Media Appearances

Muslim Girlhood, Past and Present: A Conversation with Shenila Khoja-Moolji – BLARB

Muslim Girlhood, Past and Present: A Conversation with Shenila Khoja-Moolji – BLARB. HUSSEIN RASHID: Why did you decide to write a book about Muslim girls and their education? And why Muslim South Asia? SHENILA  KHOJA-MOOLJI: I had been researching and writing about the convergence on the figure of the girl in international development policy and practice for some time. I noticed that many development campaigns portray girls in the Global South as not only threatened by poverty, disease, and terrorism, but also as holding the potential to resolve these problems.

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Events

“On Common Ground”: CIW, faith leaders come together in NYC for “an extraordinary conversation”… – Coalition of Immokalee Workers

“On Common Ground”: CIW, faith leaders come together in NYC for “an extraordinary conversation”… – Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Hussein reflected a bit on human rights as that which we owe one another but “from a faith perspective, human dignity is vouchsafed by the divine, it is something is inherent and promised to us, over which we have no agency except to forget that we have it.  And that’s an important way to think through, ‘How do we assure dignity?’”   Appreciating the expertise that farmworkers brought to creating the Fair Food Program’s human rights solution and how important it is…

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Events Inter-faith

Panel on 28 January 2019 on foodworkers’ rights

I’ll be speaking on a panel on Jan. 28 on food workers’ rights.    “On Monday, January 28 join us at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in NYC as we explore the vital connection between faith and the advancement of human rights through a panel discussion with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, theologians Brian McLaren, Obery Hendricks, and Hussein Rashid, Rachel Kahn-Troster of T’ruah and moderated by Noelle Damico of the Alliance for Fair Food! Today tens of thousands of farmworkers in seven states are harvesting free from slavery, sexual violence, and fear through the Fair Food…

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Media Appearances

Watch This Animated Tale of ‘The Secret History of Muslims in the U.S.’ | Colorlines

Watch This Animated Tale of ‘The Secret History of Muslims in the U.S.’ | Colorlines. Islamophobic fearmongering about Muslims in the United States ignores the ways they have influenced the country from its inception. Dr. Hussein Rashid, a professor of religion at Barnard College, chronicles this history from 1492 to today in an animated short from The New York Times yesterday (December 17)

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Media Appearances

Islam in America: What you don’t know about Islam’s U.S. roots

Islam in America: What you don’t know about Islam’s U.S. roots. “A lot of people might assume Muslim immigration started in 1965 when the U.S. had a period of immigration reform, others will date it back to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, yet others to the 9/11 attacks, but usually no one looks farther back than the 1960s and certainly not beyond the 20th century for this history at the popular level,” said Hussein Rashid, who teaches at Columbia University.

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Inter-faith Intra-faith Literature Media Religion

Faith in Fantasy on Imaginary Worlds Podcast

I am a longtime fan of the Imaginary Worlds podcast, and was ecstatic was I was asked to participate in roundtable on the role of faith in imaginary worlds. I was joined by friend of many years, the Velveteen Rabbi, Rachel Barenblat, who did a wonderful write-up of her experience here. The episode description is: Science fiction has not always been compatible with religion — in fact many futuristic settings imagine no religion at all. But sci-fi and fantasy have long fascinated people of different faiths because the genres wrestle with the big questions of life. You can listen to episode…

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Media Appearances

9/11, Its Lingering Effects On US Policies, And Trump | News | teleSUR English

9/11, Its Lingering Effects On US Policies, And Trump | News | teleSUR English. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s ban, albeit a narrower version of its predecessors, further vilifying Muslims and legitimizing their discrimination.  Hussein Rashid, professor of religion at Columbia University, says that the ruling wasn’t surprising in that it has often ruled “in favor of discrimination.” However, the highest court’s decision highlights that particularly since the 1978 Iranian Revolution and the 9/11 attacks, “Muslims have been “racialized”: bound together and stereotyped, instilling an idea of Muslims as a foreign threat and brown-skinned,” that includes anyone from…

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Religion

Religion As Critique | Reading Religion

Religion As Critique | Reading Religion. Irfan Ahmad’s text, Religion as Critique, is an ambitious work that seeks to open a new approach to the understanding of Muslims: an anthropology of philosophy. As a result, his book covers a vast amount of material. The text reads like two separate endeavors—a historical, methodological study, and the author’s original work. Since the author recognizes this structure and guides the reader to be aware of it, the book does hold together fairly well. At the same time, as a reviewer, it makes more sense to treat the two parts as divisible, since they each…

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Media Appearances

Travel ban decision follows the Supremes’ record of racial classification – Religion News Service

Travel ban decision follows the Supremes’ record of racial classification – Religion News Service. Whether viewed in terms of contemporary politics or American history, the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Trump’s travel ban against several Muslim-majority countries is not surprising. The court has safeguards designed to make it apolitical, but it is never immune to its immediate surroundings on Capitol Hill. Historically, as long as the people support its decisions, the court has ruled in favor of discrimination. And when it comes to admitting people to these shores and welcoming them to the American nation, the court almost never acts…

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