I am feeling that shiver of excitement that I feel every time I discover a connection.

Over the last few weeks, a discussion group at church, has been reading "No god but God" by Reza Aslan. For those of you who still don't know about it, I can't possibly praise this book enough. It's a loving yet critical overview of the history of Islam, starting with an account of the religio-socio-political environment into which Mohammed was born, then the Prophet's life, then the four caliphs up until the Sunni/Shi'a split. The insights that Aslan presents are astounding, describing Islam as in the throes of a Reformation, with its future dependent on which side wins.

But that's not why I bring it up tonight. I'm excited because of the following passage in his description of Sufism.

During the first stages of the Way (where the majority of humanity find themselves), the nafs, which is the self, the ego, the psyche, the "I" - however one chooses to define the "sum of individualistic egoistic tendencies" - remains the sole reality. As the disciple moves along the Way he discovers the ruh, or Universal Spirit. The Quran refers to the ruh as the "breath of God" blown into Adam to give life to his body (15:29). In this sense, the ruh is equated with the divine, eternal, animating spirit that permeates creation - that is itself the essence creation. The ruh is Pure Being. It is that which Hindus call prana and Taoists call ch'i; it is the ethereal force underlying the universe that Christian mystics refer to when they speak of the Holy Spirit.

Not only are there the wonderful similarities to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism with reference to the Way, ch'i, prana, and the expansion of the understanding of self from individual self/soul/atman to Self/Soul/Atman/God. But there is ruh, in Hebrew Ruach. The breathe of God. The Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Life.

The local paper tells me that some students on the campus of George Washington University are in trouble today because they put up fliers advertising National Islamo-facism Awareness Week. The fliers, which start off by exclaiming "Hate Muslims? So Do We!!!" goes on to list several "stereotypical features" of Muslims, such as their "lasers in eyes" and "peg-leg for smuggling children and heroin."

GW students held meetings to express their outrage over the "hate crime." The University police began investigating. And the story went out beyond the campus grounds causing a swarm of unwanted negative publicity for the university. I've heard about it in emails and on list-serves.

Now it turns out that the group that was truly responsible for putting out the fliers did it as an attempt at satire. In an email statement, they said: "It is to our great dismay that the student body and the media missed the clear, if subtle, message of our flier: the hyperbolic nature of the flier was aimed at exposing Islamophobic racism."

Some people don't believe their explanation, but I do. I mean, c'mon, laser-eyes? peg-leg? Bigots are crazy but not that crazy.

I am grateful, however, that the students so vehemently rejected such perceived hatred. They are going to need that moral fibre since, unfortunately, while the flier is a fake Islamo-facism Awareness Week is real. Being organized by crazy-man David Horrorwitz, I mean Horowitz, it is a week-long national attempt to hold rallies of hate across American campuses. The paranoid argument is that Muslims are trying to take over America and create an Islamo-facist dictatorship. (As opposed to us invading a Muslim country or two to set up governments to our liking.)

I'm a little torn talking about this. On the one hand, I think it's important to speak against hatred whenever it arises. Otoh, I don't wish to give these guys any more publicity than they deserve, which is none. I think the best response is to let the students on these campuses respond, trusting that the vast majority of them will recognize this for what it is. If the response of the students at GW are any indication, we are in good hands.