Friday, October 26, 2007
  Pink Hijab Day
Today Muslim women are wearing pink scarves to signal their support for research on breast cancer prevention and treatment. If you don't wear a scarf, try a pink shirt, a pink armband, a pink gellie bracelet, pink sneakers...

If nothing else, go to the breast cancer site and click to help fund mammograms for women who can't afford it otherwise.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2

They are having a challenge for the month of October to get to enough clicks to equal 500 mammograms. Then their premiere sponsor will give an extra 150 tests. They are 99% to goal. Let your click be the one that puts them over the top.
 
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
  Islamic Fiction Website
A new website devoted to Islamic Fiction has opened.

http://www.islamicfictionbooks.com/

It's got a lot of resources for readers, writers, and publishers. Definitely worth a read through.
 
Friday, October 12, 2007
  Eid Mubarak!
May you have a joyous Eid, whichever day you celebrate on. (And even if you don't celebrate it, may you feel the joy of the Muslims around you radiating into your life!)

I wanted to share an Eid song written and sung by my friend and co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, Ani Zonneveld.
It's beautiful. I hope you enjoy it!

Ani's Eid Song
 
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
  Health Care
Why am I not surprised that President Bush vetoed the healthcare bill that would have maintained insurance for thousands and thousands of American children who otherwise won't have it?

We used to pay for private healthcare. It was terribly expensive and ate up nearly a huge chunk our income. We spent more each month on insurance premiums than we did on food or house payments. In fact, we spent more on health insurance each month than we did on any other single budget item. And that doesn't count deductibles or services that were not eligible.

I've got friends who work hard, make a decent living, and can't afford health insurance. They may or may not have qualified for the program President Bush offered. But I know they live in fear of their children getting in a serious accident or developing a major illness.

Healthcare expenses in this country have resulted in a situation where wealthy people can have extraordinary and/or optional procedures that cost huge amounts of money, while others are reduced to using emergency only care.

Bush has always had a blind spot when it comes to the realities of living life as a middle income American. (Among his many blind spots, let me say.) This is one of the big problems of the Republican party in general. They are willing to spend billions of dollars a day bombing Iraq for our corporations, but can't finance a far smaller expenditure that would help your average American have a decent life, free from anxiety and stress. Compassion is clearly a value many of our politicians need to learn.
 

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Progressive Muslim, feminist, mom, writer, mystic, lover of the universe and Doug Schmidt, cellist, theologian and imam.


What I'm reading now



Cane River
An interesting exploration of the gradual whiting of a family through slavery to modern days.

To see an archive of all the books I've read (well the ones I've read and review since I started the blog) with comments, please click here

Causes Worth Supporting

This is just a short list -- a few of my favorites.

English Language Islamic Fiction. We need more of it. Lots more.
Pay a Teacher's Salary in Afghanistan. The Hunger site actually has a lot of worthwhile programs. You can find them all here .
Muslims for Progressive Values. My organization. We can always use donations, of time or money!
Human Rights Campaign for the glbt community
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
The ACLU I'm a card carrying member. Hope you'll become one too.
MoveOn.org. The organization that has done the most, as far as I can tell, to pull the countries progressive side together.
Network of Spiritual Progressives. Working to reclaim religion and morality for the religious left.

Blogs Worth Reading

Wanda Campbell also known as Nochipa A very gifted poet and a gentle, compassionate soul. Nochipa and I are on the same page on sooooo many things
Writeous Sister Aminah Hernandez, she's got some excellent latino pieces and always has good writing info on her blog.
Sister Scorpion aka Leila Montour - Leila is a fount of energy, quirky humor, and bad attitude. She's also a talented poet.
Muhajabah Very interesting commentary here. I don't always agree with her, but her pieces are always thought-provoking.
Georgie Dowdell Georgie is a great writer and a good friend.
Louise Marley Another great writer. I think Louise is one of the best sf writers exploring faith themes.
Ink in My Coffee Devon Ellington (who has numerous aliases) who is also the editor of Circadian Poems. A truly inspiring woman with a seemingly endless supply of energy.
Ethnically Incorrect With a name like that, isn't a given I'm going to enjoy this writer?
Freedom from the Mundane Colin Galbraith, another excellent writer, from Scotland.
The Scruffy Dog Review This is a new e-zine with an ecclectic mix of fiction, poetry, and non-fic, some really enjoyable pieces here.
Ramblings of a Suburban Soccer Mom Lara, another gentle soul, very thoughtful.
Circadian Poems A journal of poetry, new stuff up all the time.
Ye Olde Inkwell Michelle writes romance and is one of my writing buddies.
Muhammad Michael Knight The original punk Muslim writer. Like him or love him, Mike is always coming up with the unexpected.

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