Off topic I've been concerned about an absence of a vocal Islamic left ever since the 9/11 tragedy. This excellent piece suggests it's been buried by the suffocating dominance of the Orientalist critique. ("Orientalism" is a political, cultural, and intellectual system by which the West has for centuries "managed" its relationship with the Islamic world, as laid out in Edward Said's Orientalism.) The article discusses how "Occidontalism", a mirror-image stereotyping of Western culture in the East, is as harmful, yet has remained free from critique. (From Stumbling Tongue.)