How a Thirteenth-Century Islamic Poet Conquered America

How a Thirteenth-Century Islamic Poet Conquered America

By Ryan Croken

January 28, 2009

Islamophobia has now become a socially acceptable subcategory of anti-Semitism. Fundamentalist and terrorist have become not fringe, but mainstream definitions of what "Muslim" "means" in a frightened Western consciousness. Every day in the "news," the 1.8 billion varieties of Islamic experience across the world are compressed into quick images of sinister creatures toting weapons, silhouetted by smoke and flame, ululating in alien tongues. Oh, Rumi, if you have indeed inspired an irrational love of Allah through the "translations" of Coleman Barks, is this not better than an irrational hatred of Islam inspired by the "translations" of a hallucinating media machine?

http://www.newageislam.com/how-a-thirteenth-century-islamic-poet-conquered-america--/islamic-culture/d/1160