By Obaid H. Siddiqui Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a polemic figure. Her atheist supporters laud her as a fierce and much needed critic of Islam. Her Muslim opponents see her as a blasphemous apostate, some of whom have heaved very real death threats upon her. Brandeis University, which planned to award Ali with an honorary degree in May, recently decided that it wanted no part in the polemic divide that surrounds Ali. On April 8, Brandeis President Frederick Lawrence announced... Read more
By Laila Alawa A woman is surrounded by the members of her community, attacked on all sides by questions, accusations and snide comments. They demand answers to what they perceive to be an egregious action, and there is nobody around to speak up for her. Her voice is paralyzed in front of their accusations. They shame her, verbally assault her and degrade her position in society. Where she was previously regarded with the greatest of esteem and honor, there are... Read more
By Salam Al-Marayati When Adam Yahiye Gadahn was kicked out of an Orange County mosque in 2004, it was for good reason. He was a troublemaker who only meant more trouble for that mosque. Gadahn was kicked out for creating firestorms of controversies for his actions and was remembered as being “angry, rigidly pious, and hypercritical of any Muslim who adopted Western clothes or manners,” according to the Washington Post. Then there is Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He was kicked out of a... Read more
By Samar Kaukab Ahmed Dear Absolutely Everyone in the Muslim Community: What does it take for our scholars, thought leaders, and community shepherds to understand that gender-based violence is a form of institutionalized oppression – one that belongs on the list of every Imam’s duas at the end of every communal prayer? How long does it take to get an institutional response to “jokes” made by a public scholar that perpetuate rape culture? Does the adab (Islamic etiquette) of not humiliating one... Read more
By Anonymous This week was much like most other weeks in our household. Like most families with young children, we raced to our jobs, barely made drop-off and pick- What made this week different was that my wife–who is a strong and determined survivor of a sexual assault–was triggered. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can happen at any time, but is most likely when a survivor is reminded of or meant to relive her abuse. As Samar Kaukab Ahmad described in her... Read more
By Hasan Gilani Imam Khalid Latif of the Islamic Center at NYU recently spoke at the Rad Talks conference about the need to rethink charity. A woman fled from an abusive relationship and sought help from Imam Khalid. When he handed her several thousand dollars in charity, she handed it back to him. Having never lived on her own, she said she didn’t know what to do with the money. She asked him to help her figure out the best way... Read more
By Sabina Khan-Ibarra Muslimah Montage and Brown Girl Magazine had the honor of recently hosting a successful “Tweet Party” with the help of Aisha Saeed, and Coming of Faith‘s Laila Alawa (soon to be a columnist at Altmuslim). #EmpoweredMuslimWomen trended on Twitter, was featured on Buzzfeed and continues to be tweeted more than 24 hours after the party started. Most of the tweets were positive. I learned a lot, and hope the people who followed the hashtag learned something, as well. I learned the very different meanings the... Read more
By Imam Dawud Walid Intra-Muslim racism is an issue often swept under the rug in the American Muslim community. Some of its manifestations are overt while its varying expressions tend to be more subtle. In order for us to be the community, which Allah (swt) describes as “the best nation brought forth from humankind (Quran 3:110),” we must put forth the same, if not more, intellectual and social energy in confronting intra-Muslim racism as we do when confronting Islamophobia. A hurtful symptom... Read more
By Zainab Khan Today’s world is a politically correct (PC) world. In order to be socially “accepted,” we choose our words based on what the “Politically Correct” have decided is acceptable for us to say. Unfortunately, many people have come out against being politically correct in a defense of not “overthinking” words. Words are just words, and even the worst of words lose their meanings over time, right? So, for example, when we (used to) say “That’s SO gay,” we... Read more
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Why Do We Need a Muslim Mom Network?
By Hala Amer I’ve been asked numerous times where the idea of the Muslim Mom Network (MMN) came from. I’d love to say it was a grand, noble vision of serving my community, but truthfully my reasons for launching this Google group were purely selfish. I was a new, struggling mother – often times lonely, tired, and insecure. Friends, family, the media and even our faith tend to focus on the joys of motherhood—and there are many; however, its darker... Read more