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Matthew J Kuiper

@matthewjkuiper.bsky.social

5.7K followers 1.4K following 5.1K posts

Religion Prof. Islam, South Asia, Middle East. Fascinated by religious actors & movements in modernity. Author of two books on Islamic da'wa (mission, propagation). Other words in sundry other places. Opinions my own. 13.1🏃🏼‍♂️✅, 26.2🏃‍♂️✅

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · Mar 1

We are living in a time of massive underreaction.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1h

Again, if the plan holds & ends the violence, I will happily give credit where it is due. And better something (anything!) than nothing. Yet this plan does little more than again kick the main issues down the road and keeps Israel firmly in control as occupying power w/ no real accountability.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 2h

Diana Buttu: "This entire plan was devised without any Palestinian input... everybody else decides [the future of Palestine/Gaza] especially Israel... it's just such short term thinking... repackag[ing] the occupation."

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 2h

Listen to this on-point interview. Yes, it's good that there is a ceasefire; anything to halt the genocidal destruction is better than nothing at this point. But in so many ways the "deal" it is just a vague recycling of the worst ideas of the past, struck without meaningful Palestinian input.

Israel and Hamas agree to ceasefire's first phase, but key challenges still lie ahead

Israel and Hamas agreed on the first phase of the ceasefire deal, but what challenges could they encounter next? NPR's Leila Fadel talks to former peace talks negotiator Diana Buttu.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 20h

In some instances, and the bias would be toward a theologically progressive Xnity. In others, say, interfaith initiatives run by the Gulf countries, the bias would be more toward regime approved Islams.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 20h

These are really excellent points. 💯

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 21h

There’s also the subtle polemics and exclusivism that play out in interfaith events. The one thing you’re often not allowed to do is actually believe your religion. In the name of combatting exclusivism, participation is often subtly conditioned on a bland all roads up the same mountain theology.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 21h

I mean seriously who could have a problem with “interfaith”? It’s mostly harmless.

True, but it’s also mostly meaningless. It tends to be a highly self-congratulatory enterprise that preaches to the already convinced and produces little as far as meaningful pay off on its much hyped goals.

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Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Heather Randell @heatherrandell.bsky.social · 1d

The thing is, to be able to determine whether AI-generated code is “legit”, you need to know both statistics and coding yourself. If we no longer teach students to learn, think, and struggle—without the help of AI—the next generation will have no clue what is and isn’t legit.

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 1d

Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.

How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?

scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...

Statistics in the era of AI

How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?

scienceforeveryone.science

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

But sure, do go on about how it’s “just a tool” which carries no inherent dangers (like further wrecking our shared sense of reality and facts) and which we should all gleefully embrace without a further thought.

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

We are so cooked.

*Sora was the most downloaded app this week*. “The upshot is that any video you see [online]… now has a high likelihood of being fake.”

To repeat: *a high likelihood of being fake*. Another tool for bad actors and propagandists to use. Just… great. @brianx.bsky.social

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

“The tech could represent the end of visual fact — the idea that video could serve as an objective record of reality — as we know it.”

This tech will further erode societies’ shared sense of reality. People will have their lives destroyed and some will die because of this.

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

“This month, OpenAI…graced the internet with a technology that most of us probably weren’t ready for. The company released an app called Sora, which lets users instantly generate realistic-looking videos with AI.”

These companies are literally force feeding us (reality-destroying) poison. Gift link

What the Arrival of A.I.-Fabricated Video Means for Us

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 7d

🐅

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah talk of “phases” in the “deal” reminds of the phases of Biden’s ceasefire deal and how swiftly the first phase was violated and how the subsequent phases never quite happened.

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Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Abu Aardvark’s Ghost @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 1d

It’s only a beginning not an ending but anything which stops the slaughter of Gaza is good. Hoping for the best, been around long enough to fear the worst.

abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/gazas-tomorr...

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

A bunch of others I can think of, including of course letting the world know of my own work/publications/etc.

Anyway, it’s a “great” question cause one should always ask, why am I doing this, and should I keep doing it?

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

Not necessarily anything great, but an accumulation of smaller good things: Connected with fellow academics, “met” interesting smart people, learned about new articles & books, gotten good ideas for pedagogy, kept in touch good analysis of current events, been strengthened in my resolve about AI…

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

“That is what this war teaches us: Even suffering has a hierarchy, and even survival has a rank. A room with walls is better than a tent; a proper aid tent is better than a patchwork one stitched together from blankets, nylon, old jeans and empty flour sacks. A tent is better than nothing at all.”

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

Powerful, poignant, painful. Read it. Gift article.

The Gaza I Once Knew Is Gone

Opinion | The Gaza I Once Knew Is Gone (Gift Article)

After two years of war, one Gazan tells of what was lost.

www.nytimes.com

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 1d

Free donuts and conversation with the awesomest profs in any and every possible dimension, daily.

Or, “the only major or minor that has direct relevance to the afterlife (which concept we will also happily complexify/problematize).”

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 17d

One of my kids is taking up guitar. And her fingers were hurting, which, good sign that she’s actually working at it!

But the best part, it gave me the chance to sing out loud in my best dad rocker voice the first lines of Summer of 69. “Played it til my fingers bled…”

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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 2d

Mighty Mac as seen over the (unseasonably warm) past weekend. Love the gull I captured in the foreground.

The Mackinac Bridge from the south with the blue waters of the Straights of Mackinac and a seagull in flight in the foreground

Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Jolyon Thomas @jolyonbt.bsky.social · 2d

Very proud of Kirby’s work in this open-access article. It marks a novel intervention in the prison religion literature and a unique angle on the “Buddhism in America” lit.

Penn Religious Studies @upennrels.bsky.social · 2d

PhD candidate Kirby Sokolow's latest article, "Buddhist Exceptionalism Behind Bars," has just been published in the journal Pacific World as part of a special section on American Buddhism, Race, and Power.

Congratulations, Kirby!

pwj.shin-ibs.edu/2025/7191

Buddhist Exceptionalism behind Bars

Part of a special section on American Buddhism, Race, and Power. Many Buddhist programs in US prisons focus on reforming incarcerated people. Often the leaders of these programs celebrate their inc…

pwj.shin-ibs.edu

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Reposted by Matthew J Kuiper

Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 3d

This chapter has now been out for more than six months and thus magically becomes #OpenAccess:
scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/...

Ṯamūd: Reading traditions | Scholarly Publications

scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl

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