As Published In Daily Times To the Times: Right now Muslims around the world are observing Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and prayer that began on May 27 and ends in late June. The national rhetoric concerning people who are Muslim has been heated and too often hateful. There is always a danger of stereotyping people, especially those we don’t know much about. In an effort to dispel...
Letter to the editor published on June 20th in the Orange County Register: Re: “Van veers into pedestrians outside mosque, 1 killed, 10 hurt” [News, June 17]: In the tragic Finsbury Mosque attack yesterday, the local Imam reportedly shielded the captured assailant from an angry mob until the police arrived, so he would not be harmed. In Portland last month, bystanders lost their lives coming to...
Published on The Tribune-Democrat website on June 17th, 2017: The shooting this week at a GOP congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, attests to the terrifying reality that no one, not even our highest elected officials, are safe from the disturbing growth of violent acts nationwide. What is particularly troubling is that the alleged assailant, James Hodgkinson, appears to have...
Just two weeks after a white supremacist went on an anti-Muslim tirade in Portland that ended with him stabbing three men in the neck, anti-Muslim hate rallies are being organized in over 25 cities across the country this Saturday, June 10th. All are organized by ACT for America, an organization designated as both a hate group and an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. At a time...
by Imran Tahir I was utterly shocked and horrified to hear about the truly sadistic suicide bombing in Manchester (U.K.) at the conclusion of a music concert attended by thousands of youth, most of them young girls. Terrorism in all its heinous forms — and especially depraved attacks targeting children — is a painful blight on our society, and needs to be eradicated completely through a...
Letter to the editor published in the Richmond Times Dispatch on May 31st: As Ahmadi Muslim, I extend my heartfelt prayers to the British people. In response to the attack in Manchester, an imam of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association UK went to Manchester to pay tribute to the victims. He was accompanied by 50 other members. Terrorism has no religion and the Quran strongly opposes such actions...
Originally Published on Cleveland.com (June 6, 2017) The Khalifa of Islam, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, is the worldwide spiritual and administrative head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Under his leadership, our community has been at the forefront of combatting all radical (false) interpretations of the Qur’an. Through our bookstalls, flier distributions, peace symposia...
Originally Published: Portland Tribune (Tuesday, 06 June 2017 ) The horrific attack on May 26 that resulted in the death of two people and injuries for another as they tried to protect two young women from a man’s racist tirade is shocking. In today’s divisive political climate, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, each of which is both saddening as a human...
Originally Published in Patheos on June 2nd, 2017 Yesterday, I attended a seminar by Professor Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard University on the topic of unconscious bias. It was an incredibly mind-opening seminar that brought many biases I hold to the surface. But it also enabled me, in a way, to see the biases that other people hold, specifically towards the Muslim community. Last week, 22 people...
Guest Opinion Published on Oregonlive website on May 27th, 2017 On Friday, Portland was shaken by an attack on a train that targeted two teenage girls and led to the deaths of two bystanders. As the details emerge, we discover that the suspect, 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian, allegedly set his sights on the teenagers — one of whom was wearing the Muslim hijab — and began shouting...