Originally Published in The Duluth News Tribune and The Star Tribune. At a time characterized by an alleged increase in the radicalization of Muslim youth, I attended a national Muslim youth convention with the theme, “Love and loyalty for one’s homeland.” The national convention — organized by America’s leading Muslim youth organization, MKA USA — sought to educate and cultivate loyalty...
Originally Published in The Huffington Post “As a Jew, I am offended to my core. Muslims have no right to invoke Moses and Abraham. This is a delegitimization of Judaism. It is offensive and vile. And while Jesus is not my guy, the same thing goes for him. It is a delegitimization of Christianity. These are not Muslim prophets.” This typical quote from Pamela Geller perfectly...
In the bombarding trenches of a lawless society Dodging bullets of obscenity and vulgarity Everyday of my attenuate life With much struggle and strife Fighting in a war against greed and banal lust The smoke and lure of seduction so thick Enough to make you lose focus, with the hell fires steaming below your feet Blinded, on which road to choose Journeying through this treacherous terrain The...
Originally Published in The Duluth News Tribune On May 21, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation barring all Kansas state courts from considering “foreign” law in their rulings. While many other states, including Minnesota, attempted in vain, Kansas became the fifth state to successfully enact such legislation, joining Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee. The undertone of “foreign”...
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...
Originally Published in IndiaWest: Your Global Indian Community. Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth Khalifatul Masih (the successor of the Messiah) for the world’s tens of millions of Ahmadi Muslims, will deliver keynote addresses over three days to an expected crowd of 10,000 Ahmadi Muslims during the Community’s 64th annual U.S. convention in Harrisburg, Penn. The three-day event will be...
The Summer 2012 issue of The Muslim Sunrise, entitled, “In Defense of Islam: Confronting the Critics,” responds to anti-Islam allegations made by 10 infamous critics of Islam. The Muslim Sunrise invites these critics to debate representatives of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community publicly, in an effort to expose their allegations “as either baseless, dishonest, or criticisms of...
The inside back-cover of Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam book, “Marked for Death,” says it all: “Expelled from Britain, banned from Indonesia, denounced by the UN Secretary General … Wilders is unbowed and unapologetic.” After having read his book, another word to describe Wilders comes to mind: uninformed. Wilders promises many things in his book, above all that...
During his 1960 Presidential campaign, then Senator John F. Kennedy said that if a conflict arose between his Presidency and his loyalty to the Pope, he would give up his Presidency. A few weeks ago, Reverend Gregory, while referencing my monthly column, essentially questioned whether being a Muslim and American was possible. His reasons, however, left me scratching my head. The Reverend...
My friend in Pakistan was unable to tweet this quote on May 20: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Yes, it was more than 140 characters, but the bigger reason was Pakistan’s ban on Twitter. Why was the popular site banned? Because social media activists were...