Originally published in Onfaith woke today to texts, emails, tweets, and Facebook messages of the horrific attack on Charlie Hebdo. The stabbing pain of innocent life lost resonated through my heart. These are volatile times, and this volatile situation only adds to the fire. As one of some 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, the additional inescapable thought crossed my mind: “Please don’t let...
Originally published in Huffington Post Every Muslim knows several, if not dozens, who chose to convert to Islam as a young adult or even later in life. According to Pew Research, “Two-thirds (67 percent) of all converts to Islam in the U.S. came from Protestant churches, 10 percent came from Catholicism, and just five percent from other religions. Nearly one-in-seven converts to...
Originally published in Patheos Atheists often mock those who believe in the existence of God, saying that such an absurdity is contrary to common sense. They say that though the existence of God cannot be conclusively disproven, neither can the existence of Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, or unicorns. Those who are critical of theism often object on principle, presenting their ideas as...
Originally published in Lancaster Eagle-Gazette n 1943, Nazi forces in Poland rounded up roughly 300,000 Jews and packed them into an area of 3.3-square kilometers in central Warsaw. Prisoners endured horrendous conditions and, load-by-load, were taken to Treblinka extermination camp to meet their end. One group among them, however, refused to be defeated. And so ensued the Warsaw Ghetto...
Originally published in OpedNews May peace be upon all my readers. This past weekend was very hot and sunny in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, yet a large number of Muslims gathered for the annual convention. It is the oldest annual convention of its kind in the United States and it is still going very strong. I also was in attendance at the convention, as a member of the community and a guest of the...
The recent discovery of the planet dubbed Kepler-452b or Earth 2.0 by NASA within the habitable region of the Milky Way galaxy has created a lot of excitement and, of course, being touted as headache for religion. According to Dr. Jeff Schweitzer recent article, if God is All-Knowing then somewhere in the book of nature there should be unambiguous proof or hint about His knowledge relating to...
In an article published in the Wall Street Journal entitled Why Islam needs a reformation, Ayaan Hirsi listed five areas of Islam that “require amendment.” Hirsi is pointing out the violent behavior of certain people or groups who call themselves Muslims, attributing it to Islam, and suggesting a man-made reform to solve it. Her five point reformation plan is not the solution to the...
The Iran nuclear deal has started political posturing from both sides as congressional members begin assessing the deal in the next few weeks. The GOP sees Iran nuke deal as a chance to cultivate Jewish voters. Various American Jewish organizations are arming themselves for multi-million dollar campaigns “targeting lawmakers still undecided about this agreement”. Behind the scenes of this...
George Washington once said, “Discipline is the soul of an army.” Indeed, our founding father knew what discipline meant when just a handful of Americans had to earn the freedom that we hold dear today. The soul of that revolutionary army is what created the soul of America today. A very little known fact from that time is that part of the soul of those early patriots were the souls of American...
The terrible news of four Marines and a sailor shot to death in Chattanooga doesn’t come as a surprise. While details remain sketchy, the story line in similar attacks is all too familiar: A young man born and bred in the West with a seemingly normal life and a future falls prey to an extremist ideology and goes up in flames taking down innocents with him. What little we know about Muhammad...