I can’t recommend The Raid: Redemption. It’s an Indonesian action movie that has won some acclaim internationally. I watched it because I’d seen Merantau, by the same director (Gareth Evans) and starring the same actor (Iko Uwais). Merantau wasn’t bad if you are a martial arts fan: the production quality was high and the pencak […]
Author Archives: bingregory
Fruits of A Common Word
A number of publications, including one by Habib Ali Al-Jifri, are available for free from the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre’s Common Word intiative which has been hosting a series of ground-breaking Catholic-Muslim forums. [via Seeker’s Guidance]
Kekasih by Usman Awang
Beloved I would spin the sea-spray into a belt that binds you I would braid the rolling waves to spread a sleeping mat for you I would weave of the clouds a shawl to cover the hair of you I would
Commercialization of Sacred Space
The masjid is a sacred place, a house of God, and among the ways that sacredness is respected is by refraining from idle talk while inside. Handphones have been a terrible scourge in this regard, with phones ringing, even being answered, in the middle of congregational prayer. No doubt this is why signs have proliferated […]
Read the Books Your Father Read
Ivan Illich was an influential theorist in the decade I was born. I had heard of his most famous work, Deschooling Society, and it had been recommended to me more than once I’m sure, no doubt because I homeschooled in the 6th and 12th grades. But I had only a passing awareness of the man […]
Minnows Nipped My Flesh
Took a trip to Sabah around the turn of last year. Mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Malaysia, was impressive: you can see the rocky top with two spurs sticking up like horns on a giant beast. The top of the mountain is above the tree line, and was glaciated long ago. It isn’t cold […]
New Stumps
My students and I dug up several promising new Duranta stumps from the same failing hedge I got my last one. Here they are, freshly dug. They’ve all leafed out by now but you can see the character of the gnarled wood better when they are bare like this. I have only the faintest idea […]
KakAndak starts school
My fifth child started school this year. She’s going to a different school from her siblings. It is a Ma’had Tahfiz, a school focusing on Quran study, that only started primary school last year. Now they have first and second graders enrolled. They memorize Quran in the morning, and have a normal school day in […]