Ramazan ayınız mübarek, dualarınız kabul olsun.

The greatest achievement of the West was precisely its discovery of the universal human rights and freedoms that belong to all of humanity, whose protection is the essence of justice, and whose infringement the essence of evil. So in the true spirit of Western Civilization: Ramadan Mubarak!

Ramadan starts tonight, so wishing all my friends and colleagues ṣawm maqbūl and Ramadan karim!

Ramadan Mubarak

"Something inside of me said, ‘Go up there and stand with these people'"- this is really what morality is all about. Or as its put in the hadith:

It’s interesting that according to this report, Orthodox Christians in America overall have the same skeptical/negative reaction to Christian nationalism as most other denominations (despite the recent rise of the Orthodox far right in the US)

i‘m using it for a column but i want to share here this line from lincoln on jefferson because it is applies to our situation as well. you can find it in his april 6, 1859 letter to henry l. pierce.

Propaganda during WWI and WWII in fact

Same thing happened to Bulgakov sadly (who was betrayed even in his own lifetime)

“Nobody dies to defend a ‘multicultural economic zone’”

We are part of one civilization: the world. And our peaceful interconnection despite language, religion, and history is the greatest moral accomplishment in world history. The attempt to reverse it is evil

Read theory

This point is so much more important than people realize. Saying “this is who we always have been” has the same damaging effect on the national psyche as saying “you are a bad person, and always have been” has individually. (1/2)

I know it’s cringe to talk like this, but the fact is that the love of liberty really does live in the hearts of the American people. It can be denied and distorted, but it’s never gone, and it will always be the first and last hope of this nation.

The strangest thing about the article (gift link in 2/2) is that Harper doesn’t realize he’s on the same team as the people he’s criticizing. Whatever one might think about methods or areas of focus, the struggle against tyranny *is* one of those “permanent problems” he’s concerned about. (1/2)

Post an image you can hear

This is the whole problem with Dreher, and it’s why his thinking always lands on authoritarianism in the end. If you want to read a Christian analysis of modernity that does not devolve into authoritarianism, just read Charles Taylor. One paragraph of Taylor is worth all of Dreher.

We're also examining the trial of John Frost 1794, who was tried for treason for saying "No King" in a London coffee house. I've taught this module for so many years, and it never ceases to be ever more relevant to contemporary events.

N.Y.C. Officials Reinstate Pride Flag at Stonewall After Federal Removal Hundreds of people attended a rally on Thursday to re-raise the flag, setting up a defiant response to the Trump administration’s assault on diversity initiatives. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/n...

My take on bills like this is that if Muslim students can publicly pray and read the Qur’an without experiencing any blowback or discrimination- and the schools are prepared to publicly defend them if they do- then go for it.

For people outside MENA studies, I think it’s important to highlight the courage in this thread; we’ve seen this happening for years but this is the first time I’ve seen someone within the field make this point publicly.

This is genuinely tragic

This is my position. People outsourcing their thinking to AI means they aren't actually learning anything at all.

And also the way this tech achieved this capability was by acquiring the written work of untold thousands or millions of authors and scholars without their consent. It’s a plagiarism machine bc its entire basis is an unimaginably huge act of plagiarism.

This is also "history of technology"

Inshallah “the moving walkway is coming to and end, please watch your step” thing at IND will be similarly replaced

Yeah I’m convinced that Derridean deconstruction is the ultimate root of post-truth/alternative facts politics. Can there possibly be a better description of our situation than “Nietzachean joy”? For Derrida, truth is sad and cynicism is joyful. (The passage is from…)

From my perspective working in knowledge production, what I see are two simultaneous threats: AI’s ability to produce a reasonable facsimile of many if not most knowledge products at a fraction of the visible cost, and the ideological rejection of knowledge production as a shared and worthy goal.

KJ was one of my students, and he’s a good guy; you should listen to what he’s got to say:

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the strongest objections to AI come from either a leftist or a religious viewpoint: we both see it as a form of alienation from our humanity.

<Cringe post, don't care> I just gave a global health talk at Johns Hopkins, and one of their students came up afterward to introduce herself. She had taken my global health class at Emory, and she said that's what made her go into the field. Sometimes the things we do matter 🥹

Was going through some old files and came across something I saved to document the cultural climate- the bestselling books on "Islam" on Amazon in December 2009. Wild stuff.

This would explain it

Eleven years ago today on February 10, 2015, three young Muslims--23 year old Deah Barakat, 21 year old Yusor Abu-Salha, and 19 year old Razan Abu-Salha--were shot to death in their home, in what came to be known as the Chapel Hill Shooting. Thinking of their loved ones today.

Lots of insights here, including: 1. 350k Russian soldiers KIA, more than any post-WWII war 2. Russia advancing only 15-70 *meters* a day during major offensives 3. Payouts for soldier deaths concentrated mostly in the poorest regions like Tuva (25x more likely to die than soldier from Moscow)

Interesting sign choice by the neighborhood Baptist church

“A terrible thing that happened” is exactly how the Turkish government talks about it- a tragedy of war, not intentional genocide. If that’s his takeaway from the memorial, he’s missed the point entirely.

A Pastoral Letter from Sioux City, IA Catholic Bishop John Keehner: "The Church has long taught that every person, regardless of nationality or legal status, possesses an inherent dignity given by God." He calls for Catholics to advocate "for humane policies" on immigration.

And it always has been!

“Our shock is real. So is our outrage. Nothing less than an unequivocal apology – to the nation and to the persons demeaned – is acceptable. And it must come immediately.” cc @daviddarmofal.bsky.social

From my two-apart series on religiosity: Iran and Turkey are both experiencing rapid secularization. The common thread? Political Islam corrodes the very religious authority it claims to embody. When faith becomes a tool of state power, it loses its legitimacy as a source of public morality.

Looking forward to giving this conference presentation* *Bluesky rant (@aarweb.bsky.social Southeast regional conference in Greenville, SC)

“There may be moderators who escape psychological harm, but I’ve yet to see evidence of that,’ says Milagros Miceli, a sociologist leading the Data Workers’ Inquiry, a project investigating the roles of workers in AI.”

I unironically believe that: 1) anyone who wants to live in America has the right to be here, bc 2) this country was founded by God to be “an asylum for mankind” (per Paine, Common Sense), and 3) if we abandon this sacred mission in the world, God will abandon us.

Today @cato.org published our report providing the first look at the fiscal effects of the wave of legal & illegal immigration over the last 3 decades. It shows immigrants created surpluses every year, by a combined $14.5 trillion, even as deficits grew www.cato.org/white-paper/...

The exact same thing happens when people from the coasts visit cities in the South