by Khaled A. Beydoun, Root. This past weekend marked the beginning of Ramadan. Nearly one-fourth of the world will observe the annual fast and 8 million Muslims in America will abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. A grueling task at any time of the year, Ramadan this year will be especially daunting during the long and hot summer days. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the nation, and the second-most-practiced faith in 20 of these united states. And these demographic shifts prompted a prominent Los Angeles-based imam to comment recently that "Ramadan is a new American tradition." The cleric's forward-looking pronouncement marks Islam's recent arrival in the U.S. But this statement reveals a pathology afflic...

By Shai Ben-Yaacov, WHYY Before the ribbon was cut Sunday afternoon, staff and supporters of SHAMS Clinic on Frankford Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia began the grand opening celebration with a prayer from the Koran. Speaking in part about the diversity of the city’s languages and colors, the prayer seemed to echo the mission of the clinic itself: It is open to everyone who needs it, but members of the all-volunteer staff make no apology about being Muslim, and their connection to an Islamic service organization. “I’m really hoping today, with the grand opening, people will just see that we’re really not different from all the other organizations,” said medical director, Dr. Ammar Shahid. “We’ve reached out to the local churches, synagogues, loca...

by Muslim Council of America A growing number of Muslims, especially in the US and Canada, now identify with an Islam that is non denominational. They can simply be called Muslims, however, if anyone wants to distinguish them as a separate category, they may be described Non Denominational Muslims or NDM. Who are they and what do they believe in? They, like rest of the Muslims, believe in monotheism, in the prophethood and in the day of resurrection. They accept the Quran as the last divine testament or message. They believe in the concept of permitted and not permitted as defined by the Quran. They believe in the sunnah of the Prophet as is spread throughout the Quran and those statements of the Prophet that are essentially substantiated by the d...

Saleem Ahmed, Ph.D. President, Pacific Institute for Islamic Studies and the All Believers Network (both are Hawaii-based organizations) INTRODUCTION: All religions provide their followers with a “prescription” for living a peaceful life and preparing for the Hereafter. In this process, it is but natural that often followers think of their own religion as the “best”, with views of other religions ranging from neutral to outright contempt. The latter, unfortunately, often turns out to be an exercise in futility because followers of the “other” religion, not being moved by such emotional rhetoric, simply label such views as “phobic” and possibly get even more firmly entrenched in their views about their religion and actions prescribed....

By Dr. Aslam Abdullah It was a sensational revelation yet; it could not generate enough discussion even among those who were directly affected by the disclosure. The Facebook acknowledged receiving advertisement money from Russian interest groups for posts announcing anti-Muslim rallies in Idaho in 2016. The revelation was seen as yet another proof of the Russian meddling in US elections. However, few bothered to delve deep into the Russian instigated Islamophobia in the US and the Western World. A cursory look at the background of known Islamophobes indicates a Russian hand directly or indirectly in anti-Islam rhetoric especially in the US. The Idaho anti-Muslim rally became a springboard of similar rallies across the country. But Idaho rally is not the only event...

Saleem Ahmed, Ph.D. President of the Honolulu-based Pacific Institute of Islamic Studies. While growing up in Karachi, I learned that belief in God, prayers, fasting, haj, and zakat are referred to as the “Five “Pillars of Islam”; that these were the “essential” requirements to be a Muslim; and that without fulfilling these obligations, no person could be a Muslim or think of entering Paradise. I tucked this information at the back of my head and did not pay much attention any further until the following incident jolted me: On a trip to Pakistan, I met an acquaintance (let’s call him Faheem) who greeted me warmly and, in response to my question, informed me that he had become “very happy, mashallah”. I congratulated him and inquired as to what was t...

by Saleem Ahmed, Ph.D. President, Pacific Institute for Islamic Studies, Honolulu SUMMARY Some Muslims become radicalized because they follow superseded Qur'anic verses instead of the superseding verses. If this can be corrected, most of the confusion and the resulting radicalization could end quickly. This needs understanding the chronology of Qur'anic revelations and contextualizing their meanings where necessary. Many more Qur’anic verses promote violence than peace. Thus, non-Muslims cannot be faulted for concluding that Islam is not a religion of peace, especially when the actions of some extremist Muslims continue to confirm this perception. Starting as a spiritual movement when Muhammad lived in Medina (610-622 CE), Islam evolved into a ...

by Muhammad Fraser-Rahim, Baltimore Sun. Since 9/11, we have seen efforts by ISIS, al-Qaida and other violent extremists to recruit African American Muslims to their cause, preying on a collective sense of injustice and feelings of deprivation and social alienation from historic inequities. In 2008, for example, al-Qaida's then second-in-command Ayman al Zawahiri sought to interlace domestic African American racial grievances with the global jihad movement, targeting and recruiting African American and Somali youth. A 51-minute recruitment video presented motifs of Malcolm X, attempting to exploit historical African American Muslim activism as a potential means for future radicalization. In a few cases, such efforts have been successful: Edward Archer attacked a Phil...

Saleem Ahmed, PhD. President, Pacific Institute for Islamic Studies, Honolulu.​ ABSTRACT The centuries-old lawlessness rampant in pre-Islamic Arabia, which compelled terrified women to veil themselves as protection against potential rapists, was transformed into a lawful society during the 23 years of Muhammad’s prophethood. Women could then move around freely, dressed modestly, without the need to "protect" themselves by wearing a veil. However, since the Qur’an’s non- chronological arrangement precludes the possibility of tracing this transformation, some Muslim women continue to veil themselves in the belief it is required. This suggests the need for Muslims to understand the chronology of the evolving guidance on various subjects. Th...

by Sarah Lyons-Padilla and Michele J. Gelfand, New York Times There were many reasons to oppose President Trump’s travel ban on refugees and visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries, which is now blocked by a federal court’s temporary restraining order. Unfortunately, those same objections are also likely to apply to the revised version of the executive order that Mr. Trump promised on Thursday, which will share with its predecessor the goal of “immediately protecting the country” — presumably by keeping out people from countries he deems to be a threat. One objection to such policies is that there is no good evidence that citizens of the countries the president has singled out so far present a significant threat to the United States. Another is t...