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Wajahat Ali
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Wajahat Ali is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. He is a playwright, essayist, humorist, and Attorney at Law, whose work, “The Domestic Crusaders” is the first major play about Muslim Americans living in a post 9-11 America, and was published by McSweeney's in 2011. His blog is at http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/.

Blog Entries by Wajahat Ali

This Thanksgiving, Be Grateful For Life

(2) Comments | Posted November 22, 2012 | 11:15 AM

So the story goes The Natives saved the Pilgrims and in return they broke bread and ate a gobbling, red-wattled Goliath as neighbors at the first Thanksgiving: a feast unique to us Americans but a caloric and spiritually rich tradition that can be embraced by anyone with a heart capable...

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Sex and Islam Do Mix, Just Not in America

(63) Comments | Posted April 20, 2012 | 8:24 AM

America's contradictory and passive-aggressive dalliance with sexuality is reflected within its Muslim communities. For some, it is difficult to believe that sexual organs function the same whether they are hidden behind a burqa or a bikini.

As a Muslim man, I can verify that Muslims experience the same universal...

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HuffJummah: 'The People of America': A Religious Sermon

(149) Comments | Posted March 22, 2012 | 11:04 PM

This was Wajahat Ali's first khutbah (Friday religious sermon) given on March 16, 2012 at Duke University thanks to an invitation by Imam Abdullah T. Antepli, Duke's Muslim Chaplain.

Allah commands the believers in the Quran: "And be steadfast in patience, for verily Allah will not suffer the reward of...

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A Lowe's Down Dirty Shame

(0) Comments | Posted December 22, 2011 | 9:02 AM

The decision by Lowe's, behemoth chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores, to pull its advertising from TLC's reality TV show "All-American Muslim," ceded to the bigotry, fear-mongering and paranoia of a deluded minority whose divisive ideology poisons America's cherished history of inclusiveness and pluralism.

But in...

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'All-American Muslim' Reality TV Show?

(56) Comments | Posted November 25, 2011 | 8:21 AM

For those constantly fretting about the inability of Muslims to integrate or assimilate into western culture, fret no more!

American Muslims finally have their own reality TV show -- TLC's "All-American Muslim" -- focusing on the lives of five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, who are...

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The Stealth Halal Jihadist Turkey: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Muslim Trojan Horse

(35) Comments | Posted November 24, 2011 | 4:16 AM

American Muslim communities celebrating Thanksgiving with a traditional Turkey feast represents an encouraging sign of integration with American values and rituals.

But, of course, we Muslims fooled you.

Yet again.

You should have known that our baked, brined, and deep-fried masala turkeys were simply veiling our nefarious, anti-American plots to...

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A Muslim American Declaration

(149) Comments | Posted September 9, 2011 | 10:00 AM

We are Muslim Americans. We are American Muslims. We live as your neighbors, friends, doctors, lawyers, police officers, soldiers, cab drivers, newspaper vendors, teammates, co-workers, and family -- seamlessly and without conflict. We are fully immersed in the American mosaic, and we are proud.

Our Muslims forefathers have been here...

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Quran By Heart

(108) Comments | Posted September 5, 2011 | 8:01 AM

We are winding down the days of Ramadan, a spiritually potent month in which Allah revealed the Quran. Since this is a month of remembrance, reflection, reconciliation and resilience, Muslim communities worldwide devoted the month to reciting as much Quran as possible and attending nightly tarawih...

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Exposing the Islamophobia Network in America

(30) Comments | Posted August 29, 2011 | 11:06 AM

Exploiting fear, hysteria and ignorance has been a lucrative business for the Islamophobia network in America.

After a six-month-long investigative research project, the Center for American Progress Action Fund released a 138-page report, "Fear Inc: Exposing the Islamophobia Network in America", which for the first time reveals that...

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Seeking Perfection in Ramadan

(2) Comments | Posted August 19, 2011 | 11:05 AM

I am hoping one day Muslim Americans can forgive themselves for simply being human.

We Muslims sure like to pretend we are perfect. At the very least, we love promoting the myth.

We preach it in our sermons, via our social propaganda to our non-Muslim neighbors, as talking points to...

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A Mosque Story

(3) Comments | Posted August 17, 2011 | 1:14 PM

If Mosques are indeed Allah's house on Earth, then many times it feels like the landowner has abandoned the premises and rambunctious squatters have claimed title through adverse possession.

Fortified Cultural Cocoons Controlled by Ibn Tony Montana

Visiting most mosques in America was always like entering a fortified, cultural...

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A Ramadan State of Mind

(6) Comments | Posted August 4, 2011 | 5:42 PM

Originally written for my "Spiritual Appetite" blog for Patheos.

When Ramadan-ing, it's encouraged to have a Ramadan State of Mind.

It's a state of mind and state of body that is resilient to pain, longing, easy comfort and selfish desires.

An observer can easily perceive this month long...

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'The Tree of Life': Review and Reflection

(1) Comments | Posted May 17, 2011 | 12:09 AM

The Tree of Life is maddening, exhilarating, gorgeous, ponderous, insightful, pretentious, epic, shallow, beautiful and strange -- essentially the apotheosis of Terrence Malick's entire career. It will divide audiences like few films have in recent years.

The movie, which exists as a metaphysical meditation and a lyrical poem, focuses --...

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A Muslim American Visionary: Omar Ahmad (1965-2011)

(2) Comments | Posted May 11, 2011 | 6:06 PM

This post was co-authored by Hussein Rashid

Last week we spoke of Osama bin Laden, a man who represented no one and offered nothing but hate. How many other people died that day, their death unnoticed and unmarked?

This week, we lost a real Muslim leader, a man who offered...

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The Post-Osama Muslim American

(330) Comments | Posted May 8, 2011 | 5:25 PM

One of the global architects of terror responsible for inspiring the 9-11 tragedy was finally killed this week. Osama bin Laden, who violently hijacked the faith of 1.5 billion to rationalize his perverse criminal actions, is permanently seared into our collective consciousness as the 21st century boogeyman.

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Pakistan Leaders Meet to Discuss Osama Bin Laden (Parody)

(1) Comments | Posted May 3, 2011 | 6:41 PM

"A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says the president held an emergency meeting with top security officials Monday morning to discuss the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been killed. The spokesman said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, armed forces chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and intelligence...

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Understanding Sharia Law

(630) Comments | Posted April 6, 2011 | 8:05 PM

In the past year, a group of conservative pundits and analysts have identified sharia, or Islamic religious law, as a growing threat to the United States. These pundits and analysts argue that the steady adoption of sharia's tenets is a strategy extremists are using to transform the United States into...

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Peter King's Subversive Fantasy

(6) Comments | Posted March 11, 2011 | 2:50 PM

Congressman Peter King, who has rationalized his past defense of IRA terrorism without a hint of self-awareness or irony, is now the self-appointed protector of America from future terrorist attacks by holding a congressional hearing on the "Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's...

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Mubarak's Valentine's Day

(0) Comments | Posted February 14, 2011 | 12:59 PM

MUBARAK'S VALENTINE'S DAY

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (OBAMA): All right, SOS, have we sent the usual fruit baskets, Gilmore Girls DVDs, snarky e-cards, Fair and Lovely cream, and excessive weaponry and gratuitous foreign aid to our questionable allies?

SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON (CLINTON): Sir, we've covered Jordan and Israel,...

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Time for FBI to Stop Spying on American Muslims

(1) Comments | Posted December 8, 2010 | 2:50 AM

The recent arrest of the potential Christmas tree bomber is reflective of the FBI's myopic strategy of using glitzy, expensive sting operations and dubious confidential informants to further erode Muslim American relations instead of concentrating on effective partnerships to combat radicalization. The FBI is promoting the arrest of Mohamed Osman...

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