In a treaty with the Islamic nation of Tripoli initiated by George Washington, completed by John Adams, and ratified by the US Senate in 1797, the Founding Fathers declared that … the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion… So, for the love, please spread this around, especially…… Continue reading A quote for the Christian-American right
An article Reflections of a Concerned Young American for Pakistan Link when I was a senior at American University, Washington, DC. Unfortunately one sentence from the article still rings true today. Some have already begun the fight against ignorance and misunderstanding surrounding Islam, but citizens who continue to malign Islam without truly understanding the religion…… Continue reading Article from 2007: Reflections of a Concerned Young American
Dear my Israeli donor friends, I have some ideas. Don’t tell ANYONE what I’m about to propose. Donate $10 million to my campaign and the US will strike Iranian nuclear sites with missiles by February 2013. Of course that’s if I’m elected President. Donate $40 million to my campaign and the US will invade Iran…… Continue reading Politics: What Romney said behind closed doors in Jerusalem
I just had a Twitter conversation with a presumably white, southern man who had argued that the real definition of the Confederate flag is pride in the confederacy and states rights and only these two things. I told him that he needs to be careful with such bold definitions because this was his subjective interpretation. He proceeded…… Continue reading What Does the Confederate Flag Mean?
‘These are the Pashtun Tribes… The Afghans have never been defeated in history — they will destroy themselves. You blow up their villages, destroy their families, but they are very much like the Americans — they believe in independence and freedom… Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, once said, ‘Waziristan is beyond control. What they need…… Continue reading Important quote on the Pashtuns
By now you may have heard that Michele Bachmann has accused Huma Abedin of being a mole that has successfully infiltrated the US State Department on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Hmm, I wonder what MB leaders think of their mole… One Ahmed Al Nahhas, a long-time MB activist and leader in Alexandria, Egypt, has said, I haven’t…… Continue reading A ‘radical Islamist’ group responds to Bachmann’s remarks with… SANITY!?
We can gain a sense of young Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts on religion in A Witch Trial at Mount Holly, which raised the concern of his Puritan parents that he held ‘erroneous’ religious opinions. Franklin was not himself an emphatically religious man; while he believed in God, he did not subscribe to one particular creed. What we do…… Continue reading Benjamin Franklin’s Case for Pluralism
As part of Journey into America – September 2008 at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was lucky enough to film right up there.
… [T]here is so much misunderstanding of Islam. The debate on Islam that is in full cry in the West since September 11 is too often little more than a parading of deep-rooted prejudices. For example, the critics of Islam ask: ‘If there is such an emphasis on compassion and tolerance in Islam, why is…… Continue reading Vital passage: Misunderstanding and understanding Islam
Texas Representative Louie Gohmert is one of several members of Congress who decided (stupidly) to sign the now infamous ‘Bachmann letter’, which accused Huma Abedin’s PARENTS for being the reason the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ has ‘infiltrated’ the US State Department. Yes, you read that correctly. Abdein’s PARENTS have successfully infiltrated the US State Department.
I wrote this speech (with a few typos) before launching Journey into America, which was screened at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. I ended up not even reading it. I was under the impression that we (researchers) were going to be asked to say a few words in front of the audience. This was never…… Continue reading The short speech I never read
I have actually never voted in an American election, whether it be local, state, or national. I am not even registered to vote, but this is not stopping me from commenting on the state of American democracy and the 2012 elections. Democrats and Republicans: Two ‘different’ parties with essentially the same fundamental principles and entities…… Continue reading Time to Go Green in American elections
When Somali youth have made story-lines over the last few years, they have generally done so for the most unfortunate of reasons, mainly that some are going to Somalia to join and fight for Al-Shabaab. A different perspective, however, appeared today in the Washington Post about the challenges Somali youth face while growing up in…… Continue reading Boston Imam leading the charge to help Somali youth off the streets
Derald Wing Sue et al. (2007) posit that micro-aggression racism is: a contemporary form of racism that is invisible, unintentional, subtle in nature, and typically outside the levels of conscious awareness, but it creates a hostile and invalidating climate nonetheless. According to Sue and Colleagues, the cumulative of micro-aggressions may be just as harmful as…… Continue reading How You Could Be Racist and Not Even Know It
Kavirah (2010) argues that the growing religiosity in many parts of the world is quite different from our traditional understanding of religion (in his writing, he refers to rising Hindu identity and nationalism). He argues that we need to distinguish between ‘thick and thin religion’. Thick religion encompasses traditional rituals, practices, and beliefs, whereas thin…… Continue reading Thick and thin religion
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, amongst these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’. – Thomas Jefferson I’m proud to be an American if we adhere to this framework both on the domestic front and…… Continue reading Personal: My declaration on the 4th of July
Location: Hamza Yusuf’s home, California Date: November 2008 Topic: American identity and Muslims in the USA Project: Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam Principal investigator: Akbar Ahmed Filmed by: Craig Considine © Akbar Ahmed
The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is, amazingly, telling the people of Galway to not erect a Che Guevara Memorial statue. Florida, I should note, is roughly 4,000 miles away from Galway. And Che, if you aren’t aware, has Irish roots with the Lynch family (of Galway). Now,…… Continue reading My point on the Che Guevara statue in Galway
Location: Noam Chomsky’s office, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Date: October 2008 Topic: American identity (with some focus on Muslims in the USA) Project: Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam Principal investigator: Akbar Ahmed Filmed by: Craig Considine © Akbar Ahmed
Sufis are very inclusive and open-minded. They believe that God is everywhere. They quote Qur’anic passages like, ‘Wherever you turn, there is the face of God’ (2: 115). If God is everywhere, then God can be seen in all religions too. A Sufi would not only be comfortable praying at a church or synagogue or…… Continue reading This is Why People Love Sufism
We like to think of the drone war as something far away, fought in the deserts of Yemen or the mountains of Afghanistan. But we now know it’s closer than we thought. There are 64 drone bases on American soil, including 12 that house armed Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles. The possibility of military…… Continue reading Drones Over American Skies
From Eric Margolis’ latest article ‘US trains its guns on China’: America has been at war for decades. Its aircraft and warships are aging rapidly. Equally threatening, Congress may force deep military spending cuts as deficits worsen – at a time when the US military is being ordered to keep China bottled up on the…… Continue reading In relation to China
My intellectual/spiritual/academic mentor, Professor Akbar Ahmed, has done it again. And it’s sheer brilliance! Brookings Institution Press has just released an e-mail highlighting their forthcoming Fall publications. Showcased in this e-mail is Professor Ahmed’s latest book ‘The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam’: The United…… Continue reading Fascinating and timely forthcoming book: ‘The Thistle and the Drone’ by Akbar Ahmed
Drone warfare, especially the US’s illegal use of it in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has bothered me greatly since I first started writing about it for World Can’t Wait in 2010. As it is with others, my main concern with the use of drone warfare is that drones more often than not kill civilians and not the…… Continue reading It’s dangerous stuff when the US arms Italian drones
According to the BBC, a US drone strike has killed at least eight people in a volatile tribal area of north-west Pakistan. This is the second strike in the area in 24 hours. At least four suspected militants were killed on Wednesday. US drone strikes in Pakistan are highly controversial. Are they legal? What about the…… Continue reading Drones over the ‘suspected militants’ in Pakistan
Bahrain has been in the news over the last year or so for largely negative reasons – shooting and tear-gassing peaceful protestors that were fighting for the so-called quintessentially American value of democracy. The Guardian reports that at least 30 protestors have been killed, more than 500 people detained, and up to 2,000 people have been dismissed…… Continue reading So THAT’S why the US supports Bahrain
There’s an obvious variable here – would Rubio even accept the invitation to be Romney’s running mate? Reports are already suggesting he wants no part, but it’s hard to imagine he’d pass it up (but you never know). Either way, Romney wanting Rubio to serve as his running mate makes sense for a number of reasons,…… Continue reading 10 reasons why Romney chooses Rubio
There was an interesting article on Fox News by Connor Grennan as it concerns his father (born in Ireland) and his Irish identity. Connor grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY and hated the fact that his father had a thick Irish accent. He wanted to hide from the world because of it. Several times, Connor even said…… Continue reading When Being Irish Just Isn’t Enough
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