Originally Published in The Express Tribune In 1966, nearly 180 million people in the US received Miranda rights – the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination. Half a century later, a religious community in Pakistan, another country of nearly 180 million people, is facing a rather caustic version of the Miranda rights. They don’t have the right, but a duty, to remain silent. The...
Originally Published in The Denver Post English is rapidly changing in our fast-paced media world. Nouns are becoming verbs and sometimes adjectives are becoming nouns. The most recent and popular of these changes surrounds today’s NFL playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots. The hype around Denver’s quarterback Tim Tebow has given birth to a new verb — “Tebowing.”...
Monday marks the 26th anniversary of the first observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While we commemorate the sacrifices this great leader made, Americans, including Muslim Americans, must remember the spirit of change that the civil rights movement embodied. The same spirit is required today to change the false perceptions of Islam in America. According to a 2010 Pew poll, fewer Americans...
Originally Published in The Columbus Dispatch Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant group that claims to be Muslim claimed responsibility for several church bombings around the time of Christmas. This is the same extremist group that killed dozens of innocent Christians on the New Years bombings last year. Such inhumane acts cannot be justified in the name of Islam. The Holy Quran states that...
Originally Published in The Record The world’s second largest hardware chain, Lowe’s, is ranked among the Top 50 corporations in America. Its website proudly displays the slogan “Let’s Build Something Together.” However, the company’s recent actions suggest that this togetherness might not include Muslim-Americans. The company recently pulled its ads from a...
By Qasim Rashid* “My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and cooperation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest Nations of the world.” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s Founder and First Governor General at the Presidential Address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11th August, 1947. ABSTRACT: The...
Religious freedom (or the lack thereof) in Pakistan cannot be emphasized enough. Due to the preposterous demeanor of Pakistan’s self-righteous right-wing, many in the world today are aware of Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy problem. Much frustration has been expressed on liberal Pakistani blogs and through international media outlets — especially after the heartless murders of...
Originally Published in The Huffington Post Sardar Anees Ahmad remembers exactly where he was when the second plane struck on 9/11: obliviously walking with his professor, going from one class to another at his college in New York. As the tragedy unfolded, and one after another, a Muslim face and name resembling his, started flashing on TV screens worldwide, the 19-year-old Ahmad felt his blood...
Originally Appeared on The Huffington Post “First you bomb us and now you come suck our blood. What are you gonna do with it, drink it?” These were the words of a young man as he passed by me at the Labor Day Fair in Rutherford, N.J. I was passing fliers at the fair, asking people to donate blood at a 9/11 memorial blood drive hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community a couple of...
ABSTRACT: This article explores the risks and limits of transjudicial communication. In particular, I critique the scholarly contention that transjudicial communication can be built upon commonly accepted methods of legal reasoning. I argue that transnational courts do not uniformly understand or apply commonly accepted methods of legal reasoning, especially legal argument by analogy. As a...