Jihad, Jihadi, jihadist, even -- most ridiculous of all -- counter-jihadist. These labels are used by laypeople and journalists alike, often using jihad as a synonym for "any violence undertaken by Muslims." An extreme example is the ad campaign posted a few months ago on New York City...

Muslims? What Muslims? On NPR, I heard a piece by Barbara Bradley Hagerty on how evangelicals who voted for Romney were outnumbered by those of other religious communities. A quarter of the electorate is white evangelicals, but it was outnumbered by those of other communities who voted for...

I am an American Muslim, and like every other American Muslim I know, I am horrified and disgusted by the recent attacks on U.S. Embassies in Libya and Egypt. I stand with President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and numerous American Muslim organizations in unconditionally condemning these attacks. And I extend my...

Those who insist on characterizing Egypt's electrifying protests of the last week as "an Islamic uprising" fail to notice the Egyptian Christians who are protesting alongside Muslims and other Egyptians in Tahrir Square. It's an amazing mosaic of Egyptians from all walks of life: women in black robes alongside young...

Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips stated this week that Keith Ellison should be voted out of Congress because, among other reasons, he is a Muslim. (He also stated, erroneously, that Ellison was the only Muslim member of Congress.) But now, according to Salon, he's put up a...

I admit that I have crazy people in my religion. I'm disgusted every time I see a headline like the one I saw on Sep. 5: "Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician." How could I not be revolted at such an irreligious, un-Islamic, self-aggrandizing, self-promoting statement...

Hasn't the whole notion of shariah in America gotten a bit out of control? No, it hasn't -- it's gotten hugely, obscenely, ignorantly out of control. How many of those anti-Islam protesters holding "NO SHARIA LAW" signs (as if anyone were advocating shariah law in the U.S.) actually know what...

Harry Reid has capitulated to politicized fear-mongering rhetoric that, at bottom, fallaciously equates the vast majority of Muslims to the 9/11 terrorists. He stated yesterday that the Islamic Community Center planned on a site three blocks from Ground Zero (incorrectly termed the "Ground Zero Mosque") should be built elsewhere.

Yesterday, Syria banned women wearing a full face veil from university campuses, both public and private. France, of course, voted last week to ban the full face veil (the niqab) from all public areas. The reason cited by both countries is that the face veil as a threat to their...

I woke up this morning to the news that the alleged perpetrator of the NY car bomb was a Pakistani-American man. If he committed this crime -- a contemptible, cowardly one that I wholeheartedly condemn -- then I am glad he was arrested. But I couldn't help but wish he...

In France, Islamophobia is reaching new heights. A French town has recently filed a complaint against a fast food chain because the restaurant now prepares burgers from halal meat. One French politician warns against "Islamization" from eating halal meat. Apparently, eating meat killed according to Islamic butchering rules might make...

My daughter's 5th grade classroom may know more about the meaning of Allah than many in Malaysia do. Or, perhaps, the 5th graders may just be a lot less politically motivated in their development of understanding. They are certainly puzzled over the pervading debate in Malaysia about the meaning of...

"Why don't moderate Muslims stand up and say something?" I've been asked frequently on my book tour in the last year. My response is, "We are, but not everyone is listening." Our media, for example, prefers to feature oppressed Muslim women, rather than the thousands of Muslim women advocating social...

This past week, my kids and I have been preparing for Ramadan and watching old Star Trek re-runs. So it's probably unsurprising that, as I rummaged through my garage in search of my collection of Ramadan lanterns, it struck me how strikingly similar the core values in Star Trek are...

A review of the new movie, The Stoning of Soraya M, reminded me of a story I read in junior-high school. "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, described an American small town in which one person was selected by lottery each year to be stoned to death. The victim in the...

President Obama, judging from his inaugural address, knows the difference between terrorists and Muslims, but apparently CNN's Wolf Blitzer still hasn't figured it out.

In his somewhat solemn inaugural speech, President Obama issued a strong statement to terrorists: "...for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and...

Aside from the wanton and indiscriminate destruction of life and property, last week's shocking Mumbai terrorist attacks were sickening in their random senselessness. Media and governments still scramble to categorize the attacks into boxes: al-Qaeda? Indian-Pakistani hatred? Anti-Western hatred? Or, as Paul Cornish (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7755684.stm) suggests, "celebrity terrorism" without a real...

I love to vote. I love standing in line and feasting my eyes on the strange juxtaposition of voting machines and official paperwork with multicolored posters and children's artwork in the elementary school cafeteria in which voting is held in my precinct. I love chatting with those standing ahead and...

A friend of a friend - a physician - declared categorically almost 18 months ago that she could never vote for anyone whose middle name was "Hussein." In stark contrast, a Jewish friend of mine recently joined a Facebook group of over a thousand participants who have all adopted the...

In Ohio, early voting began yesterday. In a seemingly unrelated event, four days ago in Ohio two men sprayed a noxious chemical into the babysitting room at a mosque in Dayton, causing babies and children to suffer burning eyes and throats, and forcing panicked evacuation of the mosque. Two apparently...