Warning: This post contains spoilers about the season three finale of “Homeland.”
You would think Allahu Akbar was synonymous with “Death to America!” if you watched the final two pulse-pounding episodes of Showtime’s Homeland season three. A multitude of Allahu Akbars serve as the backdrop in the horrific public hanging scene of last night’s season finale, “The Star.”
I’ve been attending a halaqa (Islamic study circle) for nearly two years now – a small intimate group of ladies with whom I’ve grown very close to. Our halaqa is simple – we are studying, surah by surah the 30th juz (chapter) of the Quran, and we are studying, hadith by hadith, the Forty Hadith of Imam Al-Nawawi.
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The recent debate surrounding the “Somewhere in America” video by Sheikh & Bake Productions has thus far been by Muslim women of the West about Muslim women of the West. The discussion involves the balance in their lives between what Sana Saeed, in her discussion-generating article, calls “normal,” “Americanness,” and “Western” on one side and “ourselves” on the other.
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A video about female Muslim hipsters–“Mipsterz”–recently went viral on Facebook, started by and further provoking a frenzy of commentary. “Somewhere in America” co-creators, Abbas Rattani and Habib Yazdi of Sheikh & Bake Productions speak to Altmuslimah about their motivations for the video and thoughts on the reactions.
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Badly needing a relaxing night out, my husband and I decided to see the movie Captain Philips…with one stipulation: I didn’t want to have the “Look what America has done to destroy others’ countries” conversation afterwards. It’s not that I shy away from analytical conversations about the United States and its involvement in foreign affairs, but for one evening, I wanted to enjoy an evening of blissful ignorance at the movies.
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I missed out on a lot of things in elementary school. My name was never the same as a character in one of our story time books. I never basked in the temporary fame that came in the form of a mass classmate stare-down as the teacher read my name aloud from a book. Santa Claus never brought me presents and the Easter Bunny never brought me chocolates.
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A full moon hung low one North Carolina night. Omar ibn Said was on the run from his South Carolina master who had almost beaten him to death a month earlier. When Omar came upon a church, he whispered “Praise Allah” under his breath. He took ablutions by the well in the churchyard and then entered the sanctuary to perform his Islamic prayers.
A young white boy saw him walk inside. Men on horseback with a pack of dogs quickly arrived to snatch Omar, mid-prostration, off to jail.
I recently met author Sam’n Iqbal and artist Uzma Sabir to discuss the newest children’s book on the block, “Allah to Z: Activity Book.” Meeting at Sam’n’s home, I instantly picked up on the inspiration behind this book: a vibrant home dotted with artwork produced by her three adorable children. Uzma and Sam’n, themselves an energetic pair, sat down to discuss their book.
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Mehded Maryam Sinclair’s YA novel When Wings Expand is a beautiful account of a young girl’s process of coming to terms with her mother’s death. After her mother’s passing, Nur struggles to adjust to life without her mother and subsequently becomes a source of strength for Taqwa, a young girl battling cancer.
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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead provides some important insights and useful guidelines on what women themselves can do to attain more influential positions at work, but it often veers into the areas of generic career advice and a corporate A-lister’s perspective of the world.
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