With age comes the stereotype that wisdom has been attained and that one's intellectual capacity has reached its limit. Stereotypes like these cause us to assume that the older one is, the more answers that they have, the smarter that they are, and above all, the more mature that ... Read More »
Beards are all the rage on the streets of Egypt...or something. If Egyptians collectively and publicly acknowledged their relationship status with male facial hair, "It's complicated" would be an understatement. From entrenched social norms, to religious connotations, to political overtones, walking around with a beard in Cairo is anything but "3aadi." Read More »
Bullying is an equal-opportunity crisis, affecting students of every age, race, and creed. The dimension that makes the bullying of Muslim students particularly disturbing centers around the open prejudices and fears of adults, giving the green light to non-Muslim children that it’s okay — even patriotic — to discriminate. Muslim students report that an administrator at one school screamed at a 13-year old to remove her hijab (religious head scarf) until the girl broke down in tears. A guest speaker at another school handed out literature demonizing Islam in a social sciences class. When adults, especially educators, join in the bullying, it’s not only hurtful, say students, it’s a betrayal of trust. But educators have found that when just one caring adult supports a student, it can make a world of difference, creating a positive ripple effect that goes beyond one student and one classroom. Read More »
Mooz-lum is a movie that traces the life of Tariq, a young black Muslim American boy. Raised in an extremely conservative household, he rebels once he goes to college. 9/11 happens and lives change. Read More »
We must realize that what we say and how we define ourselves are the only parts of the conversation about Islam and Muslims that we can actually control. Read More »
Crimes that involve Muslims become "Muslim" crimes, while other crimes "stand on their own". Why? Case of Cognitive Dissonance? Fix? Read More »
Unflattering as some western stereotypes are of Arab men, western women also get a bad press in conservative Arab circles. When I wrote last month about western stereotypes of Arab men, several commenters, including WeAreTheWorld, suggested that Arab stereotypes of western women would also be worth exploring. Just as Arab men are ... Read More »
Hebah Ahmed assessed the weather before she stepped out of her minivan. “It’s windy,” she said with a sigh, tucking a loose bit of hair into her scarf. Her younger sister, Sarah, watched out the window as dust devils danced across the parking lot. “Oh, great,” she said, “I’m going to look like the flying nun.” Read More »
The American Muslim community has provided woeful substance to our young brothers and sisters; substance to feel that they are and can be legitimately Muslim here in America. That we have the infrastructure to provide to them the sacred knowledge they wish to learn. The results from this quietude on the part of the Muslim community in America for the past ten to twenty years, as my wife has put it, has been the development of a linguistic and cultural inferiority complex. Read More »
Muslims in the U.S. have long touted the fact that the community is racially diverse and highly educated relative to other religious communities in the country. What may be surprising about the results to some, especially in terms of general perceptions of Muslims are some of the findings with regard to gender. Read More »
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