A month after the Boston Marathon Bombing, the unified response here in the Boston area is the slogan "Boston Strong."
As a Pakistani-American, I have sadly become a bit numb to terrorist attacks in Pakistan itself which are an almost routine news story. However, the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon hit me far more acutely.
"Gay and Muslim American," for both Muslim and non-Muslim Americans, reads like an oxymoron. Yet, is a largely harmonized yet hidden identity that characterizes the experience of many Muslim American men and women.
While it is easy to dismiss Pat for just being Pat, the reality is that he has a microphone through his television show, which many people hear and take seriously. Voices like his need to be called out for adding nothing but hateful rhetoric and divisiveness into conversations about religion.
I enjoy watching Real Time with Bill Maher whenever I can, and I especially appreciate the wittiness and humor of his New Rules. Alas, whenever the subject of Islam and the Middle East pops, the show turns ugly.
After the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were revealed to be Muslims who investigators said were motivated in part by radical Islam, American Muslim...
Countless comedians have been branded as racist, misogynistic or homophobic, and as a result their careers have gone the way of the dinosaurs. So why is the lampoon of Muslims as terrorists acceptable?
As members of the Muslim community in the U.S., we have a deep responsibility to undertake an introspective analysis and explore why U.S. Muslims engage in forms of violence.
I'm not sure how many times I have been asked how I felt knowing that "Islam" was behind the bombing as far as many were concerned, since the bombers were Muslim.
Muslims have rightly complained about the Israeli government labeling them anti-Semitic for legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, but today Muslims (along with liberal apologist allies) are doing the same thing with their broad use of the "Islamophobia" label against the "new atheists."
In 1843 Karl Marx , the iconic 19th century philosopher and co-founder of Marxism, wrote an essay called "On the Jewish Question." Recently, Anne Norton published a small book titled On the Muslim Question.
Our Ummah was founded on love: love for Muhammad that made us follow him, love for each other that made us care for each other, and love for this world God gave us that made us strive for a better and more just world. However, love is the opposite of what we are known for now.
Asking questions is the right thing to do, and listening to the answer without interrupting is the civil thing to do. If we jump around from question to question without answering one, we achieve nothing. That is precisely what happened to me on Sean Hannity's show yesterday,
If Muslims aren't "all-American," and if "all-American" is used to describe white women before they convert to a racialized faith, then assumptions about who is "all-American" not only deny 3 million Muslims of their national and cultural identity as Americans, but they deny full Americanness to anyone who isn't white.
Barry West, commissioner for Coffee County in Middle Tennessee, is under fire this week after posting a picture to Facebook over the weekend that clai...
The recent tragedy in Boston reminds us why we do what we do. The disease that we fight every day is not one of the body; it is one of the mind.
We've heard it everywhere, on every station, every major news outlet, and every talk radio show: Islamophobia is alive and well in the United States.
Dawkins and his fellows may remonstrate that what they object to is a belief system, freely adopted by its holders, but they are still participating in the unhealthy marginalization of a minority group.
I met Bush rather briefly when he was governor of Texas and found him to be intelligent and funny -- though he certainly turned out somewhat differently than I anticipated.
To my Muslim community, no matter how you interpret or live out your Islam, I appeal to you for us all to work together. We've been complacent and all of humanity is suffering for it. Not just us in America, but look at the mayhem radicalism have spawned.
To stereotype and scapegoat all followers of Islam is as invalid as blaming all Christians for the despicable actions perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was a devout Christian.
Simply put, this kind of legislation runs afoul of basic tenets of constitutional law and overriding principles of American jurisprudence. Moreover, its sponsors haven't demonstrated any tangible need for it.
While the dust has yet to settle on the horrific Boston bombings by the Tsarnaev brothers, Muslims have already felt the impact of their association with Islam. In our rush to write op-ed's and respond via the media, we should take a step back to consider the literature on Islamophobia and what it might teach us at this moment.
Our strength as Bostonians comes in our diversity. We should embrace our fellow Muslim Bostonians, not fear them.
Every time one of these attacks happen, I hear the insecure pleas of Muslim Americans trying to reassure others that "Not all Muslims are like that." They are continually shut out of the discussion and alienated for trying to say it.
