Originally Published in the Huffington Post Take for example, last week’s dual-covers of the Time, flaunting two men and two women kissing with a headline “Gay Marriage Already Won.” Knowing how millions of opponents of same-sex marriage might react to such images, Time‘s Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, preemptively coaxed them toward a decision by writing this in...
Three months after the shocking Newtown tragedy, America’s top lawmakers remain unable to take action on gun-control legislation. Instead, a fierce fight between President Obama and the gun lobby is on the rise. The gun lobby portrays Obama as an elite hypocrite who wants to abolish the Second Amendment by taking away Americans’ right to self-defense. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights...
Billa was his nickname. A poor, uneducated Christian boy who cleaned sewer lines, removed garbage and, on a good day, played cricket with us on the streets of Lahore. I fondly remember how he could hit the ball out of the park and make the team proud. But life in Pakistan was rife with contradictions. In the afternoon, the team heard sermons narrating Muslim stories of equal treatment of non...
Originally published in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “If any Church or other place of worship stands in need of protection, they will find us standing shoulder to shoulder with them.” His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad – the worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the fifth successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian and the only existing Muslim caliph – said this to...
Originally Published in the Huffington Post Feb. 28 came and went, and thus ended Pope Benedict’s short tenure. According to most, no claimant to Divine office remains on Earth, at least until the next pope is elected. On the contrary, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the world’s only Khalifa and head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, continues his lifelong Divinely...
Pakistan ambassador to America Sherry Rehman’s Twitter bio declares, “Will take a bullet for the motherland but hope our children don’t have to.” But what is an ambassador to do when that bullet comes from Pakistan and strikes her in the back? Last month, Pakistan took the unprecedented step and charged their own ambassador with blasphemy — a crime that carries the...
More than 30 years ago, when my parents enrolled me in St. Anthony’s, a Catholic school in Pakistan, our neighbors expressed a concern: Will my faith be at risk because of attending a Catholic school? But I experienced no conflict. I noted how the nuns wore a black head cover with a long dress — just like my mother. I observed how the priests were kind — just like my father. I...
Originally Appeared on the Rochester Hills Patch In order for someone to be a Muslim, he or she must recite the “kalma”, or pledge. “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” Of course there is so much more to being a Muslim than just reciting words. A Muslim must be pious, peaceful, loving, submissive to God, and a servant to Mankind. But rarely do we see these...
Originally published in The Huffington Post Sen. Mitch McConnell is guilty on both counts: What he believed to be news was a joke, and what he missed was the real news. It started on Nov. 12, when on The Duffle Blog, America’s John Stewart for the fake and funny military news made an Onion-style joke that the Obama administration was preparing to give the same GI Bill benefits, offered to...
Originally published in Hartford Although Muslims don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, millions of them across the globe do commemorate a sign of God’s love for the real Islam six days after. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community who believe in both Messiahs, Jesus and Ahmad, honor Yawm Al Musleh Ma’ud or the Promised Reformer Day on Feb 20. As was God’s way with some of His earlier blessed elects like...