Originally published in the Pak Tea House Given the sensitive subject of this article, let me begin with a brief introduction of myself. The reader may appreciate knowing ahead that I am an Ahmadi-Muslim. I was born in Pakistan to a family with some Ahmadis but mostly Sunni-orthodox. I have lived and worked in Pakistan for many years. Currently, I reside in the United States of America. Today, I...
Originally published in Patheos Recently The Atlantic published a piece titled, “What ISIS Really Wants.” The lengthy piece makes numerous fallacious claims about ISIS and its relation to Islam and Islamic doctrine. Accordingly, and significantly, it misses the strategy necessary to counter and overcome ISIS terrorism. Perhaps most frustrating about the article is it offers no new insights...
Originally published in Huffington Post “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship. That has nothing to do with business of state.” Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, spoke these words on the eve of the end of British rule over India. Despite these words, his country has fell to painful depths at the...
Originally posted in Duluth News Tribune On April 2, a Somali-based terrorist group called Al-Shabab attacked a Kenyan school, killing nearly 150 students, mostly Christians. Al-Shabab’s spokesperson told BBC it attacked the school because “it’s on Muslim land colonized by non-Muslims.” The baseless rationale behind Al-Shabab’s despicable act reminded me of an old Christian lady I met a few years...
Originally posted on The Daily Tribune Recently, there have been allegations within the media regarding discrimination in the City of Rochester Hills. Our Mosque, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center, is located in this beautiful city and though I cannot speak to every aspect of discrimination, or for other groups claiming to be discriminated against, I can say we have experience that is...
Originally posted on The Tribune Five years ago, I lost close friends in one of the most gruesome terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil. In twin attacks on two major Ahmadi places of worship in Lahore, 88 worshippers were martyred by the Taliban. It was a painfully bloody day. This weekend, I woke up to sad news from Pakistan that made me relive some of that pain. Fourteen worshipers were martyred...
Originally posted in Patheos By now it’s painfully obvious mainstream media loves a juicy terrorism story involving Muslims – but comparatively ignores the vast majority of the world’s Muslims who promote peace. The topic of caliphate perfectly illustrates this double standard. Since ISIS proclaimed their leader as a caliph about nine months ago, the media has given them round the clock coverage...
Originally posted on Huffington Post The so-called Islamic State (IS) continues to demonstrate the most barbaric and heinous forms of torture, killing of innocent people for the world to witness in horror. The recent killings of Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto of Japan, the burning alive of Jordanian pilot Moaz Kasasbeh and the cold-blooded killing of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya highlight the new...
Originally posted in Al-Talib An armada of thoughts clash against the mind, march in a cadre, colorfully interweave, and ultimately find confluence, architecting the very physics of a single, untamed noise, awaiting to spill against the silhouette of the subconscious. There it knocks on the heart in a faint, muffled concerto, hoping to be heard. A stroke of the pen beckons from the other side...
Originally published in Onfaith Wednesday’s brazen attack in the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo has left many people the world over shocked, saddened, and even infuriated. As the smoke cleared and we learned that 12 people were killed at the hands of three individuals wearing commando uniforms who brandished automatic weapons that were fired indiscriminately at the office, we...