Muslim Blogs

TLC’s “All-American Muslim” is airing its season finale tonight. The episode follows the trajectory of most reality-show season finales — some story lines are satisfactorily wrapped up (hint: Coach Zaban’s Fordson Tractors play a seminal game against their archrivals, Dearborn High), while other cast members near a climax in their personal stories (will Suehaila Amen [Read More...]

Continuing our series on the history of Muslim Media Activism in the Bay Area from last month, I was recruited by my local mosque, the South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA) in San Jose, CA shortly after the tragedies of Sept. 11th, 2001. According to Mohammad Azizuddin, the former Vice-President of the Mosque Board at the time, [Read More...]The post The 1st Ramadan Interfaith Iftaar (In the Bay Area) appeared first on Al Mihrab.

We welcome Jalal Baig – Altmuslim’s new columnist. His column, “The Opinionated Oncologist,” will appear in the third week of each month. By Jalal Baig From the beginning, Ali seemed aloof from the conversation that surrounded him. His friends, a full spectrum of boys spanning junior high and high school, bantered and pontificated on the NBA playoffs. It [Read More...]

Check out the article by Sheikh Habib Ali Al Jifri, “Why is there no serious effort to counter takfir ideology?” I’m glad to see this article being run in a prominent Emirati newspaper, as the Gulf is at the heart of this problem. One hopes that’s a sign of some sympathy for real reform, as [Read More...]

Are acts of God really acts of God? The facts will shatter many long-held beliefs. Why does the Kind, Most Merciful God lets people suffer as a result of floods, tornados, earthquakes and other natural disasters, and as well as personal tragedies? Your heart melts looking at the images of the victims and their loved ones, and [Read More...]

Truly, the literal worst thing about this story is how unsurprising it is – for two reasons: KALKASKA, Mich. (AP) – A local official in northern Michigan refuses to apologize for sharing Facebook posts calling for the killing of “every last Muslim” and for nuclear weapons to be used on the world’s 10-largest Muslim-majority cities. [Read More...]

When my kids were young, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her parents’ home and held captive for nine months. People in my neighborhood starting keeping their kids inside rather than letting them play in their back yards. The probability of their kids being abducted was minuscule, but fear won out over statistics. I was even [Read More...]

No one said being a mother was a walk in the park. No matter how much you read, talk, and try to learn about being a mother, motherhood is full of shocks and surprises. You learn on a day-to-day basis—if not by the hour—once you become a mother. Amidst all of the confusion, stress, anxiety, [Read More...]

Child sexual abuse is a crime that occurs far too frequently. And unfortunately, these instances are often ignored or brushed under the table, particularly in Muslim communities. It is time to break the silence surrounding child sexual abuse, and to gain the tools necessary to both address the problem and facilitate healthy dialogue with our children. [Read More...]

Exploring faith, race, and Sudanese identities in Black History Month By Guest Author Mariam Babiker, Ph.D. Growing up in Eastern Sudan, I was never really aware of my identity in respect to the larger diaspora of Sudan and the world as a whole. The perception of a Sudanese or black African identity is unique to those in [Read More...]

This is the second installment of a three part article tracing the evolution of extremist strains in Islamic history and analyzing their etiology and perpetuating factors. The first part described the impact of the Mutazila-Ahl Sunnah rivalry on the Islamic religiopolitical paradigm. In this article the utility of Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya’s teachings and religious [Read More...]

by Aamir Nasir Quraishy The recent hate crimes targeting Muslims has made the month of Ramadan exceptionally difficult. This past month witnessed nationwide anti-shariah protests by a Muslim hate group known as ACT for America[1]. There has also been a surge in attacks against Muslims including an attack on a Mosque in North London [2] and [Read More...]

Last night I sat in a darkened room with my eldest son, D, as he alternately cried a dil-se-dhook rona (heart-worn crying) and screamed in anger and frustration. The best I could do was be present to his pain, until he worked himself through it and fell exhaustedly asleep. This morning, going on barely 3-4 [Read More...]

On the 4th day of Ramadan, I was the contributing writer on the AltMuslim blog for the series, Ramadan 2017 – 30 Days 30 Writers. Ramadan Prep? What Prep? ‘I Just Wing it.’ I promise I was paying attention. I knew it was coming. The weekly sermons leading up to Ramadan kept reminding us about [Read More...]

Alhamdulillah, the blessed month of Ramadan has ended, and Muslims gathered to pray and celebrate with family and friends. One of the best parts of the day for me is to hit social media and see all the Eid photos of Muslims wearing their beautiful clothes. This is a vast country, and NbA Muslims from sea [Read More...]

It was April 19, 2004 at about 7:00AM or 8:00AM when I got a knock on the door from my mom and she explained to me that my childhood friend had died. At the moment I didn’t realize the shock and went back to sleep with the little time I had before school (I was [Read More...]

8-29 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 prayers at the mosque, in which the entirety [Read More...]

Lately I’ve been seeing hearts everywhere I look. In a magazine I was reading, I was startled by the image of a heart filled with crude oil (it turned out to be an advertisement for the oil and gas industry). Then I saw a news story about the heart of a blue whale being exhibited at a museum in [Read More...]

The hospital is the great equalizer I always say I happened into writing about mental health because of my own story, and then my advocacy ideas came about later. I often gloss over the first part, because to me it’s the least interesting chapter of how I got to where I am in my life. [Read More...]

Dear Coptic Brothers and Sisters in God, I want to express my deeply felt anguish at the horrible attacks on your community in Egypt. I wanted to let you know that there are many Muslims  who condemn such terrorism in the strongest of terms. Words cannot ameliorate the pain you feel, but know that you [Read More...]

Within the  black conscious community, Afrocentric  thinkers such as Sara Suten Seti, Polight, and Young Pharaoh have frequently criticized Islam as an”Arab slave master religion” incompatible with  black liberation. In this comic titled,”The Paradox of Afrocentric Islamophobia,” we satirize the fact that even harshest Afrocentric critics of Islam cannot transcend the Islamic influence on the black [Read More...]