Originally Published in The Washington Post “You don’t have to do this! You shouldn’t have to. It’s a disgrace.” At the height of the 2010 Park 51 “Ground Zero Mosque” controversies, I, along with thousands of Muslim American youth nationwide, was engrossed in a massive “Muslims for Peace” flyer distribution. Days before the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11, I met my match at a Wisconsin State Fair...
Originally Published in The Express-Times, Lehigh Valley Edition and The Morning Call Eleven years have passed, yet memories of the horrific event remain fresh. On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 American civilians were killed. The mastermind professed Islam as his religion, even though we read in the Holy Quran, “whosoever killed a person … it shall be as if he had killed all mankind.”...
Originally Published in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post The straw man of the famous post-Sept. 11 slogan, “Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim” was debunked by a 2005 FBI report. It showed that only 6 percent of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by extremists calling themselves Muslims. But one group has sustained the...
Originally Published in The New Haven Register A crime against one religious group is an attack upon all of us in America. It doesn’t matter if your background or birthplace is different. Every house of worship on American soil is sacred. So said our Founding Fathers. John Adams, for instance, wrote: “No subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post I was attending a LIVE online conference this morning when a friend’s email instantly brought tears to my eyes. He broke the news of the tragic shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee. I was racked with pain. My first reaction was to pray to God to ease the suffering of those directly affected by the tragedy and then to contact my friends at the Sikh...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post I was fasting but had to fight the incessant urge to vomit, as my Twitter feed spiked with tweets about a shooting at a Sikh Gurdwara. Hoping against hope it was a mistake, my heart began to race and my teeth clenched as several news reports confirmed the incident. Another terrorist attack against innocent souls, this time just south of Milwaukee, but an...
Originally Published in The Dallas Morning News Senator Michele Bachmann’s recent accusations of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the United States government is McCarthy-esque fear-mongering for the 21st century. Her baseless accusations that top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, is an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood sent to infiltrate the U.S. Government is not...
Originally Published in The Express-Times, Lehigh Valley Edition This weekend I attended an annual youth convention in Milwaukee with the theme, “For the sake of my country, faith and nation.” Participants took part in workshops and various educational and sports competitions. It was an atmosphere of real brotherhood, positively impacting the lives of our youth. The event was not organized by the...
Originally Published in The Contra Costa Times Probably more than any other community, July 4 gives Muslim-Americans a strong reason to celebrate. July 4 marks the independence of the American colonies from Great Britain — an independence spurred by the need for freedom of religion. Similarly, many Muslims come to the United States to flee persecution they face in their lands. Such is the...
Originally Published in The Duluth News Tribune On May 21, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation barring all Kansas state courts from considering “foreign” law in their rulings. While many other states, including Minnesota, attempted in vain, Kansas became the fifth state to successfully enact such legislation, joining Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee. The undertone of “foreign”...