3 Ways to Honor 9/11 Without Being Islamophobic September 11, 2019 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment The anniversary of the September 11th attacks is always a precarious time. Because this tragedy is wrapped up in nationalist sentiments, the memorializing of our national grief easily gets caught up in anti-Islamic sentiments. Grief and pain and nationalism all seem to get conflated and simplified during this time. This anniversary is often a time of heightened vigilance for … [Read more...]
Sharing Our Whole Selves in Community: 3 Self-Love Practices I’m Embracing This Ramadan as a Queer Black American Muslim May 6, 2019 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment Ramadan began two weeks ago, and across the world, Muslims who are observing the month abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset for thirty days. For those of us who fast, readiness is a layered concept. For some of us, it’s the physical component that is difficult to prepare ourselves for. Denying yourself food and drink during the daytime hours is difficult. It’s … [Read more...]
“Are You Hot in That?” and 3 Other Hijab Questions People Can Stop Asking November 3, 2018 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment There’s something about difference – almost any kind of difference – that makes people in dominant cultures or identity categories feel like they can disregard and disrespect others' boundaries by asking deeply personal questions or physically crossing the boundaries of people who embody that difference. And isn’t this the foundation for cultural appropriation? White people, … [Read more...]
5 Undeniable Reasons We Need To Talk About Christian Privilege August 18, 2018 by Shannon Weber Leave a Comment When I was four years old, my parents moved me from Los Angeles to northern Idaho, where I would live for thirteen years—plus a year-long stint in heavily Mormon Utah during first grade—until I moved away to New England for college. During this time, I was exposed to a poor and working-class, white-dominated culture in which evangelical Christianity was the reigning religion, … [Read more...]
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird of Being Queer and Muslim August 12, 2018 by Samaa Abdurraqib Leave a Comment Both of my parents converted to Islam in the early 1970s, so I was born and raised as an African-American Muslim in the US. When I was younger, my connection to Islam, spirituality, and Allah was tenuous at times. I wouldn’t understand faith and spirituality in a deep way until I left home for college. This is the way for many people who were raised in religious … [Read more...]
Why I Took Off My Hijab September 30, 2016 by Arlita Rachmawati Rahman, Guest Writer Leave a Comment This article first appeared in Magdalene.co, an Indonesia-based feminist web magazine, and is reposted with permission. An increasing number of women have approached me to talk about their hijab-wearing decision. One person told me she has been having thoughts about taking off her hijab because she felt she has grown increasingly "naughty" and “bad.” Her reason for this was … [Read more...]
You Don’t Owe Disrespectful People Your Respect: George Carlin, Islam and the Freedom of Choice July 2, 2016 by A.X. Ruiz Leave a Comment One of my favorite old George Carlin bits was his close-reading/rewriting of the Ten Commandments. The whole routine is widely available as both text and video online but in particular, he says something about the instruction to “Honor thy Father and Mother” which I’ve always appreciated as simply a truth of life that is rarely taught: Obedience, respect for authority. Just … [Read more...]
