As a native of Southern California, I fulfilled my stereotype and learned to surf at a young age. What I didn't expect to find after converting to Islam in 2001 were many other Muslim girls who shared my hobby. Yes, I may have had an open mind about the religion,...

So many times, I've walked the glittering hallways of malls around the world, ogling designer bags or heels or spent an evening putting together stylish outfits on Polyvore, only to feel a guilty superficiality wash over me knowing that my love of all that glitters seems to conflict with my...

What the heck are my qualifications for writing this post? I don't have a Ph.D. or even a bachelor's degree in psychology or sociology. I'm not a certified therapist or a peer counselor or anything like that. So my qualification is simply my self-proclaimed assertion that I just "get it"...

I have now called Islam my religion and way of life for 10 years. During this decade, I have come to realize that the main obstacle to interfaith understanding and mutual respect between Muslims and non-Muslims is the shroud of mystique that still surrounds Islam, despite its spotlight media coverage...

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food, drink and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset. However, these physical abstentions are but the superficial manifestations of phenomenon occurring inside the...

The holy month of Ramadan is here, and the streets of Abu Dhabi are filled with festive lighting and swarms of Emirates and expats completing their last minute preparations for the holiday season.

As an expat from California and as a Muslim, this is an entirely new experience for...

Since meeting my husband a few years ago, I have heard countless stories relating to the political climate of Egypt. Growing up in Cairo, my husband quickly learned that the "democracy" he purportedly lived in was a sham. He and his friends and family, in the privacy of their apartments,...

I just got off the phone with a client of mine from Arizona. Really sweet little old lady, 66 years old, living on Social Security. Every time I talk to her, she always likes to chat about politics with me. Usually it's her doing the talking and me doing the...

Let's just be real about it -- soccer hasn't caught on with the American public. Most of us don't even know the rules of the game let alone our MLS players' names or statistics. There have been hundreds of thousands of debates raging over the last few decades as to...