Reflecting on Islam in America

Reflecting the Changing Face of America

If a child has a white mother and a black father, then the child is racially . . . what? Presently, on the census form, individuals may declare racial origins by choosing one from among the categories white, black, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, and "other." The matter of racial classification involves more than how just the Census Bureau counts racial origin; every government agency ...

Islam in local contexts: Localised Islam in Northern Pakistan

As Clifford Geertz remarked in his Islam Observed (1968), the idea of a ‘changing’ religion is a contradiction in terms, as religion is fundamentally concerned with what is permanent and eternal. Still, one way to come to terms with religious change is to consider the many ways that religion is interpreted, by laymen and scholars alike. Social anthropologists like myself have naturally found a ...

Reflecting on the Role of the Hand, Head, and Soul of America: The Mind at Work

The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker (TMW), by Mike Rose (2004), is an engaging and timely book on the complex cognitive behaviors involved in work that is often considered “low skill” or “unskilled.” It is about blue-collar work, blue-collar workers, and the significance of technical education. It is also about how contemporary America regards the manual work “of t...

Islam in the West: From Immigration to Global Islam

Reflecting on posture.

Cardiovascular parameters are most often assessed at rest, and in many cases in the supine position. This generally facilitates measurement procedures and obviates the need to account for external and usually complex confounding factors, other than those related to the inherent physiology being investigated. Although the supine resting position may be relevant for some part of circadian living,...