Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

that's awesome. can you share some of what was said about islamicate?

Islamicate was one of a couple of dozen sites that came up in conversation. I think it was in the context of religiously-committed sites that talk about other religions as well.

I believe it was Velveteen Rabbi who brought up Islamicate, in the course of discussing how religion blogs could lead to people talking cross faiths. Not so much ecumenical, in the traditional sense of a priest, a rabbi, and an imam sitting around a conference table, but more in the spirit of daily practice and belief revealed to each other through blogrolls.

That was best-case scenario. We also talked about the potential for blogs to unify various faith groups in hatred of one common "enemy." The vitriol Catholics, Jews, and Protestans heap on Islam in the comments section of Little Green Footballs was an example.

Question was, which is a more powerful trend. I hope it's Velveteen Rabbi adding Islamicate to her blogroll and vice versa, but is that just wishful thinking?

Wow, I can't believe we were the subject of the lecture. I now have to ask why did our names come up? I know it's egoistic, but I am an american after all.

I just finished reading an article in the most recent Atlantic, where it talked about optimism in political candidates as being reflective of the optimism in American society. Therefore, I have to say the cross-religious dialogue is the natural progression.

A more substantial argument, I think, revolves around the nature of the internet. While LGF might be able to bring people together around hate, it's also a community of like-minded people. The internet to me has always been about the marketplace of ideas, and finding new ways to challenge oneself. I enjoy the Velveteen Rabbi because I think she posts well about what it means to be religious, irrespective of religion. However, there is also then a fruitful tension between the universal and the particular when trying to understand the specific tradition.

The follow observation may be due to my limited knowledge of religion blogs, but I find most are interested in sharing their view of the world and getting feedback. Oftentimes it's like-minded people, but because of the nature of religious thought, there is occasionally discussion and argumentation as well.