Originally published in OnFaith Last week, I read with great interest Herb Silverman’s column describing six events that led him to believe that “Islam is the worst and most dangerous religion by all human rights standards.” Although I believe Islamophobia to be a real phenomenon, I do not consider Mr. Silverman to be an Islamophobe.Rather, he brings up legitimate concerns with the actions...
Originally published in The Huffington Post The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram recently kidnapped young girls, allegedly to sell into sexual slavery. Extremist Muslim clerics and extreme critics of Islam have long shared the conviction – amongst some others – that Islam allows keeping slaves, at least in certain circumstances, and permits their rape. This myth is completely...
Originally published in The Hartford Courant There is a dire need to stand up against religious persecution. Last Monday, after paying tribute to our men and women in uniform on Memorial Day, my religious community, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA, commemorated another recent American hero, who made the ultimate sacrifice for his service. Dr. Mehdi Qamar, a cardiologist practicing near...
Originally published in Twin Cities Daily Planet On Monday, May 25, Ohio based cardiologist, Dr. Mehdi Ali was assassinated in Pakistan. According to a report in the New York Times: “An American doctor volunteering at a hospital in eastern Pakistan was shot to death on Monday in front of his wife and 3-year-old son in the latest attack on a follower of the minority Ahmadi faith at a time of...
Originally published in The Chicago Tribune I would like to take time to remember the fallen soldiers who have served throughout our country’s history. These powerful men and women sacrificed their lives, their wealth and their time for the sake of their country. As a Muslim American, I feel as though it is my duty to honor and salute these fallen soldiers this Memorial Day for their...
Originally published in The Asbury Park Press I was born in Pakistan but immigrated to the United States in 1998. The primary reason that I left Pakistan was the persecution that I faced because of my religious beliefs. In fact, an amendment to the Pakistani constitution in 1974 declared my sect, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, “non-Muslim,” thereby opening the door to state-sponsored persecution...
Originally published in The Baltimore Sun I believe the government should be allowed to collect metadata on our calls (“Judge upholds NSA phone scrutiny,” Dec. 28). I find Washington Judge Richard J. Leon’s rejection of NSA spying as “almost Orwellian” and New York Judge William H. Pauley’s acceptance of the practice easily reconcilable. It is human nature to...
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 Time News The fiasco continues. Islamophobes are fabricating the myth that Islam promotes Jew-hatred by taking out ads on D.C. buses. Take a look at the ad, linked above—does anyone else find it insane that these ignorant people are spending money promoting pictures of Adolf Hitler? Now, certainly some Muslims are anti-Jewish, as are some Christians, agnostics...