Mohammad Akhtar,Ph.D, Professor of psychology

Muslims living in America are estimated to be in the range of 4-7 million depending upon who does the estimating and which measuring instrument one uses. PEW (2007) estimates Muslims to be in the lower direction. On the whole, Muslims resemble the general American population in their socioeconomic variables (earnings, education, employment) and other indicators, such as church attendance- 50% of Muslims attend mosque, and voter registration- 66% of Muslims are registered. However, on abortion and gay marriage issues, Muslims appear to be more conservative and resemble the Christian Right. About 1/5 of Muslims are America born blacks, while the rest are immigrants, who came to America mostly in 70's and 80's and have become naturalized...

Professor Yameen Zubairi, Ph.D. Maryland USA

(Tariq Ramadan is a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University. He is the son of Said Ramadn the grandson of Hassan al Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. In 2004, Ramadan accepted the tenured position of Professor of Religion, at the University of Notre Dame in theUS. Since then he has struggled to get a visa to come to the US which was repeatedly denied by the State Department using Patriot act provisions. Several courts on representation by ACLU denied the appeal ". On July 17, 2009, the US federal appeals court reversed the ruling of the lower district court. On January 20, 2010, after more than five years of waiting, the State Department has decided, in a document signed by Secretary of State...

In September 2006, when I was consulting in a prison in Washington state, an American family invited me to their home for dinner. When I got there, nearly six couples were present, all professionals, intellectually curious, and well-informed. As the conversation started, we first discussed political problems facing the country. Then it suddenly took a new turn and a volley of questions was directed toward me, mostly religious in nature. These questions primarily focused on three issues: (1) Is Allah, the God of Muslims, different from the God of Jews and Christians? (2) Did Islam bring any special message that was not covered by Judaism and Christianity? (3) What will happen to those people who never heard or accepted the message of Islam? Being the guest of a very gracious...

The recent New York City terrorist episode is yet another grim wake up call for the Muslims. It should not be ignored or dismissed by the Muslims as a random act of a confused individual who happens to be a Muslim or a Pakistani and that majority of the Muslims have nothing to do with such acts of terrorism. While the statement itself is accurate, yet more and more due to such acts by individuals who happen to be Muslims the perception of Islam by others is becoming for them a seeming reality. What seems more alarming is that in the more recent acts of terror, Muslims with higher levels of education and social interaction are implicated. This group includes those who are born in the West of émigré parents and also converts to Islam. The British last year arrested a group of young phy...