In my last post I defended my community, the Dawoodi Bohras, from accusations of Mr. Qutbuddin’s faction about the role of women and traditional values. The great flaw in my arguments of course is that I am a male. So here are many female voices from my community to speak for themselves instead. For example, Rashida Mustafa writes at her blog, Child on Hip and Hand on Computer: To be shouted down in the kind of storm levelled at us... Read more

Ramadan Kareem everyone – This blog is still under hiatus until the next election cycle, but I did want to draw people’s attention to a post I wrote at City of Brass about the controversy over the Iftar to be hosted by President Obama tomorrow night. An excerpt: this year these Iftars have come under fire by certain political activists in the Muslim American community. Their basic argument is that Muslims who accept the Iftar invitation by the President or... Read more

Many Muslim Americans, disgusted with Obama’s policies on drones and repelled by Republican islamophobia, will be voting for a third party this election, namely Jill Stein of the Greens or Gary Johnson of the Libertarians. The appeal of voting third-party is undeniable: rather than choosing between the lesser of two evils, you are voting your conscience. This absolves you of the moral guilt of supporting a candidate, be it Obama or Romney, who enacts policies you will disagree with. And,... Read more

I have received many negative comments for my support of Barack Obama, mostly along the lines of, “how can you support Obama and ignore the Muslim blood on his hands due to drones?” Let me address this. Barack Obama has indeed increased the use of drone warfare in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the four years of his presidency – far more than did George W. Bush. These drone attacks have systematically decimated the leadership of Al Qaeda, but have also... Read more

My prediction for the election tomorrow is pretty straightforward – I’m using Nate Silver’s model for state-by-state probabilities and assigning each state to each candidate accordingly. With respect to Wisconsin, I do believe that Wisconsin will come through for Obama, because Scott Walker won the recall. Not as a protest, but because this truly is a swing state, where 17% of Obama’s supporters in 2008 voted for Walker this year. You have to live in Wisconsin to understand why that’s... Read more

Let’s recap. President Obama has banned torture and tried to close Gitmo; he is committed to the two-state solution; engaged the Muslim World; showed strength in Libya and restraint in Iran; encouraged the Arab Spring; ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; defended the Muslim American community against Islamophobia; included Muslim Americans in his government; and has a record of success in leading America Forward on all the domestic issues that matter to Americans, Muslim or non-Muslim alike. That’s the... Read more

Only two more days until the election is over. Last night (Saturday) I got three phone calls from various voter surveys and GOTV operations – and all were after 8pm. Plus, my inbox looks like this: Not to mention it’s impossible to watch anything on Hulu without suffering through campaign and superpac ads. But it’s important we not succumb to election fatigue. This election is no more important than any other – which is to say, it’s critically important. All... Read more

Last week, I met Paul Ryan at an apple farm. I was attending a kids’ birthday party with my family at the Apple Holler farm in Sturtevant WI when Representative Ryan stopped by with his entourage for a visit and photo-op. Though the majority of the folks didn’t really seem to take notice, there were plenty of people interested in seeing Ryan and shaking his hand, getting a photo, etc. So, I decided I’d do the same. All of the... Read more