Media Literacy and the Middle East – Primary Source Podcast

Do Muslims Have to Be Democrats Now? – The New York Times. “As a Muslim, I’d vote for Jesus, but the Republicans won’t let him in, and the Democrats don’t believe in him,” said Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Barnard College, who concedes that he’s a tad bitter about his political options.

Muslim New Yorkers Learn to Pick Their Battles – WNYC. “There’s no longer a sense of Muslim and American, but Muslims as Americans,” said Rashid, “and I think that’s a really important part of that political engagement. And I think, looking at France, you still see this isolation, this difference. You’re either French, or you’re Muslim.”

Break This Down: Q & A with Hussein Rashid on Pop Culture, Ramadan, and Islam’s Diversity | Barnard College. In Muslim traditions, you have heroes who are super not because of an innate position but through relationship with God. By developing spiritual wisdom and maturity, the hero is granted superpowers by the Divine. So in writing my article, the hyphen in “super-hero” shows that the person may always be a hero, but is not always super. That super quality is a gift granted by God, which may be earned but is not a permanent condition.