Originally published in Austin American-Statesman With social distancing and work from home, it’s all too easy to get buried in the news coverage surrounding the coronavirus crisis. At the same time, there is a lot of need in our communities. Our food banks are under strain due to increased demand. Our blood banks are in need of life-saving donations. Our elderly and high-risk individuals would...
Originally Published in the Star Tribune The inflammatory comments made by Big Stone County Republican Party chairman Jack Whitley, and the subsequent developments, made me, as an American Muslim, appreciate how fortunate I am to reside in this country (“FB posts cost GOP boss day job,” Nov. 25). From the action taken by business owners Bob and Sue Kulbeik to stand up against bigotry, to the...
Originally published in StarTribune The leader of the extremist group ISIL recently declared himself to be a caliph and called on Muslims to pledge their loyalty to him. However, within the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, the system of caliphate was established in the year 1908. The current fifth caliph, Mirza Masroor Ahmad, in his keynote speeches addressing the British House of Commons, the...
Originally Published in the Star Tribune Generally, everything that happens to us for the first time becomes a lasting memory. On a recent weekend, having spent only a couple of months in the United States, I was still in discovery mode. The beautiful time my husband and I spent with friends in Duluth came to an end on our way home when our car’s exhaust pipe began dragging on the ground. Just...
Originally published in Twin Cities Daily Planet Muslims all across the US are observing the month of fast or Ramadhan these days. Muslims fast from sunrise till sunset and completely abstain from food and drink. Besides abstaining from food, Muslims are also required to abstain from confrontations and creating disorder while also keeping away from intimate acts. As a result of the self...
Originally published in Star Tribune
In his first remarks after being elected, Pope Francis said: “Let there be brotherhood among us.” I hope that we as Muslims and Christians can unite and establish the brotherhood to which the pope alluded.
Originally published in Star Tribune
In his first remarks after being elected, Pope Francis said: “Let there be brotherhood among us.” I hope that we as Muslims and Christians can unite and establish the brotherhood to which the pope alluded.
Originally published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet Cardinal Bergoglio was elected as the 266th pope of the Catholic Church yesterday. In his first remarks after being elected, Pope Francis said: “Let there be brotherhood amongst us.” As a Muslim, verse 65 of Chapter 3 in the Holy Qur’an reminds us that: “Say, ‘O People of the Book! come to a word equal between us and you —...
Originally Published in The Minnesota Daily. In his Oct. 18 column “Religiously Yours,” Hemang Sharma mentions that: “Islam doesn’t allow bacon, beer, masturbation or pre-marital sex; thus being inherently against everything us Americans love.” True, Islam doesn’t allow these things. In fact, if you look back into the history of faiths, all were established under a climate of persecution and...
Originally Published in The Minnesota Daily. As a Muslim in the West, the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and attacks on U.S. embassies in Northern Africa in response to a YouTube video points to a glaring lack of leadership in the Muslim world. Rather than teaching Muslim youth the true principles of Islam, religious clerics are increasingly quiet and unresponsive...