Why Adoption and Fostering Must be Our Muslim Duty

Last updated on: April 25, 2016 at 6:25 pm By Guest Contributor

By Yusra Gomaa “H-H-Hello, Asalaamu’alaykum. Umm, my name is Amna and I have two young children. The state is terminating my parental rights, and there’s nothing I can do. I didn’t know who else to call. I have one month to find someone before they go up for adoption. Can you please help me find a Muslim to adopt my children?” The mosque director began a three-week campaign in Tennessee to find Muslims both willing and qualified to adopt these... Read more

The Prophetic Remedy to Islamophobia

Last updated on: May 13, 2020 at 10:28 am By Guest Contributor

By Saud Inam For more than a decade the Muslim community has been in a struggle to overcome negative media, misconceptions and misunderstandings about Islam and Muslims. Our approach largely has been reactive and not proactive. But, the problem with being reactive is the Muslim community has let the Islamophobes and religious extremists dictate the narrative. We unfortunately responds and reacts. As my mentor, Imam Mohamed Magid said, “Instead of being firefighters, we need to start building fire-resistant homes.” This analogy... Read more

Why Violence in the Name of Islam Draws Comparisons to the KKK and Christianity.

Last updated on: April 22, 2016 at 3:39 pm By Guest Contributor

Editorial Note: Ali Asadullah, a long-time journalist and writer, is a new columnist for Altmuslim. His columns will be appearing the third week of every month, insha’Allah. His first column is part one of a two-part series looking at the roots of Muslim extremism, KKK comparisons and what brought us to our current crisis. By Ali Asadullah On January 9, 2015, just two days after the horrific Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, NBA hall-of-famer and noted American Muslim writer,... Read more

How is the 2016 Election Impacting Muslim (and Other) School Children?

Last updated on: April 20, 2016 at 7:03 pm By Guest Contributor

By Uzma Mariam Ahmed This election cycle has been difficult to experience, even for adults. Civil conversations and respect for diversity have been sidelined, and the loudest voices in politics and on television now are frighteningly extreme. Unsurprisingly the hateful rhetoric has filtered into American schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has just released a report entitled “Teaching the 2016 Election: The Trump Effect”. The report delves into the impact the presidential campaign has had on school children. The... Read more

An Open Letter to Young Muslim Americans – This is Our Time to Struggle

Last updated on: April 18, 2016 at 5:46 pm By Guest Contributor

Dear Young Muslim Americans: I am one of you. I write this with a heavy heart. A heart overwhelmed empathy, love, sorrow, and hope. We face many struggles right now, and with struggles come opportunities, exhaustion and questioning. Questioning about whether we’re doing it right, debates about what the best methods and solutions are, disagreements and frustration that arise from these disagreements, debates, and questions. We are going through so, so much. We need to give each other and ourselves... Read more

Pushing Secularism over Democratic Values – France’s PM Supports Hijab Ban in Universities

Last updated on: April 15, 2016 at 1:55 pm By Guest Contributor

By Saideh Jamshidi Some Westerners, especially in France, view Muslim women who wear a hijab or head scarf, as backward-looking, oppressed by religion and unsophisticated. Such views have intensified after the Brussels terrorist attack. France, a country in anger following the ISIS attacks in Paris and fearful of the growth of Muslim extremism, is on its way to declare a cultural war against the status of women. Just recently, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls stirred up controversy when he pledged... Read more

#GiveHope1000 – Creating Opportunities for Disabled Entrepreneurs

Last updated on: April 13, 2016 at 11:02 am By Guest Contributor

By Amanda Quraishi The biggest challenge that most disabled people have isn’t learning how to live and work with their disability in a world that privileges the abled. No, the biggest challenge is convincing others that they are just as capable of things as anyone else. Despite the leaps and bounds that the disabled community has made in the past century with legal protections, accessibility and visibility; there is still an unfair stigma that pervades and transcends cultures and societies.... Read more

Dear Trump Supporters – A Peace House Video

Last updated on: April 11, 2016 at 11:38 am By Guest Contributor

Various ethnic, religious and minority groups — from Muslims to Latinos to African Americans — have watched with horror and trepidation the rise and growth of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and more so the thousands upon thousands of supporters pushing him forward and feeding into his soundbites and rhetoric. Viral videos from various Trump rallies have shown minority attendees and protesters shouted at and even physically attacked. All this has left many wondering just why Trump’s supporters are, well, so supportive... Read more

Insulting Muslim Fashion and Modest Dressing is as Bad as Forcing the Hijab

Last updated on: April 8, 2016 at 5:00 pm By Guest Contributor

By Saideh Jamshidi To cover or not to cover, that’s the problem, but to whom? When Yves Saint Laurent co-founder Pierre Bergé recently advised fellow designers to have nothing to do with Muslim fashion, he sounded less like a renowned global fashion designer and more like the Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose speeches I used to listen to during the beginning of the Iran revolution in 1979. Bergé argued that designers’ main responsibility is to... Read more

Moving Past the Condemnations: Recognizing Muslims’ Contributions to Our Public Safety

Last updated on: April 6, 2016 at 1:29 pm By Guest Contributor

By Alejandro J. Beutel, Stephanie Choi, Sarala Prabhu and Erika Swanson Over the past several months, questions and scrutiny surrounding American Muslims have intensified, particularly amid heated Presidential campaign rhetoric, the Paris attacks, San Bernardino and most recently, Brussels. As a result, many have raised an oft-repeated pair of questions: “Why aren’t American Muslims and their organizations speaking out?” And, “Why aren’t they doing more to combat terrorism?” As researchers, our interest in this question is part of a larger... Read more

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