The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

So here we are, on another Thanks Giving. Thanks For Nothing, if you ask our family. This isn’t a post to discuss the permissibility of Thanks Giving or not. But being an American and a Muslim, I want to ponder some of what it is and what it might mean (to me, at least).

I was watching today’s Democracy Now! - Amy Goodman had Jane Goodall as her main guest today talking about many issues I feel that Muslims should be having public opinions on. By public, I mean that we should engage in the public dialog from our perspective. Get active in America - be a part of America and not simply live as this shadow contingent, misunderstood and underrepresented.

One of the first topics that Ms.Goodall brought up was evolution and primates being our closest relatives. If you are unfamiliar with Ms.Goodall, she’s known as the chimpanzee lady (see her Web site here). As Amy Goodman had pointed out, evolution and intelligent design and all the talk revolving around this topic have become hot again in America. And while I don’t know Ms.Goodall I will say that she says she doesn’t see a conflict between gradual evolution and Darwinism. So just as there are many verses in the Qur’an that talk about Man looking at his world, looking around and saying, subhana Allah. Perhaps Darwin was just one man trying to use his God-given mind to puzzle out his existence. I am not saying aye or nay in terms of what I think of her theory, but I do feel it should be noted. And secondly, before any religious people jump into the fray slashing and bashing with their holy texts, I should say, “Try and have a dialog.” Read more this entry »