Islam

'Christmas Mubarak': For many South Asian Americans, the holiday is a cultural celebration

December 19, 2022

For the Hazrati family, Christmas Day typically includes a lit-up tree, gifts and a dal lunch. 

But after the wrapping paper remnants were cleared from around the tree, the Punjabi Sikh family living in Jersey City, New Jersey, didn’t always know what the rest of the day should entail for a family like theirs — so a few years ago, they started spending Christmas Day at the local gurdwara, a place of assembly and worship for Sikhs. 

With no extended family nearby nor religious service to attend, and lacking the colorful parades that would flood India’s...

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2022 midterms were historic for Muslim women's representation

December 12, 2022

A record number of Muslim women ran for office in 2022 — and they won. The election cycle made history with 153 Muslim candidates on the general ballot, per a report released by Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Sixty-one percent of Muslim women candidates won, compared with 56 percent of Muslim men....

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Why I stay: LGBTQ people of faith find ways to belong where doctrine rejects them

December 6, 2022

When queer students at Yeshiva University sued the school for discrimination in spring 2021, critics were quick to question why LGBTQ students would opt for an Orthodox Jewish university in the first place.

But for many LGBTQ Orthodox Jews, as with believers of other faiths, their religious identities are as nonnegotiable as their queer identities.

“A lot of people ask, why would somebody who is queer stay Orthodox? It’s like...

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Religious violence increases anxiety among Muslims and Jews, even if they have never been personally targeted

December 5, 2022

Fear of hate crime looms especially large in the minds of Jews and Muslims, even if they have never been personally targeted, according to a new study from Rice University and West Virginia University.

"Fear of Religious Hate Crime Victimization and the Residual Effects of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia" appears in a recent edition of Social Forces.

Using data from the 2019 edition of the nationally representative Experiences with Religious Discrimination Study survey, the authors found that among religious groups, Jews and Muslims were most likely to...

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Request to play Muslim call to prayer in Barron met with strong opposition

November 22, 2022

Somali residents in the rural northern Wisconsin city of Barron are withdrawing a request to play an amplified Muslim call to prayer from two mosques after the idea drew stiff opposition from some residents at a recent city council meeting. 

Barron is home to a community of around 470 Somali refugees and their families, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census. That population has grown since the 1990s when refugees living in the Twin Cities moved to...

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Veterans, Muslim and Jewish groups file support for Sikh recruits suing Marine Corps

November 16, 2022

Muslim, Jewish and interfaith groups, as well as U.S. veterans, are rallying behind three prospective Sikh recruits who earlier this year sued the United States Marine Corps in their push to attend training while maintaining their turbans and beards.

Sikhs who serve in the Marine Corps can keep their beards and unshorn hair — which are articles of their faith — under a turban while on duty, according to the service’s grooming regulations, but are forbidden from doing so during combat deployment and in the course of recruit trainings.

Jaskirat Singh, Aekash Singh and...

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Four Muslims were elected to the Georgia General Assembly on Tuesday--and all of them are from Gwinnett

November 10, 2022

When the Georgia General Assembly convenes in January, there will be four Muslim legislators among its ranks, one of the largest Muslim legislative delegations in the nation — and all of them will be from Gwinnett County.

Gwinnett voters re-elected state Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, who became the first Muslim elected to serve in the General Assembly in 2018, but they also made history in three other legislative races.

These include the election of Nabilah Islam, who will join Rahman in the Senate and become the first Muslim woman elected to that chamber, as...

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DHS panel on security for houses of worship begins its work

November 1, 2022

On Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur this year at Temple Emanu-El, a landmark Reform synagogue steps from Manhattan’s Central Park, a 6-by-11-inch flyer was placed at every seat, next to the prayer books, offering instructions on what to do in the event of an attack during one of the High Holiday services.

“If running from the threat is not an option,” the flyer read, “crouch down between the pews or hide behind a pillar. Make yourself as small of a target as possible. Remain quiet and still.” 

rise in antisemitic...

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6 Midterm Election Races Where Religion Could Play a Major Factor

November 3, 2022

Politicians across the country are in the last stretch of campaigning as Americans prepare to cast the votes in the midterm elections on Nov. 8.

Several polls show tight races, with Democrats trying to ride momentum from the summer that favored them for abortion rights and gun reform but fell due to rising gas prices. Republican challengers are campaigning on promises to defeat increasing inflation and crime.

Polls show the top issues for voters going into the midterms are by far...

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'Makes a Difference': More Muslims in Tennessee are voting, candidates are paying attention

November 1, 2022

Tennessee’s Muslim community could benefit from more representation and Tennessee’s lawmakers could benefit from more Muslim support.

That message is at the heart of ongoing efforts to engage Muslims about voting and civic involvement by area mosques and Muslim advocacy groups.

 “We’re tired of being an ignored community. We feel our issues should be front and center,” said Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council, or AMAC.

Source:...

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Religious polarization in India seeping into US diaspora

October 16, 2022

In Edison, New Jersey, a bulldozer, which has become a symbol of oppression of India’s Muslim minority, rolled down the street during a parade marking that country's Independence Day. At an event in Anaheim, California, a shouting match erupted between people celebrating the holiday and those who showed up to protest violence against Muslims in India.

Indian Americans from diverse faith backgrounds have peacefully co-existed stateside for several decades. But these recent events in the U.S. — and violent confrontations between some Hindus and Muslims last month in Leicester,...

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Teacher at Center of Hijab Uproar Sues Olympic Medalist for Defamation

October 18, 2022

A seconds-long interaction in a New Jersey classroom unleashed a national firestorm last October as it ricocheted across social media platforms. A 7-year-old girl had come home from school upset, telling her mother that her teacher in Maplewood, N.J., had tried to pull off the hijab the girl wears as an observant Muslim.

Her mother recounted the story on Facebook, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab,...

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MN med student's suggestions on religious-appropriate OR garb become Mayo standard

October 17, 2022

She's not even a doctor yet, but a young Minneapolis woman is already a changemaker in hospitals all over the country. She's turned one really bad day at medical school into something great.

The OR of the top hospital in the country is a place southwest Minneapolis native Rewan Abdelwahab has dreamed of since she was in undergrad at Harvard University.

"I fell in love with the sciences, started volunteering in a clinic in Chelsea, and from there immersed myself in the pre-med track," she said.

Source:...

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At new Minnesota facility, Amazon takes small steps to welcome Muslim workers

October 13, 2022

A new Amazon sorting facility in Woodbury, Minnesota, is taking its employees’ religious needs seriously, adding new “ablution stations” for ritual hand and foot washing and three rooms that people of any faith may use for prayer or meditation.

The 550,000-square-foot facility, which opened this month, employs about 300 Somalis and Somali Americans, many of them refugees from the generation-long civil war in the east African nation. Minnesota is home to ...

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Islamic Society of Baltimore's first female resident scholar makes clear religion is not holding her back

October 11, 2022

Huda Hasan can trace the confidence she has both in herself and in her Islamic faith to time she spent in a classroom with Maryam Azam.

Azam taught Hasan Islamic and Quran studies at the Al-Rahmah School in Windsor Mill. Hasan, 21, and her friends found themselves looking forward to Azam’s class every day, drawn by what Hasan called her “practical, friendly approach.”

“A lot of youth struggle with religion, especially in this day and age. So the way she taught us, we were able to grow in love in our religion,” Hasan said. “And she always told us that no matter where...

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