Currently Browsing: Op-Eds
Celebrating Mother’s Day as a rejected son (Express Tribune)
Posted in Op-Eds on May 13th, 2012
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May 13, 2012
A Pakistani refugee who is a member of the Ahmadiyya, an Islamic minority sect, carries his daughter as he is released from a detention centre in Bangkok. PHOTO: REUTERS/ FILE
As a rejected son, how do you celebrate Mother’s Day? Who enjoys the breakfast tray? Who receives the flower bouquet?
That’s my story. But it’s not my biological mother who rejected me. It’s my motherland – Pakistan.
So on this Mother’s Day, let me have a heart to heart talk with you – my motherland. You don’t want to accept my love; that’s your choice. I have learned to...
In Islam, Heaven Is Not Exclusive (The Huffington Post)
Posted in Op-Eds, Uncategorized on Apr 27th, 2012
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He was trying to find his way.
While driving to the mosque for my Friday prayers, I saw him in my back view mirror, fidgeting with his GPS on a hot summer day. Driving up on Park Heights in Baltimore with a car full of children, this visibly Jewish man with a long wavy beard and thick black glasses was clad in a black suit. Say whatever you want, but this much was obvious: He had made some tough choices to please his G-d.
So why would your or my God not reward him for his commitment? What if this man was an organ donor? A volunteer firefighter? A caring neighbor? An honest...
Saving the Next Trayvon: The Church’s Chance to Uproot the Curse? (The Huffington Post)
Posted in Op-Eds on Apr 17th, 2012
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Is the Trayvon Martin’s case pitting the Church against the State?
It seems so. On April 11, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a nationwide grassroots campaign titled “Second Chance to Shoot First” aiming to repeal the stand your ground laws. In a statement released by the Mayor’s office he said, “It’s now clear: the NRA’s ‘shoot first’ laws that have passed in 25 states have undermined the integrity of the justice system, and done serious harm to public safety.”
The church, particularly the white...
How Pakistan got boxed into religion (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Op-Eds, Uncategorized on Apr 14th, 2012
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The National Database and Registration Authority’s (NADRA) refusal to change MPA Rana Mahmood’s religion from “Islam” to “Christianity” has many boxed in.
A plethora of questions have arisen. Is this a human rights violation? Will Mahmood be considered an apostate if his records were to reflect that he left Islam? How can you change someone’s faith with a stroke of a pen?
But no one is talking about the real question: Why do we have a “religion box” on our legal documents anyway?
Say that and you essentially open Pandora’s Box. After all, in a 97% Muslim...
How a Christian Hajj Would Save the Next Trayvon Martin (The Huffington Post)
Posted in Op-Eds, Uncategorized on Mar 27th, 2012
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“The white man is the devil.”
This is what Malcolm X used to say.
“I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did.”
This is what Malcolm X came to believe.
What changed such a divisive and hate-filled man into someone who fought for racial harmony?
The Hajj.
After performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage, the Hajj, Malcolm X wrote in 1964, “There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual,...
Five reasons to stop questioning the president’s faith (The Washington Post)
Posted in Op-Eds on Mar 18th, 2012
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I thought the question was so absurd to begin with, that it would go away on its own.
I was wrong.
Four years later, that absurd question, “Do you think Barack Obama is a Muslim?” keeps nagging the American psyche in national and regional polls – despite ample data to the contrary. In 2009, a Pew Research Center poll showed that one in ten Americans believed President Obama was a Muslim; the number jumped to one in five by 2010. So when last week, one in two Republican voters in the states of Mississippi and Alabama reaffirmed the same phobia, I had to say...
Do I have the right to remain Ahmadi? (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Op-Eds on Mar 1st, 2012
Do I have the right to remain Ahmadi?
March 1, 2012
Do Ahmadis only have the right to remain silent? PHOTO: FAHEEM YOUNUS
In 1966, nearly 180 million people in the US received Miranda rights – the right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.
Half a century later, a religious community in Pakistan, another country of nearly 180 million people, is facing a rather caustic version of the Miranda rights. They don’t have the right, but a duty, to remain silent.
The religious group is the Ahmadiyya community.
Two recent events frame the issue aptly. First, on January 29, 2012,...
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