As I near my 60th birthday this year, I am starting to have some health issues. It does put a damper on your energy and ambitions in life. But rather than getting grumpy, it makes me appreciate, and recognize how incredibly blessed I have been for things that I took for granted, and gives me opportunity to show my gratitude to God Almighty – the giver of everything. First of all, let me say at the outset, none of these... Read more
Let me start by stating what is not so controversial: Abraham is considered the father of monotheistic religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He is a powerful unifying source, which is sadly still unrealized by and large.The question keeps popping up whether he was a Jew or Muslim or a Christian. The first question you may ask is: does it really matter? I think it still matters to some who hold him in high esteem and care whether he is... Read more
Listening to Friday sermons, I often wonder why the Imams almost never talk about certain issues that I am dying to hear.Do you wonder the same when attending the Sunday Church service or the Shabbat service, or your place of worship?It seems certain topics are off-limit and considered taboos. This makes you feel disconnected (or feel the preachers are). I am going to use ‘mosque’ or the ‘church’ here in a generic sense- it could be any of the places... Read more
President Trump selects yet another unfit individual to lead the dept. of state. CIA director Mike Pompeo is scheduled for confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday April 12. Put simply, it is a mistake America (and more specifically the senate) cannot afford to make. The secretary of state is a sensitive and a critical position in the U.S. cabinet-one that requires wisdom, openness and fairness. This position cannot be held by bigots, zealots and religious extremists,... Read more
Despite the newfound fame under the Trump administration and the rising tide of Islamophobia, Islam and Muslims remain arcane in the west. When I first came to the United States some 35 years ago, Islam and Muslims were relatively unknown. Sure there was the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Islamic revolution in Iran that Americans were very familiar with. Beyond the politics, very few knew much about Muslims and Islam or the difference between the two. I recall one of my... Read more
I have been a subject of rather hateful comments from some of my Christian ‘friends’ on social media during the 40 days of Lent and the Holy week. Lent is a time to commemorate the 40 days of Jesus in the desert. Christians spend time in remembrance, self- sacrifice, repentance, fasting and alms-giving. The Holy week for the Christians is a time to remember the last week of Jesus after he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, leading to the crucifixion... Read more
It was perhaps ironic that the Austin serial bomber blew himself up. But when does a ‘serial bomber’ become a terrorist? When is a mass murderer reported as a terrorist? In the media reporting at least, it depends on who the culprit is, rather than the act itself. More specifically, it depends on whether the culprit is a Muslim or not. Even a cursory review of the reporting makes the media bias rather clear, as we will see in the... Read more
Humans have been asking this question for ages: What’s the purpose of our creation? Why are we here? This may be a moot question for the atheists. The evolution vs creation debate notwithstanding, as a believer, I searched the Scriptures looking for the answer. The answer from an atheist evolutionary perspective is rather simple- at least in its most superficial form: we fortuitously evolved into the human form. We started from nothing, which evolved into a biological cell, and through... Read more
Do the Qur’an and the Bible support the flat earth theory, or the science on the subject of a round earth? Where is the belief coming from that they do? Though the concept of a spherical earth was developed in ancient Greece around the seventh century BCE, starting with Pythagoras, the issue of spherical shape of the earth remained rather unsettled until the sixteenth century. Aristotle had hinted at the spherical shape of the earth some 330 years before Christ.... Read more
As a person of faith, do you pray? (prayer as in asking God for something, or ‘Du’a’). And if you do, what Du’a, or prayer is nearest to your heart, or moves you the most? What’s your MVP-Most Valuable Prayer? This post is coming more from the heart and faith perspective. And I don’t mean to belittle the significance of the prayers by drawing a parallel with something as mundane as what is used in sports all the time. I... Read more
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