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Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer and Contributing Editor for Islamica magazine; an international contemporary affairs magazine headquartered in Los Angeles and with editorial offices in London, Amman and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read more...
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Columns
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CNN Column: "TLC Show 'All-American Muslim' & All-American Bigotry" |
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By Arsalan Iftikhar | Special to CNN.com
December 13, 2011
Imagine for a moment that a major American corporation decided to remove its commercials from a reality television show highlighting the everyday lives of Latinos, African-Americans, members of the LGBT community or Jewish Americans because of coordinated letter-writing campaigns from right-wing organizations.
If you think this kind of bigotry could not happen in modern-day America, you would be absolutely wrong.
The hardware and building supply chain Lowe’s has pulled its TV commercials from future episodes of TLC’s new reality show “All-American Muslim” after a letter-writing campaign by the Florida Family Association, a Christian group.
Continue reading Arsalan's CNN column here: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/12/my-take-is-all-american-muslim-begetting-all-american-bigotry/?hpt=hp_c2 |
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Arsalan's Washington Post Column on Paris Fire-Bombing |
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By Arsalan Iftikhar | Washington Post 'OnFaith'
November 2, 2011
The office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris was badly damaged by a firebomb early on Wednesday after it had published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the electoral victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections, according to a report published in the Post. The publication also said hackers had disrupted its Web site.
The French magazine had announced that a special issue for publication was called “Charia Hebdo”; which was a play on the word in French for sharia law. News reports said that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown through a window as the special edition was on its way to the newsstands, as previously scheduled.
The Associated Press quoted Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, as saying that his organization deplores “the very mocking tone of the paper toward Islam and its prophet but reaffirms with force its total opposition to all acts and all forms of violence.”
Continue reading Arsalan's column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/charlie-hebdo-firebombing-and-depicting-muhammad/2011/11/02/gIQAqqjmfM_blog.html |
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The Daily Beast: "Muslims Mourn With Nation" |
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By Arsalan Iftikhar | The Daily Beast
September 11, 2011
Exactly 10 Septembers ago, our global community would awake to witness one monumental act of craven inhumanity that would change our world forever in one fell terroristic swoop. In addition to our country mourning the collapse of two of our largest towers, we as a nation also witnessed nearly 3,000 Americans of all religions, ethnicities, and races perish right before our eyes.
On this 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, I spent most of my day here in Washington, D.C. at the 9/11 Unity Walk, where hundreds—if not thousands—of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and people of all faiths walked alongside each other to commemorate the legacy of 9/11. Hundreds of us gathered at Washington Hebrew Congregation—the largest synagogue in Washington, D.C.—and heard a Muslim call to prayer as we then proceeded to the Washington Islamic Center where Jewish cantors sang over mosque loudspeakers and African-American gospel singers (who once sang for the Pope) melodiously sang “Amazing Grace” at the mosque grounds.
Such an encouraging display of interfaith unity from hundreds of Americans of diverse backgrounds was truly a silver lining from the very dark cloud that reared its ugly head upon our country one fine Tuesday morning 10 years ago.
Continue reading Arsalan's column here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/11/9-11-anniversary-american-muslims-mourn-with-rest-of-nation.html |
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CNN Column: 'Arab Spring' Becoming the Arab Year? |
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By Arsalan Iftikhar, Special to CNN
August 25, 2011
(CNN) -- In what has come to be universally known as the "Arab Spring," in less than a year three major countries in North Africa have effectively ended nearly 100 combined years of dictatorial rule under despots named Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Moammar Gadhafi.
Seeing the revolutions from Tunisia to Egypt to Libya, it is amazing to recall that these grass-roots pro-democracy movements began with the "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia, when a 26-year-old unemployed fruit stand owner named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire after a policewoman confiscated his unlicensed produce stand.
Nobody had any idea at the time that this one young man's sacrifice would motivate an entire generation of young Arab women and men to use social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to help overthrow dictators who had ruled their respective countries for decades.
Continue reading Arsalan's CNN column here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/25/iftikhar.arab.spring/ |
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Arsalan's Washington Post Column on Muslim Youth |
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From Washington Post
Reaching the young Muslim faithful, online
By Arsalan Iftikhar
Posted at 08:45 AM ET, 08/22/2011
Like millions of young Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist members of the millennial generation here in the United States, our next generation of young American Muslim girls and boys are also similarly seeking to engage with civic and religious leaders who are more in tune with the needs of their Facebook and Twitter generations. Just like many churches, synagogues and temples around the country are cultivating new ways to engage their younger populations, it is also equally important for our American mosques and Islamic religious leaders to similarly embrace these new trends if we are going to nurture the next generation of proud American Muslim citizens around the nation. Want to reach the young Muslim faithful? The Muslim faithful are online.
Recently, the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center released a very comprehensive public opinion study on Muslim-Americans entitled “Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future” which gives a fascinating look into a cross-section of the American Muslim experience nearly one decade after the tragic September 11 attacks on our country.
Since Islam is certainly the most misunderstood (and vilified) religion around America today, it should come as little surprise that the recent Gallup study found that over thirty-seven percent (37 percent) of American Protestants, 35 percent of Catholics, and 32 percent of Mormons across the United States think that Muslim Americans are “not loyal citizens to America;” whereas over 80 percent of Jewish Americans say that American Muslims are actually loyal citizens (and not a threat) to the United States.
Continue reading Arsalan's column here: http://tinyurl.com/3jgcmnu |
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Arsalan's CNN Column on Death of Osama bin Laden |
For Muslims, a reason to rejoice
By Arsalan Iftikhar, Special to CNN
May 2, 2011 10:12 a.m. EDT
Editor's note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and global managing editor for The Crescent Post in Washington.
(CNN) -- Although there has not been much cause for celebration for our global village over the past decade, the world was able to breathe a sigh of relief at the announcement by President Barack Obama of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special operations forces at a mansion on the outskirts of Abbottabad, Pakistan.
In addition to the vast majority of Americans who are relieved by his death, there are more than 1 billion Muslims around the world who salute the fact that bin Laden's ungodly terrorist mischief has finally come to an end. Simply put, there has been no single person in nearly a millennium and a half of Muslim history who has ever hijacked our beloved religion of Islam more than bin Laden.
"We must also reaffirm that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam," Obama said during his historic address Sunday. "I have made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity."
Continue reading Arsalan's column on the killing of Osama bin Laden here... |
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