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September 2015
Don’t take your innovative science project to school if you are Muslim!
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: A 14-year old Muslim student takes his science project to school. Instead of appreciating his talent the school teachers call police. The teen ager is interrogated for one and a half hour. Taken to juvenile prison, fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal. During this ordeal he was not allowed to contact his parents. What lesson the Muslim students will get from this episode and what advice I will give to Muslim students who often face bullying at school? Don’t take your innovative science project to school.This is the horrifying story of Ahmed Mohamed of Irving High School in Texas. Read More
American Muslims 14 years after 9/11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali: *Three American-Muslim students - Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19 - were shot to death by Craig Stephen Hicks, an atheist and a gun enthusiast, near the University of North Carolina.*Glendon Scott Crawford, a mechanic at General Electric, is convicted for constructing a “death X-ray machine” to kill Muslims in New York community near Saratoga Springs because he viewed them as the enemies of Israel. *Robert R. Doggart, an ordained minister in the Christian National Church and a former congressional candidate from Tennessee, planned a violent attack on Islamberg, a Muslim area in the state of New York and destroy a mosque. *Michael Sibley, a Georgia man, plants a bomb in Roswell Park and leaves a bag with a Quran with the hope of convincing people that a Muslim had carried out the plot. These episodes best reflect the dilemma and predicament of seven-million American Muslims who remain the target of bigotry, hate crimes, discrimination and profiling 14 years after 9/11. Read More
Are we witnessing resurrection of fascism in Hungary?
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui: Our world is never without bigots and racists. The Jewish Holocaust did not teach Europe to be respectful of 'other' cultures and traditions. So it is absolutely folly to expect a change of heart from the children and grandchildren of those mass murderers and criminals who directly or indirectly aided Fascism/Nazism and other forms of evils, racism and bigotry just merely seven decades ago. Read More
Combating bigotry in Europe
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui: I have noted in the past how religious extremism is on the rise around the globe, which is making the lives of most minorities difficult. It needs to be defeated. So, does fascism. It is worth recalling that fascism happens when a culture fracturing along social lines is encouraged to unite against a perceived external threat. Today’s Myanmar embodies this sickness where Buddhists are encouraged to eliminate ‘external threats’ – posed by Rohingya and other religious minorities - so as to defend the ‘Buddhist way of life’. Europe wants to be a purely Christian continent, turning its clock back to the 15th century when Muslims and Jews were exterminated from the Iberian Peninsula. Her leaders are against diluting of the Christian population in a continent that has been a home to many races, castes and creeds since at least her colonization of the other continents. Read More
"Fight On Pope Man"
By Khalid Saeed: Few weeks ago Matt Rexroad, former Mayor of Woodland, made an interesting comment on a social media site, “You know something. I like the Pope. If the faith community just hides inside the four walls of a church once a week... nothing happens. The faith community needs to be part of the debate and he's one of the leaders in the faith community. I may not agree with every one of his policies but I like the fact that he is out there. Fight On Pope Man.” Ever since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 and I have seen him being very open and very vocal on issues which he feels are important and are close to heart. Read More
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