It’s interesting, to me at least, that early this week I sat on a panel on “Fueling Hate: The News Media, Bias and Islam” at the University of Missouri’s College of Journalism and declared that there are stories that many Muslims (journalists and otherwise) feel they are done, done, done with – one of which includes articles on hijab, headscarves, burkas and other types of modest Muslim dressing. And yet here we are, because the legislation and policing of “religious clothing”... Read more
How do people personally experience religion and faith? Why do they believe what they believe, and is there any way for us to find a connection with people who have vastly different belief systems from our own? Author, scholar and Muslim American Reza Aslan immerses himself into different faiths and faith rituals around the world to explore these and other questions in “Believer,” a new CNN series debuting March 5 at 10 p.m. In this spiritual adventure series, Aslan dives... Read more
To save one life is to save all of humanity. – Quran, 5:32 Do we talk about Iranian director Asghari Farhadi’s winning his second Academy Award for his film, “The Salesman,” but boycotting the event because Iran is one of the seven countries targeted by President Donald Trump’s #MuslimBan? Do we talk about how Khaled Khateeb, a 21-year-old cinematographer and Syrian national who filmed “The White Helmets” was denied entry to the U.S. to attend the 2017 Oscars because of... Read more
The numbers tell the story: More than 3.3 million people joined more than 500 Women’s Marches across the United States, with estimates showing 1 out of every 100 Americans attended. More than 70 sister marches occurred around the world, even in Antarctica. In fact, there were marches on all seven continents. The Women’s March on Washington (with lower estimations putting the numbers at 500,000) was nearly three times the size of President Donald Trump’s inaugural crowd. There were zero arrests... Read more
Nearly five years ago, we sat in a room – myself, my husband, D’s teacher and principal at the time plus representatives from our county’s exceptional education department. We were at the tail end of a long, difficult, heart-breaking fifth-grade year for D, trying to come to an agreement regarding his future schooling and education. By this point, D had spent five years in our public-school system in two different self-contained autism classrooms under the tutelage of two capable teachers... Read more
Embed from Getty Images As the phrase goes – Never Again. Except it does keep happening. Again. And Again. And Again. Out of Syria, in eastern Aleppo, comes grim reports of a city on the brink of annihilation. Of mothers wondering how and when their children will die. Of Syrians tweeting out questions to scholars if they could commit suicide before they are killed or tortured. Of Syrians being shot and killed point blank. Of Syrian men asking if they’re... Read more
Um, where was this when I lived in New York City with D and his baby sister A more than a decade ago and used to practice walking up and down the aisles of our local grocery store with D, praising him for keeping himself together and giving him an M&M at the end of every aisle? (Yes, I know it was classic ABA, classic Pavlovian training, all that. But it was pretty much the only thing out there at... Read more
The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on. – President Barack Obama As I waited for my own fella, I saw the youngster walk out of the school, accompanied by a teacher’s aide. I had seen the child numerous times in the past, in fact just the day before when I had been at D’s school for a parent-teacher conference and... Read more
Last night (in my opinion) ended badly. This morning started badly. I had to do what millions of parents who were not in favor of a Trump presidency were doing: Break the news to my kids. It did not go over well. We get small pockets of time with our children to explain tough things, times when they are open to hearing us and absorbing our words. You look for those times and dive in when you see it. Quickly... Read more
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Live Tweeting the Election – Nov 8, 2016
Well here’s a new thing I’m trying! I knew I’d be live-tweeting the election and ensuing results – now you can follow my tweets here in this blog post! It’ll be all curated here, which is great if you’re not one to be on Twitter (because frankly, it’s not a very nice place at times!). So bookmark this link and follow the fun about what my 13-year-old daughter says on election night (her comments this year throughout the debate... Read more