An attorney for the Muslim enclave of Islamberg prays in a mosque in Tompkins, New York. American Muslims have a history going back 400 years. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan Saeed Ahmed Khan, Wayne State University Most Americans say they don’t know a Muslim and that much of what they understand about Islam is from the media. It’s not surprising then to …
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AN UPDATE ON THE ROHINGYA CRISIS
Three years after the Myanmar Army orchestrated genocide in Rakhine State, the Rohingya crisis continues. Almost 1 million survivors of the Army’s brutal crackdown are stuck in transient settlements in Bangladesh, stateless for over three years. Back in Myanmar, at least 600,000 Rohingya remain internally displaced, and over 100,000 sequestered in camps Human Rights Watch calls “an open prison without end.” The recent arrest of 99 …
Read More »Why Muslim women wear a hijab: 3 essential reads
A student on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, trying out the hijab on World Hijab Day, 2017. AP Photo/Russell Contreras Kalpana Jain, The Conversation In 2013, Nazma Khan – who immigrated to the United States from Bangladesh at age of 11 – started World Hijab Day. Growing up in the Bronx, New York, Khan experienced …
Read More »One year on, Muslim women reflect on wearing the niqab in a mask-wearing world
One year on, Muslim women reflect on wearing the niqab in a mask-wearing world Muslim women say they are having an easier time wearing the niqab during pandemic times. hjrivas/Pixabay, CC BY Anna Piela, Northwestern University One year into the pandemic, protective face masks have come to signify different things for different groups of people. To some it’s an issue …
Read More »The black Muslim female fashion trailblazers who came before model Halima Aden
Halima Aden, the first Muslim model to wear a hijab and burkini on the cover of the swimsuit edition of the Sports Illustrated. Yu Tsai Kayla Renée Wheeler, Grand Valley State University Media reports have celebrated Halima Aden becoming the first woman to be featured in the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit edition wearing a hijab or a burkini. In the …
Read More »Eight ways that Islamophobia operates in everyday life
Fear of Islam pervades every corner of modern Muslim life. Fotos583/www.shutterstock.com Peter Hopkins, Newcastle University; Gurchathen Sanghera, University of St Andrews, and Katherine Botterill, Edinburgh Napier University Immigration and national identity currently are at the forefront of the public conscience. In France, the burkini ban and in the UK proposals for migration controls following the Brexit vote are dividing communities. …
Read More »Researchers asked 2,500 Jewish and Muslim people what they find offensive – here’s what they said
Asking ‘everyday’ people. MBI/Shutterstock Julian Hargreaves, University of Cambridge Accusations of antisemitism have been swirling around the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader in 2015. He has been accused of harbouring antisemitic views and offering public support to party colleagues labelled as antisemitic. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party have faced accusations of “endemic” Islamophobia. In the run-up to the …
Read More »Beheading in France could bolster president’s claim that Islam is in ‘crisis’ – but so is French secularism
An homage to Samuel Paty, a teacher murdered after showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Oct. 18, 2020. Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University A French high school teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his class was beheaded on Oct. 16 by an 18-year-old …
Read More »How competition for religious authority breeds Islamist militancy in Java
Alexandre Pelletier, Cornell University After Indonesia’s democratic transition of 1998, dozens of small yet vocal Islamist groups sprung up throughout the world’s most populous Muslim majority country. The Islamic Defenders’ Front (Front Pembela Islam or FPI) – the most notorious of these groups – has mobilised, often violently, to curb what it considers as immorality and misguided religious minorities. The …
Read More »Muslim schools are allies in France’s fight against radicalization – not the cause
Muslim schools can provide a place for girls to study while wearing headscarves. Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images Carol Ferrara, Emerson College Following recent terror attacks in France, President Emmanuel Macron appears intent on pushing forward with his plans to combat what he sees as “Islamic separatism” – starting with the schools. A new bill announced on Nov. 18 will …
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