Originally published in the Huffington Post My name is Kashif Chaudhry. I am a Pakistani immigrant to the United States. Currently, I am completing a Cardiology fellowship in Boston. While speaking at Yale a few days back, Ayaan Hirsi Ali declared war on me. But why? To provide some perspective, I am a Muslim who belongs to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the single...
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...
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...
Originally published in the Good Men Project Sharia, like many Arabic words in a post-9/11 world, is a touchy subject. Enraged thoughts are common from the mere utterance of these words. This leads to unsubstantiated opinions mixing in with facts. This is evident in Dom’s piece “If Liberals knew these 5 Sharia laws, they’d be ‘Islamophobic’ too”. A writer can, with a few strokes of her pen...
Originally published in FaithStreet In his recent Washington Times article about the way Islamic law has shaped how Muslims live, Daniel Pipes reveals several surprising “facts” about Islam. For example, I was surprised to learn that Muslims not eating pork has resulted in “catastrophic deforestation” — even though United Nations studies have shown that South America and southern parts of Africa...
Originally published in Zion-Benton News As Americans, this Jan. 20th we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We dedicate the day to his achievements and his successes. Dr. King was a legend who combated racial inequality through nonviolence. Dr. King organised the 1963 march on Washington, D.C. calling it, “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.” As...
Originally Published in the Daily Times How could a person celebrate Mandela’s fight against discrimination in his society and condone the same bigotry against a community at home? How can we love the doctor and the disease he fights, at the same time? One of the world’s most celebrated heroes passed away this week. Nelson Mandela was known for his persistent and...
Originally Published in The Santa Clarita Valley Signal This month brought a close to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is marked by 30 days of fasting for Muslims from dawn to dusk and culminates with a day of celebration and festivity known as Eid-ul-Fitr. However, the Quran states that fasting is not a new phenomenon in the religion of Islam, but has had prescription in earlier...
Originally published in The Santa Clarity Valley Signal This month brought a close to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is marked by 30 days of fasting for Muslims from dawn to dusk and culminates with a day of celebration and festivity known as Eid-ul-Fitr. However, the Quran states that fasting is not a new phenomenon in the religion of Islam, but has had prescription in earlier...
Originally Published in the Huffington Post It took 9,000 officers, five days, and roughly $1 billion in lost revenue for Boston, but suspect one is dead and suspect two is in custody. So let me start with the standard roll call: As an American Muslim, I condemn all violence in the name of religion. Terrorism has no religion and Islam is no exception. If the Tsarnaev brothers are guilty of the...