Junaid Afeef
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CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Junaid Afeef
Chicago, Illinois USA
Junaid M. Afeef is an attorney, activist and writer based in Illinois. Over the past 11 years Junaid has amassed extensive civil and criminal litigation experience from private practice as well from public service with the Cook County Public Defender's Office and the Chicago Transit Authority Law Department. Presently Junaid is in solo private practice. He is also a Research Associate with the Institute for Social Policy & Understanding. Junaid is a founding member of the Muslim Bar Association in Illinois, and he is also one of the original members of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers. Over the years he has served on the boards of numerous civic, social and religious organizations.
Junaid's advocacy and activism have been reported on in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, and many other newspapers and magazines across the United States and in Europe. His essays and commentaries have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Islamic Horizons, the Dallas Morning News, as well as numerous online magazines. He can be reached at junaid.afeef(at)gmail.com. | |
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 | | | Islam4UK ban | |
Free speech martyrs By Junaid Afeef, January 18, 2010 Banning the extremist group Islam4UK does not refute the organization’s twisted beliefs and, worse still, marginalizes British Muslims who do not support them.  ( 43 comments) |
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 | | | Book "Children of Dust" | |
From madrasahs to middle America By Junaid M. Afeef, November 23, 2009 By telling his own personal story, with all the painful experiences, Children of Dust author Ali Eteraz humanizes and contextualizes the otherwise one-dimensional “American Muslim” that most Americans read about but never get to know.
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 | | | Interfaith | |
The new Christian bridge builders By Junaid M. Afeef, July 20, 2009 A new crop of Christian leaders, such as Rick Warren, are demonstrating a willingness to reach out to Muslims in spite of the “Islam is evil” message delivered by many of their counterparts. Are American Muslims ready or able to reciprocate beyond dialogue? ( 26 comments) |
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 | | | Terrorism | |
The unequal treatment of two religiously motivated crimes By Junaid M. Afeef, June 8, 2009 For two recent crimes, a Muslim, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, is charged with terrorism and murder. In a similar case, a Christian, Scott Roeder, is charged with murder but not terrorism. Yet, there are ample indications that both sought to influence government policy. ( 22 comments) |
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 | | | Education | |
The case for an American madrassah By Junaid M. Afeef, May 25, 2009 In order for American Muslims to dispel the misperception of incompatibility, American Islamic scholars will need the intellectual gravitas to go toe to toe with foreign trained and overseas scholars. Zaytuna's proposed "Muslim Georgetown" could achieve this. ( 18 comments) |
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 | | | Former British PM Tony Blair | |
More fundamentalism, please By Junaid Afeef, April 29, 2009 Last week, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a speech in Chicago that focused entirely on a "fundamental" Islam that is "the opposite of what extremists preach." Instead, if his focus been on extremism as a global threat, he would have been justified in confronting extremist interpretations of Islam. ( 23 comments) |
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 | | | Tyson Foods controversy | |
The death of good intentions By Junaid Afeef, August 11, 2008 The decision by Tyson Foods and its unions to replace Labor Day with Eid-ul-Fitr in its holiday schedule - pitting Islam against America - was doomed from the start. As a result, the perception of coercing Islam on society will continue. ( 4 comments) |
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 | | | US Immigration | |
The detention & murder of Hassiba Belbachir By Junaid M. Afeef, June 13, 2005 On March 17, 2005, 28 year-old Hassiba Belbachir died mysteriously at the McHenry County Jail while in the custody of the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ( 2 comments) |
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 | | | Prejudice | |
Thank you, Rev. Creight Lovelace! By Junaid M. Afeef, May 26, 2005 I am thankful for Rev. Lovelace's incendiary words because they help bring to light the steadily growing Islamophobia in the United States. ( 1 comment) |
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 | | | Genocide in Rwanda | |
What would I have done? By Junaid M. Afeef, May 16, 2005 Am I a Paul Rusesabagina? If I were in Paul Rusesabagina's shoes in 1994 would I have been able to do what he did? ( 2 comments) |
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 | | | Book "Standing Alone in Mecca" | |
Fighting second-class status By Junaid M. Afeef, March 11, 2005 Ms. Nomani's methods may not be the least intrusive means of dealing with these problems, but they certainly are very promising. ( 6 comments) |
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altmuslim this week - august 23, 2010 - This week, is there a connection between the heated rhetoric over Park51 and increased hate crimes against Muslims? Also, parallel struggles against anti-Muslim protests in Bradford, England and the innovation (and integration) on display in the 30 Mosques, 30 States and 30 Nights, 30 Grants projects.
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How Miss USA will push the secret Muslim agenda - A leaked memo confirms a nefarious plot to infiltrate America using the one weapon we can't resist: Total hotness. (May 17, 2010)
South Park: The controversy continues - In a special for Salon.com, our Associate Editor Wajahat Ali offers his take on the controversy over South Park. If you think South Park's Muslim brouhaha was messy, you should see what's going on in the neighboring town of East Park. (April 28, 2010)
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altmuslim review 033 - We're baaaaack! We speak about the ongoing controversy over Park51 and what means for the future of lower Manhattan. Also, a discussion with Farhad Chowdhury of the M100 Foundation, which seeks to change the way Muslims pay zakat (August 13, 2010)
altmuslim review 032 - Muslim writers everywhere! We speak about the new wave of Western Muslim literature and interview two authors with recently released books. Our own Irfan Yusuf talks about his memoir, Once Were Radicals and Reza Aslan tells us more about his second book, How to Win a Cosmic War (June 11, 2009)
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Recent and upcoming talks and offsite articles by altmuslim contributors
It's the occupation, stupid, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, June 4, 2010
Sex and the City 2's stunning Muslim clichés, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, May 28, 2010
Draw Muhammad Day: Collectively Punishing Muslim Americans, Shahed Amanullah, Huffington Post, May 25, 2010
Shahed will be a guest on the BBC World Service's World, Have Your Say discussing the proposed French ban on niqab (and fines for husbands who compel their wives to wear them) on May 18, 2010.
Even Controversial Views Should Be Protected by Freedom of Speech, Asma Uddin, The Huffington Post, May 7, 2010.
What I understand about Faisal Shahzad, Wajahat Ali, Salon.com, May 6, 2010
No freak out about South Park, Zahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, April 23, 2010.
Shahed will be a guest on the BBC World Service's World, Have Your Say discussing the South Park controversy along with Zarqa Nawaz (Little Mosque on the Prairie) and other guests on April 22, 2010.
Shahed will be a guest on NPR's State of Belief discussing Barack Obama's outreach to the Muslim world, April 17, 2010.
Zahed will be attending a panel discussion entitled " Are Islam and Free Speech Compatible?" in London, England on Friday, March 26, 2010 sponsored by The City Circle. He will be accompanied by Riazat Butt (The Guardian), Hamid Khan (Consultant in Offender and Youth Development), Abu Muntasir (JIMAS), and Dr Usama Hasan.
'Jihad Jane': not the usual suspect, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian, Comment is Free, March 18, 2010.
Al-Awlaki, a new public enemy, Zahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, December 30, 2009.
Islamophonic: Review of the year, Riazat Butt, Zahed Amanullah and David Shariatmadari, Cif Belief (The Guardian), December 18, 2009.
Fort Hood has enough victims already, Wajahat Ali, Comment is Free (The Guardian), November 6, 2009
The pitfalls of filming Muhammad, Shahed Amanullah, The Guardian, Comment is Free, November 4, 2009.
Children of Dust (published by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins), the first book by longtime altmuslim.com contributor Ali Eteraz, is released in the US, Canada, and the UK on October 13, 2009.
Shahed will be attending the m100 Sansoucci Colloquium in Potsdam, Germany, September 14-16, 2009. He will be moderating a panel discussion on the Danish cartoon crisis with Denis MacShane MP, Jasim Al-Azzawi (Al Jazeera English), and Flemming Rose (Jyllands Posten).
Associate Editor Wajahat Ali's play "The Domestic Crusaders" is having its premiere at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, NY, September 11, 2009. The play will continue through Sunday, October 11, 2009.
Shahed will be moderating or participating in three panel discussions at the Islamic Society of North America's annual convention, including Muslim Journalists: The View from the Inside, Supporting Social Entrepreneurs and Civic Leaders, and Blogistan: Muslim Americans on the Web in Washington, DC, July 3-6, 2009.
State-sponsored Sufism, Ali Eteraz, Foreign Policy, June 10, 2009.
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Media appearances and analysis featuring altmuslim editors
Helping U.S. reach out to young Muslims worldwide - Soon after Farah Pandith was named last year as the State Department's first special representative to Muslim communities, she sat down with the editor of an independent Muslim website for her first official interview. Altmuslim.com, a forum for opinion and analysis about current issues facing Muslims, was a fitting choice. Pandith has said a strong focus of her work is to reach out to younger Muslims around the world, often those most likely to use the Internet for news and networking. (June 5, 2010)
Censorship is in the ascendant - Zahed Amanullah, associate editor of altmuslim.com, has argued in a national newspaper blog that, since the warning came from an unrepresentative group, the media interest was not justified. As for events of the past – the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoons, the murder of van Gogh – they were "three incidents over a 20-year period from amongst 1.6 billion people. These things do happen. But we all need a bit of perspective." (April 30, 2010)
Muslims say new security rules unfair, ineffective - ''Muslims are doing their duty. Muslim parents are being attentive. It's the TSA that's not being attentive. It's the TSA that's not doing its duty," said Shahed Amanullah, an editor at the Web site altmuslim.com. "There's nothing more that Muslims can do than turn in their own families." (January 7, 2010)
US Muslims & media… Lost love - "We have a big problem; it’s that other people are shaping the story about us," Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, told IslamOnline.net. (December 16, 2009)
Moves to Seize Mosques Spark Outrage - "I'm extremely skeptical that the link between these mosques and this organization is so strong as to merit the seizing of a considerable amount of assets that do a lot of good for the Muslim community," says Shahed Amanullah, a prominent Muslim blogger based in Austin. "The government better be prepared to make a very good case, because this is unprecedented." (November 17, 2009)
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