Originally Published in The Huffington Post Our hospital’s chapel is typically empty. I offer my afternoon prayers there. Yesterday, as I was hopping from one patient room to another, I saw the dreadful slide of “Breaking News” of the Boston Bombings across TV screens. And even before I knew the death count, my Twitter feed was abuzz with various forms of prayer requests and...
Originally Published in Mercurynews.com Four Californian Muslims have been arrested on account of their plans to join the Taliban and kill Americans. This comes as a big hit to me as a 23-year-old Californian Muslim. Like most Muslims, I wholly condemn these people. But as a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, denouncing such acts is part of my DNA. My fellow Americans, know that organized...
Originally Published in The New Jersey Record. Regarding “Man held in N.Y.C. bombing scheme” (Page A-1, Oct. 18): As an American Muslim, I strongly condemn Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis’ attempt to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He claims that he was inspired by Osama bin Laden’s teachings. While the Quran instructs Muslims not to create disorder in...
Originally Published in The Washington Post “You don’t have to do this! You shouldn’t have to. It’s a disgrace.” At the height of the 2010 Park 51 “Ground Zero Mosque” controversies, I, along with thousands of Muslim American youth nationwide, was engrossed in a massive “Muslims for Peace” flyer distribution. Days before the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11, I met my match at a Wisconsin State Fair...
Originally Published in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee I find it alarming that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer, has been declared “sane” by Norwegian courts (“Mass murderer gets at least 21-year term,” Aug. 25). Indeed, being declared sane was part of Breivik’s master plan. He wanted to murder, get caught and draw public attention to...
Originally Published in The New Haven Register A crime against one religious group is an attack upon all of us in America. It doesn’t matter if your background or birthplace is different. Every house of worship on American soil is sacred. So said our Founding Fathers. John Adams, for instance, wrote: “No subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for...
Originally Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Times I am deeply saddened by Sunday’s tragic events at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin (“Assault on Sikh temple kills six,” Monday), a place of worship with the purpose of developing people into better human beings. As a Muslim, I know that Sikhs face similar discrimination, often due to their attire and...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post I was attending a LIVE online conference this morning when a friend’s email instantly brought tears to my eyes. He broke the news of the tragic shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee. I was racked with pain. My first reaction was to pray to God to ease the suffering of those directly affected by the tragedy and then to contact my friends at the Sikh...
Originally Posted on The Huffington Post I was fasting but had to fight the incessant urge to vomit, as my Twitter feed spiked with tweets about a shooting at a Sikh Gurdwara. Hoping against hope it was a mistake, my heart began to race and my teeth clenched as several news reports confirmed the incident. Another terrorist attack against innocent souls, this time just south of Milwaukee, but an...
Originally Published in The New Haven Register What society would tolerate a doctor who lies to his patient about his newly developed cancer, telling him it’s something else? Such a doctor would be stripped of his license to practice and might do jail time. Why? Because cancer ranks as the second-leading cause of death in the U.S., and it’s often curable if caught early. In medicine, gross...