Category: Intra-faith

Being Gaysi | Sapna Magazine : For South Asian American Women. I also wanted the average South Asian to read this article and actually acknowledge that hey, gay desis do exist. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about our community, it’s that topics that are not socially acceptable are swept under the carpet, coined taboo, and spoken of in hushed tones. Well, not anymore. I realized after two weeks of drafting that the best way to do this was to be rid of inhibitions and write with simple honesty: Hi, my name is Kashif and I’m a Gay Indian/Pakistani/Sunni/Shiite/Punjabi/Muslim. …

“Whoever says, ‘What good is the Imam? God without an intermediary is enough for me’ plainly forgets that, in speaking of this God who is immediate for him, he can never speak save of the God who reveals Himself to him, of God as he knows Him, in and through the form in which God reveals Himself to him.  Even if he speaks of God as of something impersonal or transpersonal, he does so only of the form shown to him or withheld from him.  Without this mazhar, without this ‘theophanic form’ in which God manifests Himself – in the…

Muslim liquor store owners get help with moral dilemma – chicagotribune.com. Prescribed by his Islamic faith to pray five times a day, Mazen Materieh often prostrates himself on one of the prayer rugs in the basement of his corner store. When he is done, he returns to his perch behind the counter, where he sells liquor, lottery tickets and pork skins — all forbidden by the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. h/t GetReligion Too often, news stories portray people of faith at extremes. They’re either totally righteous or totally hypocritical. In most cases, I think all of us fall somewhere…

Young. British. Female. Muslim. -Times Online. It’s a controversial time for British women to be wearing the hijab, the basic Muslim headscarf. Last month, Belgium became the first European country to pass legislation to ban the burka (the most concealing of Islamic veils), calling it a “threat” to female dignity, while France looks poised to follow suit. In Italy earlier this month, a Muslim woman was fined €500 (£430) for wearing the Islamic veil outside a post office.  And yet, while less than 2 per cent of the population now attends a Church of England service every week, the number…

The following piece is by my friend Zeba Iqbal. Guest Voices: Young Muslim voices: Taking back our religion – On Faith at washingtonpost.com. We are at a crossroads, and our position today offers us the unique opportunity to choose our way forward. We can continue to be wholly reactive, or we can choose to be more wholly proactive, and set out to renew and reform our vision, our actions and our way forward.

Updated call from the original, incorrect one I had posted earlier: Dear Concerned Muslim American Community Member: As Salaamu Alaykum. In February of this year, a new Bollywood film, My Name is Khan, opened in U.S. theaters. Although it is claimed that the film promotes tolerance and understanding, My Name is Khan presents our diverse and dynamic American Muslim community through a “Good Muslim/Bad Muslim” lens that does an injustice to our community and reproduces racist stereotypes about African Americans. For a cogent review of the film, please read Su’ad Abdul Khabeer’s article “Khan Breaks New Stereotypes (but Reinforces Old…

Too funny. Winnipeg Muslims are building a little mosque on the Prairie, and plan to ship it to the Arctic. CBC News – Manitoba – Prairie Muslims build mosque for Arctic .

Nice slide show. Goat farming, with an Islamic touch.