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 published in Houston Chronicle Regarding “Police hunt gunman who killed 12 at weekly” (Page A4, Thursday), as a Muslim-American, I condemn the reprehensible atrocities and extend my profound condolences to the families of these victims. While the perpetrators felt that the Charlie Hebdo newspaper had desecrated the image of the Prophet Muhammad, they responded by...
Originally Published in The Huffington Post As this brown, bearded Muslim was getting ready to pick up his Thanksgiving turkey order from a local Boston Market, news broke of racist graffiti in New York city. Gap had recently launched a holiday ad campaign featuring diverse models. One such ad showcasing the famous designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia, a Sikh American, had been vandalized, its...
Originally published in New Haven Register “All is fair in love and war.” Sixteenth century English poet John Lyly’s famous proverb means that the rules of fairness don’t count under special circumstances. In more recent times, you might remember the famous line “by any means necessary” that Malcolm X used to describe his view on the civil rights movement. The...