Originally published in The Santa Barbara Independent Civil War. Two words to describe today. No one would have conceived that America — the greatest country in the world — could even be categorized to be in a state that could be described as a “civil war.” But one man did: His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the worldwide leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In 2016, CBC news reporter Peter...
Originally published in The Tribune-Review “Momma, Momma!” “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” No innocent human being should have to die with these words on their lips. A police officer, tasked to protect George Floyd’s life, mercilessly crushed George’s neck for 9 long minutes. He has been charged with murder. Is George’s death an isolated incident, one in which an officer of the law went...
Originally published in The Gazette Intermittent fasting is hailed by many as the new ‘cool’ fad diet of this decade. Experts ranging from medical physicians to health nutritionists have described at length the health, mental, social, and financial benefits that come with this type of lifestyle. But there is another source that made intermittent fasting cool before anyone else. Islam and its...
Originally published in The Tribune-Review “Mom, don’t leave. It’s too dangerous.” “If I don’t,” my mother replies, “my children will starve.” “I’m your child,” I respond. “So are they,” she says. I have had this debate with my mother for more than a month. Deemed an essential worker, my 61-year old mother leaves her house every day and takes the bus to work — so she can prepare meals for New...
A tremor of worry has fallen upon Christian America. With 90% of Americans under stay-at-home orders and only one-fifth of religious Americans still attending worship services, many Christians are left wondering, “How will I celebrate Easter this year?” Even President Trump sought to dull the effects of this tremor, considering last weekend to allow churches to open for Easter...
One hundred years ago this week, the Philadelphia Inquirer recorded the arrival in its city of a South Asian man in a green and gold turban. Others noted his “Gospel likeness” and “flowing” beard, as one who “spoke like a Biblical prophet.” Upon seeing him, one young girl would later remark, “Look, Mother, Jesus Christ has come!” Immigration officers denied him entry because they feared...
On Feb. 15, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will celebrate its centennial in the United States. Ahmadiyya is a revivalist movement in Islam founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India in 1889. Ahmadi Muslims believe that Ahmad was the symbolic second coming of Jesus in a sense similar to how the New Testament states Jesus of Nazareth spoke of John the Baptist as the second coming of the Old Testament...
The Thanksgiving holiday truly has a universal and never-ending appeal. The tradition is believed to have started by the early 17th century Pilgrims, who reaped successful harvests and thus were able to make their abode in the land that came to be known as the United States of America. The Pilgrims were also known to have migrated to America to escape religious persecution in their former...
Originally Published in the Washington Observer on December 9th, 2017 For decades the Israel-Palestine question has a been a divisive issue that sometimes seems impossible to solve. Many U.S. presidents have attempted to broker peace agreements between the two sides with limited progress. Progress on the issue has been at a standstill for many years and with President Trump’s announcement to...
Originally Published in the Sky Valley Chronicle on March 4th, 2018 America needs to change the way we respond to tragedy and increase our dialogue. We have become far too cynical and it has become a roadblock to any type of progress. There was a strong reaction last week when National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch commented at the conservative CPAC conference saying, “many in legacy...