American Muslims "Sue the Bastards""Sue the bastards" is a catchy phrase invented in 1970 by Victor Yannacone, a U.S. lawyer and environmentalist, a trailblazer in cutting-edge litigation. The phrase, despite its critics, captures a sentiment for law-based empowerment against the hefty and mighty. Without fright, alarm, or vacillation, American Muslims are quietly 'suing the bastards" and asserting their civil liberties in courts - a quintessential American thing to do. A review of cases decided in 2015 reveal how American Muslims are claiming, sometimes pro se and sometimes with the help of pro bono and fee-paid lawyers, their rights against discrimination, hostility, and harassment.
A symptomatic discrimination case, reported in Khan v. Hilton Worldwide, occurs at the Waldorf Astoria New York, a plush hotel located half a mile away from showy Trump Tower. In 2005, Ehsan Khan (no relation to the author) starts working as a "Café Attendant" at the Starbucks inside
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/american-muslims-sue-the-_b_8853660.html">Read More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-7689324946211805882015-12-10T05:54:00.000-06:002015-12-10T05:54:13.529-06:00Indentured Graduates in America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A bankruptcy court tells a gloomy story of student loans. Upon graduating from a school of dentistry in Wisconsin, Soler accumulated student loans in the amount of $200,000. Since then, repaying loans has been the primary predicament of Soler’s life. Soler has searched for higher paying jobs, worked with chronic back pain exasperated by her work as a dentist, and lived without many comforts cinematographed in the American dream of good life. After paying loan payments for eight years, a whopping $100,000 in total, Soler still owes $285,000. “With the accruing, compounding interest, in an effort reminiscent of Sisyphus, instead of gaining any ground with her mountain of loan debt, Soler has been going backwards.” A defeated Soler files for bankruptcy. See In re Soler, 261 BR 444 – Bankr. Court, Minnesota 2001. Soler’s story is anything but unique or unusual. It’s writ large across America. It highlights the existential consequences of massive debt with which various professionals, physicians, engineers, accountants, journalists, lawyers, and many others, graduate from occupational schools. The rising debt serfdom in epistemic occupations is similar to raw indentured labor in American colonies. Money merchants, including the federal government acting as one, entice potential borrowers by lending first and demanding indentured services later. Lending thrives and money merchants flourish when tuitions are skyrocketing and professional schools, including law and medicine, are raising the cost of studies by the year. Upon graduation, students holding professional degrees must pay their huge debts. If a student fails to complete professional studies due to illness, family tragedy, or any other misfortune
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/10/indentured-graduates-in-america/">Read More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-66020638116981278782015-12-03T11:34:00.000-06:002015-12-03T11:34:23.494-06:00White Servitude in America
It should come as no surprise, but it does for many, that money merchants founded and continue to govern America. See Debt Serfdom in America. The dominant narrative that America was established by “puritans” and “pilgrims” escaping religious atrocities sweeping across Europe is incompletely correct, used mostly for myth-making and finding a respectable origin for a powerful nation, the United States of America . But the dominant narrative conveniently if not deliberately whitewashes the plight of wretched debt servants brought from Europe to make profits for entrepreneurs. Just as vulnerable migrant workers are now imported from across the Mexican border to slog in the fields, poverty-stricken Europeans were transported from across the Atlantic to toil in the “New World” for the benefit of venture capitalists.
An indentured servant –
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/03/white-servitude-in-america/">Read More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-32391333431503842042015-11-24T07:21:00.000-06:002015-11-24T07:25:00.115-06:00Do Something about the Rohingyas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Press TV has conducted an interview with L. Ali Khan, a professor at the Washburn University from Kansas, to ask for his insight into the impact of political change in Myanmar on the fate of the country's Rohingya Muslims.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/11/24/438945/Myanmar-Rohingya-Muslims-OIC-HRC-Khan">Watch the Interview</a></span></div>
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The following is a rough transcription of the interview.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Press TV</span>: It’s quite clear that Myanmar’s path towards democracy isn’t as democratic as many would like it to be.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Khan</span>: That’s very true. I think the National League for Democracy, which is the political party of the Nobel laureate has won landslide more than 70 percent of the seats in both houses; so, one would hope that the situation of Rohingyas will change, but I would suggest that there should be two international pressures that should be brought on the government of Myanmar.</div>
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One is through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the other is through the Human Rights Council. Now, we know that in the Human Rights Council, there’s a special rapporteur, who is monitoring the situation in Myanmar, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many other Islamic countries around their council.</div>
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And they should push the rapporteur to find what exactly is the persecution in Myanmar and then do something about it.</div>
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And I think the other is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 56 Muslim states, and does feel like they’re helpless and they can’t take care of 1.3 million fellow Muslims who are the most persecuted minority on this planet.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Press TV</span>: Will any of this works specifically considering that even Aung San Suu Kyi herself has failed to address the plight of the Rohingyas when asked and prodded about it, she even went on to say that the situation is being grossly exaggerated by media outlets?</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Khan</span>: Well, let in she’s not in power and she was not in a position to say something very strongly, because the elections were under way.</div>
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And now that her political party has won, hopefully she would change her stands and she would be more sympathetic to the situation of Rohingyas.</div>
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After all she has a Nobel Peace Prize and it is obligatory that she takes care of the rights of Rohingya people.</div>
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I hope she would change, but if she doesn’t change, I still would ask that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 56 Muslim states, they should do something to pressurize the new government that they recognize the rights of Rohingya people.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Press TV</span>: How much would Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in the form of a government have power to bring about change, so to speak, because, let’s not forget that the military junta still retains much of the power in one way or another.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Khan</span>: That’s very true. I think right now the military is still in power and the power will change in February next year.</div>
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That’s been the new political party would take power and you’re right that previously the military did not allow the same party, who won the elections, to take power. </div>
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So, it remains to be seen whether the National League for Democracy would actually be able to take power and we don’t know. I think the military records are seriously anti-democratic in Myanmar.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-28425668705860062552015-11-21T10:21:00.001-06:002015-11-21T10:44:12.716-06:00Sick Overreactions to Islamic Terrorism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybcu4t68T8nk0tZQgizkpkECp1ceWIR5P6iuzeAwHjhdoin0pmpdmit5T3lRpW278au0xYD3iaARBoeo464-5h_pLn1z6b5tH3UXU04KGRDOonxUNTDXFwOh9pWk1GQx6KnFtez0FbmvJ/s1600/sick+overeractions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybcu4t68T8nk0tZQgizkpkECp1ceWIR5P6iuzeAwHjhdoin0pmpdmit5T3lRpW278au0xYD3iaARBoeo464-5h_pLn1z6b5tH3UXU04KGRDOonxUNTDXFwOh9pWk1GQx6KnFtez0FbmvJ/s320/sick+overeractions.jpg" width="320" /></a>Sick overreactions to Islamic terrorism are becoming archetypical. The first overreaction advocates pitiless counterism (a term designed to be broader than counter-terrorism). The second overreaction is the looming mistreatment of Muslim diaspora. The third overreaction maligns the faith of Islam. I will argue below that these overreactions foster lawlessness, fail to prevent terrorism, and inject poison into relations with the Muslim world. </div>
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Let me clarify Islamic terrorism, a tag whose appropriateness, for good reasons, has been questioned in academic literature. I use Islamic terrorism to mean acts of violence perpetrated by Muslims. For example, the recent Paris attacks (11/13/15) constitute Islamic terrorism since they were allegedly committed by Muslims. That the suspects belong to a militant organization, such as the ISIS, adds fervor to calling it Islamic terrorism. That the perpetrators are Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, or even non-practicing Muslims, though noteworthy, matters little in the politics of tagging. Many nations, including Muslim nations allied with the West such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey suffer terrorist violence. Muslim nations do not brand such violence as Islamic terrorism. Islam and terrorism are correlated only when violence is committed against Western targets or unleashed inside a Western nation, such as the attacks in France.</div>
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Hours after the Paris attack, the fiery rhetoric emitted in France was reckless. President Francoise Hollande promised <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/sick-overreactions-to-isl_b_8590410.html" target="_blank">Read More</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-33712542034967968792015-11-01T14:54:00.002-06:002015-11-01T14:57:12.245-06:00Sophisticated Listening Skills<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Listening is an apothegmatic skill set for learning law. Contrary to popular presumption, listening is not a naturally occurring competence. Listening is an expertise that must be cultivated and refined. Hearing is not listening and wholesome ears, though assistive, do no guarantee effective listening ability. Listening is a deliberate cognitive undertaking that requires attention, curiosity, contextual knowledge, comprehension, and remembrance.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sophisticated Listening</strong>. Good lawyers are sophisticated listeners as their listening ability is fully functional and fine-tuned. They listen to clients, witnesses, associates, partners, opposing attorneys, and judges. They listen through ears and through eyes for listening is a bi-sensory skill set of hearing and seeing at the same time. Sophisticated listeners understand that speech cannot be torn apart from nonverbal communications and gestures cannot be comprehended without reading facial expressions. Even boring and ineffective speakers are respected and heard, particularly when what they are saying is critical for the construction or resolution of a dispute.</div>
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Poor listening is concerned only with grabbing the obvious points. Seeking only the bottom line of an oral communication is lazy listening reductionism. Sophisticated listening is listening fully; it is catching the obvious as well as the fine points of a presentation. A sophisticated listener <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liaquat-ali-khan/reflections-on-teaching-l_b_8431232.html" target="_blank">Read More</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-58317941072628711672015-08-29T11:00:00.001-05:002016-01-16T21:14:42.243-06:00Boy, Mother, and Soldiers - Reflections over a Picture<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://legalscholaracademy.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/mother-child-and-the-soldiers.jpeg" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #13c4a5; margin-bottom: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s ease-in-out, background-color 0.1s ease-in-out;"><img alt="mother, child, and the soldiers" class="wp-image-279 aligncenter" height="427" src="https://legalscholaracademy.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/mother-child-and-the-soldiers.jpeg?w=754&h=427" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;" width="754" /></a></div>
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<span class="underline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><u>Look at the picture above and read below.</u></span></span></div>
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This picture captures a live spectacle of tyranny. I don’t know who took this picture. Defying customs, the owner has not scribbled his or her identity on the picture. It appears the owner published this picture as a piece of charity for the world to see oppression. I am assuming the woman behind the boy is the boy’s mother. I don’t know where this picture is taken. It could be the Indian-occupied Kashmir, it could be Gaza or West Bank, it could be the Kurdish area in Iraq or Turkey, or it could be somewhere in Libya or Syria. It could be a border area in California or Texas. It could be any place in this big bad world. However, my eyes and my heart tell me this picture is taken in a Muslim occupied land.</div>
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There are three main characters in the picture: soldiers, boy, and the mother. Let me interpret these three characters as I see them. Grateful to the photographer, I interpret this snapshot to make a few observations.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Soldiers</strong></div>
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There are four soldiers in the picture. Two soldiers are grabbing the boy. The third soldier is using his arm to establish a barricade between son and the mother. The fourth soldier is walking on the road, a bit away, much like an extra character in a play staged in an open air theater, extra but not redundant. This fourth soldier, whose shadow on the road is most perfectly etched, completes the formation of oppression by protecting the other three soldiers towing the boy and holding off the mother. Shadows of the three soldiers interfusing with shadow of the boy are touching the mother’s real body.</div>
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The soldiers are helmeted protecting their heads and faces but boy and mother are bare-faced and bare-headed, showing their black hair; and, the mother’s hijab is sliding back on her head as if for the moment religious obligation to cover is not that important. Though fully concealed in gear, soldiers appear to be white males. Possibly, one of the two soldiers holding the boy could be a white female. It’s not surprising since women are ardent operators in producing oppression or what they see fighting for their nation under siege.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Boy</strong></div>
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The boy looks young, much younger than a teenager. He could be 9, 8, or 7 years old. He is not big in body. He looks skinny and yet agile and packed with energy. The soldiers are stretching the boy’s arms, forcing him to look like a butterfly. Maybe, the boy is in pain as four stern hands are restraining his frail arms. Wearing short pants barely covering his knees, the boy’s T-shirt seems to have been made out of an American flag. The boy appears to be fashionable as he is wearing a fancy (cheap) wrist watch, a possible trigger for detonating a possible bomb. The boy’s legs are lifted in the air as the soldiers are determined to sever the boy’s contacts with the land below. The boy appears to be defiant.</div>
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A black gun is hanging down in front of the boy. It is unclear whether the gun belongs to the boy or the soldier. If the boy was carrying the gun, it seems strapped to his thigh. If the soldier was carrying the gun, it seems to have fallen off his/her waistband. In any event, the gun is attached to a body since it is hanging over the shadows and not falling on the ground. Of course, the soldier must be carrying a gun, as all soldiers do. The picture does not tell us conclusively whether the hanging black gun is the soldier’s gun or the boy’s.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Mother</strong></div>
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Mother is distressed, stretching her hand to retrieve the boy from the soldiers. Her mouth is open, saying something, saying perhaps: leave him alone, let him go, don’t take him, he’s hurting, he didn’t do anything, he’s innocent, please don’t hurt him, please don’t hurt him, I beg you please let him go, O My God, my boy’s hurting, they are going to put him in prison, I won’t see my boy again, how can I let him go, please let him go, please, please, please. . .</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-4250984420014991542015-08-26T07:39:00.001-05:002015-08-26T07:39:42.104-05:00Islam Enters America<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tS8INWfaeYk" width="459"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3560205728784244142.post-54036173097855149882015-08-17T18:42:00.000-05:002015-08-17T18:42:04.893-05:00Fantasies of Flying<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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An intimate relationship binds birds and humans. Humans may have fascination for all animals and may make pets out of dogs, cats, fish, and in some cases even bigger animals, such as llamas, goats and cubs. But birds are more than incarcerated pets. (In fact, caging birds and clipping their wings are transgressions against nature.) Birds mesmerize humans with their melodies, colors, feathers and most prominently, flying. Of all created life forms (except angels), only birds aviate with sustained beauty. Most life forms are detainees of the earth's surface, but birds are free, living and breathing above the ground. Caliology, the study of bird nests, reveal how most birds make their nests in trees and high places in the outdoors. Humans may offer artificial bird nests that some birds politely decline. Love birds teach humans the bravery of delicate intimacy expressed in public. They are not reluctant to show sadness or sing solos of loneliness. To some degree, all humans are bird watchers.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Birds as feathered beings are vested with the ability to fly. Feathers are the most salient part of flying beings. Mere feathers, however, are insufficient to fly. In addition to feathers, birds have light bodies. An elephant equipped with feathers will be unable to fly because of its huge mass. (Note, however, scientists believe that birds were dinosaurs once upon a time.) Most birds have hollow bones that weigh much less than regular bones. They also have light beaks rather than heavy teeth. The light body of feathered beings is maintained with high metabolism. Food provides energy. However, indigestible foods are unsuitable for feathered beings. Most birds eat seeds, fruits, and easily digestible meat to procure energy. Humans only wish to eat like birds.</div>
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The physiology of feathered beings is constructed for flying. For example, feathered beings do not have bladders to store urine because a full bladder adds weight to the body. Birds do not conceive babies since pregnant bodies will be harder to fly. Instead, they lay eggs for propagation. Yet, like almost always, nature burdens female birds with the chores of reproduction. Even holding a fertilized egg inside the body restricts the liberty of female birds to freely fly, though for a short while. Additionally, most female birds spend time in nests, infrequently in the company of sex partners, for incubating eggs and raising hatchlings that need care and feeding.</div>
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First imitating and now surpassing the aerodynamics of birds, humans have invented airplanes that can fly at high speeds, including supersonic aircrafts. Every day, there are over 200,000 flights around the world. Most airplanes have wings, engines, and pilots. There are exceptions. Drones may fly without pilots. Hot air balloons may sail without wings. New planes, like D-Dalus, are being researched, which may not use wings or rotors to take off, fly, and land. Nonetheless, human aviation shadows the tradition of birds as most planes have some sort of tails and wings with varying paint colors. Jet-powered wing suits are available for solo flights. Some planes are powered by solar energy but most use gasoline as fuel for flying. Human aviation has overcome the weight problem and planes can be designed for carrying massive loads of military hardware. The Antonov An-124 Ruslan, for example, is a large Russian aircraft that can fly carrying a load of 150 tons. Nonetheless, the adventures of making paper planes continue to thrill children.</div>
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<a href="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-15-1439652760-1851293-flyingbird.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="2015-08-15-1439652760-1851293-flyingbird.jpg" height="402" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-15-1439652760-1851293-flyingbird-thumb.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="570" /></a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />(Thanks to Pixabay)</div>
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For centuries, flying has been a popular metaphor in fantasy and fiction. The magic carpet in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One Thousand and One Nights</em> tells the story of a prince buying a carpet in India, which would take the prince, in the twinkling of an eye, to far-flung places otherwise hard to reach. In modern games, such as <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Legend of Zelda</em>, a merchant rides the magic carpet passing through the Creepy Wasteland. The question intrigues children and physicists whether Batman can safely land after flying with his cape. Does Superman have negative mass when he flies in space? Video games are most enthralling when characters and weapons take to flying. Flying introduces the z-axis into human awareness, liberating minds from the confines of x-axis and y-axis, the predominant two-dimensional reality of earthly life.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Flying in dreams is no fiction. It is real and may reveal the dreamer's secret fears and desires. Flying freely in dreams is a joy, a wishful pleasure released from mundane burdens. Flying without control is scary: it may mean the dreamer's fear of lack of control, or just fatalistic resignation to whatever is happening in life.</div>
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Interpretations of flying in dreams are as fantastical as interpretations of statutes in law. For example, not able to fly, though arms are stretched out, may signal powerlessness or indecision or fear of flying. Flying together with someone else may portend romance or career advancement. Flying backwards may signify nostalgia, opposition, or dogmatism. Flying in circles may mean boredom, devotion, or circumferential anxiety. Flying to heavens may mean spiritual awakening or a brooding desire to reach an alien space craft. Flying over an ocean may mean a desire to meet someone in Amsterdam, or it may mean confession of self-superficiality. Flying away from your spouse needs no interpretation. If you dream feathers growing all over your body, wake up and answer the phone call from the Norwegian Nobel Committee.</div>
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This excerpt is taken from the author's forthcoming book <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Secrets of Beings</strong> <a href="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-16-1439760460-5273285-LegalScholarAcademysketch1.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="2015-08-16-1439760460-5273285-LegalScholarAcademysketch1.png" height="178" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-08-16-1439760460-5273285-LegalScholarAcademysketch1-thumb.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="220" /></a></div>
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<span class="group" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/flying/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Flying</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/birds/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Birds</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/romance/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Romance</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/aviation/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Aviation</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/batman/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Batman</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/superman/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Superman</a></span><span class="entrytag" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/video-games/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Games</a></span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Legal Scholar Academy</div>Islamic law bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17006720944295370835noreply@blogger.com0