So it’s funny that today I read about this incident in which two Muslim women were barred from sitting behind the podium at an Obama rally in Detroit, thus keeping them out of camera range - and thought, well there you go. The scarf on your head that says you’re Muslim - it really is more than a scarf. It is an idea, as the book says. (more…)

Several days following the presentation, as the debate continued to rage, Trish Hanks, the Friendswood ISD superintendent, sent students’ parents a letter stating that she had authorized the presentation for administrative staff but not for students. She claimed that school principal Robin Lowe had acted “hastily” and without authorization. Ultimately Lowe was “reassigned” from her position as principal. (Interestingly, Ms. Hanks’ letter closes with this statement: “Friendswood is a faith-based community and founded on these principles. The school district has always and will continue to honor that heritage.” Friendswood, like Philadelphia, was founded by Quakers, but I doubt that is what Ms. Hanks was referring to.)

Some people claim outrage because the presentation was made without parental “consent.” Some claim outrage over inequity they perceive between the rights of Muslims and other faith practitioners to discuss their faith in publicly-funded schools, as demonstrated by the comment of a reader on my Chronicle blog:

The problem is no other religions are allowed to make “presentations” in public schools, but at risk of offending Muslims, we give them a pass. Everyone else gets the “separation of church and state” speech, but we all know that only applies to the Christian religion now. You can make such presentations anywhere. If the school wants to have some after school thing where students and parents alike are invited to attend, great, but the same opportunity better be given to all faiths.

In my opinion, both arguments fail to address the key issue - context. The uproar occurred because the presentation was about Islam and prompted by an incident involving a Muslim student. There is a big difference between being a member of a minority religion and a follower of the majority religion or no religion at all. In this country, and especially in Houston, there is a big difference between the personal experience of a Christian and the personal experience of a Muslim. When Christian students are on no-fly lists, when Christianity is reviled as a scourge of evil on the planet, and when the number of hate crimes against Christians is on the rise, an assembly about the basics of Christianity may well be in order. In the meantime I think the citizens of Friendswood need to accept that the Muslim population in this country is growing and they are going to have to get used to us one way or another. Allowing their children the opportunity to learn about us is just a first step.

Action alert: Tarek Hussein, president of CAIR-Houston, is encouraging Muslims to write to the editorial staff of the Houston Chronicle praising this fair and balanced column by Rick Casey which ran in Saturday’s edition. Letters to the editor can go to viewpoints@chron.com and per the Chronicle’s instructions should include name, address and day and evening phone numbers for verification purposes only. Rick Casey’s e-mail is rick.casey@chron.com .

There’s a jaded part of me that’s accustomed to off-key or half-hearted live shows by performers whose success rests less on talent than on heavy studio engineering and a hyped-up public presence. I kind of expected Seven8Six to sound bad live, but they actually sounded better than on their albums. Their harmonies were true and their presence was powerful.

Seven8Six subscribes to the more conservative Islamic view of music by using only percussion as backup. Opinions on the permissibility of music in Islam range from completely prohibited to allowable only with percussion to completely allowable. Seven8Six chooses, as have other contemporary American Muslim groups such as Native Deen, to sing with only percussion.

I really enjoyed the concert, but halfway through I started to feel weird. (more…)

As the date for the procedure came closer, I started doing more research and found that the procedure is a lot more serious than my doctor had led me to believe. If you can stomach it, search “endoscopic surgery” on youtube (as I did) and you’ll see that the doctor goes into the nose, alters the shape of the deviated septum, then makes her way up into the sinuses, re-shaping and excising portions of them along the way, with the goal of clearing inflamed sinuses and making more room for air to pass through them. It looked disgusting and painful. I spent the week prior to the surgery trying to decide if my symptoms really warranted this surgery. I even had a dream in which the doctor carved tunnels through the inside of my face. By the morning of the surgery I was very, very nervous. (more…)

You’ll note I didn’t use the word “sect.” It’s a judgmental word, one that minimizes the legitimacy of a religion. Who’s to say what a sect is versus a branch versus a practice?

When I first read the story I shared the concern often expressed - and acted upon by the state - for the children and women who were apparently suffering under an oppressive and unfair system justified by claims of God’s sanction. I wasn’t quite as disgusted as this pundit from the New York Times, who refers disparagingly to the FLDS women:

You see these 1870 Stepford wives with the braided buns and long dresses, these men with their low monotones and pious, seeming disregard for the law on child sex — and wonder: who opened the time capsule?

Reading that gave me pause. The buns and long dresses…of course someone had to go there. (more…)

Yesterday, however, we got to a point in the book which brought me to tears and boosted my faith. It’s in a chapter in which Lang discusses some of the challenges American converts face, and ends with a discussion of the Qur’an and how this holy book alone creates and sustains faith despite all the challenges inherent in breaking away from your former beliefs and embracing Islam.

The last couple of paragraphs address the spiritual aftermath of experiencing the Qur’an, and the place it brings us to, where the choice is clear and all that remains is to make sense of the decision, to ourselves and to others. I want to share with you the final paragraph, which I believe summarizes the experience of the convert to Islam in just a few words:

Those who choose Islam soon discover that, for the rest of their lives, they will have to face the following question repeatedly: “How did you become a Muslim?” They will formulate various partial explanations at different times according to the context in which it is asked. However, all of us who made that decision know that even we cannot fully comprehend it, for the wisdom and workings of God are often subtle and unfathomable. Perhaps the simplest and truest statement we can offer is this: At one special moment of our lives - a moment that we could never have foreseen when we were younger - God, in His infinite knowledge and kindness, had mercy on us. Maybe He saw in us a need so great, a pain so deep, or an emptiness so vast. And maybe, He also saw in us a readiness. However He made it come to be, to Him we are eternally thankful. Truly, all praise and thanks belong to God.

It’s a question that reeks of ignorance, frankly, but it brings to mind another question…why can’t they dress like us?

When a nun wears a traditional habit, which is essentially the same as hijab, she is identified as a pious woman whose life is devoted to her faith. So why do non-Muslims not call for these honorable women to dress like “them“?

The virgin Mary is nearly always depicted as (more…)

I have memories of good times with Janice. One year she and I and another of the moms went trick or treating together in the pouring rain. The six of us were crammed into my car and we stopped every few houses to let the kids out to do their thing. We took turns supervising the kids and we all ended up completely soaked but giddy with the adventure and the thought of all the candy to be had once we dried it out. Another time Janice was helping me move out of my apartment and I knocked over an entire canister of ground coffee. Being the caffeine addict that I was, I was obviously horrified. As I swept it up I started my own soulful version of Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” Seeing that I hadn’t freaked out, our kids and then Janice joined me in an off-tune and melodramatic version of the song. It was hilarious.

That was life back then - I was not a practicing Muslim and life was both fun and bittersweet, full of laughs that kept us just from the edge of bitterness. We were all teetering on the edge - the edge of being broke, the edge of being lonely, the edge of really screwing up our kids, quite frankly.

When I befriended Janice I was very close to the edge. We met in a shelter for (more…)

It’s taken me a couple days to absorb this editorial in last Thursday’s Chronicle. I get a fair number of bigoted or hateful comments on this blog, and I usually presume that they’re made out of ignorance. Sadly, some people get their understanding of Islam from individuals and organizations who present the religion through a plainly biased filter. I know that. My goal with The Straight Path is to provide a more accurate viewpoint to people who haven’t had access to an informed understanding of Islam. (more…)

Broun recently circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter inviting fellow representatives and their staff to attend the briefing, titled “The Truth Behind Sharia/Islamic Finance,” on Thursday in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Rep. Broun’s invitation letter claims Islamic finance “violates U.S. laws” and “has supported Islamist extremists and sponsors of terrorism.” The afternoon briefing features two individuals known for their hostility to Islam and Muslims.

One of the presenters, David Yerushalmi, is the president and founder of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), a group that has advocated imposing prison terms for “adherence to Islam” and questions whether women and African-Americans should be allowed to vote.

It saddens me more than it angers me that a man who is openly racist is taken seriously enough to be considered a source of credible knowledge by a US congressman. Have the noble efforts of Dr. King and his followers left no legacy?