Sightings Articles
Rethinking Blasphemy in Indonesia and the Fiqh Tradition
World media have reported on the blasphemy conviction of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian governor of Jakarta known as Ahok, with familiar oppositions of liberal-democratic norms and hardline Islam. Fears of the sharīʿa transgressing into the pu...
June 8, 2017
Not Wishy-Washy
“Watered-down,” “characterless,” “irresolute,” “sapless,” “bland,” “namby-pamby,” and “diluted,” are some synonyms for “wishy-washy,” a word some critics say I use too often when I write about or discuss what is unproductive in interfaith (and other ...
March 27, 2017
Of Islam and the Public Square: The Role of the Classroom
An opinion poll showing 31% of Americans feel safer because of the travel ban placed on seven Muslim-majority countries (since reduced to six)—with another 41% expressing no particular opinion—is reflective of the obscure, if not fearsome, image of I...
March 16, 2017
Many Sightings of Hope
For more than a year I engaged in the visual and oral analog to “fasting.” Fasters discipline themselves not to eat. I chose not to comment on the election campaigns. A digital word-search will find no mention in 50 Monday Sightings of any presidenti...
January 2, 2017
The Religiocification of Hate
Sightings was born as an endeavor to discover and comment on the traces of “religion” which supposedly survive in a “secular” society. However, instead of sighting only such presumed distant, obscure, or minuscule traces, our authors have often had t...
December 12, 2016
Missing From Conversations About San Bernardino Attack—The Main Point: Education!
Amid the shrieks and din of presidential candidates like Donald Trump calling for a moratorium on the immigration of Muslim to our shores, ISIS’ ranting about apocalyptic warfare between Islam and non-Muslims in the West, and President Obama assuring...
December 10, 2015
Prelude to Censorship: The Toleration of Blasphemy in Ancient India
India today is experiencing a powerful wave of censorship of literary texts, films, and artworks. Such a degree of repression is unprecedented in India, but it is rooted in concepts of blasphemy that underwent a number of changes throughout Indian hi...
May 21, 2015
Nigeria's Presidential Election: Will the Muslim Challenger Defeat the Christian Incumbent? by Debra Erickson
Reports from Nigeria...
March 5, 2015
A Reply to Jean-Luc Marion’s “After ‘Charlie Hebdo,’ Islam Must Critique Itself” -- Bruce Lincoln and Anthony C. Yu
Charlie Hebdo...