Originally published on Time.com I’m a Muslim American. On Nov. 15, two days after the Paris attacks, I boarded a plane from Newark to Houston. I had just returned from a formal event, so I was wearing a plain white “shalwar,” a shirt that stops at the knees and is commonly worn by South Asians. As is my routine, I purchased in-flight WiFi to catch up on emails. But the WiFi was out on the plane...
Originally published in The Daily Times Extremist clerics and their ignorant followers — and Islamophobes alike — allege that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the early caliphs of Islam killed people for mere difference in belief. Such clerics have long taught masses in Pakistan that Islam ordered Muslims to take up the sword against anyone who claimed to be a prophet or decided to follow one...
Originally posted at True Jersey The Paris terrorist attacks have fueled rising Islamophobia in America. Presidential candidates have called for a national database of Muslims and surveillance of mosques. The House of Representatives has passed the bill to temporarily halt the Syrian and Iraqi refugee program. As a member of Ahmadiyya Muslim community, I advocate for proper and useful security...
Originally published on Patheos.com Why didn’t we hear the term “Muslim terrorist” or “Jihadist” before the 1980s? Islam has been around for more than 1400 years but “Islamic” terrorist organizations were not to be found prior to 1980. The first Islamist terrorist attack was the bombing of the Tyre Headquarters in 1982. Was Islam different prior to the 1980s or was there some sort of fundamental...
Originally published on GoErie.com By targeting a soccer game, restaurant and concert hall, Islamic State terrorists tried to upset the normalcy of ordinary Parisians. Places like those targeted are the sort of spots where the ordinary young folks of Paris gather on the weekends to unwind after a week of work. Now the responsible powers of the civilized world should give the terrorists an...
Originally published in Patheos Over the past few years, ISIS has emerged from the shadows of a failed Arab Spring in Syria and sectarian violence in Iraq to become a dominant player in global terrorism. The brutalities, that took the form of beheadings of foreign journalists and aid workers and enslavement of women and children often concentrated in the Middle East, have recently escalated onto...
Originally published in The Duluth News Tribune On Nov. 13, the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS, killed 130 innocent civilians in horrific attacks in Paris. President Francois Hollande of France called it “an act of war” and committed to “destroy ISIS.” Expressing solidarity with France, President Barack Obama said, “It is an attack on the civilized world.” <a...
Originally published in The New York Post King Abdullah of Jordan called it right when he said the Muslim faith is at war against radical Islam. This is something our president fails to mention. What can moderate Muslims do to defeat radical Islamists? They should banish radical Islamists from their religion. They should speak out against the nonsense of killing innocent Muslims and nonMuslims...
Originally published in The Daily Times Sir: Once again, a minority community in Pakistan is under siege. Be it Shia, Christian, Hindu or Ahmedi, the jahils (illiterates) keep doing what they do best: exert violence for no reason. We are fighting a war against terrorism and the Pakistan army is making every attempt to defeat extremism but the mindset of the common people in Pakistan is not...
Originally posted on The Boston Herald If Daesh (or the Islamic State) is at war, why doesn’t it follow the rules of war set forth by the Prophet Muhammad (“Crowds slaughtered in French terror attacks,” Nov. 14)? Among other things, Muhammad’s guidance for the battlefield included: “Do not commit treachery, or deviate from the right path. …Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man...