Originally Published in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I have a favorite line from a poem, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Our nation needs to work together to fight intolerance regardless of how difficult it is because it will make the difference to...
Originally Published in The Star Ledger What was the aim of the movie “Innocence of Muslims” if not to hurt the feelings of more than 1 billion Muslims across the globe? The moviemaker not only succeeded in achieving this objective, he was indirectly responsible for the loss of innocent lives, including that of the U.S. ambassador to Libya. That said, responding with violence...
Originally Published in The Dallas Morning News The murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens is an abhorrent and inexcusable crime. Murder has no place in Islam. Nowhere in the Quran is anyone permitted to harm, riot or kill anyone for speaking against Islam or Prophet Muhammad. The very actions the rioters took violate the example set by Prophet Muhammad. When a mob was about to...
Originally Published in The Washington Post As with many of you, my Twitter feed spiked Wednesday with tweets about an anti-Islam film and ensuing murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. Moments later and likewise, posts demanding an unequivocal condemnation from American Muslims flooded my Facebook. Though it astounds me that some hold Muslim Americans accountable on behalf of...
Originally Published in The Perry Hall Patch Sinaan A. Younus, a sixth grade student at Perry Hall Middle School, submitted the following as a letter to the editor. 9/11 Memorial—a monument or a tourist attraction? As an 11-year-old, I was both touched and shocked to visit the 9/11 Memorial earlier this year. I was touched to see how we, as a country, have honored the people who lost their lives...
Originally Published in The Washington Post “You don’t have to do this! You shouldn’t have to. It’s a disgrace.” At the height of the 2010 Park 51 “Ground Zero Mosque” controversies, I, along with thousands of Muslim American youth nationwide, was engrossed in a massive “Muslims for Peace” flyer distribution. Days before the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11, I met my match at a Wisconsin State Fair...
Originally Published in The Express-Times, Lehigh Valley Edition and The Morning Call Eleven years have passed, yet memories of the horrific event remain fresh. On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 American civilians were killed. The mastermind professed Islam as his religion, even though we read in the Holy Quran, “whosoever killed a person … it shall be as if he had killed all mankind.”...
Originally Published in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee I find it alarming that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, has been declared “sane” by Norwegian courts (“Mass murderer gets at least 21-year term,” Aug. 25). Indeed, being declared sane was part of Breivik’s master plan. He wanted to murder, get caught and draw public attention to...
Originally Published in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post The straw man of the famous post-Sept. 11 slogan, “Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim” was debunked by a 2005 FBI report. It showed that only 6 percent of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by extremists calling themselves Muslims. But one group has sustained the...
Originally Published in The New Haven Register A crime against one religious group is an attack upon all of us in America. It doesn’t matter if your background or birthplace is different. Every house of worship on American soil is sacred. So said our Founding Fathers. John Adams, for instance, wrote: “No subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for...