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AuthorFaheem Younus

A doctor, a writer, a professor, a student, a family man, a humanitarian – enjoys figuring out the challenges of Muslim American life. Learn more about him at www.Muslimerican.com
December 19, 2012

Sandy Hook Elementary: Where Scar Killed Simba

By Faheem Younus
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19December

Originally Published in The Huffington Post Last week, I was taking pictures at my son’s elementary school’s winter concert. The kindergartners were dressed as elephants, monkeys and other animals; my son was wearing the zebra costume. The children were singing; the parents were clapping. It was like watching The Lion King on Broadway. Then on Friday, as I was getting those pictures...

November 23, 2012

Longing for an Arab-Israeli spring

By Faheem Younus
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23November

Originally Published in The Washington Post and  The Express Tribune, Pakistan.  Plato may have inadvertently summed up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 2,500 years ago when he is thought to have declared: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” The cyclical bloodshed in the Arab-Israeli conflict is a direct...

November 8, 2012

Give Afghanistan Schools Today (or Don’t Blame Islam Tomorrow)

By Faheem Younus
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08November

Originally Published in The Huffington Post After a gruesome reelection campaign, President Obama should unwind. And instead of playing basketball, he should watch a movie. How about the 2007 biographical drama, “Charlie Wilson’s War”? It’s about the period when the United States was leaving Afghanistan after wrapping up its covert anti-Soviet operation there. Tom Hanks...

November 5, 2012

Why Elect Students to the Board of Education

By Faheem Younus
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05November

Originally Published in The Huffington Post There are many similarities between the candidates vying for the District 5 seat on the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Board of Education: they are both women, both members of minority groups, both long-term residents of the county and both highly qualified. Yet there is a key difference: Age. Raaheela Ahmad is the 19-year-old maverick...

October 15, 2012

Malala Yousafzai: Does Islam Even Give You a Right to Education?

By Faheem Younus
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15October

Originally Published in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post Someone is missing from this picture. Because just when I was wondering if extremists could do anymore damage to Islam’s image, they committed yet another despicable act. As if flogging the adulterers, executing the civilians, and selling the women were not enough, on Oct. 8, the Taliban attempted to assassinate a 14-year...

September 20, 2012

Muslims: Don’t Confront Violence With Silence

By Faheem Younus
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20September

Originally Published in The Express Tribune and The Huffington Post Sir, it was 1995, North Medical Ward of Pakistan’s Mayo Hospital, where you famously said in your English-Punjabi accent, “Putter ji, batti uthay balo, jithay hanaira howay” (Son, light a candle where it’s dark). You didn’t want your students to go abroad after completing medical school. You wondered...

August 29, 2012

Not all Republicans are Islamophobes but all Islamophobes are Republicans

By Faheem Younus
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29August

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...

August 22, 2012

Are Pakistani Ahmadis loyal to their homeland?

By Faheem Younus
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22August

Originally Published in The Express Tribune Consider this before buying your next Umra package: Jabbarsahib can grab your shoulder, beam you to the Kaaba from anywhere in the world, where you can offer prayers and return back home in no time. The idea is laughable on many accounts. It rejects physical laws, discards scientific evidence, and makes a mockery of Islamic practices too. Add to the...

August 6, 2012

Amid the tragedy of the Sikh temple shooting, a triumph of American values

By Faheem Younus
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06August

Originally Published in The Huffington Post Sunday’s mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin carried a depressing familiarity. Every few weeks in America, people somewhere are shot en masse, a gunman is captured or killed, and the debate over gun control flourishes on opinion pages. But this shooting was different. It posed a question to the core American values: Do we stand up for the...

July 2, 2012

Which Muslim Leader Is the Real Champion of Peace?

By Faheem Younus
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02July

Originally Published in The Huffington Post “We’ve been waiting for you.” People say this all the time when I teach coursesabout Islam and peace at colleges, universities and places of worship. With the Muslim world erupting in chaos from the Libyan shores of Bin Ghazi to the tribal areas of Pakistan, this yearning for peace is becoming a global phenomenon. But name a Muslim...