Category: USA

The dishonesty of the debate on “Islamophobia” and the threat to free speech

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The dishonesty of the debate on “Islamophobia” and the threat to free speech

By Khadija Khan We are barely a month into 2022, and already we face the same old social and political challenges that have plagued us for centuries. Among them is a crucial battle to protect our right to free speech from the influence of religious ideologues who remain hell-bent on normalising their theocratic beliefs by silencing dissent. However, what makes this struggle against fundamentalism even more strenuous is that the left, once champions of free speech, seems to have abandoned the values of liberalism. Debate is often stifled so as…

Female Muslim politicians need to be champions for Muslim women not patriarchal organisations

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Female Muslim politicians need to be champions for Muslim women not patriarchal organisations

By Khadija Khan   The victory of the first two American-Muslim women in the US midterm elections — Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — is unprecedented. Many people are celebrating their success as a victory against President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim policies and the empowerment of hijab-wearing Muslim women in Western societies. Only a few seem concerned with the status of ordinary Muslim women, who are often still treated as second-class citizens int heir own communities. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is illegal in the United States but many…

Unholy Alliance: Why do left-wing Americans support right-wing Muslims?

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Unholy Alliance: Why do left-wing Americans support right-wing Muslims?

By Yasmine Mohammed At the age of six, I bolted out the front doors of my elementary school and ran to give my first-grade teacher a goodbye hug. As I skipped towards my mother, my bubbly mood was snatched away by her stern voice and admonishing stare. “Did you just hug your teacher?” my mother asked. “Yah, I love Mrs. Roth!” “You do not hug non-Muslims! That is disgusting,” she said. She then marched me over to the principal’s office to demand that Mrs. Roth never touch her child again. I sat in…

FGM in America: End cultural and religious based violence

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FGM in America: End cultural and religious based violence

By Shirin Taber and Rickie Farnes, Middle East Women’s Leadership Network, in partnership with America Matters   Religious freedom — the right to practice your religion freely — is one of the greatest merits of the American experience. However, systematic abuses in the name of religion, committed daily against women, cut away at our universal rights and cannot be tolerated. A growing number of Islamists and male-centric communities inside the U.S. treat women as commodities for control and reproduction. Girls are taught that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a right…

The Orlando tragedy brings out the same old comments

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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…