Books

Review: Sufi Comics Rumi vol. 2

I've written before about my admiration of the work of Sufi Comics. They do outstanding work engaging with Muslim spirituality in a modern context. In fact, I have an academic article about their work on Imam Ali coming out in an anthology on Muslim Superheroes.   They now have a new collection of Rumi stories out, and they are making sure that Rumi is not divorced from his Muslim roots. As in the previous volume, the story is end capped by a verse from the Qur'an and quote from either Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) or Imam Ali (AS). Unlike in the…

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Politics

Trump’s Muslim Ban and the History of Stolen Citizenship in America | Religion Dispatches

Trump’s Muslim Ban and the History of Stolen Citizenship in America | Religion Dispatches. As historians of South Asian America, we know that having your citizenship stripped because of the color of your skin is not unusual in our history. The United States has a long history of racism being encoded into law, and manifesting in law, on a regular basis. The story of internment of Americans of Japanese descent is perhaps the one that is most recent in our collective memory, partly because of George Takei’s tireless work to keep those stories alive.

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Events

Mar. 26 Speaking Event

Building Bridges | A Christian-Muslim Interfaith Dialogue | The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields. With recent political decisions to attempt to ban Muslims and refugees from entering this nation for a better life or even for safety, what is our role in responding as people of faith? As a nation founded upon principles of religious freedom and enshrined in our Constitution, what are the duties of a Christian majority in defending the freedom of religious minorities? Fear is a highly controlling force that plays a major role in the narrative around Muslims – and a lack of common…

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Media Appearances

A top White House aide was asked if Trump thought Islam was a religion. He refused to answer. – Vox

A top White House aide was asked if Trump thought Islam was a religion. He refused to answer. – Vox. Questioning whether Islam is a religion is not, in and of itself, a new idea. Dr. Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Barnard College, told me that it was a dynamic that began in Europe and has a “centuries-long pedigree.” “We are seeing a particularly American manifestation of it now,” he added. He continued, “This administration is playing into all of these themes very clearly: They are trying to say that Muslims are not human and that they are…

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