“Islam is a political ideology that wants to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.” “Islam is an ideological illness.” These are just a sampling of statements and accusations I come across on a daily basis in my role as a researcher on Islamophobia. While such pernicious declarations are most visible on social…
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In 1982, I began fasting half-days during Ramadan for the first time, my hands painted with henna in celebration. I was in Mrs. Campbell’s third grade class; the only Muslim in a school of more than three hundred children. She growled my name “So-fee-AAH! We do not write on our…
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Parents today are justifiably concerned about raising their kids in the Islamophobic and anti-Arab climate that seems to prevail in much of the Western world. Now is a good time to look at the potential silver linings and strategies we can use to make our children and youth stronger from…
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This has not been the best week ever. Quite to the contrary, this has been a week in which many of us have had to come to terms with and process terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, Nigeria, Mali, and many other places the world over. All the while, news of…
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It all happened after a Muslim woman threatened to sue the police department when they forcibly removed her hijab during her arrest. There’s a police officer in the room with me, and he’s shouting “You don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am!” I tremble inwardly, but I don’t back down….
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Last month, in a train station pizza shop, I sat somehow gulping down a slice while carrying on a professional phone call in between bites. I slowly began to feel stares. Confused ones. Curious ones. And could it be…hostile ones, too? I couldn’t be sure. So, I had to wonder…
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Dozens of women dressed in colorful hijabs and floral dresses gathered under gray skies recently in the garden of a four-star hotel here for a charity fashion bazaar. They tried on styles from local designers and sampled new cosmetics, posing for selfies and dropping sunny filters on the images before…
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Latest: United Airlines finally apologizes— While United did not operate the flight, Ms. Ahmad was our customer and we apologize to her for what occurred on the flight. After investigating this matter, United has ensured that the flight attendant, a Shuttle America employee, will no longer serve United customers….
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In a letter to American Muslims, Maria Khwaja Bazi reflects on rising Islamophobia and the murders of Deah, Yusor and Razan in Chapel Hill. Dear MSA kids, I was 17 on September 11, 2001. It was fall of my senior year of high school, and I was worried about a US…
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History is witness to a time past when the Islamic civilization produced globally unparallelled architecture, literature, science, philosophy, theological discourse, and cultural influences – influences so strong it made European nobles want to dress like Muslims. Critics of Islam and Muslims scoff at this romanticism, asserting that Muslims have not produced anything great since the Middle Ages and most likely will never again.
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