I was circling the Venus-Earth synodal this week, so I delayed getting into Respectable Islamic Scholarship nonsense until now. So to catch up to last Tuesday, Dr Emran El-Badawi did his annual thing :
Dear Friend,For over six years the International Qur'anic Studies Association blah blah blah
It goes without saying that the current political climate [ed. Drumpff!! DRINK!] has made our task -- especially critical scholarship and building bridges [ed. as opposed to walls. DRINK!!] -- more important than ever. As academics, professionals and philanthropists we have a duty to support the Humanities and Social Sciences at a time when they are under threat [ed. oh please]. This also means we have the opportunity to bring about a much more intellectual discussion of the Qur'an [ed. Sneer. DRINK!!!] when the public needs it most.
IQSA was founded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, and is now funded through the generous support of its members, partners and friends. Please take time this #GivingTuesday to DONATE NOW to further IQSA's mission across the globe.
Most gratefully, Emran El-Badawi, Executive Director
I have to disclose here: I done told this guy, last year, in Denver, to his face: that the Climate - by which his snide and backhanded and weaselly letter means, President Donald Trump - hasn't affected anything relevant to Qâric studies. [Further disclosure : this year I did talk with Dr Badawi again, but about an irrelevant topic; and I didn't attend the IQSA meeting.]
There was never a "Muslim Ban", as Dr Badawi bruits about to whomever'll listen. Inasmuch as the "ban" was a ban at all, as opposed to a delay; it was directed against nations enduring turmoil. It encompassed North Korea. It didn't encompass - for a start - the Sa`udiya. And look what that's got us.
What has affected us? The scholarly-journal Replication Crisis. The Elvesier and other lockdowns of published papers, often papers funded by taxpayers, but unavailable to said taxpayers. The Left monopoly on religious-ed discussion, of which Dr Badawi is a part. Left-wing (and anti-Jew) mobs on campus. And from my perspective, as an indie: the Deplatforming movement, rife in corporate Internet. We cannot get heard, on Twitter and Facebook; and we cannot read others, on Twitter or Facebook.
Just start your own MasterCard! So Dr Badawi would tell us.
Dr Badawi sends a mail like this every year, which is why early last year I floated Robert Spencer (to Zellentin) as an appropriate IQSA board member. I informed Badawi of what I'd done, also, in Denver then. I was hoping he'd lighten up on his mailings in future. Clearly that hope was misplaced.
Tho' to be fair to the man, Dr Badawi had never made any promise to me that he'd be fair to Trump. He just claimed he was always fair to "conservatives". I can only conclude, he'd define The Intellectual Ones as such nominal "conservatives" as also oppose This Administration, and oppose those who voted for it. Bill Kristol and Ben Sasse and Justin Amash. And George Dubya Bush too, now that he's not running things.
Dr Badawi's IQSA is the Bloomberg of Quranic scholarship.
Dr Badawi's leadership style may go some way to explaining why Americans - actual nonMuslim Americans interested in the Quran - haven't opened their pocketbooks to fund IQSA. And why IQSA conferences' signal-to-noise ratio has been so scattershot.
No comments:
Post a Comment