Last night I attended an engaging discussion on intercultural collaboration by Maria Pesqueira, the President and CEO of Mujeres Latinas en Accion. MLEA is dedicated to empowering Latina women by providing direct services, addressing the  needs of Latina women and their families, and supporting policies that affect them through research and political advocacy. Ms. Pesqueira highlighted the importance of finding common ground with potential allies to gain widespread support for issues that might, on first glance, seem to only affect... Read more

Time has afforded us some emotional distance from the terror attacks and subsequent manhunt in Boston earlier this month. I’ve collected some of the most interesting and insightful articles and analyses in this special Boston edition of Linksies. Please submit any pieces you think I should have included in the comments section. Muslims Talking to Ourselves No room for radicals in our mosques Open letter to Asra Nomani Muslim youth, your time has come Tsarnaev’s mosque outburst Do you even... Read more

“My Lord, I ask you to expand my breast, make my task easy, undo the knot in my tongue so that they will comprehend my speech.” In the Quran, this is the prayer that Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) uttered when he was tasked to preach to Pharoah the oneness of God. The Arabic is gorgeous, lilting poetry and I remember being caught off-guard at the beautiful simplicity of this profound prayer the first time I heard it as... Read more

Last week was a difficult one for America. There was the terrorist bombing of the Boston Marathon, where 3 were killed and hundreds injured. The President and some members of Congress were mailed ricin-letters. A fertilizer plant in Texas exploded, killing dozens and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. And my home state was battered by heavy thunderstorms, causing Governor Quinn to declare a state of emergency. On Friday, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, a 19 year old American citizen of Chechen background,... Read more

This weekend, I gave a talk at a local church, on the misconceptions people have of Muslim women. The other two panelists dedicated part of their time to discuss hijab; why some Muslim women wear it, and why others don’t. They shared their personal experiences with it – one of the speakers doesn’t wear hijab; the other grew up in hyper-secular Turkey and began wearing it while attending one of the most diverse high schools in the US. Since I... Read more

  Patheos has asked it’s writers to finish this sentence Why I Am A… in 200 words, and here is my response. As a child, I once asked a Sunday school teacher where God is. She said, “Allah is in the sky; you can’t see Him!” A silly, convenient answer. God isn’t seen, but known. God is the First and the Last; the Merciful and the Just; the Creator. The concept of tauheed, the belief in the unity and oneness... Read more

Trawling through the Muslim internets in recent days, I noticed a lot of heavy issues rising to the fore. How patriarchy and misogyny in American Muslim communities affect healthy spiritual practices for both genders. Emotional discussions on Tumblr on how internal racism promotes a hierarchy of superiority among American Muslims based on skin color and economic power (this conversation was reiterated in a Twitter discussion on the use of the word abeed – slaves – by Arabs to refer to Black... Read more

Longtime readers of Hindtrospectives are familiar with my “Linksies” posts. Twice a week I offer a round-up of  articles, videos and podcasts on political news and analysis, religion, race, culture and the media. I have a special focus on religious diversity in the United States and Western Europe, but feature news and analysis from around the world. I hope my new readers will also appreciate these news round-ups. In These United States Corporate media’s affair with Petraeus Chicago-area man taken... Read more