The dust has yet to settle in response to the horrific Boston bombings and the related events that have unfolded since then. It has been an incredible, difficult and painful week for all Americans, to say the least. Without a doubt, it will take time for our nation to process...

Long awaited Spring has finally arrived to northern hemisphere. The mother earth is busy unveiling many of her beauties as God Almighty models many different types of resurrections to us through this seasonal event. Islam encourages us to be people of pondering and deep reflections through the many verses of...

My beautiful state of North Carolina appeared in national and international news headlines last week in a troubling fashion. The Rowan County Defense of Religion Act, supported by 14 state legislators, all of whom are from the same party, sparked a controversy whose dust has yet to settle. It is...

For those who follow closely, exciting and encouraging developments have been taking place recently in my native country of Turkey. Just last Thursday, the jailed Kurdish separatist leader of PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), Abdullah Ocalan, declared a "formal and clear cease-fire" with Turkey to end the bloody conflict that...

I wonder if I am the only one deeply disturbed and troubled by the recent Hollywood movie, "Argo." My increasing sense of loneliness and alienation with "Argo" has been fed by the movie's overrated fame, its undeserved success in the movie theaters and now more painfully by the multiple Oscars...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

One in every five people in the world is Chinese. As you read these lines, almost a billion and a half Chinese people all around the world have been celebrating the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai is the proper greeting...

One of the international developments that I have been following with great pain and disappointment is what has been going on in northern Mali since early 2012. For those who are not paying too much attention, here is a brief summary: Mali, a former French colony, is a West African...

Over the winter break, I was thankfully able to find some of those rare moments where I could read. One of the most interesting things I read was an amazing report on the religious landscape of our globe put together by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public...

Today is the sixth day of the Muslim New Year, and in two days we will celebrate the long-awaited Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. This is a providential overlap created by Islam's lunar calendar crossing paths with the Western Gregorian calendar. This overlap seemingly invites me and many others...

Reflecting on today's presidential election decades later, I believe many Democrats and Republicans who were actively involved in 2012 elections, either as candidates or supporters, will be highly ashamed and embarrassed of what has been said of the American-Muslim community during this critical election. More importantly, they will be ashamed...

I start this week's HuffJumuah by saying Eid Mubarak! We thank God Almighty for blessing us with, yet another joyful Eid al-Adha celebrations today. Millions of Muslims are joyfully celebrating their successful completion of their pilgrimage in the Holy sites of Islam as they earned the honorific title of Hajjah...

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

As you read these lines, millions of Muslims in Mecca are going through various stages of their life-changing pilgrimage experience. The billion and a half remaining Muslims who didn't go to...

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

One of the consistent messages of the holy Quran to her followers is addressed in the following verses: "The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil...

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

What is there to write about in today's column, other than the barbaric and heinous attacks of those heartless terrorists that took place 11 years ago today? Thousands of people in...

This column was originally published in the Duke Chronicle. It has been reprinted with permission.

America's 2012 presidential election is around the corner. We the people of this beautiful country, as the rest of the world watches very closely, will soon go through another round of...

Today is the second Friday of the Holy month of Ramadan. We have only three more weeks left to get the best and most out of Ramadan. I will use this week's HuffJummah to remind myself and all about the long list of great Ramadan opportunities that we should go...

"There is a war being waged against western civilization; against every liberal norm and value we Westerners hold dear and we must take increasingly drastic steps to defend our way of life from extinction..." or so Dutch politician Geert Wilders would have us believe.

This narrative...

One of my most painful and transformative interfaith encounters was a recent trip I made to four of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Poland with a small group of American Muslim leaders. The trip came as an unexpected answer to many years of personal prayer.

As a...

Most, if not all religions, function in the world of symbolism and communicate their universal messages to their followers through these religious symbols. Rituals, sacraments, prayers, worship services, religious ceremonies and more are nothing but to invite believers to engage with very deep ethical, moral and spiritual teachings through set...

In today's HuffPost Jummah, I would like to briefly discuss a very timely matter with you. In a few days a very special guest, a guest of God to Muslims will start. Holiest of the holy period in Islamic calendar will start with the start of the month of Rajab,...