“…I wasn’t quite sure what witches did, but that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was about four when I decided upon it. It was probably a pretty spot-on thing to be. Witches are outsiders – classic outliers – and I in no way felt connected to my community. Little did […]
*View on desktop New generations of Muslim American families struggle to keep Muslim holidays relevant or exciting — especially when competing with a glitzy Christmas or a fast-moving culture that only slows down between Thanksgiving and New Year. The struggle for Muslims is most starkly felt during fasting month of Ramzan (also referred to as Ramadan), […]
Those claiming “Islamophobia” must be willing to have a conversation on how monolithic representations of Islam and Muslims alienate a vibrant Muslim subculture. Published in The Federalist On April 18, well-known Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to announce that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) had quietly removed its list […]
Editor’s Note: With rare public support and a united front, we countered CNN’s one-size-fits-all version of Islam. We are proud to see our statement resonate with the American Muslim community. The areas where it has created controversy is a very good steppingstone and moving ahead in unifying Islam as a religion accommodating of everyone and not a […]
Six U.S. imams have openly promoted Jew-hate in mosques between July 2017 through early 2018. The sermons calling for a final apocalypse against the Jews were triggered by minor security conflicts between Palestinian militants and Israeli security forces on Temple Mount. American Muslim Jew-hatred mirrors rising conflict in the Holy Land — and those tensions will […]
Muslim reform, or Islamic reform, is personal to many reformers. While most modern reformers advocate for progressive values in keeping with Universal Human Rights, many of us prioritize reform uniquely. For me, Muslim Reform is where philosophy and scholarship blend with love for an Intelligence greater than holy men and holy books.
Early Muslim American roots includes evidence of Muslim settlements and travels through North America. It includes anthropological findings of a Muslim school system dating back to 700 C.E. to forgotten tenth through thirteenth century Muslims explorations of North America via Mississippi River. Arabic script letters found in dating to America early settlements and accounts of […]
Transcript: Zuhdi Jasser: This is Zuhdi Jasser sitting in the chair for Seth and Chris, who are away today. Thank you for joining me in our last hour now. A major federal case in Detroit had some big news out this this week of a charge that was dropped. I’d like to introduce […]
By Shireen Qudosi and Zainab Zeb Khan, UNA Women The United Nations has been influential in shaping the current global policy framework on women’s empowerment and gender equality. The last of these significant milestones took place twenty years ago. In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action crowned the series of 4 “World Conferences […]
Note: The following blog post has been curated with permission from ongoing conversations between myself a retired member of the military/intelligence sector who has requested to remain anonymous. This entry is not intended to be an intelligence summary nor serve as an article. It is a conversation. On February 8th, 2018, Vox published a piece on […]
[Originally published with Women’s Voices Now] In what can only be called the year of women, 2017 saw an increase in dialogue on women’s rights, including gender violence against women. Cresting that conversation is a landmark FGM trial in Michigan. The defendants include American-born Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, of the Detroit Bohra Muslim community, who is […]
[Originally published with Women in the World] Empathy is the act of putting yourself in the shoes of another in order to reach an emotional state where the other person’s emotions are not only understood, but are also felt with equal pain and grit. Radical empathy reaches further, to break up the layers of the […]
[Originally written for Women in the World] The barbaric practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is a primitive practice that grew out of tribal custom predominantly in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. It’s the act of dismembering the clitoris — sometimes brutally with cut glass and no anesthetics — to deter girls […]
Originally published with On Being. There are times when you find yourself completely surrendered to the power of a moment. David Whyte’s voice filled the air one morning, as wave after wave of sound was the siren song turning my head. This was one of those moments. I plunged into the abyss of his words. And in […]
Originally published in the NYT Women in the World Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the horrific act of cutting off a young girl’s clitoris. Often seen as a humanitarian and women’s rights crisis in third-world countries, FGM hit home in the United States recently when an American-born Muslim doctor was arrested and charged with committing FGM on two girls. […]
