The Orlando tragedy brings out the same old comments

The Orlando tragedy brings out the same old comments

By Tehmina Kazi   In what appears to be the worst mass shooting in US history, 29-year-old Omar Mateen opened fire in a gay Florida nightclub at 2am on Sunday, killing 50 people and injuring up to 53 others. Orlando sheriff Jerry Demings called the shooting a “domestic terror incident” and the FBI — who already had Afghan-American citizen Mateen on their radar — are now investigating his links to terror groups abroad. His father, Mir Seddique, claimed that Mateen’s motives were not religious, and that he had been incensed…

Let’s take Islam back from the extremists and fundamentalists

Let’s take Islam back from the extremists and fundamentalists

By Hassan Radwan   Islam – my religion – is facing the most serious crisis of its 1400 year history. Extremists like ISIS only serve to bring this crisis to a head, but it has been growing over the last 200 years. Yet despite this, we refuse to accept there is need for reform or even to engage in a conversation about it. The past 200 years have seen some of the greatest changes in human history. Changes in relationships, gender roles, law and order, morality and ethics. Changes in the…

Demands of persecuting community leaders must be taken seriously

Demands of persecuting community leaders must be taken seriously

By Mo Dawah     I would like to thank the editors of Sedaa for giving in to my mostly peaceful demands that they allow me the opportunity to write for their racist and Islamophobic website. I write in order to correct the false impressions they propagate, which happen to coincide with the truth on certain tender issues. The message I bring is that the truth may obscure what is convenient for us to think and so must be treated with caution. The golden rule of a peaceful society in which community…

Terror attacks in Lahore

Terror attacks in Lahore

By Iram Ramzan   There is a phrase in Punjabi, which roughly translates as, “The one who has not yet seen Lahore, has not been born.” I certainly felt alive whenever I visited this vibrant capital city of the Punjab in Pakistan. In the past, I have visited my grandparents’ village in Kashmir several times. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, no one with whom I could speak . I felt suffocated, itching for the chance to get out of there as soon as I could. That feeling of misery and boredom would…

The best legacy we can leave Asad Shah is to take sectarian hate crime seriously

The best legacy we can leave Asad Shah is to take sectarian hate crime seriously

By Tehmina Kazi   “Good Friday and a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation.”   These were the last words of Glaswegian newsagent Asad Shah on his Facebook page, posted on March 24, 2016. Just hours later, this hugely popular man, an Ahmadi Muslim, was brutally attacked. Found outside his shop with multiple injuries, he later died in hospital. The suspect is alleged to have stabbed Mr Shah multiple times, and stamped on his head. A 32-year-old man was arrested in connection with Mr Shah’s death, and…