Identity and Participation

Afterword By Dr. Aminah McCloud

The dilemmas that confront American Muslim citizens regarding political participation -- identity, the if an how of participation, and the ability to influence American political and social life successfully, are not new dilemmas for religious or ethnic communities. Struggles over the meanings of secularism, libertarianism and the implications for morality, values and public conduct are also old American history. Various religious communities’ approaches to political participation give us a few facets to explore. For example, the Amish and to a certain degree the Mennonites and Quakers seek to opt out of the political arena. this enables them to keep their distinctive religious and ethnic identities and ...

After the Fort Hood shootings, a Muslim American soldier battles on friendly ground

by William Wan - Washington Post Staff Writer

THUD. THUD. THUD. Someone was mule-kicking the door of his barracks room, leaving marks that weeks later -- long after Army investigators had come and gone -- would still be visible. By the time Klawonn reached the door, the pounding had stopped. All that was left was a note, twice folded and wedged into the doorframe. "F--- YOU RAGHEAD BURN IN HELL" read the words scrawled in black marker. The slur itself was nothing new. Klawonn, 20, the son of an American father and a Moroccan mother, had been called worse in the military. But the fact that someone had tracked him down in the dead of night to deliver this specific message sent a ch...

Changing the Perception of Islam in the West: Rehabilitating the Essence of Religion
by Dr. Robert D. Crane

I. Challenge and Response

One of the major challenges in the world today is to rehabilitate the role of religion as a primary cure for conflict and oppression, rather than as its primary cause. One of the major obstacles to reviving appreciation for transcendent reality as the source of peace and freedom is the current academic fascination with deconstructing religion by denying that all religions have the same essence or that any religion even has an essence. In the case of Islam, the major obstacle to rehabilitation has been the ideological movement of modernization, one trend of which seeks to hijack Islam for political purposes under the frau...

Once a rising star, chef now feeds hungry

By Danielle Berger, CNN

Madurai, India (CNN) -- Narayanan Krishnan was a bright, young, award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group, short-listed for an elite job in Switzerland. But a quick family visit home before heading to Europe changed everything. "I saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food," Krishnan said. "It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked for a second. After that, I started feeding that man and decided this is what I should do the rest of my lifetime." Krishnan was visiting a temple in the south Indian city of Madurai in 2002 when he saw the man under a bridge. Haunted by the image, Krishnan quit his job within the week and returned home for good, convinced of his new destin...