Originally published on Dec 29, 2016 in “The Huffington Post“ By Amer Aziz I wasn’t all that surprised. Even before election night, I had come across the odd Muslim boldly declaring their intention to vote for Donald Trump. And so, I thought, given Trump’s anti-Muslim image, for every openly pro-Trump Muslim there must be several hidden ones. President-elect Donald Trump earned Muslim...
Leave the Locker Room, Trump
Originally Published in The Michigan Daily Mike Pence swings through Michigan College Republicans officially endorse Trump-Pence ticket Students react to second presidential debate If you haven’t heard, Donald Trump is in a lot of hot water. In a video recording from 2005 released on Friday by The Washington Post, Mr. Trump is recorded making crude and sexist remarks regarding women. Last night...
Trump’s Muslim Ban Is Unconstitutional and Harms America
Originally posted on NewsWeek The great Indian scholar and immigrant Muslim missionary, Dr. Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, was immediately detained upon arriving in Philadelphia in 1920. In a racially charged nation, at a time when the KKK was 4 million strong, Sadiq—an Indian missionary for the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community—had little chance of equal treatment. The immigration police feared he...
Ahmad: Muslim community looking for deeper discussion
Originally posted in The Northwestern On April 15, Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam members in Oshkosh, opened their doors to the community to gather and find out more about Islam. Our topic was “Demystifying Islam”. The very purpose was to allow for an open dialogue and invite any questions, especially the ones termed “Difficult”. By any estimation of how to gauge the success of a gathering, it was a...
Imran Khan is no Jinnah
Originally published in Pakistan Daily Times I was living in New Jersey in the summer of 2011 when Governor Chris Christie appointed Sohail Muhammed to the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey. Almost immediately, the governor faced a serious backlash from the conservative right, which attacked his move to appoint a US Muslim judge to high office. Governor Christie was unmoved. With the...
The ‘Peace’ Monstrosity
Originally published in the Pak Tea House With the death of anti-Pakistan outlaw Hakimullah Mehsud, our right-wing anchors and politicians have begun howling foul and have termed his killing as ‘murder of peace’. As head of TTP, Mehsud had taken responsibility for (i) the attacks on Mehran naval base, (ii) the killing of Pakistan army officers and soldiers, and (iii)...
Lawmakers must rise above politics and craft sensible gun control laws
Three months after the shocking Newtown tragedy, America’s top lawmakers remain unable to take action on gun-control legislation. Instead, a fierce fight between President Obama and the gun lobby is on the rise. The gun lobby portrays Obama as an elite hypocrite who wants to abolish the Second Amendment by taking away Americans’ right to self-defense. Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights...
Unlike with politics, unity is now likely
Originally published in Star Tribune
In his first remarks after being elected, Pope Francis said: “Let there be brotherhood among us.” I hope that we as Muslims and Christians can unite and establish the brotherhood to which the pope alluded.
Not all Republicans are Islamophobes but all Islamophobes are Republicans
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...