ISIS

Isis executes first female citizen journalist in Raqqa

Isis has executed what is believed to be the first female citizen journalist for reporting inside its territory, Syrian media has reported. The execution of Ruqia Hassan marks the fifth journalist who reported on Isis to be killed since October, according to Syrian journalism organisation Syria Direct. Ms Hassan, who…

Read More

Bad Muslim?

I don’t speak Arabic. I rarely pray more than once a day. I don’t cover my hair. I curse. I sing. I dance. I paint my nails. I sport spaghetti straps. I love dogs. And if pork and alcohol didn’t smell so nasty to me, I’d have no trouble consuming…

Read More

The SNL Sketch and Noble Wars

Sunday morning, I gave up hope of sleeping until 8am when my nearly one-year-old managed one last sharp slap to my face. I rolled over, kissed her forehead, and checked Facebook. I found that SNL had delivered a sketch that not many found funny: a spoof of the Toyota Super Bowl ad…

Read More

Starting Anew in 2015

Depending on your vantage point, 2014 was either full of doom, gloom, and Armageddon, or, quite flatly, the idea that people are overly dramatic, the world is not falling apart, and all that has really happened is that the sun has made its grand course around the earth yet again. Whichever side of…

Read More

2014 Roundup: What Rocked Muslim America’s Boat in 2014

First, what didn’t make the list. A recent CIA torture report revealed unconscionable and largely ineffective brutality toward prisoners in Gitmo – rectal feeding, waterboarding – that hardly came as a shock to Muslims. Nor were we shocked by The Intercept’s July investigation into FBI and NSA surveillance of Muslim…

Read More

“What do you think of war?”

“What do you think of war?” I remember looking into my cup of coffee as a stranger asked me that question back in 2007. He smiled at me kindly, almost contritely, but I wasn’t sure if he was apologizing for the randomness of the topic, or for the war itself. I had encountered both in the past. All he knew about me was that I identified as an Iraqi-American.

Read More