Commercialism, for most Islamic schools is an issue confined to advertisements seen on television or in a magazine. It can be hidden, and implores us as educators to understand how and why commercialism exists in schools, why and how commercialism is contradictory to Islamic morals and values, and understand how we can avoid our students becoming victims in the onslaught of big business. Critique leads to change; where and if it moves us depends on our listening and our “grounding.” If we are to truly understand the society in which we live, we need to develop a critical perspective within our discussions of education.
 

 Who do you want your child to be like when he is older?  Whoever that person is, when he does something wrong, you have to correct them in a way that will guide his Being towards the person you want them to be.  Discipline is not punishment and should not be punitive in any way; you are teaching your child the proper way to “Be” in the world.  So we must always ask ourselves, “What characteristics do my words and actions engender in my child?”  We need to change our vocabulary if we want to change how we do things, so from this point forth, I will not be using the word discipline.  It connotes punishment, and in this article I hope to elaborate why that is not the Muslim way of doing things.
 

 Even small acts of mistreatment of children register in their open, still-developing brain. While psychologists tell us that children are adaptable and that parenting need only be “good-enough,” it is easy as parents to be unaware of the larger patterns in our child-rearing practices. A pattern of mistreatment of a child can lead to an adult who believes it is acceptable to harm children “for their own good.” It can lead to an adult who justifies abusing a spouse, or accepting abuse, with Qur’an. 
 

 As Muslim parents, it is our responsibility to Allah SWT to protect our children from harm and teach them His commandments.  Gift giving is a sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, but when it teaches consumerism, endangers the health of our children and aids multinational corporations to exploit the poor and add to the environmental burden, we need to re examine how modern gift giving fits in the Islamic world view.
 

 Muslims in America have long been concerned about the portrayal of Islam in mainstream media.  We have been effective in addressing some of the stereotypes about Muslims and Islam in the educational arena.
  Over the last few years, there has been an increasing presence of Muslim voices appearing in the media, and more recognition of the importance of American Muslims getting involved in journalism.  But events like the ongoing tragedy in Gaza bring home how far from being heard in the United States Muslim voices are when it comes to issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 

 A few years ago, FrontPageMag.com columnist Paul Marek wrote an article titled “Why the Peaceful Majority Is Irrelevant.”  His thesis was that even if the majority of Muslims abhor violence, it doesn’t matter because “the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history....  The hard quantifiable fact is, that the ‘peaceful majority’ is the ‘silent majority’ and it is cowed and extraneous.”  For Marek, the upshot is this: “We must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics who threaten our way of life.”
 He’s wrong.  No, he’s worse than wrong, because his position could be used to justify mass murder.
 

 In February 2008, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, gave a nuanced, scholarly lecture in London about whether the British legal system should allow non-Christian courts to decide certain matters of family law. His tentative suggestion was that, subject to the agreement of all parties and the strict requirement of protecting equal rights for women, it might be a good idea to consider allowing Islamic and Orthodox Jewish courts to handle marriage and divorce.
 

 Noted Swiss Muslim scholar addresses issues of Muslim-Christian dialogue, universalism and Muslim identity in the West -- calling for struggling for justice as an act of love, consistency in moral principals, and the eradication of "religious illiteracy" in order to promote what he calls elsewhere an "inclusive memory"of the shared history and values of Muslims and the West.
 

 Biological and social differences among humans are a Divine decree, permitting us not only to know one another, but to know our own selves, says noted Northwestern University Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne.
 

 Gary North, a prominent Christian libertarian writer, explains the real reasons behind the Christian Right's support for Israel: so Christians can enjoy the Rapture and allow God's Judgment to descend on the Jews.
 

 In a recent interview with Islamica Magazine, Harvard University Professor Samuel Huntington says he believes his theory on the rising importance of cultural affiliation has been misinterpreted to mean an inevitable clash between Islam and the West.
 

 Noted historian Howard Zinn questions the ability of war to solve the problem of terrorism.
 

 Starting with the term "Islamic fascists," Libertarian analyst writer Charley Reese deconstructs some of the more obvious stereotypes of Islam and Muslims currently endemic among U.S. media and politicians alike.
 

 Prominent Muslim Anthropologist Talal Asad speaks on Islamism, the West, tradition and modernity. Excerpts from an interview with Saba Mahmood.
 

 The current manipulation of Islam by both secular and reactionary ideologues leaves any onlooker genuinely concerned about the future viability of Muslim societies at an impasse. Both extremes present naïve solutions to complex problems, ideologies whose historicization reveals the lack of any tangible link to the Islamic tradition itself. This article argues that justice, stability and peace can only prevail in Islamic communities when they reestablish links to their own traditions, in other words, only when the opinions of thoroughly trained classical scholars are respected.
 

 Professor Mazrui reexamines the stereotype that Islam is irreconcilable with both secular modernity and civil society. By distinguishing between "theological Islam" (that of law and ritual) and "historical Islam" (Muslim experience), Mazrui says Islamic societies had realized many "modern" precepts, especially in terms of religious tolerance. Islam needs to discover its own tradition of "creative synthesis" that defined the apex of Muslim civilization, where there was "learning from others, letting others learn from Islam."
 

 Imam Omar's recent article, "Overcoming Religiously Motivated Violence," examines the relationship between religion and contemporary conflicts around the world. A more nuanced understanding of religion and violence is needed, where religion may be "implicated in violence," but is the not the primary cause. On the other hand, none of the major religious traditions can be said to have been explicitly pacifist. The author provides some guidelines for interfaith dialogue aimed at preventing religious violence. Imam Omar resides in South Africa and is a program director for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
 

 A critique of the methodology of the academic field of "Islamic studies" which necessarily objectifies Islamic history and civilization through common symbols allegedly applicable to all religions. Instead of this "Occidentalized Islam," writer Tazim Kassem advocates looking at Islam from within its own "worldview," where symbols and tradition are permitted a greater degree of dynamism.
 

 This short list of resources will be updated from time to time. It is intended to provide alternative insights to the increasingly monolithic voice with which major media in this country speak.
 

 As we deploy new technologies at an accelerating pace, social consequences arise we neither understand nor know how to effectively manage. This article reviews some of these consequences and draws implications for Muslim use of the Internet.
 

 Noted Islamicist and former Catholic Nun, Karen Armstrong situates recent anti-Islamic remarks by the Vatican within a longer Western tradition of willed ignorance of the Muslim world.
 

 This article concerns a topic of great importance to the development of Islam in America; namely, the de facto social division between the immigrant and African-American communities. In order for our comm unity to transform the social fabric of this country, we must all struggle to become aware of the attitudes and opinions we hold that prevent true brotherhood from flourishing.
 

 Abdal Wadod Shalabi has remarked that a society only becomes truly decadent when "decadence" as a principle is never referred to in public debate. Prior generations of Muslims and Christians were forever fretting about their own unworthiness when measured against past golden ages of goodness and sanctity. But in our self-satisfied era, to invoke the idea of decadence is to invite accusations of a retrograde romanticism: it is itself perceived, perversely enough, as a decadence.
 

 By "divorcing information from the possibilities of action," television media has turned life into a spectator sport, argues Khalid Baig.
 

 Noted natural scientist Steve Talbott frames the importance of "meaning" within scientific discourse. True clarity cannot be found by reducing the world to skeleton formulas, but only through remembering the essentially religious perspective of the created world as logos.