Originally posted in Mercury News Just five weeks earlier we were laughing and arguing as mother and son often do. But on Oct. 22, 2015 I hugged my mother, Amatul Karim Nusrat Chaudhry, for the last time. On Sept. 14 all appeared well. On Sept. 17 we discovered end stage cancer in her liver, rapidly spreading throughout her abdomen. By Oct. 22, my mother’s vitals began to fade, and I...
Originally Published on Faithstreet.com I will readily admit that a look at Muslim nations today paints a rather bleak picture. Some have spiraled into chaos, while others are choking under the pale of dysfunction and directionless, corrupt leadership. Extremism, violence, and intolerance seem unstoppable. Further exacerbating this perilous state of affairs are biased mouthpieces of Islamophobia...
Originally published in The Huffington Post Dear daughter, Next month I’ll become a father for the first time to a girl. You will be my daughter. Your mother and I are blessed with two boys already, and we are thrilled to finally have the blessing of a girl in our home. But, my dear, as I look around the world I see a frightening reality. One in which women are valued less than men...
When I tell my friends how I met my fiancée, they say I got the easy way out. Many of them tell me the tales of dating they have had to go through to win over their current life partners. Unlike the norm, I met my fiancé through a process more akin to one from a Jane Austin novel. I had met her while studying at UC Berkeley and was attracted by her character and her hijab. A few years later when...
Originally published in The Oregonian Q. Let’s start with the book title itself: “Demystifying Islam: Tackling the Tough Questions.” What do you think are the two or three most common misunderstandings among Americans about Islamic faith and culture? Zafar: First, there seems to be a major misconception that Islam is a monolithic entity, bereft of true diversity (of both...
Originally published in The Huffington Post “She made me do it.” I hear this phrase all too often, and each time I hear it my heart bleeds. In my pro bono legal practice, I represent indigent women who suffer or have suffered through domestic violence. As an attorney, as a Muslim, as a husband, and as an uncle to five beautiful nieces, I see my clients as individuals that could just...
Originally published in USA Today The world has been gripped by the deplorable story evolving in Nigeria about the mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls between the ages of 16 and 18. Their “crime” was simply that they were girls and had the audacity to seek an education. Meet Boko Haram, the name most commonly used to refer to a sadistic terrorist organization in Nigeria who...
Originally published in The Northwestern What makes me furious today is that whenever a Muslim extremist group wants to push a personal political agenda anywhere in the world, it is at the cost of human suffering and the unjustifiable use of the name of Islam. This time, it is 276 Nigerian school girls who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram (a banned terrorist group). As a father of a daughter, I...
Originally published in the Orange County Register Boko Haram is another example of a terrorist organization spitting in the face of the religion it tries to represent. The abduction and imprisonment of innocent girls misrepresents Islam. The group’s actions are a blatant violation of the Qur’anic injunction: “O ye who believe! It is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will; nor...
Originally published in The Duluth News Tribune Part of the feedback on my April 6th opinion editorial, “Quran forbids men from hurting wives,” indicates a mistaken inference by some that the Holy Quran gives a husband the right to control his wife, making them unequal partners in marriage. While empathizing with those who felt that way, I would like to clarify that the Holy Quran does not allow...