peace for Purim

It is possible to imagine, though, that Iran's intermittently persecuted Jews, living today under a president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the historical truth of the European Holocaust while threatening a new Middle Eastern one, might see Purim not as a story of tragedy averted but as one of tragedy foretold.

It's the Purim break-fast, today, and Jeffrey Goldberg has a fantastic op-ed in today's NY Times where he draws the unfortunately too obvious connection between the Book of Esther story of Jewish genocide averted in ancient Persia, and the anti-Semitism of today's Iranian leadership.

But while I call attention to that, may I also call attention to a series of posts on Juan Cole's blog: "Peace and Love in the Qu'ran" (click on the numbered surah:verse links). Iranian extremism notwithstanding, I'd hate to think that everybody thinks about Muslims this way. Or, especially, this way.