altmuslim this week - june 29, 2009 - This week, reeling over the death of Michael Jackson (or is it Mikaeel?), a brutal (and brutally unfair?) new film about the stoning of women in Iran, and our good friend Farah Pandith - the most effective behind-the-scenes American Muslim you've never met - is promoted to a new office by Secretary Clinton. 
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US outreach to Muslims in good hands - Several of us at altmuslim have had the opportunity to work with Farah Pandith, who has just been appointed by Secretary Clinton to be a special representative to Muslim communities worldwide. (June 27, 2009)
Her name is Neda - Many have died tragic - and silent - deaths in the post-election violence in Iran. But one woman, Neda Agha Soltan, became a symbol with her death caught on video. Here, Neda's fiancee, Caspian Makan, comments on her story in comments transcribed exclusively for altmuslim.com. (June 25, 2009)
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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)
altmuslim review 031 - Oh, Bama! What does the election of Barack Obama mean for American Muslims, who were both courted and shunned during a long campaign? We speak with American Muslim Democratic activists who were gathered in Washington for the historic inauguration. (March 5, 2009)
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Recent and upcoming talks and offsite articles by altmuslim contributors
State-sponsored Sufism, Ali Eteraz, Foreign Policy, June 10, 2009.
Pushing the Envelope Without Breaking It, Shahed Amanullah, The Mosque in Morgantown, June 2, 2009.
Obama in Egypt: Let the unsaid be said, Zahed Amanullah, Patheos.com, May 28, 2009.
Zahed will be a panelist at Divan 2.0, a debate on the future of the Muslim internet sponsored by the Radical Middle Way at the London School of Economics in London, England, May 22, 2009.
Once Were Radicals (published by Allen and Unwin), the first book by Associate Editor Irfan Yusuf, is released in Australia, May 4, 2009.
Shahed and Wajahat will be speaking at the 3rd Annual Leadership Summit presented by the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals in Princeton, NJ, May 2, 2009.
Shahed will be leading a workshop on Media Strategies & Techniques at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in New York, NY, April 24-25, 2009.
Bringing it all back home, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian, Comment is Free, April 9, 2009.
Zahed will be conducting a two day workshop on Blogging and New Media for Italian students at the United States Embassy, Rome, Italy, April 8-9, 2009.
Crusading for Modern Islamic Art, Shahed Amanullah, Beliefnet, March 26, 2009.
Wajahat will be speaking at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in Doha, Qatar (January 16-19, 2009)
Finding the middle ground, Hesham Hassaballa, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 8, 2009.
Shahed will be speaking about Muslims in the political process at the 8th annual Texas Dawah Convention in Houston, Texas (December 27, 2008)
Skyscraping ambition for Mecca, Ali Eteraz, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (December 18, 2008)
Zahed will be leading a technology workshop for European Muslim professionals at the Salzburg Global Seminar, Salzburg, Austria (November 16-20, 2008)
Zahed will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of the Network of European Muslim Technology Entrepreneurs, in Madrid, Spain (November 14, 2008)
Shahed will be a featured panelist at Red Faith/Blue Faith: Religion in the 2008 Election and Beyond at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC (November 7, 2008)
Let the Global Islamic Conspiracy Begin, Ali Eteraz, Jewcy, (November 5, 2008)
Zahed will be a guest on Press TV's Islam & Life, hosted by Tariq Ramadan, speaking on French and American Muslim experiences (November 3, 2008)
Zahed will be a guest on Irish broadcaster RTE's Spectrum radio show, speaking about Barack Obama and the Muslim factor in the US presidential election (November 1, 2008)
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Media appearances and analysis featuring altmuslim editors
Islamic Society reaches out to other faiths - "ISNA is very interested in extending their connections with Protestant groups," said Rafia Zakaria, an Indiana lawyer and associate editor at altmuslim.com, a Web site that looks at Muslim issues. "Having a figure as high profile as him gives them legitimacy to extend those kinds of alliances with church groups that have a significant amount of power in the United States." (June 21, 2009)
American Muslims, Jews rate Obama’s speech - "He was really pressing for people to say in public what they say in private. Everybody knows what the solutions to a lot of these problems are and I think there is vast agreement on what they are going to be. But nobody really talks about it and puts the cards on the table," said Shahed Amanullah, editor of the Web site altmuslim.com. (June 5, 2009)
A place to explore Muslim American life - "The biggest challenge facing us is more internal - asking the deeper question. Okay, now that we know that we are Muslim Americans or American Muslims, whatever you want to call us, what does that mean?" (May 23, 2009)
The great potential for online Muslim media - "A recent study in the US implies a correlation between non-Muslims who fear Islam and those who don't know any Muslims. The more Muslims get to know their non-Muslim neighbours, the more ability they will have to influence them." (April 29, 2009)
Obama’s entreaty to Islam surprises Muslims - "Here's where the American public is going, and here's where Obama is going and trying to head it off," said Shahed Amanullah, editor and publisher of altmuslim.com. The Bush administration asked Amanullah for help in shaping dialogue with the American Muslim community. "He's heading it off on a global level," Amanullah said. "He's starting at a core of the problem. The core of the problem is the crisis overseas." (April 8, 2009)
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Better days
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Obituary: Michael Jackson
The way he made us feel
By Zahed Amanullah, June 26, 2009
When I performed the hajj for the first time in 1985, I found myself at Saudi Arabian customs – a young American from Los Angeles who had never left his country, much less experienced another culture first-hand. As the passport control official looked over my documents, ascertaining my nationality, his eyes widened. He leaned over the counter and asked me only one question before letting me on my way. “Do you know Michael Jackson?” It’s hard to overestimate the impact Jackson, who died yesterday of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles at the age of 50, had on the world in general, much less the Muslim world. But rarely has there been such a pervasive export of American culture than that contained in a skinny, androgynous figure who floated across the stage and made everybody simply want to get up and dance. Who else on earth could get tens of thousands from around the world to replicate 25-year old dance moves and synchronize them over the Internet, year after year? Or Filipino prisoners, for that matter? ( 2 comments) | |
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Pakistan
State-sponsored Sufism
By Ali Eteraz, June 24, 2009 After years of bemoaning official Saudi sponsorship of Wahhabism, and condemning official Iranian sponsorship of milleniarian Islam, we are now being asked to celebrate a state-sponsored brand of Islam in Pakistan. Not only is this unprincipled - it is going to backfire. ( 7 comments) |
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Iran crisis
Leave Iran alone
By Rafia Zakaria, June 22, 2009 Despite the cacophony of mock-solidarity echoing from all echelons of the US neo-conservative establishment, when it comes to doing what’s best for the Iranian people and indeed for the world, the US must do nothing at all. ( 12 comments) |
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Mideast Politics
One step forward, two steps backward
By Muqtedar Khan, June 18, 2009 Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad are ensuring through their recent actions that the peaceful and just solution to the Arab-Israeli problem inspired by President Obama is harder to reach. ( No comments) |
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Movie "The Mosque in Morgantown"
Pushing the envelope without breaking it
By Shahed Amanullah, June 17, 2009 Asra Nomani, deserves credit for bringing light to the issue of gender inequity in American mosques. But since there is widespread agreement among Muslim leaders for the need for change, is Nomani's approach the best way to create it? ( 2 comments) |
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Iran Elections
Repressive Islamic rule loses its lustre
By Irfan Yusuf, June 15, 2009 Iranian Muslim youth aren't the only ones disillusioned with theocratic politics. Many young Muslims in the West like myself, once attracted to political Islam, have now become disillusioned by it. At the same time, we feel disenchanted with Western attempts to manipulate it, then demonise it when it suits. ( 18 comments) |
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Obama's Cairo speech
The value of words
By Rafia Zakaria, June 4, 2009 For all the ensuing media chatter on the necessity of following his beautiful words with beautiful deeds, President Obama deserves credit for his overtures to Muslims around the world in his groundbreaking speech in Cairo. ( 16 comments) |
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Pakistan
Send thousands more tea drinkers to “AfPak”
By Salma Hasan Ali, May 27, 2009 US foreign policy-makers and military leaders have something to learn from what author and philanthropist Greg Mortenson has achieved. Long-term success in the tribal regions of Pakistan takes patience, resilience and the ability to listen. ( 10 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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Somalia
Time for a consensus on Islamic law
By Hussein Yusuf, May 22, 2009 Despite the threat to stablity from Al Shabaab, Somali governments from 1960 to 1991 (when the last government fell) adopted a mix of Islamic law and Western systems of governance that were compatible with Somalis' sense of moderation and faith. ( 1 comment) |
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Society
I would die to defend my community
By Musab Bora, May 20, 2009 The concept of life is taken as a precious thing, to save one life is as if to save the life of the whole mankind. However, this is, again, an abstract idea. What is real and tangible is the community around me. And I would die to defend it. ( 3 comments) |
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Pope Benedict XVI
The Pope meddles in the East
By Muqtedar Khan, May 18, 2009 It is hard to predict what the Pope has accomplished on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which essentially used interfaith relations as a means to mediating international relations. But nevertheless, he spoke with sincerity and faith as he linked justice with peace. ( 4 comments) |
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Pakistan
How to rescue a failing state
By Dr. Hassan Abbas, May 15, 2009 In Pakistan, poor law enforcement, inadequate counterinsurgency know-how, popular conspiratorial thinking, failing infrastructure and the absence of good governance as exposed through declining economic and social indicators shows us a dismal scenario. However, all of this presents only one side of the coin. ( 9 comments) |
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Obama in Cairo
A blow to democracy
By Wajahat Ali, May 13, 2009 US President Barack Obama's decision to give his long-advertised speech to the Muslim world from Cairo will be seen as an endorsement of Egypt's brutal 30-year long dictatorship which has stifled political and press freedom alike. ( 36 comments) |
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Torture
Torture is evil, not a forensic technique
By Muqtedar Khan, May 8, 2009 According to most experts of torture, barring a few like Dick Cheney, torture is ineffective. If we have to waterboard people hundreds of times, then either torture doesn’t work at all, or we have some really very sadistic and mean people working in our government. ( 34 comments) |
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Civil liberties
Checking faith and politics at the door
By Farhana Khera, May 6, 2009 Historically, one's politics, faith, and associations have been protected from government scrutiny and surveillance under the First Amendment. But for Muslim Americans, questions probing our politics, faith, finances, associations and charitable contributions to lawful organizations have become the price of admission to return home when travelling. ( No comments) |
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Obituary: Dr. Hassan Hathout
The reconciliation of oppositions
By Mazen Hashem, May 1, 2009 Noted American Muslim leader Dr. Hassan Hathout, who passed away this week, tried to braid a message to American Muslims and non-Muslims alike - criticizing Muslim behavior that did not correspond to ethical standards, while asking non-Muslims to recognize the common ground between them. ( 3 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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Talibanization
The war against girls’ education in Pakistan
By Shehla Anjum, April 27, 2009 This week, a soccer-ball shaped bomb killed seven boys and girls at a school near the Swat region of Pakistan. Here, an Pakistani-American shares her thoughts on the changes affecting girls' education in her former homeland. ( 13 comments) |
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Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Flirting with fascism
By Muqtedar Khan, April 24, 2009 For better or for worse, the US has been an incredible friend to Israel. Will Israel prove its friendship to the US or will its current flirtation with fascism undermine this long-standing alliance? ( 3 comments) |
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Extremism
Does Islam need a reformation?
By Hesham Hassaballa, April 22, 2009 Given the often terrible news about Islam, it is only natural to wonder whether Islam itself is the problem. Yet, as tempting as it is to apply the Christian experience as analogy, it is a flawed premise from the very beginning. ( 48 comments) |
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Perspectives
The many shapes of extremism
By Naif Al-Mutawa, April 15, 2009 Extremism is nothing more than a bunch of neurotransmitters working overtime - or perhaps under time. It is not Islam or Judaism or Hinduism that creates extremism; rather, some people are predisposed to extremism and will pursue it in any faith. ( 11 comments) |
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The Taliban
A response to modernity
By Rafia Zakaria, April 13, 2009 In its rigidity, the Talibanised society mimics an authenticity that sounds and feels truly pure and Islamic and is greedily imbibed by a population that is hungry for answers.
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Interfaith
Growing up Muslim amongst Jews
By Zeba Khan, April 9, 2009 Zeba Khan traces her own adherence to Islam as an adult back to the Jewish friends she made as a young student at the Hebrew Academy of Toledo, who shared with her the joy and spiritual fulfillment they felt from practicing their faith. ( 4 comments) |
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Book: Mother of the Believers
A new literary take on Aisha
By Kamran Pasha, April 1, 2009 Screenwriter and author Kamran Pasha explains what motivated him to write a novel about the Prophet Muhammad's youngest wife, Aisha and how it differs from both contemporary and historic views of this complex, controversial, and revered figure in Islamic history. ( 63 comments) |
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Domestic surveillance
End the FBI’s abuses, but work with them
By Parvez Ahmed, March 27, 2009 The FBI's hasty pronouncements and ensuing misguided responses by some American Muslim organizations have placed undue burdens on the American Muslim community. Both the FBI and American Muslim groups should work out their differences before security and civic harmony are undermined. ( 10 comments) |
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Public service
Homeless for one week
By Hena Ashraf, March 25, 2009 Yusef Ramelize didn't just want to call attention to the plight of the homeless in New York City with his groundbreaking "Homeless for One Week" project. He wanted to experience it. ( 1 comment) |
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Perspectives
Muslim westerners have built - and become - a bridge
By H.A. Hellyer, March 23, 2009 Muslim westerners bring something else to the Muslim world – a more sophisticated understanding of the West as a whole, which as westerners they have as their birthright. That understanding is crucial if the Muslim world – West dialogue is ever to bear fruit. ( 5 comments) |
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Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad
An imam who can
By Ali Eteraz, March 18, 2009 The founder of the Cambridge Muslim College, Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad, looks likely to create a positive, British culture among young followers of Islam. Too bad so few people know about him.
( 27 comments) |
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Darfur
Rallying to the wrong cause
By Hesham Hassaballa, March 13, 2009 It took an indictment by the International Criminal Court to rally the Muslim world to the cause of Darfur. But Muslim countries are rallying to support Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, rather than to support the victims of the Darfur tragedy. ( 30 comments) |
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Islam and pluralism
Who speaks for Muslims?
By Dilara Hafiz, March 10, 2009 American Muslims are not a monolithic block – they are as diverse as American Jews in terms of differences in orthodoxy and observance. But just as the media paints a monolithic picture, some Muslims also insist on doing the same. ( 76 comments) |
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American Muslims
Thriving in America?
By Zahed Amanullah, March 3, 2009 Headline figures from a new Gallup poll – which say that Muslims are doing better in the US than the UK – don't tell the whole story. Applying one country's model to the other won't complete the story either. ( 53 comments) |
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Foreign Policy
Leaving cards on the counter-terror table
By Shahid Buttar, March 2, 2009 If policymakers recognized how instances of corporate welfare facilitate terrorism at its root, several debates would shift dramatically. Corporate subsidies - while seemingly unrelated to terrorism - inadvertently encourage it. ( 16 comments) |
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American Muslims
Community at a crossroads
By Parvez Ahmed, February 25, 2009 The American Muslim community cannot remain in its current reactive fire-fighting mode. It needs to become proactive, preventing fires from erupting in the first place. ( 14 comments) |
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Faith and globalization
To Blair or not to Blair
By Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, February 13, 2009 While engagement is not the only way forward (personal spirituality and character development is far more important), it is a necessary and important step in order to make our lives better in this world, and yes, even the next. ( 2 comments) |
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The Muslim consumer
The overlooked $170 billion
By Michael Hastings-Black, February 9, 2009 While engaging Islam may appear complex, what remains quite simple is that there are millions of American consumers - with an estimated $170 billion of purchasing power - still being ignored. ( 7 comments) |
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Pluralism
Could old Islam build a new bridge to the West?
By H A Hellyer, February 5, 2009 A new trend promises to heal the rift between the contemporary Muslim world and its past, while also establishing a sophisticated understanding between the Muslim world and the West. ( 9 comments) |
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Non-violent resistance
An eye for an eye?
By Parvez Ahmed, February 2, 2009 At a time when so much innocent blood has been spilled, it is hard to contemplate the idea of forgiveness. But it is time that Palestinians considered charting a new course for their struggle. ( 42 comments) |
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Guantanamo detainees
Do not put them to death
By Hesham Hassaballa, January 30, 2009 As satisfying as it would be, as soothing to the inner rage that burns in all Americans from the slaughter of 9/11, we should not put the alleged 9/11 terrorists to death if they are convicted in a court of law. ( 16 comments) |
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Gaza crisis
The moral vacuum
By Aftab Ahmad Malik, January 21, 2009 Although there is a cease fire in effect between Hamas and Israel, there is a dire need to align ourselves to a moral and ethical framework from which unfolding events in Israel/Palestine can be filtered. ( 3 comments) |
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Inauguration day
Face to faith
By Ali Eteraz, January 20, 2009 Quite like the hajj - where wealthy Muslims discover their piety in five-star hotels while everyone else stays in a tent city - the inauguration also offers an insight into inequality.
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Gaza demonstrations
Doth we protest too much?
By Ayman Fadel, January 15, 2009 In many Gaza demonstrations, the use of inflammatory rhetoric - such as the words "Nazi" and "Holocaust" - does not advance our objectives at all. Instead, it causes observers to doubt the marchers’ rationality. ( 84 comments) |
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Clash of civilizations
The great faction fiction
By Irfan Yusuf, January 9, 2009 Neither the West nor Islam can be seen as a cultural monolith. Those of us sitting on the fence should never have to choose between one or the other. ( 29 comments) |
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Gaza crisis
Ghost dances
By Rabia Terri Harris, January 6, 2009 Hope depends on the notion that there is a bottom you can touch, a point at which the cycle must begin to reverse. But Israel/Palestine seems sometimes an infinite descent into Hell. ( 11 comments) |
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Conflict in Gaza
Democracy’s moral recession
By Muqtedar Khan, January 4, 2009 Unless we wake up and change course very soon, there may be no difference left between democracy and terrorism - and that will be the ultimate victory for terrorism. ( 19 comments) |
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Civil liberties
Better safe than free?
By Wajahat Ali, January 3, 2009 Even though air travel regulations have ensured a strengthened defense program, prejudicial measures targeting “brown” Americans not only placate and inflame our basest paranoid fears, they are also ineffective and inefficient. ( 10 comments) |
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Gaza military strikes
Business as usual
By Wajahat Ali, December 29, 2008 In supporting the Israeli bombing of Gaza while ignoring events older than last week, we risk squandering yet another precious opportunity to remedy the Palestinian human rights crisis. ( 26 comments) |
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Christmas
Christ in the Qur’an
By Hesham Hassaballa, December 25, 2008 Jesus wanted to free them from the shackles of the legalism that choked off their spirituality. Christ returns in the Qur'an with the very same message, although Christ does not speak one word. ( 4 comments) |
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US Foreign Policy
What Obama can learn from the hajj
By Kamran Pasha, December 20, 2008 President Barack Hussein Obama has the chance to ally with the Islam of joy and peace that I witnessed at the Hajj this year, for the good of the United States and the world. Let’s hope he takes it. ( 9 comments) |
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Foreign Policy
Why diplomacy and sanctions don’t mix
By Trita Parsi, December 17, 2008 The definition of leverage in the Bush administration was one's ability to get something for nothing. That approach has clearly failed; it does not characterise negotiations, but rather ultimatums and threats. ( 22 comments) |
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Holy Land Foundation
Perverse justice
By Wajahat Ali, December 15, 2008 Prosecuting a charity such as the Holy Land Foundation was nothing more than a means for the Bush administration to acquire a notch on its "get a terrorist" club. ( 6 comments) |
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Interfaith
Dialogue that can change the world
By H. A. Hellyer, December 11, 2008 The Catholic–Muslim forum that the Pope has now inaugurated can be a mechanism through which such misunderstandings can be avoided and where constructive engagement can take place. ( 5 comments) |
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Hajj 2008/1429
Standing alone among millions
By Hesham Hassaballa, December 8, 2008 The Hajj was the most powerful experience I have ever had, and its sights, sounds, and smells are as fresh today as they were nearly six years ago when I performed the once-in-a-lifetime trek to Mecca. ( 16 comments) |
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Mumbai attacks
Thinking through the debris of terror
By Shuddhabrata Sengupta, December 6, 2008 Once again, by their concrete actions, the terrorists have demonstrated not their fidelity but their sharp deviance from the letter and spirit of the Qur'an. Once again, Islamophobes and Islamists are not adversaries, but allies. ( 1 comment) |
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Interfaith work
What is God’s zip code?
By Dilara Hafiz, December 4, 2008 Why are some Americans focusing on differences in dogma, rather than highlighting the common denominators of tolerance, knowledge, and unity? Their intent is to divide us. ( No comments) |
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Terrorism in India
The messages from Mumbai
By Muqtedar Khan, December 1, 2008 The Saudis have succeeded in reducing terror through dialogue and re-education of youth. In Iraq, the US won over the Iraqis who had joined Al Qaeda through dialogue and political and monetary incentives. Why can't the same creative approach be brought to South Asia? ( 71 comments) |
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Religion in schools
Gym class, then biblical studies?
By Mushir Hassan, November 30, 2008 I am a Muslim parent who wants his children to learn about Christianity in public school. I want my children to know about the significance of Christmas, Easter and Lent. Why? It will make them better Americans. ( 5 comments) |
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Reviving feminism
Making a needed connection
By Rafia Zakaria, November 24, 2008 Feminists have remained silent and unwilling to make the connection between exhibitionism of flesh and subjugation of flesh, a commonality that should be a rallying cry.
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The Obama presidency
An internationalist president
By John Esposito, November 21, 2008 President-elect Obama has a singular opportunity to signal a new era and send a new message of hope and constructive engagement across the Muslim world, despite formidable political and economic challenges. ( 3 comments) |
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The Obama presidency
What can American Muslims expect?
By Parvez Ahmed, November 17, 2008 Obama’s election is not the end of a road; it is only the beginning of a struggle for change. And despite setbacks, the American Muslim community can discover newer and better ways to engage in the American political process. ( 32 comments) |
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Civil liberties
Why the same-sex marriage debate still matters
By Sabir Ibrahim, November 12, 2008 Many Muslims may be receptive to concerns about civil liberties, but feel that they would be compromising their Islamic principles by voting against a ban on same-sex marriage. This need not be the case. ( 28 comments) |
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US Elections
Dear John McCain
By Wajahat Ali, October 31, 2008 If Barack Obama’s social “palling around" with Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi makes him an anti-American radical extremist, then John McCain - who gave Khalidi nearly $500,000 - surely emerges as the 72 year-old hybrid incarnate of Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda. ( 3 comments) |
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Muslims in America
Joe Hussein the Plumber
By Sumbul Ali-Karamali, October 29, 2008 Those who elevate Joe the Plumber as the symbol of America while simultaneously denigrating Obama for being Hussein miss the point: both are symbols of the greatness of America. ( 6 comments) |
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Answering atheism
Religion, good and evil
By Hesham Hassaballa, October 27, 2008 It is quite easy to look at all this pain and suffering committed in the name of religion and conclude that religion itself is the problem. Yet, this criticism misses the point. Religion is not the problem: It is the so-called "religious" who are.
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Prejudice
So what if he is a Muslim?
By Parvez Ahmed, October 21, 2008 To sustain counterproductive policies, politicians resort to fear mongering, thus unleashing a vicious cycle. One in which “fear” leads to bad policies and bad policies lead to more “fear.” ( 16 comments) |
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Religion in the public square
When did I become the “other”?
By Dilara Hafiz, October 19, 2008 First we were blamed for not speaking up. But clearly someone heard us, because now we're being accused of lying. Talk about a Catch-22. It's enough to make conspiracy theorists out of even the most naive optimists among us. ( 69 comments) |
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Muslims in politics
A significant political entity
By Nafees Syed, October 12, 2008 That Muslim Americans are so involved in politics when many candidates treat them like pariahs indicates a dedication to civic engagement and involvement in the American political scene. ( 59 comments) |
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Terrorism
The dilemma of the “die-hards”
By Hesham Hassaballa, October 8, 2008 If the military option is not defeating Al Qa'ida, what are we to do against the small number of "die hard" militants who will never be convinced that their version of "jihad" is satanic in nature? ( 23 comments) |
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Election 2008
Mavericks: Action without thought
By Muqtedar Khan, October 6, 2008 Peggy Noonan, a strong supporter of Gov. Sarah Palin, gushed in the Wall Street Journal that Palin "is not a person of thought but of action." Action without thought - that is what we will get if we put McCain and Palin in the White House. ( 31 comments) |
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Interpreting divine texts
Let the Qur’an define itself
By Naif Al-Mutawa, September 29, 2008 In our schools, we get an “A” if we can memorise something, but an “F” if we dare to analyse it. If God had wanted us to be parrots, he would have given us feathers and beaks instead of minds and free will.
( 29 comments) |
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Terrorism in Pakistan
Celebrating Ramadan, jihadi style
By Muqtedar Khan, September 23, 2008 In the month of Ramadan, when even frowning is undesirable, some Muslims with poisoned minds have chosen to murder and maim indiscriminately. ( 15 comments) |
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Smoking
A time to kick the habit
By Hesham Hassaballa, September 18, 2008 Ramadan is all about changing our behavioral patterns to make ourselves better. Thus, we should take the opportunity of the fast of Ramadan to break the habit of smoking. ( 4 comments) |
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Combatting extremism
Don’t worry, we’re going to do something
By Saraji Umm Zaid, September 16, 2008 We have to firmly and without any reservations reject the rhetoric of extremism and invalidate its sources. We have, so far, been unwilling to do this. ( 36 comments) |
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Race relations
An apology
By Azhar Usman, September 14, 2008 I would like to unburden myself of something that has been sitting like a ton of bricks on my heart for my entire life. I want to apologize to my Blackamerican brothers and sisters in Islam. ( 16 comments) |
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Muslim Americans
Between American society and the American story
By Sherman Jackson, September 8, 2008 Despite their positive contributions to society, Muslims remain outside the American story, which is why they seldom enlist empathy when they are jailed, deported or discriminated against. ( 105 comments) |
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Muslims in politics
Shed the cynicism and get engaged
By Parvez Ahmed, September 3, 2008 The time has come for American Muslims to demonstrably show that they can help American politics to be once again based on the universal values of peace, liberty and justice for all. ( 9 comments) |
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Ramadan
Ramadan, counterculture, and soul
By Ibrahim Abusharif, September 1, 2008 In one month, we're given the assignment of defrocking the ephemeral world of its authority over us, and to reinstate a spiritual bearing that helps us perceive where permanence lies. ( 20 comments) |
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Poet Mahmoud Darwish
A people and a poet
By Ibtisam Barakat, August 22, 2008 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died earlier this month, moved between skies and across borders. Wherever he was, words in his hands were a magic lamp that set free the genie of the Arabic language. ( 1 comment) |
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Detainee Aafia Siddiqui
It’s women and children now
By Marryam Haleem, August 17, 2008 The case against Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani MIT graduate and detainee of the US held for over five years under mysterious circumstances, is finally being made public - and looks to fulfill more in a pattern of dubious evidence and maltreatment in the name of the War on Terror. ( 4 comments) |
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Activist Mazen Asbahi
Cowards and patriots
By A. Arain, August 13, 2008 Today we must ask ourselves whether America is safer because the Wall Street Journal outed and exposed to the world an honest patriot volunteering for a cause he believes in and partaking of democracy which is his right as a concerned citizen. ( 13 comments) |
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