Originally Published in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I have a favorite line from a poem, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Our nation needs to work together to fight intolerance regardless of how difficult it is because it will make the difference to...
Originally Published in The Oshkosh Northwestern Last week a despicable movie was released on youtube as a cheap publicity stunt. Following that we saw an array of wonderful trailers of the movie from around the world. We saw trailers of the movie in Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, India, Australia, and Libya. In Libya the promoters of the movie really outdid themselves where they killed the...
Originally Published in The Santa Clarita Valley Signal Eleven years after the most horrific terrorist event of our generation shook us to our core, the long shadow of 9/11 still casts a terrible pall on the world. Recent events have shown how fringe elements, such as a film producer looking to libel a religion, can rile up misguided and extremist mobs in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. The work of...
Originally Published in The Dallas Morning News The murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens is an abhorrent and inexcusable crime. Murder has no place in Islam. Nowhere in the Quran is anyone permitted to harm, riot or kill anyone for speaking against Islam or Prophet Muhammad. The very actions the rioters took violate the example set by Prophet Muhammad. When a mob was about to...
Originally Published in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee I find it alarming that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, has been declared “sane” by Norwegian courts (“Mass murderer gets at least 21-year term,” Aug. 25). Indeed, being declared sane was part of Breivik’s master plan. He wanted to murder, get caught and draw public attention to...
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...
Originally Published in The Oshkosh Northwestern Pakistan recently arrested an 11 year old Christian girl with Down Syndrome for allegedly burning the Quran. Seen by religious zealots as justified, this heinous act is nothing more than an evil attack on humanity. Pakistan’s stance on Islamic principles is antithetical to the character of Prophet Muhammad. The Quran has given him the...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post Hindus worldwide will soon observe Krishna Janmashtami, a celebration of Lord Krishna’s birth. While many recognize the differences between Islam and Hinduism, few may appreciate that according to Islamic principles and Prophet Muhammad, Lord Krishna was a true Prophet of God. The obvious question that emerges is that if the same God sent Lord...
Originally Published in The Middletown Press Last month, there was uproar over a comment made by Indiana Congressman André Carson that U.S. public schools could learn from U.S. “madrassas,” an Arabic term for Islamic schools. I, too, doubt whether you can get any useful information from a Taliban-style school system. But I do think there are Muslim-American groups we should take a closer look at...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post If you know a Muslim, you are sure to have heard about Ramadan and the tradition of fasting in Islam. Ramadan is the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic calendar. Millions of Muslims across the country and many more across the world will spend the month fasting. Even though it is singular in its details, the practice of fasting as a form of spiritual...