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The Dangerous Side of the Free Speech Debate

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Originally published in the Huffington Post With last week’s release of Charlie Hebdo’s newest edition, marking the one-year anniversary of the infamous terrorist attack on its offices that killed 12 people, once again the debate about free speech has been ignited. In its recent publication, the editors at the magazine decided to take aim at all religion and blame God for terrorism...

Sharp Response to his Bigotry is Heartening

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Originally Published in the Star Tribune The inflammatory comments made by Big Stone County Republican Party chairman Jack Whitley, and the subsequent developments, made me, as an American Muslim, appreciate how fortunate I am to reside in this country (“FB posts cost GOP boss day job,” Nov. 25). From the action taken by business owners Bob and Sue Kulbeik to stand up against bigotry, to the...

Eid a time to remember shared history

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Originally published in the Orange County Register This weekend, Muslims around the world will be celebrating the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which concludes the ritual of Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and celebrates events during the time of the patriarch prophet Abraham. During Eid, Muslims are enjoined to sacrifice animals in which one-third of the portion of meat is given to neighbors, one...

Did Islamic Beliefs Provoke Alton Nolen to Murder?

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Originally published in OnFaith A horrifying tragedy in Oklahoma has been hijacked to become a tool of partisan politics, and lost is the practice of an intelligent discourse. Last Thursday, 30-year-old Alton Nolen brutally attacked co-workers at a food processing plant, killing and decapitating 54-year-old Colleen Hufford and attempting to kill 43-year-old Traci Johnson. Let’s get some facts...

10 Fabrications Muslim Leaders Need to Stop Making About Ahmadi Muslims

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Originally published in the Huffington Post It is no secret I’ve been critical of Muslim leadership for their deafening apathy and silence over the 125-year worldwide persecution of Ahmadi Muslims. To add insult to injury, every time a new atrocity emerges I’m bombarded with standard anti-Ahmadi talking points in a shameless attempt to justify the violence. Just recently in...

The Key to Defeating ISIS

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Originally published in the Huffington Post While President Obama reveals his plan to obliterate ISIS with force, and Bill Maher continues his ignorant rant to tie ISIS to Islam, New York Times journalist David Brooks provides the correct counter to ISIS in his September 4 column, “But, ultimately, [ISIS is] a spiritual movement that will have to be surmounted by a superior version of Islam...

My letter to President Obama

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Originally published in Twin Cities Daily Planet As part of this great nation’s foreign policy, when injustice takes place in any part of the world, America usually takes a stand. We saw this in the case of Russian atrocities in Ukraine, in America’s unity with the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). However when it comes to Palestine, America turns a blind eye with the EU and the UN...

A Muslim’s Ramadan Message to ISIS: You Don’t Speak for Islam

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Originally published in the Huffington Post The terrorist organization ISIS has set a new low standard of barbarity and inhumanity. Their most recent act of terrorism is a demand that Christians either convert, pay the jizya, leave their homes, or be killed. Their destruction of an 1800-year-old church in Mosul is painful, condemnable without exception, and wholly in violation of every...

Still not ready to give fasting a try?

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Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer In response to the Boston Tea Party, King George III ordered a blockade of Boston Harbor. Concerned by the anticipated economic strain, our Founding Fathers turned, not to arms or protest, but to God. In the summer of 1774, Thomas Jefferson drafted a “Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer” resolution. And so, on June 1, 1774, among...

A Ramadan Message to ISIS: You Don’t Speak For Islam

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Originally published in A Hotchpotch Hijabi in Italy The terrorist organization ISIS has set a new low standard of barbarity and inhumanity. Their most recent act of terrorism is a demand that Christians either convert, pay the jizya, leave their homes, or be killed.      Nothing in Islam or Prophet Muhammad’s example supports ISIS’s barbarity. The below modified excerpt from my...