As Salaamu Alaikum (peace be upon you) and howdy all. Since Islam is front and center in the news nowadays, I thought I would touch on some of the hot-button issues and misconceptions that people have about Islam. I’m going to make a list here, then break it down one issue at a time. This set of posts will be helpful to non-Muslims, but hopefully helpful to my brothers and sisters in Islam as well. Seriously, if you as a... Read more
On November 17, members of the Islamic Center of Fredericksburg held a public meeting to discuss plans for building a new mosque in a somewhat rural area of Spotsylvania County. Trustee Samer Shalaby, an engineer as well as the mosque representative, presented designs to a packed house and tried to deal with traffic concerns. Partway through the meeting, a man interrupted and spewed vitriolic Islamophobic rhetoric. He drew some approving applause from some in the crowd, sadly, and due to... Read more
Alhamdulillah, my husband returned safely from his emergency trip to Egypt. If you are connected to his or my Facebook, you know that his brother passed away over the weekend. As Muslims, when we hear of a death, we say “Inna lilahi wa inna ilahi rajiuun”, which translates as “Indeed, we belong to God and to Him is our return”. It is a reminder that our time here in this world is borrowed time. Our loved ones do not belong... Read more
As Salaamu Alaikum – Peace be upon you – and hello to all my fellow human beings. Last night my husband and I attended a training session called “Securing the Faithful”. This session was sponsored by the Spotsylvania County Virginia Sheriff’s Department and Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg Virginia. This course was immensely informative, and before I get into the details, I would like to thank First Sergeant Shaun D. Jones, Senior Deputy William E. Lee, and Germanna Chief of... Read more
Yesterday a teenager was arrested for bringing a clock to school. If you just this minute discovered social media, here is a link to the story. Take your time; I’ll wait: “They Thought it was a Bomb; 9th Grader Arrested After Bringing Homemade Clock to School” And no, that headline did not come from The Onion. Today was a different story. Today young Ahmed Mohamed broke the internet and garnered support from Muslim organizations, The Jet Propulsion Lab, Facebook’s Mark... Read more
I have five kids at home. They range in age from fifteen to five. I just sent the youngest off to kindergarten this year. My teenage son takes after me, his pasty mom of European extraction. Medium-brown hair, eyes that shade from gray to green depending on the weather and his mood, totally not-Arab skin tone that is everything a WASP could dream for. He tans nicely. He is a proud nerd / geek. He works on computers and is... Read more
So last night I took on the awesome responsibility of watching and live-tweeting former Governor Sarah Palin’s interview of presidential candidate Donald Trump. You’re welcome. I put the kids to bed, brewed up a nice cup of decaf, told my husband to go do Netflix for an hour, and settled down with my iPhone and computer. I limbered up my fingers by scritching the cats under their chins for a few minutes, thought long and hard about an appropriate hashtag,... Read more
As Salaamu Alaikum and hello all. I hope you are having / have had a blessed Jumuah. I am posting here a couple of videos I’d like you to take a look at. One I did yesterday afternoon. It was a short Q&A about Islam. A young lady from Turkey asked some pointed questions about Islam and her attitude is that she wants Islam to be eliminated from Turkey. She said that she herself is Muslim so of course you... Read more
As Salaamu Alaikum and hello all. It is Thursday morning. Yesterday was a tough day for anyone living in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I mean, it’s weird, how we make seemingly distant events familiar. I’m all the way on the other side of the state from where this heinous shooting took place, but because it happened in my state, and one of the victims went to Virginia Tech and I have a friend who is an alumnus, well, it felt like... Read more
As Salaamu Alaikum and hello all! Well, just when I thought I was all caught up with my social media presence, the Interwebs goes ahead and invents something new! About four months ago, Twitter created a new app called Periscope. It is a live-streaming app that allows you to just say hello to the world on the spur of the moment. ‘Scopes can range from the trivial – “I’m Bored, Ask Me Anything” – to the educational. And of course... Read more
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