Originally Published in The Washington Post While many celebrated the winter holidays, news broke of the arrest in Saudi Arabia of liberal writer Turki Al Hamad for allegedly insulting Islam on Twitter. We also heard of another Saudi activist, Raif Badawi, who was arrested in June and will now continue with his trial, accused of apostasy for ridiculing Saudi Arabia’s religious police and making...
Originally Published in The Washington Post As we prepare to lay 26 souls to rest in Newtown, Conn., countless are left behind, alone. As long as good people have existed, bad things have happened to them. And as long as religion has existed, believers and non-believers alike rightfully ask, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” Islam’s answer to the question of suffering does not...
Originally Published in The Washington Post Conflict became inevitable when the United Nations approved the 1947 Israel/Palestine partition. Over six decades later, the region’s health continues to suffer and the world hangs precariously close to global conflict. While Palestine’s 2012 upgrade to “permanent observer” is a much-needed step forward, it alone is not enough. In the conflict over...
Originally Published in The Washington Post and The Express Tribune, Pakistan. Plato may have inadvertently summed up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 2,500 years ago when he is thought to have declared: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” The cyclical bloodshed in the Arab-Israeli conflict is a direct...
Originally Published in The Washington Post and The Huffington Post Someone is missing from this picture. Because just when I was wondering if extremists could do anymore damage to Islam’s image, they committed yet another despicable act. As if flogging the adulterers, executing the civilians, and selling the women were not enough, on Oct. 8, the Taliban attempted to assassinate a 14-year...
Originally Published in The Washington Post As an American Muslim activist, I receive this question all too often: “America is about freedom, free speech, and democracy—why do Muslims hate us?” The question is not at all why they hate us, but why don’t we get it. Many of age Americans remember Sept. 11, 2001—a day we justly cried out for freedom, free speech, and democracy. Fewer, however...
Originally Published in The Washington Post It’s not about a clash of ideologies or a clash of civilizations; it is a clash between two groups of idiots. An Israeli spokesman characterized the alleged filmmaker as “an unspeakable idiot.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) described the video as “stupid,” “inaccurate” and “provocative.” It only provided a lame excuse to the other group of...
Originally Published in The Washington Post As with many of you, my Twitter feed spiked Wednesday with tweets about an anti-Islam film and ensuing murder of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. Moments later and likewise, posts demanding an unequivocal condemnation from American Muslims flooded my Facebook. Though it astounds me that some hold Muslim Americans accountable on behalf of...
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...