Originally Posted in the Hudson Hub Times As ISIS continues to gain ground in Syria, the Muslim world and the entire world at large must look for examples of peaceful Muslims. There is no better example than the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which is led by Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad. Recently, Ahmad went to the Dutch Parliament explaining ways that both the West and Muslim-majority governments can...
Originally published in Worcester Telegram The Syrian crisis is worsening. With around 4 million Syrian refugees and 8 million internally displaced, our fellow human beings are in need of dire support. More than 100,000 Syrian civilians have lost their lives during this crisis. The recent heart-wrenching picture of toddler Aylan Kurdi has come to symbolize this great loss. Syrian refugees...
Originally published in The Austin American Statesman The news of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed being arrested in Irving for bringing a homemade clock to school is disturbing on many levels. The fact that he showed it to his teachers as an accomplishment should have vouched for the fact that it wasn’t mischief. It is equally as disturbing that when it was clearly established to be a clock, the teen...
Originally published in Courier Post As a Muslim-American, I welcome Pope Francis to America. Pope Francis’ attitude towards Islam — from praying in the Blue Mosque of Istanbul facing Mecca to his comment, “Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence” — is refreshing and encouraging. With rising Islamophobia in America and with GOP presidential...
Originally published in The Huffington Post Dear daughter, Next month I’ll become a father for the first time to a girl. You will be my daughter. Your mother and I are blessed with two boys already, and we are thrilled to finally have the blessing of a girl in our home. But, my dear, as I look around the world I see a frightening reality. One in which women are valued less than men...
Originally published in Patheos Experience has shown that many natural phenomenon or processes are initially discovered with limited understanding or benefit to society. However, with pain staking effort and unbiased approach to the phenomenon, many of the unknown qualities that were initially observed as bad turn out to be good upon further examination. A case in point is the annotation of human...
Originally published in The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette After suffering grueling punishment for 13 long years in Mecca, Prophet Muhammad and his small band of believers had reached their Promised Land, Medina. There, the majority chose the prophet as their ruler. Prophet Muhammad gave them a constitution that would grant freedom of religion and equal rights to all its citizens —...
Originally published in The Pak Tea House In Part 1 of this article published here on Pak Tea House on the 15th of September, 2015, I wrote about how the 1974 Second Amendment to Pakistan’s constitution declaring Ahmadis as non-Muslim reveals a miscarriage of due process in the proceedings. I closed Part 1 by quoting Dr. Mubashir Hassan who said the 1974 event was politically motivated and...
Originally published in Patheos In his recent anti-Muslim crusade, Ben Carson promoted a disturbing form of religious segregation, claiming that a Muslim should only be president if he or she “renounces the tenets of Islam. Sadly, just as racial segregationists long garnered votes by promoting fear of black Americans, religious segregationists such as Carson today garner votes by promoting fear...
Originally published in The Huffington Post This October, anti-Islam extremists are planning roughly twenty anti-Muslim protests in front of mosques in America. Some of those protests will be armed with loaded and deadly weapons. Those supporting these armed protests claim they do so in the name of “free speech” to maintain justice and the Constitution. I’ve seen this excuse...