Originally published in The Huffington Post “She made me do it.” I hear this phrase all too often, and each time I hear it my heart bleeds. In my pro bono legal practice, I represent indigent women who suffer or have suffered through domestic violence. As an attorney, as a Muslim, as a husband, and as an uncle to five beautiful nieces, I see my clients as individuals that could just...
Originally published in Daily Times One of Pakistan’s organisations of the clergy, the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), held a national conference titled, ‘Why dialogue between various sects and religions is essential.’ The PUC’s central chairman, Maulana Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, presided over this well-attended conference in Islamabad. The conference was reported widely in the media. And why wouldn’t...
Originally published in Fox News Dear Mehdi, Greetings of peace! You’ve been all over the place: CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal,Washington Post, Reuters… Up until a week ago, most Americans didn’t know you. But now, for millions, you are a celebrity. Because the media is telling your story… How you hail from this tiny hamlet called Rabwah, out in the boondocks of...
Originally published in Times of Trenton and Asbury Park Press I was born in Pakistan, but immigrated to the United States more than a decade ago. The primary reason I left Pakistan was the persecution that I faced because of my religious beliefs. In fact, an amendment to the Pakistani constitution in 1974 declared my sect, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, “non-Muslim,” thereby opening the door to...
Originally published in the Orange County Register Boko Haram is another example of a terrorist organization spitting in the face of the religion it tries to represent. The abduction and imprisonment of innocent girls misrepresents Islam. The group’s actions are a blatant violation of the Qur’anic injunction: “O ye who believe! It is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will; nor...
Originally published in USA Today and Indianapolis Star The world has been gripped by the deplorable story evolving in Nigeria about the mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls between the ages of 16 and 18. Their “crime” was simply that they were girls and had the audacity to seek an education. Meet Boko Haram, the name most commonly used to refer to a sadistic terrorist...
Originally published in Time News The fiasco continues. Islamophobes are fabricating the myth that Islam promotes Jew-hatred by taking out ads on D.C. buses. Take a look at the ad, linked above—does anyone else find it insane that these ignorant people are spending money promoting pictures of Adolf Hitler? Now, certainly some Muslims are anti-Jewish, as are some Christians, agnostics...
Originally published in The Duluth News Tribune Part of the feedback on my April 6th opinion editorial, “Quran forbids men from hurting wives,” indicates a mistaken inference by some that the Holy Quran gives a husband the right to control his wife, making them unequal partners in marriage. While empathizing with those who felt that way, I would like to clarify that the Holy Quran does not allow...
Originally published in The Columbus Dispatch Boko Haram, an extremist group in Nigeria, recently kidnapped close to 300 school girls, claiming that Islam prohibits women from obtaining an education (“Britain, U.S. pump effort to rescue Nigerian girls,” Associated Press article, Saturday Dispatch). Nothing could be farther from the truth than what the leader of Boko Haram has concluded. The...
Originally published in Pittsburgh Gazette As a Muslim, I was shocked to read that a so-called Muslim group in Nigeria, Boko Haram, which literally translates to “Western education [is a] sin,” recently committed the heinous act of abducting more than 200 schoolgirls in the Chibok region. Compare the group’s radical message to the actual teachings of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad, who...