Originally Published in The Huffington Post There is never a dispute about the “what” and “who” of mass shootings. For instance, take the recent attack on September 16. What: Thirteen killed and over a dozen injured in a rampage at the Washington D.C. naval yard. Who: A 34-year-old African American male, Aaron Alexis with security access to the building. But mention the...
Originally Published in The Express Tribune I was putting my shoes on, leaving for my evening prayers, when my phone buzzed with a text: “Saw a CNN byline linking ‘Night of Power’ to the recent terror alert. Talk of sensationalism.” You know how it goes. The story was largely accurate – prompted by fears of a terrorist attack, in an unprecedented move on Sunday; the US closed 21 embassies across...
Originally published in The Huffington Post There is never a dispute about the “what” and “who” of mass shootings. For instance, take the recent attack on September 16. What: Thirteen killed and over a dozen injured in a rampage at the Washington D.C. naval yard. Who: A 34-year-old African American male, Aaron Alexis with security access to the building. But mention the...
Originally published in The Huffington Post As Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons at the outskirts of Damascus and President Obama mulls a U.S. military response, some theologians hope for an alarming endgame to the 30-month-long Syrian conflict. For these Christians and Muslim, the civil war in Syria is a prelude to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Before you label...
Originally published in The Express Tribune I was putting my shoes on, leaving for my evening prayers, when my phone buzzed with a text: “Saw a CNN byline linking ‘Night of Power’ to the recent terror alert. Talk of sensationalism.” You know how it goes. The story was largely accurate – prompted by fears of a terrorist attack, in an unprecedented move on Sunday; the US closed 21 embassies across...
Originally published in Santa Barbara Independent The atmosphere feels a bit different at 3:50 a.m. Hot summer days are suddenly cooled by the solitude this time of the night creates. Not only are many people at this hour awakening from a drunken stupor, but during the month of Ramadan, 1.3 billion Muslims in the world are awakening to pray and eat before their fast. Muslims throughout the...
Originally published in The Oshkosh Northwestern Since we are all in the business of labeling things these days, let me begin with a couplet from Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” where Juliet, the protagonist, responds to her love Romeo, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Her angle was that names...
Originally Published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer It is unfortunate that when I first heard about the Boston Marathon bombings, instead of thinking “Oh, God, please have mercy on the victims and their families,” I thought, “Oh, God, please do not let the perpetrators be Muslim.” When I heard the perpetrators were from Chechnya, I made another mistake; I sighed with relief...