LudwigVan's definitions

Wahhabi

A religious puritan or fundamentalist. The Islamic counterpart of a Christian Reconstructionist.

Named after Muhammad 'Abd ulWahhab, who sought to 'purify' Islam of all intellectual, philosophical and cultural elements he considered bid'ah (innovation); he promoted a literalist interpretation of the Qur'an and the Sunnah while rejecting the traditional schools of Sharia (jurisprudence). He also considered Shi'as and Sufis to be apostates.

by LudwigVan July 29, 2004

Smithers

Waylon Smithers, Mr. Burns' assistant (see The Simpsons). Extremely sycophantic towards Burns despite his abuse, and obviously gay, though he never openly admits it.

My dad had this guy working at his office that was such a Waylon Smithers

by LudwigVan August 10, 2004

pareve

In Jewish dietary laws (see kosher), a food that contains neither meat nor dairy products, so it can be eaten with either meat or milk.

Mayonnaise is pareve, butter is not pareve, but milchig.

by LudwigVan August 10, 2004

language nazi

A culturally-intolerant person who complains when someone speaks a language other than the language of the referred-to person.

An English-speaking American who wants his cable TV company to remove Univision is a language nazi.

by LudwigVan August 10, 2004

Sudan

A country in northeast Africa centered in the upper Nile (where the White and Blue Nile merge), capital is Khartoum. It has endured a long civil war between the Arabs of the north and the Black Africans of the south and west, which has resulted in genocide, rape, slavery and other atrocities. The name is Arabic for 'black people'.

Sudan is the Mississippi of the Middle East.

by LudwigVan August 23, 2004

Robin Hood

In the state of Texas, USA (and possibly other states), a policy of applying a greater amount of taxes collected from public school districts to less affluent school districts, which pay a higher tax percentage.

Robin Hood is one of the state education policies most criticized by conservatives and Republicans, along with affirmative action and bilingual education.

by LudwigVan August 23, 2004

Shiite

More appropriately, Shi'a or Shi'i. The second largest sect of Islam, founded by followers of Ali, the fourth Sunni caliph (successor to Prophet Muhammad) who married the Prophet's daughter Fatima. About ten percent of the world's Muslims are Shi'a, and prefer to call themselves Ahl ul-Bayt (the 'People of the House', i.e. family of Muhammad). The largest Shi'a denomination believe in twelve imams, Ali being the first, and the last, al-Mahdi, is in hiding and expected to return to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The differences between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims have more to do with politics and culture than faith and religion.

Shi'ism is most prevalent on either side of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the modern nations of Iran and Iraq (more in the southern part of the latter). The Shi'as of Iraq suffered great persecution under the nominal Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Currently, a young Shi'a cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, is leading a powerful resistance against the American and allied occupation forces from the holy city of Najaf.

by LudwigVan August 23, 2004