Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam originated in the Middle East. As F.E. Peters shows in "The Children of Abraham," the commonalities can be striking. Muslims worship the God of Abraham, as do Christians and Jews. Islam was seen as a continuation of the Abrahamic faith tradition, not a totally new religion. Muslims recognize the biblical prophets and believe in the holiness of God's revelations to Moses (in the Torah) and Jesus (in the Gospels). Indeed, Musa (Moses), Issa (Jesus) and Mariam (Mary) are common Muslim names.

Muslims believe in Islam's five pillars, which are straightforward and simple. To become a Muslim, one need only offer the faith's basic credo, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the prophet of God." This statement reflects the two main fundamentals of Islamic faith: belief in the one true God, which carries with it a refusal to worship anything else (not money, not career, not ego), and the crucial importance of Muhammad, God's messenger.

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The three next pillars of Islam are prayer, which is to be performed five times daily; giving alms, in the form of an annual wealth tax that helps support the poor; and fasting during daylight in the holy month of Ramadan. The fifth pillar requires that Muslims perform the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca at least once.

We tend to equate Islam with the Arab world, but the largest Muslim communities are found in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Only about one in five of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are Arabs. Islam is the second-largest religion in Europe and the third-largest in the United States.

[ Want to Understand Islam? Start Here. - washingtonpost.com ]

Greetings from Amazon.com. 

We thought you would like to know that we are preparing your items for shipment. 

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Qty      Item                              Price  Shipping  Subtotal
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Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC) :
   1     Harry Potter and the Death...   $39.00      1   $39.00

Not as excited as Kooshmoose, since I ordered super-saver shipping and Yaty gets first crack, but soon I too will know if Snape is Friend or Foe...

[ The Simpsons Movie ]

Props to Alykat

Not just for steaming crabs:

Vinegar is a liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. Ninety percent of American Households buy vinegar. The 4 major uses are for salads, as cooking ingredients, pickling and home canning.

[ 62 Little Known Uses Of Vinegar | because you value your body ]

I've been cleaning the house with vinegar for a while now. Ants seem to hate it, it cleans almost as good as those chemical cleaners, but you know it's got to be better for the environment. I add a bit of flavored oil to mask the vinegar smell a bit, since the wife doesn't much like how vinegar smells. Now I've got a few dozen more things to try my vinegar on.

Beyond Good & Evil GameCube Ubisoft Teen A

I might as well make it a threesome and mention an old favorite. If you haven't played BG&E and enjoyed anything even remotely Zelda like, you may agree with me that this could possibly be the best game ever. Engaging story with twists and turns, unique system of providing you the money you need selling photos of fauna to a museum allowing you to earn the money you need without random violence and forcing you to keep your eye out for new critters while you expose the truth. Certainly the best action journalist game I've ever played, and certainly in dire need of a sequel. Until Ubi gets around to providing us with that, you should make sure you play the original. Need I say it again? If you haven't played this one, then get to it. Available for GameCube, PS2, XBox, and PC!

Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer Sony PS2 South Peak Interactive Everyone B

I can't remember where I read about this game, but I'm glad I did. It's no secret that I like the platformers and adventure games, and Brave is a nice example of a decent 3D platformer on the PS2 platform. The characters and story are all inspired by First Nation culture, though I wouldn't expect it's a good way to learn about their culture. The "learning" stage seems almost stupid, as they give you 1/2 a dozen items in real quick succession, and I wonder why they didn't just start you with the items and build into the story reasons why you'd need to use the skills, and thus learn about them, but shortly after that you are into the story and off becoming the warrior that you are destined to be. I'm not sure if South Peak made the money they wanted to on this, but I'm sure you can find a copy cheap. GameFly "keep it" price is about $15 right now, and I don't expect the EB Games/Game Spot price to be much more. Apparently it's budget priced at $24.99 retail, and probably well worth it.

Resident Evil 4 Nintendo Wii Capcom USA Mature B

What a pleasant surprise. I tried to play Resident Evil 4 on the Game cube, but somehow I never got too far. It's a tough game to play in a family house, since I can't play it around the kids, but it was pleasant. Capcom released it for the Wii with what appears to only be a retooling of the controls. I don't think it looks any different than the Game Cube version, or if it does it doesn't stand out as such, however the new controls make all the difference. The game, as pleasant as it was before, now shines on the Wii. I didn't use the knife much in the GameCube version because it is a bit of a pain, now you can use it all of the time and save your precious ammo for when you need it. Will I end up finishing the game on the Wii? I'm not sure there are still the limited hours that I can play it, and most of those are in the evening where I don't much feel like playing a creepy game, but if you never finished this on an older platform, or never got it in the first place, GameFly it and see if you don't just love this game as well.

Where can I get good Chinese food? Which restaurants serve Sunday brunch? Any decent barbecue places?

[ washingtonpost.com: What's on the Menu in Montgomery and Frederick ]

Nothing in here that I don't know now, but this would have helped six moths ago. Though Tastee and Parkway have been favorites from waaaay back.

Props to my lovely wife.

I &heart; Windows Live Mobile Search. The new version looks even better than the first (surprise surprise) including GPS, Movie info, Traffic info, and more!

The Mobile Search team has released V2 of the rich client application for Windows Mobile, as well as a major update to the browser based interface. Whether you have a J2ME (Java) phone, Windows Mobile phone, or any other device with a mobile browser, Live Search has you covered with maps, directions and business search

[ Virtual Earth / Live Maps ]

Do your phone/pda a favor and download this puppy now! iPhone and Sidekick users need not apply, those platforms are locked down too tight.

Muslims are taking over San Diego!

Here's what I'm confused about:

1. 7^th and 8^th grade in an elementary school? (Seems unlikely)
2. Is it a "period" an "hour" or "15 minutes"? Islamic prayer generally takes about 5 minutes, 1 hour seems a bit over the top.
3. The teacher claims "Ms. -" lead the prayer, but that isn't consistent with Islamic tradition, and she left before anything even began.
4. The American flag was "rolled up"? Why the would any Muslim do that?
5. Why is closing the blinds without direction so unnerving? If you do anything on a daily basis, wouldn't kids just do it?
6. Has anyone heard of any Muslim complaining about Catholics "doing" rosaries ever?
7. Assimilations? How is changing your religious practices "assimilation"? I wasn't aware that being American was a religion.
8. Doesn't everyone understand yet that Arab does not equal Muslim? And they can't remotely be interchanged?

I also see that the 2006 enrollment was 290 and they state in the story that there is "100 Muslim students" or more than 1/3 of the school, and according to their ethnic breakdown it seems impossible that those 100 Muslim students were "Arabic".

When did people stop learning the details before freaking out? I remember a day when it was considered good practice to check sources and site references, and I long for that day to return.

Update: Apparently in September a nearby "charter" school was merged with Carver and that charter school had an Arabic immersion program. Apparently it happened days before the school opened, and they had no chance to update the curriculum or syllabus. And apparently it is a predominately Somali (not Arab) student population [ San Diego Union-Tribune ]. Apparently the class is all female as well, so my points 1, 2, and 3 above are all cleared up and now make sense. It also seems that the student population has grown to 415 [ Union-Tribune ] due to this merger so we're talking about 1/4 of the school being Muslim.

Update: On the Religion Clause website there are a few comments that I find hard to believe, are there really places in this country where the students are forbidden to say "God" or "Jesus" or carry a bible? In my high-school in an English class we studied the language used in the bible by using bibles that the school owns. I can't imagine that my schooling experience was that radically different (though I have just moved back into Montgomery Country because of the excellent school system). I would recommend anyone who has their child arrested for carrying a bible to school move and move quickly.

Sushi Damo, originally uploaded by cafechimp.

I got lunch bento with salmon, Yaty got bento with tofu. Zaza just looked on and drooled. Here's a run down of my bento:

1. Sushi Rice (in a star) - perfect
2. Daikon with nutty sauce and cooled deep fried fish cake - this was the chef selection for the day, and yummy
3. 1/2 Cali roll - very nice, though I like mine spicy
4. Traditional ginger dressed salad - very nice, good greens
5. Salmon and veggies - perfect

All in all a nice lunch, waitress was super nice too - though Uzbeki and not Nihonjin. Iman will be quite pleased the next time she makes honor roll, cause we'll be going to Sushi Damo!

Not necessarily so good for the wallet, and some may argue that eating out isn't the healthiest either. I don't have the ability to cook all the variety that I can eat, and even what I can cook the professionals do better, but if there weren't good restaurants around I guess I'd eat at home. For some reason I was under the impression that the restaurants near me just weren't all that, not like where I previously lived in Alexandria. I think Grossberg has dispelled that rumor, and with a quick listing out of "regular spots" (which doesn't include the few expensive spots or good recommended places that we just don't frequent - nor does it include Taco Bell or Potbelly) I now see the reason we're tempted so often.

[ live.com Maps ]

We still miss Yamazato and Sakulthai, and we still haven't decided on which of the great Indian places need to be on this list (except Bombay Bistro, they're on the list for sure), but if you have any suggestions, shout them out. (And yes I've done the Cuban Corner and the Jamaican place next to it. The first didn't impress, the second is way too fattening)

The following is a first crack at an ostensive definition of 'American culture'-- things shared by the vast majority (let's say 90%) of native-born Americans. Many of these won't sound 'cultural' at all to Americans; they'll sound like just descriptions of the way things are. But each one of them would be contested in one or more non-American cultures.

[ American culture ]

I'm impressed with this list. I'd say it may even be closer to 95%. Of course there are a few that just don't apply to me, and a few that even I am unsure how the rest of the world works, but I think this is a good primer for the new folks, and for us Americans to remember that the truisms on this list aren't.