With all the stories on the Internet it can be difficult to always stay in the know. To help, we’ve searched the web for interesting pieces of news, videos and tips to help you start off your week on the right foot.
1. 40 badass times Donald Trump was asked #CanYouHearUsNow
Attribution: Courtesy of Alaa Murabit, Twitter
Shortly after the Council on American-Ismalic Relations called on Muslim women to “tweet about who they are and how they speak out,” Twitter exploded with the hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow. The hashtag campaign was in response to Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump’s, comments about Ghazala Khan’s, mother of deceased solider Capt. Humayun Khan, silence during her family’s Democratic National Convention speech saying she must not have been “allowed to speak.”
Muslim women and allies of all kinds spoke on who they are and what they stand for. The tweets ranged from messages of support to a discussion about the respectability politics that the hashtag fed into.
The Tempest has gathered what it calls a “celebration” of 40 individuals who “spoke out against Trump’s bigoted speech.”
[tweetthis]The Tempest gathers 40 of Twitter’s best #CanYouHearUsNow tweets.[/tweetthis]
2. Friends with Muslims
The Facebook page Mighty Muslim Women put out a call asking people who were friends with Muslims to talk about their experience with Islam.
“Listen as they share their perspective on today’s rhetoric and what it’s like to be #friendswithmuslims,” the group writes.
3. Pictured: Shiite tattoos a show of pride amid tensions
In this Tuesday, July 19, 2016 photo, Hamza, 25, poses for a photo showing off his tattoos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Shiite Muslim religious slogans in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. The tattoo in Arabic reads, “It is impossible to humiliate us.” A growing number of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon are getting tattoos with religious and other Shiite symbols since the civil war in neighboring Syria broke out five years ago, fanning sectarian flames across the region. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
There is a growing number of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon who, according to the Associated Press, have “inked themselves with Shiite religious and political symbols as a show of pride in their community since neighboring Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, fanning hatreds between Shiites, Sunnis and other faiths across the region.”
30-year-old Hamada Bayloun got a large tattoo that spreads across his entire upper back of the most revered saint in Shiite Islam. He says he got it just a few months after the war began, partially in response to attempts to bomb Shiite shrines in Syria and Iraq.
“We can’t respond with car bombs, but (through tattoos) we can show our strength and love for the prophet and his family,” he said, referring to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, who was Ali’s cousin and father-in-law.
“Tattoos are forbidden by Sunni clerics but are generally accepted in Shiite circles. Among the most popular tattoos is “313,” the number of commanders Shiites believe will accompany their last imam, Mahdi, when he returns to save the world from oppression,” the AP article reads.
[tweetthis]A growing number of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon are getting inked with religious and Shiite symbols to show their faith in response to the civil war in neighboring Syria.[/tweetthis]
4. Thanks, Trump: The Muslim community benefits from an unexpected spotlight
Donald Trump speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore)
Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, writes in an Op-Ed for The Washington Post’s Acts of Faith, how he wishes to thank Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
He goes on to explain that, not to be mistaken as a supporter of Trump, he simply wants to thank him for helping the American people see him clearly.
“I am both Muslim and American,” he writes. “I don’t have to choose one or the other. Yet many Americans don’t understand that. It’s only starting to make sense to many of my fellow citizens — and for that growing clarity, I have Trump to thank.
Al-Marayati writes that it’s because of Trump that the real issues of Islamophobia and bigotry have finally found their way to the surface.
“Before, very few believed the type of bigotry and racism we face on a daily basis,” he writes. “Light and air can expose this hatred, which is what Trump has unwittingly provided. He has illustrated that anti-Muslim bias is not a Muslim problem. It’s an American problem that we all have to face head on.”
[tweetthis]Muslim Public Affairs Council President Salam Al-Marayati thanks Donald Trump for, unknowingly, shining the spotlight on the Muslim American community.[/tweetthis]
5. The Struggles Of Being Black And Muslim
Husna Ibrahim writes in an post for The Huffington Post, about the intersection of her identities as a black, female Muslim. She talks about how people usually associate being Muslim with being Arabs but this is all way before they think of black Muslims.
“There is a false perception that black muslims are a minority in Islam but in reality that is completely false,” Ibrahim writes. “However many black muslims still face discrimination and racism in their own communities. History shows that people of with darker skin are disportionately treated unfairly and discriminated against across many cultures and countries. This is a fact that society needs to face together. The reality of racism is real and the way people who are black are treated needs to be acknowledged and fixed.”
[tweetthis]altM’s weekly roundup of news[/tweetthis]
This list was curated by Kaitlin Montgomery, altM News Editor
