tradition

Recently, in a certain yoga class that entices a certain divine lock of curled hair at the base of one's spine, I entered an asana where my hands were wide face open stretched, thumbs pushing towards the temples, and the pulse on the palms tingle thump. Its the posture of fearlessness. The body is wide open, vulnerable, and confronting death with a bring it on you f-ing pest love. Love as confrontation. Love as strength. Love as fearlessness.

Than again I paid money to be here, and the atmosphere is about as space-cult as it can get, but it's True. It's devoted to and therefore worth my time.

Muslim Hedonist mentioned some of the reasons why Tradition is a bad word among some Progressives:

...because they see it as either largely irrelevant to modern North American life, or as an entry-point for mullas to exercise the power of veto over anything too forward-looking.

Laury mentioned how she felt conservative compared to some other Progressives. This got me thinking about my place in life opposite of tradition. I know a professor in my department who starts almost every intellectual conversation by abruptly saying, "But, what do you mean by XYZ?" Its supposed to elicit a detailed uet succinct definition of terms.

Robert David Coolidge has posted a call for a return to "the core" of Islam to unite American Muslims in their diversity. A pdf of his piece "Reasserting the Core of American Islam" is available through Imam Zaid Shakir's website. I have some concerns with his essay, not least of which is his odd contention that Progressive Islam is dead (someone forgot to send us the memo, I guess).  At this time, I will only address his call for a unifying core for American Muslims.  I hope that readers will read his piece and add their own insights in the comments or in the reader blogs.