Muslim Men on gender, love, and community
Many Muslim women have been actively raising the issue of #AllMalePanels at Muslim events, as witnessed by the recent Twitter conversation #NextTimeRememberHer. Responding to this dilemma of all-male, or otherwise male-dominated, panels, Muslim women have created a pledge that they urge Muslim men to sign. The pledge asks the signatory…
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[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”What it means for Muslims, blacks, Latinos, and women in America”] Almost two months ago, the South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard lowered the Confederate flag from the state’s Capitol grounds. As controversy rages on with bills and protests across the nation, it’s worth returning to Louis Farrakhan’s declaration in…
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Apparently, research has revealed that women don’t like modesty in a man. Read full study here. The three female researchers showed more than 200 people videotapes of a man and a woman applying for a job as a computer lab manager. The male and female actors both followed the same script…
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Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Zain Shamoon, Creative Outreach Director of the Muslim Mental Health Institute based in Michigan. He took a moment to talk about the innovative approaches he and his colleagues take with regard to mental health in their local Muslim community. atlM: So where…
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[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”For your summer reading list”] Most people who haven’t read science fiction and fantasy (SFF) define it by Hollywood blockbusters. If they’ve read SFF, they don’t think of it as such. “Fahrenheit 451? 1984?” I’ve heard from members of our Muslim communities. “Those are science fiction?” While these…
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Becoming a dad ruined my life. Now, before you fire up an angry e-mail, delete my blog from your bookmarks, or un-follow me on Twitter, let me offer some context. I’ve been a dad for about five-and-a-half years now, and with this past weekend marking the annual occurrence that is Father’s Day, I got to thinking about just how wildly off course my life has veered…
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The Muslim experience in post-9/11 America is alive with a burgeoning literary-arts movement. Muslim storytellers are increasingly invested in “humanizing” their experiences. Initiatives like The Hijabi Monologues, The Muslim Protagonist, Muslim Writers Collective, and others are dedicated to this project. Hashtags like #MuslimLivesMatter and #WeNeedDiverseBooks are ubiquitous. Calls to fight…
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We used to want to go to mosques and community centers. As early immigrants, some 30 odd years ago, those structures served as a place where you found people like you. It’s where you met friends and availed the opportunity to give your children a piece of the culture you grew up…
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As my son grows up, he and I are becoming increasingly aware of one big difference between us: I have white skin and he has brown skin. We sometimes play a game in which I pretend that his arms are made of chocolate and I try to eat them, much…
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The first creative writing piece I workshopped in undergrad told the story of a Pakistani engineering student who rebuilds her father’s mystical gulab jamun machine and saves Manhattan from a gang of neo-Nazis and their patrons on Wall Street. It was narrated by her friend, an insecure Muslim Iranian Dominican…
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