Fast-Food-Islam: How Wahhabism Feeds Our Intellectual Retardation



This fast-food-Islam has already cost us a generation and a half of Muslims. The same health problems which afflict the American fast-food population afflict the intellectual progress of the Muslim fast-food-Islam population. In an age where Islam is facing humiliation after humiliation at the hands of fundamentalists with the intellects of cave-men, in an age where we think that stoning a poor woman in Nigeria constitutes our Islamic civilization, in an age where the most important features in Islam are hijabs and miswaks, it is in this age that we must strive to overcome this despotic element which has oppressed our minds and usurped our legacy.

Mind Over Mullah



Mernissi’s ideas are always challenging but well covered and sensible. To explain the terrifying ascent of terrorist imams, she makes the distinction between the “media imam” (a modern creation) and the “traditional imam” (a reality during the time of the Prophet). The “media imam” is a creation of modern technology. He, in turn, uses modern technology to magnify his presence and bulldoze his rhetoric over the many complex debates the community could potentially participate in. However, the “traditional imam” was vulnerable and utterly challengeable when he failed to secure the rights of each individual in society.

Should a Mafia Don Lead World Muslims? Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury’s Nomination to Head the OIC



If the leaders of the 57-member OIC leave Chowdhury’s case to the nominating government and turn a blind eye to his character, it would be a huge blunder. If 1% of the allegations that were made against Chowdhury were true, it would greatly weaken his credibility and effectiveness as the OIC’s top boss.

The Linguistic Literalism of Four-Year-Olds: Muslims Missing the Point



That old adage that we can’t see the forest for the trees is all too fitting. As a result we have entrenched ourselves in an ossified version of Islam that is rigid, inflexible, unfit for the current context, and all in all rather unappealing. Small wonder that we are perceived as backwards, and different, unable to fit into modern society.

Dreaming in Two Languages: An Interview with Natacha Atlas



She has the most magical voice this side of Umm Kulthum, she’s bringing Arabic music to Europe and North America by creating a synthesis with western beats that still keeps the music real, she belly dances, and she’s politically aware. I’m hooked. And so is Ali, my four-year-old.

Not Running Alone: A Review of Farah Nousheen’s “Nazrah”



And like with any rich and satisfying coffeehouse discussion, we are left with a question that gets us and keeps us thinking: What is our responsibility as Muslim women living in the west where, at least for today, there exists more religious freedom than in predominantly Muslim countries?

“There Are a Lot of People Out There Who Feel Like They Don’t Belong”: An Interview with Farah Nousheen



I think my experience had a lot to do with being a woman in an environment where almost all the leadership were men. At prayers, women we sat in a separate area with all the crying kids. It made me feel less important.

Presidency for the Taking: Latest Pew Poll Shows Weakness of Bush and Democrats



Today, more Americans (37%) disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing as President than at any time since he took office, according to a study released this week by the Pew Research Center. In fact, all the signs point to a potential political disaster for Bush. So should the President be worried enough to hasten the discovery of that dusty biological weapons canister in the back of a Tikrit warehouse?

Are Black Dogs Permissible?



Whether we like it or not, many of us live with a black dog. It stays with us, barking at us around the clock, keeping us awake and causing maximum disturbance in our daily lives.

The Intellectual Thoroughness of Three-Year-Olds: The Crisis of Critical Inquiry



Confronted with a laundry list of good deeds and commensurate rewards, far too many Muslims react in the manner of a three-year-old. We hungrily scan the page, seeking the reward for this good deed, the punishment for that bad deed, soaking up the answers as though they were indubitable fact and as though they could solve all individual and global ills.

Letters from Palestine: Bombs, Curfews, and What’s for Dinner?



People go through it with remarkable regularity and grace. It’s just simply, I repeat, unimaginable. I know there is nothing that can justify this, absolutely nothing, even if only one person is innocent in the entire West Bank. The family of the young bomber has been arrested and relatives are scrambling to empty the content of the house. It will be demolished by dawn tomorrow.

Washing Our Dirty Laundry: An Interview with Omid Safi



I get invited much more frequently to talk at synagogues and churches than at mosques. The national Muslim American organizations don’t take full advantage of Muslim academics. Some people on certain issues will show up, but there is a distrust of scholars who have studied Islamic Studies in the west—it’s that whole "Islamization of Knowledge" garbage.

Just Wear It: Because a Baseball Hat Covers As Much As a Kufi



Some enlightened brothers have discovered that a baseball cap covers their head just as well as a kufi, and a baggy Adidas shirt with matching track-pants is as modest as a shalwar kameez (not to mention a whole lot better for your game). They realize, perhaps, that were the Prophet to have dressed in the clothing of the French royal court rather than in traditional, Arabian attire, he would have been unlikely to persuade anyone in Arabia to embrace Islam. Similarly, if you go on the metro standing 7ft. tall with a belly-button-length beard, white shalwar kameez, and a matching brown kufi and vest set, don’t be disappointed if men and women in Western-style suits and teenagers in “Mecca Brand” t-shirts and velour Jay-Z sweat-suits don’t ask you to discuss the din (faith). It isn’t personal.