TMO 7-23-15

Volume 17, Issue 30 The Muslim Observer — July 24 - 30, 2015 — Shawwal 8 - 14, 1436 

Michigan’s tasty 

Halal Fest planned 

Noor Tagouri 

Hijabi anchor Noor 

Tagouri tells all 

By Mahvish Irfan 

TMO contributing reporter 

Noor Tagouri is on fire. At 

the young age of 21, this successful 

journalist and motivational 

speaker has already been 

featured on the Oprah Winfrey 

Network and given a TED Talk. 

Myths about sci-fi 

and fantasy 

Page 2 

Terrorists use 

poetry for war 

Page 3 

Prsrt std 

U. S. Postage 

PAID 

Royal Oak, MI 

48068 

Permit#792 

In 2012, she launched a viral 

#letnoorshine campaign 

encouraging herself and others 

to fearlessly pursue their 

passion. Nearing almost 200K 

social media followers, Noor’s 

work has gained international 

attention and she is widely 

known for wanting to become 

the first hijabi anchorwoman 

By Laura Fawaz, 

TMO Contributing Reporter 

Novi, MI–Rabbi Avrohom 

Susskind made a connection 

with a local Muslim doctor that 

lead to the usage of his building 

for a new Jewish’s Center in 

Novi, free of charge. 

on American television. But, 

what are her thoughts on this 

matter? 

The Muslim Observer sat 

down with Noor to get the inside 

scoop about her profession, 

plans for the future and 

love of firebending. 

(Continued on page 19) 

Rabbi and Muslim 

make connection in 

God’s work 

In 2005 Rabbi Susskind 

was in touch with the Jewish 

Federation, a partnership of 

various Jewish social agencies, 

educational and volunteer programs. 

The Jewish Federation 

told Rabbi Susskind that there 

were Jewish people scattered 

within the Novi area who were 


By Carissa D. Lamkahouan 

TMO contributing reporter 

Following its wildly successful 

debut last year when 

more than double the expected 

amount of attendees 

showed up, the second annual 

Halal Fest Michigan is primed 

to make an even bigger splash 

this year with even more folks 

turning out to sample the festival’s 

larger lineup of delicious 

halal food and bigger variety 

of family-friendly fun. 

Halal Fest Michigan 2015 

is set for Saturday, Aug. 8 at 

Heritage Park Amphitheater 

Pavilion in Canton, Mich., an 

area which boasts one of the 

largest Muslim communities in 

the country. The festival hours 

are noon – 7 p.m. 

Festival organizer and CEO 

Mostansar Virk said online 

buzz and early interest in the 

festival has been strong. As 

a result, he’s expecting anywhere 

between 6,000 and 

8,000 attendees to show up, 

many from as far away as 

Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and 

even Canada. 

“It’s a huge happening,” 

Virk said. 

And, of course, they’ll all be 

coming for the main event – 

the food. 

More than 20 restaurants, 

food trucks and catering companies 

will be on hand serving 

Purim party. Photo credit: Laura Fawaz 

up some of the best halal food 

Michigan has to offer. Virk 

said festivalgoers can sample 

a wide variety of ethnic and 

American-style food from 

businesses such as Chicken 

Coupe, Sara’s Sweet Treats 

and Khalipha Katering just to 

name a few. 

Food, by its very essence, is 

a unifier, Virk said, explaining 

that in addition to showcasing 

amazing halal food, bringing 

people together, particularly 

Muslims and non-Muslims, 

was one of the biggest reasons 

he had for launching the Halal 

Fest in the first place. 

“At the festival we can have 

all the halal food here at one 

place, a place where people 

are able to relax and spend 

time with their families and 

other people who come out,” 

he said. “The idea is that this 

event is open to anybody 

and everybody regardless of 

whether they’re Muslim or not. 

Overall it’s just an excellent 

experience.” 

That experience not only 

entails food, there will be plenty 

of activities as well that will 

appeal to children and adults. 

“There will be poetry readings, 

a petting zoo, giant Jenga 

blocks, carnival rides, a bazaar 

and even pony rides,” 

Virk said. “This year’s event is 

something special.” 


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2 —The Muslim Observer — July 24 - 30, 2015 — Shawwal 8 - 14, 1436 

opinion 

Eight myths about science fiction and fantasy 

By Haris A. Durrani 

Alt Muslimah 

Most people who haven’t 

read science fiction and fantasy 

(SFF) define it by Hollywood 

blockbusters. If they’ve read 

SFF, they don’t think of it as 

such. “Fahrenheit 451? 1984?” 

I’ve heard 

from members 

of our 

Muslim communities. 

“Those are 

science fiction?” 

While these misunderstandings 

are not exclusive to Muslim 

communities in America, they 

are damaging given the crucial 

role storytelling can play in illuminating 

our experiences. 

They show we’re not reading, 

and if we are, we’re not reading 

with open minds. 

So, here are eight common 

myths about SFF: 

“SFF is _________.” 

SFF eschews universal definition. 

For every genre trope 

and tradition, someone breaks 

the rules. For every canonical 

work, a piece of great literature 

refuses canonization. 

Defining SFF is as hard as 

defining, say, Sufism. Perhaps 

they’re better left without 

definition. 

Almost every myth is a variety 

of this one. So while we 

debunk the rest of them, remember—they 

stand on shaky 

ground. 

“SFF is too 

mainstream.” 

If you didn’t like Star Wars, 

Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or 

Harry Potter, that doesn’t mean 

you don’t like SFF. There’s a 

lot out there you might not expect. 

The best works aren’t the 

stuff of pop culture; they’re elements 

on the fringe. 

“SFF today is 

white and male.” 

A Google search renders this 

myth moot. I’d rather not list 

examples. I would leave out too 

many. 

If necessary, here are a few 

as a starting point: Junot Diaz, 

Ted Chiang, G. Willow Wilson, 

Saladin Ahmed, Daniel José 

Older, Colson Whitehead, 

Nnedi Okorafor, Usman Malik, 

Sofia Samatar, Amal El-Mohtar, 

N.K. Jemisin. Publishers like 

Crossed Genres are doing great 

work in this arena, but almost 

every major SFF publication 

these days promotes diverse 

writers, more so than mainstream 

literary publications. 

“Sure, but it used to be.” 

The recent history of science 

fiction is alive with writers like 

Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le 

Guin, Margaret Atwood, Frank 

Herbert, Samuel R. Delaney, 

and Walter Mosley, to name a 

few. 

It’s true. These are exceptions 

following a Golden Age 

of white male SFF. Even Mary 

Shelley’s Frankenstein, traditionally 

considered the first 

work of science fiction, contains 

a blatantly Islamophobic 

subplot about a mischievous 

Turk and Islam’s oppression of 

women. 

But even if writers like 

Butler or Le Guin are exceptions, 

they produced some of 

the greatest literature in the 

genre. Again, SFF operates best 

at the margins. 

“But historically, SFF is a 

western construct. It’s exporting 

the anxieties of white men.” 

This is the origins approach. 

Consider Ibn Sina’s Salaman 

wa-Absal, a tale of encounters 

with the moon, stars, and extraterrestrials, 

lauded by historian 

Mark Graham as “most 

likely the first bona fide science 

fiction story.” Rokeya Hussain’s 

1905 Bangladeshi classic 

“Sultana’s Dream” describes 

a utopia governed by women. 

Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqdhan 

and Attar’s Conference of the 

Birds rely on fantastical ideas 

as means of storytelling and 

theological inquiry. The anthology 

Dark Matter: A Century 

of Speculative Fiction from the 

African Diaspora and its sequel 

relate experiences beyond the 

western mode, reaching as far 

back as W.E.B. Du Bois’ heartbreaking 

“The Comet,” which 

is nothing without the power of 

its SFF premise. 

“SFF is antithetical 

to religion.” 

This is close to true (although 

the problem is not exclusive 

to the genre). Some 

SFF portrays religion as inane, 

violent, or unworthy of engagement. 

But, inadvertently, 

these critiques assume religion 

always takes a specific form, 

usually a particular variety of 

Christianity. Surprisingly, this 

can provide us with nuanced 

understandings of our faith 

and its contexts, a valuable asset 

when navigating the diversity 

of religious dialogues in 

America. 

There are works that see 

faith in a positive light. Ted 

Chiang writes beautifully about 

faith, death, and free will using 

Biblical, Islamic, and other 

religious settings. Herbert’s 

Dune explores the empowering 

role of religion in ecology, 

empire, and rebellion, inspired 

by Ibn Khaldun, Shi’i traditions, 

Islamic eschatology, and 

Middle East politics. 

“SFF doesn’t move me 

because it’s about ideas, 

not people.” 

If Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for 

Algernon didn’t make you even 

think about crying, you’re not 

human. Consider the terror 

of Butler’s apocalypses and its 

glimmers of hope, the beauty of 

Emily St. John Mandel’s Station 

11, the paranoia of Bradbury 

and Orwell, the identity crises of 

Philip K. Dick’s protagonists, the 

maimed humor of Vonnegut, 

the elegance and melancholy of 

Chiang’s short stories. 

If SFF doesn’t move you, 

maybe you’re thinking of 

Transformers. 

“SFF is not real.” 

SFF is full of what-ifs and escapism. 

These are not mutually 

exclusive to “real-world” issues. 

Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse- 

Five is one of the great anti-war 

novels. Butler’s stories deal with 

the physical and psychological 

brutality of racism and colonialism. 

Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris 

reads like a fictionalization of 

Edward Said’s Orientalism. 

David Marusek’s novels brilliantly 

imagine the intersections 

of technology, power, 

and economics. John Joseph 

Adams’ anthology Seeds of 

Change“confronts the pivotal 

issues facing our society today: 

racism, global warming, peak 

oil, technological advancement, 

and political revolution.” 

If anything, SFF illuminates 

real-world issues. Ursula K. Le 

Guin wrote: “All fiction is metaphor. 

Science fiction is metaphor.” 

As I’ve written previously, 

deeper truths—the realities 

stories uncover—are not direct. 

SFF, then, is not only an extension 

of the power of fiction; it’s 

an embodiment of it. 

*** 

The abundance of SFF literature 

that challenges these myths 

is staggering. SFF is part of our 

Muslim traditions and integral 

to our contemporary potential 

as storytellers and our duty as 

readers. 

For our stories to illuminate 

our experiences, we need to expand 

our shelves. 

Editor’s note: Haris A. 

Durrani (@hdernity) is 

Co-Founder of The Muslim 

Protagonist Symposium at 

Columbia University, where he 

is an Egleston Scholar and has 

published fiction, memoirs, and 

essays which explore personal 

narratives arising at the nexus of 

law, technology, and disenfranchised 

identities, particularly in 

Latino and post-9/11 contexts. 

His views are his own. This article 

originally appeared on Alt 

Muslimah. 

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international 

The Muslim Observer — July 24 - 30 — Shawwal 8 - 14, 1436 — 3 

A new weapon of Islamist extremists 

is…poetry? 

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Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures 

at Indiana University, Bloomington 

Militant Islamist groups have a number of strategies for recruiting 

vulnerable young men to their cause. They produce 

videos, tap into social media and write fiery pamphlets with 

overblown rhetoric. 

But they’re also increasingly turning to poetry: with its rich 

vocabulary, the Arabic language lends itself easily to rhyme 

and rhythm, which can have a mesmerizing effect. 

Poetry is also deeply ingrained in pre-Islamic and Islamic 

Arab culture, and it’s this literary tradition that contemporary 

militants hope to mine as they attempt to lure new members 

into their ranks. 

Pre-Islamic tribes engaged in wars of words 

The tone and tenor of militant poetry mirrors verses from 

the period known as theJahiliyya, in Arabic, which refers to 

the era before the rise of Islam in the seventh century. 

Pre-Islamic tribes often had their own special poet – a 

sha‘ir, in Arabic – who was believed to be endowed with magical 

verbal powers, and whose poetic virtuosity could be used 

to defend tribal honor. Their poems sought to vilify the enemy, 

while praising and lifting the spirits of their own tribes. 

Often, these pagan Arab poets and poetesses would recite 

warmongering verses before crowds to rouse the passions of 

their own warriors. 

Despite the Islamic terminology contemporary composers 

carefully deploy, today’s militant poetry often draws upon the 

same pre-Islamic vocabulary and themes, which included the 

glorification of violence to defend tribal or masculine honor. 

Here are some fire-breathing verses penned by a poet connected 

with al-Qaeda who goes by the name of al-Shaykh 

al-Jaburi: 

“Bid them farewell – with bullets, just as you received them 

Bid them farewell with rockets, just as you received them… 

Strike them and curse them and curse those who ally with 

them… 

Destroy the palatial mansions and destroy them 

Flog every wrong-doer, flog them – 

Bid them farewell and scatter rose petals on the ground 

where you fought them” 

Compare al-Jaburi’s verses to those of Shanfara, a pre-Islamic 

poet from the sixth century. Shanfara lived on the margins 

of society; he similarly exalted violence as a way of life, 

while boasting about his ability to impart fear: 

“O how many a night of ill luck when the hunter burns his 

bow 

For fuel, and his arrow wood, 

Have I trodden through darkness and drizzle, on fire with 

hunger, Grinding inside, shivering, filled with dread 

Then have I widowed women and orphaned children 

Returning as I began, the night a blacker black” 

(translation by Michael Sells) 

Both poems are imbued with grandiose expressions of brutal 

power and destruction. Ironically, because the Jahiliyya 

was a period characterized by ignorance of Islam and tribal 

blood feuds, militant Islamists today often invoke this era as 

the very opposite of the pristine Islamic values for which they 

supposedly stand. 

Poetic vitriol 

Stinging satire – hija’ – directed against the enemy was another 

hallmark of pre-Islamic poetry, and poetic denigration 

of the opponent was meant to contribute to the demoralization 

of the enemy. Some pre-modern peoples in other parts of 

the world had such poet laureates. The Irish filid, for example, 

served a similar role for the Gaelic ruling elite and were 

feared particularly for their wounding satire. 

The prophet Muhammad disapproved of the character defamation 

that the pre-Islamic poets indulged in, although he’s 

known to have allowed poetry that defended Islam against its 

critics. 

The Qur’an also denounces tribal poets who used their linguistic 

talents for ignoble purposes. For this reason, satirical 

poetry was frowned upon and experienced a decline in popularity 

during the very early Islamic period. 

But it began to make a gradual comeback during the 

Umayyad period (656–750 CE), when the worldly Umayyad 

rulers began celebrating some aspects of pre-Islamic Arab 

culture that were otherwise at odds with Islamic values. This 

Photo credit: Clipart.com 

included a revival of political, vitriolic poetry that delighted 

in lampooning one’s rival and openly proclaiming his faults. 

The famed Umayyad poets al-Farazdaq and Jarir traded poetic 

insults with considerable malevolent eloquence at the 

courts of the Umayyad rulers, even as the pious clucked their 

tongues in disapproval. 

Despite the Islamicizing rhetoric of today’s militant versifiers, 

they also employ the satirical aspects of pre-Islamic poetry. 

The aforementioned al-Jaburi lampoons his perceived 

enemies, the Muslim majority: 

“Most of the people are miserable wretches 

They are those who sleep in the pockets of the rulers and 

sing their praises night and day… 

Most of the people are miserable wretches, 

They befriend the oppressor who takes food from the 

mouths of the poor… Even though they see the umma 

[Muslim community] grieving and lying prone… 

Most of the people are miserable wretches, whether 

learned or ignorant” 

It’s interesting that the Kharijites, a violence-prone, extremist 

minority in early Islamic history, were also fond of 

pillorying the majority of Muslims, whom they denounced as 

sinners for not joining their ranks. 

If our 21st-century militants sound a lot like them, it’s because 

they’re very similar in this regard. Al-Qaeda members 

have been known to use Khariji poetry as part of their linguistic 

arsenal, while strenuously denying any genealogical connection 

between their ideology and that of the seventh-century 

Kharijites, who are regarded as a deviant, intolerant sect by 

the majority of Muslims. 

The hypocrisy of militant poetry 

Poetry – the lyrical, romantic kind, the type that extols 

the mystical life and that speaks to universal human concerns 

– remains very important within Arab-Islamic culture. 

Schoolchildren in Arab societies typically memorize extensive 

selections of the classics of pre-modern Arabic poetry. 

Recitation of the Qur’an is poetic in effect because of its rhyming 

prose. 

Militants are therefore tapping into entrenched literary 

tastes among Arab populations and appropriating them for 

their own inglorious ends. 

Like many of the pre-Islamic poets, they consider poetry 

a weapon, one used to actively promote their own ideological 

goals and simultaneously destroy their enemies. 

Contemporary extremist groups accuse mainstream Muslims 

of having lapsed into pre-Islamic paganism for not recognizing 

the “truth” of their bloody cause. At the same time, these 

groups cynically adopt and exploit certain practices that 

clearly hearken back to the pre-Islamic period. 

Such irony would be amusing if it were not for the tragic 

consequences of such self-serving eclecticism. 

Editor’s note: Asma Afsaruddin is chair of the Department 

of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, 

Bloomington. Her views are her own. 

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national 

President Obama speaks with Daily News host Jon Stewart. Photo credit: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters 

Are Americans ready for a Muslim president? 

New poll suggests maybe 

By Julie Poucher Harbin 

Religion News Service 

A recently released Gallup 

poll found “tidal shifts” over 

the past 60 years in Americans’ 

willingness to support a 

well-qualified black, female, 

Catholic or Jewish candidate 

for president. 

But the study also found that 

60 percent of Americans would 

be willing to vote for a president 

who was a “generally wellqualified 

person who happened 

to be Muslim.” 

Throughout the month of 

Ramadan, which concludes 

Thursday (July 16), American 

Muslims have been serving 

their communities — including 

raising more than $80,000 for 

black churches burned across 

the South and serving 1,000 

homeless on Skid Row in Los 

Angeles — public service that 

they are called by their faith to 

do. But as they look forward to 

Eid al-Fitr, the three-day celebration 

beginning Friday, they 

are also wondering whether 

Americans are more willing to 

accept their service. 

“If the 60 percent is to be 

used as a proxy of acceptance 

of Muslims, I am encouraged 

by an upward trajectory,” wrote 

Saud Anwar, the mayor of 

South Windsor, Conn., and that 

state’s first Muslim mayor. 

Anwar said he believes that 

“religious labels are less critical” 

at the local level, where 

“people have a better opportunity 

to know a candidate and 

thus vote based on capacity to 

do the job and performance.” 

In national elections, he 

said, “the labels may become 

more important for people.” 

But Amaney Jamal, a professor 

of politics at Princeton 

University who’s done significant 

research on the civic 

engagement of Muslims and 

Arabs in the U.S., said the poll 

also shows how much worse 

Muslims are doing than other 

religious and racial groups. 

“Sixty percent isn’t a bad 

number on average,” she 

said, but when compared 

with American support for 

Catholics, blacks, Jews and 

Mormons — where there’s a 

20- to 30-point difference — 

it’s “troubling.” 

Americans haven’t embraced 

the idea “that a Muslim 

can be a loyal person to the 

United States, a Muslim can be 

a very good president, a dedicated 

president,” said Jamal. 

“There’s a lot of Islamophobia.” 

The good news is that young 

people are more willing to 

vote for a Muslim presidential 

candidate — 76 percent 

of 18- to 29-year-olds would, 

as would 67 percent of 30- to 

49-year-olds, according to the 

poll. 

The higher youth numbers 

she attributes to the likelihood 

they have had direct daily interactions 

with a Muslim at 

work or school. 

Salam Al-Marayati, executive 

director of the Muslim 

Public Affairs Council, said he 

was struck that Protestants, according 

to the poll, would be 

much less likely to support a 

Muslim candidate (44 percent) 

than U.S. adults overall. 

“The narrative that we are 

in a religious war with the 

Middle East I think has an impact 

on evangelical communities’ 

views of Muslims,” said 

Al-Marayati. 

Detroit native Rashida 

Tlaib, a former Democratic 

state legislator who was the 

first Muslim woman elected to 

the Michigan Legislature, said 

that her main takeaway from 

the poll was that the majority 

of Americans do respect people 

of faith. American support 

for atheists and socialists was 

lower. (Fifty-eight percent of 

Americans would support an 

atheist for president, and 47 

percent a socialist.) 

A recent workshop convened 

by the Institute for Social 

Policy and Understanding and 

the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal 

Islamic Studies Program at 

Harvard University found that 

as more American Muslims 

enter public service sectors, 

they are “uniquely positioned 

to elevate the perception and 

understanding of Islam and 

Muslims.” 

Tlaib, who continues to 

be active in public service in 

her home state — working as 

a campaign manager for The 

Campaign to Take on Hate — 

said there are “definitely not 

enough Muslims running for 

office.” 

“Some people will go in the 

military, or be a firefighter or 

a police officer, or other public 

service. But I tell you as a public 

elected official you actually 

get a much broader blanket of 

people that you expose your 

faith to.” 

She said American Muslims 

should “never underestimate 

the human connection,” explaining 

that whatever fears her 

constituents had of Muslims, 

working on their behalf on 

day-to-day issues changed that 

image. 

Like Tlaib, Al-Marayati said 

people have sometimes asked 

if he’s really Muslim. 

“Just because we’re 

Americans doesn’t mean we’re 

less Muslim,” he said. “In fact, 

we say the opposite: Being a 

good American citizen makes 

me a more devout Muslim. And 

being a devout Muslim makes 

me a better American citizen.” 

In 2008, former Secretary 

of State Colin Powell criticized 

elements of his party for allowing 

comments that “President 

Obama is a Muslim” to be answered 

only with “He is not a 

Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s 

always been Christian.” 

“The really right answer,” 

said Powell, “is, what if he 

is? Is there something wrong 

with being a Muslim in this 

country?” 

Today, the most high-profile 

Muslim elected officials are U.S. 

Reps. Andre D. Carson, D-Ind., 

and Keith Ellison, D-Minn. 

But could there be a Muslim 

president in our lifetime? 

“Why not?” said Tlaib, noting 

that we now have a biracial 

president. 

“If somebody told me 10 

years ago … I’d say, ‘Nah, it’s 

never going to happen.’ So I’m 

a true believer.” 

Al-Maryati said that more 

important is having a president 

who demonstrates a commitment 

to pluralism and who 

includes Muslims as equal citizens 

in this country. 

“I think if we achieve that, 

that’s a great achievement 

for America. That will make 

America stronger and will 

make the American Muslim 

community more secure.”

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6 — The Muslim Observer — July 24 - 30, 2015 — Shawwal 8 - 14, 1436 

sports 

Sports and 

Consequences 

Ibrahim Abdul-Matin 

Getting in a game 

before maghrib 

Baseball is exciting this year 

because it features a new crop 

of young stars that should be 

the focal point for years to 

come. Across the league these 

younger players are playing the 

game at a high level and with 

an incredible amount of passion 

and respect. It is inspiring 

to see young stars like speedy 

sluggers Andrew McMutchen 

of the Pittsburgh Pirates, 

Jason Heyward of the St. Louis 

Cardinals, and the pitching ace 

Jacob deGrom of the NY Mets. 

Although they are professional 

there is something about the 

energy that these young guys 

play with that makes you feel 

the love that they have for the 

sport. 

This baseball youth movement 

reminds me of a moment 

a few years ago just outside the 

Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood 

(MIB) in Harlem New York. I 

was headed over to pray as it 

was close to sunset and happened 

to come across a game 

of street baseball - an updated 

version of streetball. The players, 

in their 20’s and 30’s, using 

an aluminum bat, some baseball 

gloves and a rubber ball. 

The backstop was a shuttered 

metal door with a 

strikezone painted as a white 

box with an X. The pitcher’s 

“mound” was set up in the 

middle of the intersection. 

If a car came by from either 

direction the pitcher did not 

move: The cars were forced to 

avoid the pitcher in his wind 

up. In order to score with no 

bases, you were awarded base 

hits based on how far you hit 

the ball. And the outfield was 

stocked with players in borrowed 

baseball gloves posted 

up to make sure the rubber 

ball did not go down a drain, 

under a car, or into an alleyway 

through an impregnable 

gate. 

I joined in the game with 

my Yankee cap and backpack 

on. I wanted to get a hit in 

but they directed me towards 

the outfield. I was thrown a 

glove, avoided an oncoming 

car, and posted up in my spot. 

No balls came in my direction, 

but I was ready. The guy at the 

plate wore jeans, a hoodie, 

and a Detroit Lions baseball 

cap backwards. 

The guy at bat with the 

Detroit cap on belted a few 

sharp liners: foul. I was ready. 

Then he swung hard and 

whiffed as his side turned 3 

outs. Then, as street ball goes, 

some guys lost steam and had 

to walk away. The game was 

essentially over until one guy 

offered to hit if I would pitch 

— then we would switch. I 

agreed and wound up a pretty 

effective series of strikes, doing 

my best impersonation of 

Bob Gibson, the hall of fame 

former pitcher. The batter 

went down swinging. When it 

came time for me to be at bat, 

I hit a liner up the middle that 

landed ... well, it landed down 

a stairwell and into a garbage 

can. Game over. 

Still, it was a game of pickup 

baseball, in Harlem and no 

one took the bat to walk away; 

they just left the bat where it 

was, against the backstop, a 

metal gate with a strike zone 

painted white. The gloves were 

leaned against the bat and we 

gave one another pleasantries, 

talked briefly and then, in a 

flash, we were gone. 

As I made my way towards 

the masjid for Magrib prayer I 

looked back and saw a group 

of younger kids going for the 

bat and the gloves. Like the 

baseball stars of today these 

kids were driven by a passion 

to play. They had their own 

rubber ball. A new game was 

about to begin. 

Photo credit: Photodune 

Editor’s Note: Ibrahim Abdul- 

Matin has worked in the civic, 

public, and private sectors and 

on several issues including sustainability, 

technology, community 

engagement, sports, and 

new media. He is the author of 

Green Deen: What Islam Teaches 

About Protecting the Planet and 

contributor to All-American: 45 

American Men On Being Muslim. 

From 2009 to 2011 Ibrahim was 

the regular Sports Contributor 

for WNYC’s nationally syndicated 

show The Takeaway. Follow him 

on twitter @IbrahimSalih. The 

views expressed here are his own. 

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opinion 

Many Muslims miss Ramadan as it leaves. Photo credit: Clipart.com 

5 ways to keep Ramadan momentum alive 

By Mohannad Hakeem 

OnIslam.net 

Ramadan is almost over, 

but there are tons of opportunities 

that you can use to keep 

the Ramadan spirit. I hope that 

you will find the following 5 

tips handy, especially during 

the first half of Shawwal (lunar 

month following Ramadan in 

the Islamic calendar). This article 

is based on what is known in 

behavior science as the “Habit 

Loop”. 

The Habit Loop 

Ramadan comes with an 

emotional and social package 

that makes worshipping 

Allah easier during the 

blessed month. The reason 

why many people fail to keep 

their gained habits and deeds 

after Ramadan is simply the 

lack of a “Ramadan environment”. 

With the help of Allah 

first, you may be able to recreate 

this environment on a mini 

scale by understanding how 

habits work. 

Based on Charles Duhigg’s 

amazing book, “The Power 

of Habits”, there are three 

components in a habit loop: 

The Cue (External factor that 

enables the habit loop), the 

routine (the actual habit or action), 

and the reward (whatever 

craving your mind has that 

drives the routine). An action 

can be deemed a habit if it is 

not taking you a lot of mental 

power to start the action (such 

as praying the taraweeh 

prayer, or fasting the long days 

of Ramadan once the first few 

days are gone and you get used 

to it). 

The key here is simple: 

search for special Ramadan 

“cues” and keep them alive 

after it. A Cue is defined as an 

external factor that is outside 

of your control, but can cause 

your mind to crave a certain 

reward. In this case, the reward 

is the emotional /spiritual 

connection that you felt during 

Ramadan, but unable to 

maintain afterwards. Here are 

my five suggestions for cues, 

which can be remembered by 

simply memorizing their initials 

(ISLAM): 

ISLAM = Iftar, Sweet, 

Lectures, Ayah, Mate 

1. I for Iftar: Organize regular 

Iftar Dinners 

Let’s admit it, we all love iftar 

parties. Yes people may waste 

time and money preparing lots 

of food that may be thrown 

away, BUT no one can deny 

that Iftar dinners are a major 

ingredient of the Ramadan cultural 

package. 

So the first practical advice 

is: take the lead to organize 

regular iftars with your friends 

or at your local mosque or 

group. This should encourage 

others to fast outside Ramadan 

(such as the 6 days of Shawwal, 

Mondays /Thursdays, or the 

three white days of every 

month). In order to make this 

idea successful, remember the 

KISS advice: Keep It Simple 

and Sequential 

2. S for Sweet: Pray in 

your “Sweet Spot” at your favorite 

masjid 

Duhigg talks about many 

hidden cues that affect people’s 

behaviors and trigger 

their habit loops. One of the 

obvious cues that encourage 

us for more worship are the 

houses of Allah. The advice 

here is straight forward: visit 

the masjid that witnessed your 

“Ramadan High” moments 

more regularly, at least once a 

week other than Fridays. 

The following saying by Ali 

Bin Abi Talib should encourage 

you to build that connection 

with your “masjid sweet 

spot”: 

“When a righteous slave 

dies, the spot that he used to 

pray at, and the location where 

his deeds ascend to the heavens, 

both will cry on him”, and 

then he recited (an ayah describing 

Pharaoh and hi folks), 

(the heaven and earth wept 

not for them…) (Ad-Dukhan 

44:29) 

3. L for Lecture: Keep a list 

of your Favorite “Ramadan 

Lectures” 

Ramadan offers a great opportunity 

to listen to lectures, 

Friday sermons, and short 

speeches. Whether in your local 

mosque or online, try to 

“add to your favorites list” 

some of those motivational 

speeches that affected you 

during the holy month. If you 

attended a lecture in person, 

try to take some notes, at least 

the 3 MIT’s (Most Important 

Things) that you got out of that 

lecture. According to many of 

my teachers, the spirituality 

that stems out of knowledge 

is a deep one that will survive 

and will be there for you at a 

moment of weakness. 

4. A for Ayah: Bookmark 

your favorite Ayhas from the 

Qur’an 

So you can save the words 

of great speakers and knowledgeable 

scholars, but don’t 

forget the words of Allah: They 

are indeed more powerful. We 

all believe that the Qur’an is 

a great book, and that all its 

Ayahs (verses) are nothing but 

a pure miracle. However, each 

of us has their favorite verses, 

chapters, or passages that we 

relate to the most under different 

times or emotional states. 

If you happen to hear or read a 

moving verse, Bookmark it and 

“save” that spiritual connection 

with that particular verse 

for later. 

5. M for Mate: 

Connect with your 

“Ramadan Mate” 

Islam is a system that is 

based on congregation, team 

work, and friendship. You will 

need the support of a righteous 

companion, spouse, friend, 

or youth group to keep the 

Ramadan spirit. What I love 

about Ramadan the most is 

the opportunity to meet those 

people and interact with them 

in a spiritual environment, 

whether it is a community 

service event or a taraweeh 

prayer. Those people turn to 

be the best friends I have ever 

had, and they definitely give 

me some dear memories from 

my Ramadan exposure with 

them. 

While I got my 5 “ISLAM” 

tips, I am sure there are many, 

and every one reading this article 

can come up with their 

own version of these Ramadan 

cues. Dear brother/sister: 

feel free to share this article 

with friends, especially your 

“Ramadan Mates”; Also, you 

may write down your own personalized 

list in the comments 

section, and hence benefit me 

and others who might be reading 

your comments. 

Happy Ramadan, Èid 

Mubarak, and may Allah allow 

all of our days and months to 

be similar to those dear moments 

that we witnessed during 

Ramadan. 

Editor’s note: Dr. Mohannad 

Hakeem holds a PhD in 

Mechanical Engineering. He is 

a youth counselor and motivational 

speaker in Greater Detroit 

area, Michigan, USA. Visit Dr. 

Mohannad Hakeem’s blog. His 

views are solely his own.

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opinion / international 

Sameer’s 

Eats 

Sameer Sarmast 

Fatima’s Halal 

Kitchen reviewed 

Queens: that far away borough 

filled with Mets fans, every 

type of Asian cuisine imaginable, 

and the site of my latest 

culinary journey. Though you 

might be thinking I have made 

the trek for some far flung 

food such as Nepali momos or 

a plate of Burmese pickled tea 

leaf salad, I actually have come 

to introduce you all to my favorite 

American Chinese food 

joint across the entire Tri-State 

area. 

Arriving at Fatima’s Halal 

Kitchen, I was taken aback by 

how crowded the place seemed 

to be on an off night. Out of all 

the Chinese joints in all parts of 

the city, I had to step into this 

one as it was getting crushed by 

orders. Nevertheless, I got seated 

in a relatively short time and 

quickly placed my order. 

To my surprise, my egg 

drop soup came out piping 

hot almost immediately after 

I ordered it. After throwing in 

some crispy noodles and adding 

a dash of soy sauce, the 

soup turned out to be the perfect 

starter to wet my appetite 

for what was to come. 

As he mains followed fairly 

quickly, you can easily tell that 

they are homemade with care 

as opposed to simply being 

combinations of frozen foods 

mixed together with industrial 

size sauce bags and MSG that 

are sometimes seen at other 

Chinese joints. To begin my 

trio of entrees, I went with the 

General Toa’s—not a typo— 

with fried rice. Like its’ cousin 

General Tso, the chicken is wok 

fried and covered with a sweet 

and tangy sauce that excites 

the tastes buds and expands 

the waistline just a bit. 

Regardless of the caloric implications, 

this dish is my go to for 

a reason. Rather than weighing 

you down with a goopy sugar 

laden sauce, the sauce compliments, 

and does not takeover, 

the taste of the chicken. Throw 

in a side helping of fried rice 

and broccoli and you have an 

instant pick that works either 

as a late night treat or leftovers 

on Sunday morning. 

Following General anything 

is typically a challenge but 

the pepper steak that came 

right after did not disappoint. 

The steak was tender and 

juicy and atypical compared 

to most places that use scraps 

and tough leftovers as the 

meat in these types of dishes. 

Additionally, the peppers and 

onions that came with the dish 

were treated with care and 

quality and did not seem to be 

thrown in at the last minute 

simply as filler. 

Last by certainly not least 

was the Szechuan chicken. 

Even for a spice guy like 

me, this dish packs a punch. 

Topped with the chef’s special 

hot sauce, this dish represents 

the notoriously spicy Szechuan 

province well and features 

large chunks of chicken as opposed 

to small bite size pieces 

offered at most places. 

Though I didn’t order this 

dish on this go round, be sure 

to check out their chicken 

wings if you are looking for an 

appetizer. Though not typical 

Chinese fare and a bit small in 

size, these crunchy decadent 

morsels are taken up a notch 

if you dip them in some spicy 

chili sauce. And if a recommendation 

like that is coming 

from a spicy wings lover such 

myself, you know they have to 

be good. 

As this place is Halal, you 

won’t find any pork dishes. In 

fact the menu has a handsome 

selection of delicious seafood 

along with Halal chicken and 

beef items. Furthermore, this 

place is cash only but in return 

for the inconvenience, you get 

perfectly portioned food at a 

dollar or two cheaper than you 

would find at most Chinese 

joints. 

Editor’s Note: Sameer 

Sarmast is the President and 

Executive Producer of Sameer’s 

Eats, the first and only Halal 

food review web blog and video 

channel on YouTube. Sameer 

has been recognized by local and 

national media outlets as well 

as the U.S. State Department for 

his efforts in highlighting Halal 

cuisine. Sameer resides and 

works full time in New Jersey 

as a Vice President in Wealth 

Management for a major financial 

institution. When he isn’t 

working, he loves to travel and 

spend time with his friends and 

family. Follow him on twitter 

@SameersEats. The views expressed 

here are his own. 

Charlie Hebdo: No More Prophet Cartoons 

OnIslam & Newspapers 

Almost six months after the 

deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo 

satirical magazine, its new 

editor revealed that he will no 

longer draw cartoons of the 

Muslim Prophet Muhammed 

(peace be upon him), to avoid 

being possessed by its critique 

of Islam. 

“The mistakes you could 

blame Islam for can be found 

in other religions,” Laurent 

Sourisseau, the top editor and 

publisher of Charlie Hebdo, 

said in an interview this week 

with Stern, a German magazine, 

The Washington Post 

reported. 

“We have drawn Muhammed 

to defend the principle that one 

can draw whatever one wants.” 

The new editor of the weekly 

magazine claimed that he did 

not want to believe that the 

magazine “was possessed by 

Islam.” 

Announcing his decision to 

stop prophet Muhammed cartoons, 

he said: “We’ve done 

our job. We have defended the 

right to caricature.” 

Last January, France witnessed 

a blood-soaked week 

after a series of terror attacks 

that left 17 killed in the capital, 

including two Muslims. 

Seeing the Charlie Hebdo 

attack as a betrayal of Islamic 

faith, leaders from Muslim 

countries and organizations 

joined worldwide condemnation 

of the attack, saying the 

attackers should not associate 

their actions with Islam. 

Later on, French Muslims 

called for criminalizing insulting 

religions amid increasing 

anger around the Muslim world 

over Charlie Hebdo’s decision 

to publish new cartoons of 

Prophet Muhammed (peace be 

upon him). 

Moreover, the Organization 

of Islamic Cooperation sued 

Charlie Hebdo over the publication 

of new cartoons depicting 

Prophet Muhammed (peace be 

upon him), amid increasing anger 

among Muslims worldwide. 

In its “survivals” edition, 

Charlie Hebdo magazine featured 

a cartoon of the Prophet 

Muhammed (pbuh) on the 

cover, a week after the terrorist 

attack. 

“Torture” 

Editor Sourisseau’s decision 

came three months after 

another Charlie Hebdo cartoonist, 

Renald Luzier, told 

French culture magazine Les 

Inrockuptibles that drawing 

the Prophet no longer interests 

him. 

“I’ve got tired of it, just as I 

got tired of drawing [former 

French president Nicolas] 

Sarkozy. I’m not going to spend 

my life drawing them,” cartoonist 

Luzier said. 

A month later, Luizer quit the 

magazine after citing overwork 

and fatigue, saying that working 

without his slain friends 

and colleagues was “torture.” 

Sourisseau, the editor who 

owns 40 percent of the company’s 

shares, survived last 

January’s terror attack by pretending 

to be dead. 

“When it was over, there 

was no sound. No complaints. 

No whining,” Sourisseau told 

Stern. 

“That is when I understood 

that most were slain.” 

He came under fire for garnering 

large portion of Charlie 

Hebdo’s recent profits after the 

attack. 

“The most important thing is 

there’s a real desire to keep getting 

this paper out every week, 

it should continue and it will 

continue,” Sourisseau told the 

Guardian in May. 

“The fact that everyone 

is watching across the world 

spurs us on to keep going, helps 

us not be scared.” 

Charlie Hebdo has a long reputation 

for being provocative. 

In September 2012, the 

French weekly published cartoons 

displaying a man said to 

be the prophet as naked. 

In 2011, the office of the 

magazine was firebombed after 

it published an edition “guestedited 

by Muhammed”, which 

the satirical weekly called 

Shariàh Hebdo.

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opinion / community 

Living 

Well 

Fasiha Hasham 

Hardening 

of arteries 

(Atherosclerosis/ 

Arteriosclerosis) 

By Fasiha Hasham 

Atherosclerosis or hardening 

of the arteries entails a loss 

of elasticity in the blood vessels 

that carry blood from the heart 

to all parts of the body. 

Arteries throughout the 

body may be affected by hardening, 

resulting in symptoms 

from the diminished flow of 

blood to the area served by the 

affected vessels. For example, a 

hardening of arteries in the legs 

can cause pain and difficulty 

walking. Hardening of the coronary 

arteries, which encircle 

the heart and provide nourishment 

to the heart muscle, can 

cause chest pains and a heart 

attack. Narrowing or hardening 

of arteries to the brain can 

cause a stroke. 

Blood vessels lose a certain 

amount of elasticity with aging. 

This process may be compounded 

by a buildup of fatty 

deposits in the blood vessel 

lining. This is referred to as 

atherosclerosis. These fatty deposits 

are made up mostly of 

cholesterol circulating in their 

blood have an increased incidence 

of atherosclerosis. 

Exactly what initiate’s 

atherosclerosis is unknown, but 

the process is believed to begin 

early in life. Researchers think 

that a combination of genetic 

susceptibility, high cholesterol 

levels, and some sort of injury 

to the artery lining all are involved. 

Cigarette smoking can 

worsen the condition; some researchers 

think it may even be 

a cause. 

Other diseases, especially 

high blood pressure, diabetes 

and obesity, also contribute 

to artery hardening from 

atherosclerosis. 

Symptoms related to 

Arteriosclerosis are 

• Angina, breathlessness, and 

other symptoms of coronary artery 

disease 

• Leg ulcers, tingling, pain and 

difficulty walking. 

• Memory loss and other signs 

of dementia 

• Diminished kidney function. 

Diagnosis is established 

by studies of the circulation. 

This may require angiography, 

which are special x-rays taken 

of the blood vessels after a dye 

is injected into the circulation. 

Sometimes a catheter is also 

inserted a blood vessel to detect 

areas of narrowing; this 

procedure is referred to as contrast 

arterial catheterization. 

Treatment depends upon 

the site and degree of hardening. 

Life- style changes can halt 

or slow the process in its early 

stages. Specific measures include 

stopping smoking, controlling 

high blood pressure and 

diabetes, losing excess weight 

and exercising regularly. 

Medication to lower blood 

cholesterol may be prescribed 

if diet and other conservative 

measures are inadequate. 

Low dose aspirin usually 

half an aspirin or one baby aspirin 

a day may be prescribed 

to help prevent clots from forming 

in arteries clogged by fatty 

plaque. 

In severe cases, surgery or 

angioplasty may be needed. 

The surgery entails either bypassing 

the blocked area with 

a grafted blood vessel, usually 

one taken from elsewhere in 

the body, or opening the vessel 

and surgically removing the 

fatty plaque. Angioplasty entails 

inserting a catheter with 

a balloon tip into the artery. 

When the catheter reaches a 

site of obstruction, the balloon 

is inflated to flatten the plaque 

and widen the opening through 

which blood flows. 

Precautions 

The risk of hardening of the 

arteries can be reduced by: 

• Achieving and then maintaining 

normal weight 

• Controlling high blood pressure, 

diabetes and other disorder 

that may contribute to 

buildup of fatty plaque 

• Consuming a diet low in saturated 

fats and cholesterol and 

high in starches and fiber 

• Exercising for at least 15 to 20 

minutes 3 to 4 times a week 

• Not smoking 

Hardening of the arteries is a 

long term, progressive process. 

Generally there are no symptoms 

until the hardening of the 

arteries is quite advanced. Even 

Photo credit: Photoddune 

arteries that are 80 percent 

blocked can deliver adequate 

blood to maintain normal 

function. 

The major danger occurs 

when a diseased blood vessel 

becomes completely blocked 

by a clot or fatty plaque. When 

this happen the blood supply is 

cut off and the tissue normally 

served by the blocked blood 

vessel dies. Depending upon 

the site involved, this can cause 

a heart attack, stroke or gangrene 

requiring amputation. 

Editor’s Note: Dr. Fasiha 

Hasham obtained her medical degree 

from Sindh Medical College 

and completed a residency at 

Jinnah Post Graduate Medical 

Centre in Pakistan before moving 

to the United States. Her specialties 

include Internal Medicine 

and Gynecology and Obstetrics. 

She is married with four children 

and lives in Farmington Hills, 

Michigan. The views expressed 

here are her own. 

Community newsbriefs 

By Mohammad Ayub Khan 

TMO Contributing Writer 

Zoning Board 

rejects Muslim 

cemetery 

ROCK HILL,TX--The Rock 

Hill zoning board has rejected a 

proposal from a Muslim group 

to build a Muslim cemetery. 

Muslim community leaders 

were dejected not just by the 

decision but what they heard at 

the meeting. 

The proposal was rejected 

despite the fact that the city 

planning officials found few 

problems with it. 

“What I heard here was that 

we are Americans and have 

rights, but we as Muslims do 

not have the right to bury our 

dead,” said Nazir Cheema, a 

decades-long Rock Hill resident 

and leader of the effort 

to build the cemetery told 

the Independent Mail. “If this 

cemetery did not have the word 

Muslim, it would have been different. 

Are we not Americans? 

Do we not love America? Yes, 

we do.” 

“I was born here in Rock Hill, 

raised here, live here, and will 

die here, but apparently I can’t 

be buried here,” said James 

“Jumah” Moore, executive director 

of the Islamic Center. “It 

hurts me that my city would not 

see us as equals.” 

“I am not discouraged,” said 

Moore the executive director. 

“When we wanted to build our 

mosque we had many, many 

times we had to go through 

this. We will have a cemetery.” 

Iftikhar Ahmad 

named Citizen 

of the Year 

METAIRIE,LA--The Rotary 

Club of Metairie named 

Iftikhar Ahmad as the citizen of 

year at its awards night. Ahmad 

is the director of aviation at 

Louis Armstrong New Orleans 

International Airport. 

Ahmad is widely credited for 

the many improvements he has 

brought to the airport in his five 

year tenure. 

“We think Mr. Ahmad is 

the perfect recipient of our 

Citizen of the Year Award,” 

said President Joey Nieto of 

the Rotary Club of Metairie. 

“His hard work and dedication 

has improved the operations 

and financial condition of the 

Airport with a high level of 

transparency.” 

Project 

Downtown 

serves needy 

GAINESVILLE,FL--Project 

Downtown Gainesville, a not 

for profit organization, provided 

meals to the needy during 

the last ten days of Ramadhan. 

The organization has been in 

operation since 2007 and its 

operations are largely funded 

by local mosques. It also provides 

hot meals every week 

throughout the year, according 

to WUFT News Radio. 

Project Downtown also 

helps people reunite with family 

members, provided temporary 

housing and helped people 

find jobs. 

Project Downtown was 

awarded the 2015 E.T. York 

Work of Heart Award as an outstanding 

nonprofit group on 

July 10. 

Dr. Noureen 

Khan tenure 

DALLAS,TX-- Dr. Noureen 

Khan, a professor of mathematics 

at University of North Texas, 

has attained full tenure at her 

university. She has an impressive 

academic record of teaching 

and research. 

Khan earned her M.S. and 

Ph.D. from the University of 

Texas at Dallas. Prior to coming 

to UNT Dallas, Dr. Khan 

served as a graduate teaching 

assistant at the University 

of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Khan 

is described as a teacher who 

comes to class prepared, uses 

multimedia technology effectively 

and engages her students 

in the learning process. She is 

very supportive of the online 

teaching initiative and has developed 

both hybrid and online 

courses. 

Since coming to UNT Dallas, 

Dr. Khan has seven refereed 

publications, two papers under 

review in peer-reviewed journals 

and has presented as keynote 

speaker and session panelist 

two conferences and has 

presented at eleven national 

and international conferences. 

Dr. Khan has been principal 

investigator for five 

grants to include the National 

Research Experience for 

Undergraduate Program, 

Mathematical Association of 

America, National Science 

Foundation, National Security 

Agency, College and Career 

Readiness Initiative Faculty 

Collaboration in Mathematics, 

and the Mathematics Research 

Communities Scholars Award. 

Dr. Khan is currently the faculty 

advisor to the Mathematics 

Club on campus and has served 

on many committees and councils 

on campus.

international 


Turkey denies turning blind eye to Islamic State as 

bombing stokes anger 

By Mehmet Emin Caliskan 

SURUC, Turkey (Reuters) 

- Prime Minister Ahmet 

Davutoglu rejected accusations 

Turkey had in the past tacitly 

supported Islamic State militants 

operating from Syria and 

had unwittingly opened the 

door to a suicide bombing that 

killed at least 32 people. 

The blast on Monday tore 

through a group of universityaged 

students from an activist 

group as they gathered in the 

border town of Suruc ahead of 

a planned trip to help rebuild 

the nearby Syrian Kurdish town 

of Kobani. 

Kobani has come under repeated 

assault from Islamic 

State and been a rallying point 

for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, 

who have been enraged by 

what they see as the refusal of 

President Tayyip Erdogan and 

the ruling AK Party to intervene 

in a conflict played out within 

clear sight of Turkish military 

positions. 

Thousands of foreign fighters 

have crossed through 

Turkey to join Islamic State 

over the past few years, fuelling 

accusations from the government’s 

opponents that it is 

turning a blind eye. 

The United States and other 

Western allies have also urged 

Turkey, a NATO member which 

shares a 900 km (560-mile) 

border with Syria, to do more to 

tighten security on the frontier. 

“Turkey and AK Party governments 

have never had any 

direct or indirect links with any 

terrorist group and have never 

showed tolerance to any terrorist 

group,” Davutoglu told 

reporters in Sanliurfa province, 

where Suruc is located. 

Authorities have carried out 

a string of raids in recent weeks 

to arrest Islamic State suspects. 

They have also blocked more 

than half a dozen Islamist news 

websites, prompting one group 

claiming allegiance to Islamic 

State to accuse Turkey of persecuting 

Muslims and declare: 

“Muslims might retaliate.” 

Anger among Kurds and 

their sympathizers has boiled 

over since the attack at Suruc 

(pronounced soo-ROOCH). 

Many of those killed were 

young Alevis, a minority community 

whose faith is a distinct 

branch of Islam, and who were 

politicized during anti-government 

protests in 2013, according 

to one survivor. 

“They were living in more 

comfortable conditions in 

Turkey’s West but had consciences 

and wanted to help the 

people of Kobani,” said Akdag, 

36, who traveled to Suruc to 

perform a play for refugees 

from Kobani. He escaped the 

bombing unhurt. 

“We wanted to bring art, aid, 

toys. We weren’t going to wage 

war.” 

The Kurdistan Workers Party 

(PKK) militant group, which 

has waged a three-decade insurgency 

against the Turkish 

state, said the AKP bore responsibility 

for the bombing, accusing 

it of backing Islamic State 

against Syria’s Kurds. 

In Istanbul, police fired tear 

gas and water cannon late on 

Monday at protesters chanting 

“Murderer Islamic State, collaborator 

Erdogan and AKP.” At 

a similar protest in the southern 

port city of Mersin an attacker 

opened fire, wounding 

two people, local media said. 

Pro-government media accused 

the Peoples’ Democratic 

Party (HDP), which draws 

most of its support from Kurds, 

of seeking to exploit the Suruc 

attack by provoking Kurds to 

take up arms, an accusation 

its leader Selahattin Demirtas 

denied. 

He told reporters it was 

“shameful” that his call to 

tighten security at HDP buildings 

after the “inhumane and 

Demonstrators burn tyres to block a street during protests against Monday’s bomb attack in 

Suruc, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, July 21. Sertac Kayar / Reuters 

barbarous massacre” had been 

portrayed as a “call to arms”. 

“No matter how much they 

attack, without fuelling hatred 

and anger against each other, 

we will cultivate brotherhood 

and live in peace in this country,” 

Demirtas said ahead of 

a party meeting in the capital 

Ankara. 

There was a flurry of attacks 

overnight by Kurdish militants, 

although there was no immediate 

evidence they were linked 

to the bombing. 

The Turkish armed forces 

reported two attacks against its 

soldiers in the east on Monday 

night. In Igdir province, PKK 

militants closed a highway and 

opened fire on security forces, 

while in the town of Cizre, 

masked attackers threw homemade 

explosives at a barracks 

and opened fire with rifles. 

Separately, gunmen opened 

fire on a police station in the 

Sultangazi district of Istanbul 

early on Tuesday. Nobody 

was hurt and it was not clear 

whether there was link to 

Suruc, although the pro-government 

Yeni Safak newspaper 

said a leftist group sympathetic 

to Kurds had claimed 

responsibility. 

The identity of the Suruc 

bomber has not yet been revealed 

but some media reports 

said a man from the southeastern 

province of Adiyaman was 

a prime suspect. Davutoglu 

said a suspect had been identified 

and his links were being 

investigated. 

Moscow becoming Europe’s largest Muslim city 

OnIslam & News Agencies 

MOSCOW - Though turning 

more hostile to Muslims, 

Moscow has witnessed major 

Èid Al-Fitr prayer in which 

more than 60,000 gathered for 

prayers at the golden-domed 

Sobornaya mosque despite the 

bewildered and scared faces of 

passersby and baton-wielding 

police officers around them. 

“You want to pray at a 

mosque, you have to enter 

a cage,” Murad Abdullaev, 

a full-bearded 29-year-old 

from Derbent, Russia’s southernmost 

city in the restive 

province of Dagestan, told Al 

Jazeera. 

“You pray at work, you get 

reprimanded, but when your 

colleagues show up hungover 

or take long cigarette breaks, 

it’s OK,” he said describing his 

colleagues at a construction 

company in southern Moscow. 

In a scene that became normal 

over the past few years, 

thousands of Muslims gathered 

on Saturday morning, 

chanting “God is great!” 

They bent, knelt, and prostrated 

in front of the goldendomed 

Sobornaya mosque in 

Moscow’s main square and five 

temporarily blocked streets. 

An additional 180,000 gathering 

at five other mosques 

and three dozen temporary 

sites in Moscow and the greater 

Moscow region, to mark the 

end of this year’s holy month 

of Ramadan, police said. 

Each person had to pass 

through a metal detector and 

undergo an identification 

check. 

Nevertheless, some 

Muscovites appeared unhappy 

about the scene, though the 

prayer was held in the early 

hours of the day. 

“Again, [some] streets are 

full of praying people, again 

the adjoining streets are 

blocked, [there are] tensions 

with police,” popular blogger 

Ilya Varlamov wrote. 

“For many years, this has 

been the picture in Moscow 

twice a year. And each time, 

everyone is surprised,” the 

blogger said. 

Unwelcome 

In Moscow, Muslims, either 

Russian-born or immigrant, 

secular or practicing, don’t 

feel welcome. 

With only six mosques in 

the large city, attempts to 

build new ones have been met 

with protests, rallies, and direct 

government opposition. 

There are only two halal 

hotels in the city that sees 

millions of visitors a year. 

The city’s only Muslim gym 

and health clinic closed down 

shortly after opening. 

Despite the large number 

of Muslim population in the 

city, there are only a handful 

of Muslim kindergartens or 

schools. 

“They are far to get to and 

there are too few of them,” 

Jannat Babakhanova of 

Limpopo, a small network of 

Muslim kindergartens, told Al 

Jazeera. 

Muslims form the fastest 

growing and most ethnically 

diverse sector of Moscow’s 

population. 

With an official population 

of 12.5 million, Russia’s 

capital is now home to at least 

1.5 million Muslims, according 

to political analyst Alexei 

Malashenko. 

“Moscow is slowly adapting 

to being Europe’s largest 

Muslim city, and Muslims 

are gradually adapting to it,” 

Malashenko told Al Jazeera. 

The presence of Muslims in 

Moscow prompted large number 

of reverts to Islam among 

ethnic Russians. 

“I hear many compliments 

about how I am dressed 

and how beautiful it looks,” 

Anastasiya Korchagina, who 

changed her first name to 

Aisha after reverting to Islam 

five years ago said. 

“I’ve never faced bad attitude. 

It’s just not there.”


U.N. envoy sounds 

alarm over battle at 

Syria border 

By Sylvia Westall 

and Suleiman al-Khalidi 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The 

United Nations envoy for Syria 

said government air strikes 

had caused widespread death 

and destruction in the city of 

Zabadani, the focus of an offensive 

by the army and its 

Hezbollah allies to retake the 

area from insurgents. 

Staffan de Mistura, citing local 

sources, said the Syrian military 

had dropped a large number 

of barrel bombs on Zabadani 

“causing unprecedented levels 

of destruction and many deaths 

among the civilian population”. 

Control of the city, about 45 

km (30 miles) northwest of the 

capital Damascus and about 10 

km from the border with Turkey, 

is seen as crucial to consolidating 

President Bashar al-Assad’s 

control over the border zone between 

Lebanon and Syria. 

Fierce clashes continued 

overnight in the Zabadani area, 

with heavy aerial bombardments 

in and around the city 

and reports of casualties on both 

sides, the Syrian Observatory 

for Human Rights monitoring 

group said on Wednesday. It 

gave no detailed figures. 

Syrian state television said 

the army had destroyed a 70 

meter-long (77 yards) tunnel 

(Continued from page 1) 

With attendance expected 

to be high, the festival organizers 

are urging those who want 

to join in the food and fun to 

buy their tickets ahead of time, 

preferably online where they 

will receive discounted rates. 

For more information or to 

used by the insurgents to transport 

equipment into Zabadani. 

The Syrian air force has 

been bombarding areas in and 

around the city and Sunni insurgents 

have retaliated by firing 

rockets and mortar bombs 

on two villages near Idlib city 

in the north, the U.N. envoy de 

Mistura said. 

An alliance of insurgents 

known as the “Army of Fatah” 

(Islamic Conquest) had targeted 

Al Foua and Kefraya, northern 

villages where a large number 

of civilians are trapped, he 

said. 

“In both cases, civilians are 

tragically caught in the middle 

of the fighting,” he said. 

Al Foua and Kefraya are 

home to Shi’ite populations. 

Earlier this week the Syrian 

army backed by the Lebanese 

Hezbollah advanced deeper 

into Zabadani, two weeks into 

a campaign to capture it from 

insurgents, rebels and the army 

said. 

Rebels say although the 

army had now encircled the insurgents 

holed up within a five 

square km radius inside the city 

center and cut arms and food 

supplies from nearby towns, 

they had so far prevented the 

army and Hezbollah fighters 

from storming their defense 

lines in street fighting. 

Michigan’s tasty 

Halal Fest 

by tickets log on to www.halalfestmichigan.com. 

Tickets 

are $5 per person and children 

under 7 are admitted for 

free. A family of five entry fee 

is $15, however this discount 

is only available online. Fullprice 

admission can be purchased 

at the door on the day 

of the event. 

international / continuation 

British actress inspired by 

Prophet’s life 

By Myriam Francois-Cerrah 

By Reading Islam Staff 

I embraced Islam after graduating 

from Cambridge. 

Prior to that I was a skeptical 

Catholic; a believer in God but 

with a mistrust of organized 

religion. 

The Quran was pivotal for 

me. I first tried to approach it in 

anger, as part of an attempt to 

prove my Muslim friend wrong. 

Later I began reading it with a 

more open mind. 

The opening of Al Fatiha, 

with its address to the whole 

of mankind, psychologically 

stopped me in my tracks. It 

spoke of previous scriptures in 

a way which I both recognized, 

but also differed. It clarified 

many of the doubts I had about 

Christianity. It made me an 

adult as I suddenly realized that 

my destiny and my actions had 

consequences for which I alone 

would now be held responsible. 

In a world governed by relativism, 

it outlined objective 

moral truths and the foundation 

of morality. As someone 

who’d always had a keen interest 

in philosophy, the Quran 

felt like the culmination of all 

of this philosophical cogitation. 

It combined Kant, Hume, 

Sartre and Aristotle. It somehow 

managed to address and 

answer the deep philosophical 

questions posed over centuries 

of human existence and answer 

its most fundamental one, ‘why 

are we here?’ 

In the Prophet Muhammad, 

I recognized a man who was 

tasked with a momentous mission, 

like his predecessors, 

Moses, Jesus and Abraham. 

I had to pick apart much of 

the Orientalist libel surrounding 

him in order to obtain accurate 

information, since the 

historical relativism which 

people apply to some degree 

when studying other historical 

figures, is often completely absent, 

in what is a clear attempt 

to disparage his person. 

I think many of my close 

friends thought I was going 

Myriam Francois-Cerrah 

through another phase and 

would emerge from the other 

side unscathed, not realizing 

that the change was much 

more profound. Some of my 

closest friends did their best to 

support me and understand my 

decisions. I have remained very 

close to some of my childhood 

friends and through them I recognize 

the universality of the 

Divine message, as God’s values 

shine through in the good 

deeds any human does, Muslim 

or not. 

I have never seen my conversion 

as a ‘reaction’ against, 

or an opposition to my culture. 

In contrast, it was a validation 

of what I’ve always thought 

was praiseworthy, whilst being 

a guidance for areas in need 

of improvement. I also found 

many mosques not particularly 

welcoming and found the rules 

and protocol confusing and 

stressful. I did not immediately 

identify with the Muslim community. 

I found many things 

odd and many attitudes perplexing. 

The attention given to 

the outward over the inward 

continues to trouble me deeply. 

There is a need for a confident, 

articulate British Muslim 

identity which can contribute 

to the discussions of our time. 

Islam is not meant to be an 

alien religion, we shouldn’t feel 

like we’ve lost all trace of ourselves. 

Islam is a validation of 

the good in us and a means to 

rectify the bad. 

Islam is about always having 

balance and I think the 

Prophet’s (peace be upon him) 

message was fundamentally 

about having balance and equilibrium 

in all that we do. 

The Prophet’s message was 

always that you repel bad with 

good that you always respond 

to evil with good and always 

remember that God loves justice 

so even when people are 

committing serious injustices 

against you, you have a moral 

responsibility and a moral obligation 

in front of God to always 

uphold justice and never yourself 

transgress those limits. 

Prophet Muhammad (peace 

be upon him) said: ‘Forgive him 

who wrongs you. Join him who 

cuts you off. Do good to him 

who does evil to you and speak 

the truth even if it be against 

yourself.’ 

Islam’s beauty really becomes 

to its own when it becomes 

manifest and it becomes 

manifest when you make it 

into a tool for the betterment 

of society, human kind and the 

world. 

The ideal from an Islamic 

perspective is for ethics to become 

lived ethics, to become an 

applied body of values and not 

remain unfortunately as it often 

is cloistered in the mosque 

of somewhere which is some 

more divorced from reality. 

Myriam Francois-Cerrah 

became popular when she was 

a child for acting in the 90’s 

hit film ‘Sense and Sensibility.’ 

Now she is gaining more popularity 

for being one of a growing 

number of educated middle 

class female converts to Islam 

in Britain. 

Rabbi and Muslim team up to 

give Jews home of their own 


not really affiliated with the rest 

of the Jewish community. He 

was asked to come to Michigan 

to create something for these 

people to come together and 

get back to their Jewish roots. 

Rabbi Susskind and his family 

left their home in New York 

and came to Michigan. They began 

at a grass roots level, with 

people only knowing about this 

new religious group by word 

of mouth. At this entry level 

came a lack of funds, so Rabbi 

Susskind was finding difficulty 

in trying to find a location to 

host the up and coming group. 

They were meeting at coffee 

shops, but he knew they needed 

a place to call home. 

At a State of The City 

Address, Rabbi Susskind was 

asked to give the vocation 

speech. He forgot to secure himself 

a seat and as he walked off 

the stage, he was conspicuously 

trying to find a place to sit. A 

man named Dr. Hafeez Shaikh 

noticed him and gestured that 

he had an available seat. Rabbi 

Susskind thanked him and 

they struck up a conversation 

in which the rabbi mentioned 

his recent move to Michigan 

and efforts in trying to find a 

location for his congregation. 

Dr. Shaikh mentioned that he 

owned a building with available 

spaces that he would offer 

to the newly formed Jewish 

group, free of charge. “This was 

just one of the elements that 

struck me, and was just a sign 

of pure kindness from someone 

who is Muslim and devoted to 

his faith. I’ve seen that kindness 

in his faith, and I truly admire 

that greatly,” Rabbi Susskind 

told The Muslim Observer. 

Rabbi Susskind followed up, 

and thought it was a great location, 

specifically because they 

are a group of Orthodox Jews. 

Orthodox Jews cannot drive on 

the Sabbath, the Jewish holy 

day, and the location was in 

walking distance. “From there 

we really developed a friendship 

that I truly cherish very 

much,” said Rabbi Susskind. 

A decade later, Rabbi 

Susskind now refers to this 

building as their “Maintree” 

location, and is used for things 

like hosting special events for 

the kids on the weekends, and 

Jewish holiday events such as 

the Purim Party. The Purim 

Party is celebrating one of the 

Jewish holidays where the focus 

is all about sharing and experiencing 

joy. One of the traditions 

of the holiday is to share 

food baskets and to really just 

do anything that brings joy to 

others. One of the ways to share 

joy is to dress up and have fun. 

Rabbi Susskind said that for 

a very long time he felt something 

within him that lead to 

want to share his education 

with others, and to help enrich 

people lives. He wanted 

the fulfilling and accomplishing 

feeling that came with doing 

God’s work. “Obviously I’m 

from a Jewish background and 

Dr. Shaikh is from a Muslim 

background, and we learn from 

each other and share ideas. It 

has definitely has been an enriching 

experience for both us,” 

Rabbi Susskind said. 

“I think if there’s a takeaway 

from the story, it’s that there is 

a beauty in each of our faiths 

that we can all learn from and 

benefit,” said Rabbi Susskind.

opinion 

The Muslim Observer — July 24 - 30 — Shawwal 8 - 14, 1436 — 15 

Raising 

Our Ummah 

Nadirah Angail 

I want my kids to 

have great sex 

“My parents never said a 

thing to me about sex,” she 

told me. And when I say “she,” 

I’m referring to nearly every 

Muslim woman I’ve talked to 

on this matter. It’s a crazy environment 

we Muslim parents 

create when we say nothing of 

sex to our children other than 

the standard, “Don’t do it until 

you’re married!” I wish it were 

that easy, to just deliver that 

one line and let everything else 

seamlessly fall into place. But 

the reality is that, without basic 

information on sexual intimacy 

and little to no male-female 

contact before marriage, couples 

are having trouble creating 

an ideal, comfortable sexual 

relationship. 

So now that I have my own 

children (who are still too 

young for detailed conversations 

on sex), I’m thinking up 

my strategy for how we (hubby 

and I) will facilitate the type of 

environment where we can talk 

to them in a way that will allow 

them to have a different experience. 

Because the truth is this: 

I want my kids to have a great 

sex life! I really do. Once they 

are married and in a beautiful 

relationship that is pleasing 

to Allah (swt), I want them to 

take full advantage of the blessings 

that await them. But they 

can’t do that if they’re trying 

to drown out the subconscious 

“Sex is bad” tape that’s been 

playing in their heads since puberty 

hit. They can’t do that if 

they know nothing of the importance 

(or definition) of foreplay. 

They can’t do that if their 

lacking, rudimentary sex education 

was provided by HBO, 

Cinemax and “empowered” female 

pop stars. 

Do we think our kids live in 

a bubble, one that shields them 

from the oversexed, undernourished 

ideas of masculinity 

and femininity? Do we think 

we won’t find our daughters 

teetering between the “I must 

never be sexy” and “I must always 

be sexy” messages they 

receive? Do we think we won’t 

find our sons struggling to 

learn how to relate to and approach 

their wives when they 

were never told about the intricacies 

and sensibilities of a 

woman? 

I’ve talked to married 

Muslim women who complain 

their husbands are so distant, 

and I’ve talked to women who 

feel distant themselves—separated 

from an act that they still 

haven’t gotten comfortable 

with years into their marriage. 

It’s unfortunate because sex 

should be a glue that binds couples 

together. It shouldn’t be an 

awkward point of contention 

that no one wants to address 

head on. 

So what does that mean for 

my children? Right now, not 

much. But in a few years, we’ll 

begin our talks. We have to. 

What other option do I have? 

Let society teach them about 

sex? Let my daughter learn that 

she should be a sex kitten, an 

empty shell? Let me son learn 

that he should be an overpowering 

brute? Nah, I’ll pass. 

If things go according to 

plan, there will be no birds-andthe-bees 

talk in my house. This 

can’t be summed up in a onetime 

conversation. We need an 

informal, ongoing discussion 

that allows them to approach 

marriage feeling prepared. But 

what I do do now is allow them 

to see that their father and I like 

each other. We laugh, we talk, 

we hold hands, we play fight. 

That’s important. We’re providing 

a visual example for what 

lawful male-female interaction 

should look like. So many 

Muslim children don’t get that. 

They’re constantly told never to 

mingle, never to intermix. And 

their parents hardly like each 

other. So how, then, is a young 

man to learn how to be soft and 

considerate? And how, then, 

is a young woman to learn to 

be attentive and appreciative? 

These things don’t just materialize 

on wedding nights. They 

don’t magically spring forth 

from some shadowy region 

in the brain. We, the parents, 

have to plant it. 

Our children have to learn 

that not only is it okay for 

them to be around each other 

(in a halal setting), but it is a 

good thing that they have such 

desires. In this day and age, 

Muslim parents need to be giving 

each other hi-fives when 

they see that their children 

are interested in the opposite 

sex. Of course, we don’t want 

to encourage fornication, but 

let’s not forget that Allah has 

made the male for the female 

and the female for the male. 

So if our daughters like boys 

and our sons like girls, that’s 

a good thing. It’s a sign that 

they are developing as Allah 

(swt) has intended. So our job 

is not to yell “laa,” but instead 

to teach them how to deal with 

their feelings and what is and 

isn’t okay. But for now, my kids 

are just 4 and 6, so my only 

goal is getting them to close 

the door when they use the 

bathroom. 

Editor’s Note: Nadirah Angail 

is a family therapist turned 

blogger from Kansas City, Mo. 

In 2006, she began working as 

a therapist with a wide variety 

of families and couples. She has 

self-published two books and 

enjoys writing. The views expressed 

here are her own.


opinion 

The Last 

Moghul 

Haroon Moghul 

Captain Picard and 

the black body 

Every so often, I pass some 

place in New York, whether it 

be a museum or a memorial, 

and find myself falling in love 

with the city all over again. 

There are so many wonderful 

things to do here! If I didn’t live 

here, I think, I might even be 

able to afford to do them. One 

of the casualties of my Brooklyn 

life is a dear passion: Books. 

Long ago I planned on having 

an impressive library. Not 

only do books represent more 

money than I can spend, but 

they also take up more space 

than I can pay for. So now I 

borrow and only buy books if 

I know I will go back to them 

again. Since we’re just past 

the halfway point of the year, I 

thought it a good opportunity 

to share what those rare books 

are. 

Four of 2015’s books that 

should be on your bookshelf. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates, 

Between the World 

and Me 

A longform letter to his 

15 year-old son, Between the 

World and Me is a moving, overwhelming, 

infurating, amazing 

narrative of intellectual development, 

written with physical 

force. He didn’t write this. He 

punched it into the keyboard. 

For those of us who work 

hard to explain bigotry, prejudice 

and racism to Americans 

with no experience of it, 

Coates’ narrative rings deeply 

true—even as, in its exploration 

of blackness in America, it 

challenges us to confront some 

of America’s ugliest histories. 

Most painful of all is perhaps 

Coates’ refusal to comfort his 

son after the death of Mike 

Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. 

He needs his son to know 

that it may not be okay. It will 

not be okay. It has not been 

okay. 

Certain books become part 

of us, not just because of what 

they say but also because of 

when we read them; for me, 

these were Malcolm X’s autobiography, 

Alija Izetbegovic’s 

Islam Between East and 

West, and Muhammad Iqbal’s 

Reconstruction of Religious 

Thought in Islam. This book 

will serve that function for 

generations to come: Kick start 

that process by making sure 

it’s on bookshelves of young 

Muslims now. 

I’m now reading the book for 

a second time. I almost never 

do that. 

Matthew B. Crawford, 

The World Beyond Your 

Head: On Becoming 

An Individual in an 

Age of Distraction 

Where Coates discusses the 

body, Crawford moves us to the 

mind. 

We have become so fragmented, 

Crawford argues, that 

we cannot even act as individuals—we 

find it hard to sustain 

long-term projects or pursuits, 

overwhelmed by a deluge of 

distraction none of us asked for 

but none of us can escape from. 

Contrasting the cacophony of 

the general airport lounge with 

a business-class lounge experience, 

Crawford politicizes our 

attentional deficit and attends 

to a radical reshaping of the 

self. 

Read alongside Coates’ 

book, we can see how injustice 

reproduces itself. Positing 

that those who have become 

wealthy from social media have 

done it by seizing control of our 

attention, using our minds as 

resources, Crawford suggests 

that silicon valley wealth is not 

the creation of wealth so much 

as the capture of resources— 

except the resource is your own 

head, your mind, your ability to 

focus on the world and act in a 

principled and purposeful fashion 

in it. 

“Genuine agency,” Crawford 

writes, “arises not in the context 

of mere choices freely made 

(as in shopping) but rather, 

somewhat paradoxically, in the 

context of submission to things 

that have their own intractable 

ways, whether the thing be a 

musical instrument, a garden, 

or the building of a bridge.” 

Or religion, or community, 

or deity? You may not disagree 

with his analysis of the cause, 

nor prescription as cure, but 

you will finally find an explanation 

for the general frustration 

and anxiety of our every 

day life. I for one should like 

to see those words on the walls 

of mosques. Even as I lament 

the fact that it is not a Muslim 

thinker who has more beautifully 

articulated Islam—however 

inadvertently—than most 

Muslims can. 

Masha Gessen, The 

Brothers: The Road to 

An American Tragedy 

What happens when a fearless 

journalist applies her rigorous 

methods on us, not as 

individuals but as a country, as 

bearers and promoters of a singular 

and allegedly incomparable 

American dream? Gessen 

leads us up to the Boston bombing—but 

afterwards jumps (it 

is jarring at first) to describe 

the great faults and flaws in our 

war on terror generally. It takes 

us a moment to reorient ourselves: 

Why are we focused less 

on the criminals, and more on 

the crime? 

This is a study of America’s 

experience, definition and 

prosecution of terrorism, as 

only someone from without 

can see it—who has applied 

herself to an external object 

with the detachment we have 

given up expecting from many 

of our journalists. Gessen is 

concerned with the mythologies 

that undergird our war 

on terror, and have made it, to 

a great degree, an exercise in 

self-deception and therefore 

self-defeat. 

“In the wake of the bombing,” 

Gessen writes, “both law 

enforcement and the American 

press corps focused their efforts 

on finding out who radicalized 

Tamerlan or both of the 

Tsarnaev brothes, and when 

and where.’ 

Gessen continues: “The possibility 

that their actions were 

driven by simple ideas acquired 

without any concerted outside 

help, that … Tamerlan simply 

objected to U.S. foreign policy 

… this terrifyingly simple 

idea was never on the table.” 

Or, more catastrophically: 

‘Radicalization’ keeps happening, 

because we seem unable to 

accept that people might turn 

to violence to express their opposition 

to violence. 

Which is so hard to come to 

terms with that we blame instead 

Islam, or Muslim culture, 

for an inherent proclivity to 

violence, rather than see what 

is actually happening. It is too 

hard, apparently—it is asking 

too much of us—to expect the 

Muslim mind to behave like 

a white mind. For all Coates’ 

valuable insight into the control, 

disciplining—I thought of 

Foucault—and brutalization 

of bodies, let us reflect here on 

“reason.” 

It is something we are 

assumed not to possess. 

Therefore, because our minds 

are defective—how dare those 

Muslims respond to violence 

with violence, only we can!— 

so our bodies are free to be 

targeted, tortured, droned, destroyed. 

There is a reason there 

is no real definition of terrorism. 

It would prove the civilizer 

has no clothes. 

Chris Impey, Beyond: 

Our Future in Space 

I grew up on Star Trek, and 

loved it dearly. Though I took 

issue with the series’ inability 

to deal intelligently with 

religion—speaking to a deeper 

shortcoming of the progressive 

culture many Muslims 

find so amenable in other respects—I 

was deeply inspired 

by its vision, its inclusion, 

its generosity, and believe it 

speaks to America too. Gene 

Roddenberry, after all, was an 

American, whose 24th century 

Captain Picard appeared 

to be a socialist philosopherking 

dispatched on behalf of 

a Communist Federation of 

Planets. The new meaning of 

red-shirt. 

You read it here first. 

In Star Trek, humanity used 

technology to better itself, to 

reach out and explore, within 

and without—not to replace 

and displace itself. Recently, 

though, I’d lost hope that that 

future, that any such future, 

might be available to us. We 

seemed more interested in denying 

climate change, letting 

our infrastructure going to 

waste and flushing hundreds of 

billions down war of terror toilets. 

But Impey’s book made me 

a believer again, if cautiously. 

By describing the great 

minds once again pushing the 

envelope for America, the industries 

and ideas that can 

take humanity to the final frontier—and 

what it might look 

like when get there—we have a 

book that gives us hope in the 

future, or at least hope that one 

kind of American dream is not 

the only kind. 

“We created you,” God says, 

“in nations and tribes… that 

you may know another.” The 

principal benefit to difference 

is its ability to present contrast, 

without which we should not be 

able to see—literally, of course, 

but philosophically and spiritually 

as well. By stretching our 

capacity to imagine alternate 

worlds, we are convinced that 

where we are now is not necessarily 

where we were before, 

and where we are headed next 

Photo credit: Photodune 

is not the only destination we 

must travel with. 

Boldly go, or boldly stay. But 

do so on some basis beyond the 

whims and whirrings of your 

mind, something that can compel 

or persuade another mind— 

there is no greater homage to 

our common nature, no better 

underlining of Islam’s fundamentally 

humanistic bent, no 

deeper gesture to universalism 

that is really and actually universalism, 

not the wishful and 

therefore necessarily violent 

subjugation of the other. 

Editor’s Note: Haroon 

Moghul is the author of “The 

Order of Light” and “My First 

Police State.” His memoir, “How 

to be Muslim”, is due in 2016. 

He’s a doctoral candidate at 

Columbia University, formerly 

a Fellow at the New America 

Foundation and the Center on 

National Security at Fordham 

Law School, and a member 

of the Multicultural Audience 

Development Initiative at New 

York’s Metropolitan Museum of 

Art. Connect with Haroon on 

twitter @hsmoghul. The views 

expressed here are his own.

international 

A Muslim boy is seen during a prayer session to celebrate Eid al-Fitr at the Santa Maria La 

Antigua University car park in Panama City July 18, 2015. Carlos Jasso / Reuters 

International newsbriefs 

Greece submits 

bill to start 

rescue talks 

The Greek government submitted 

legislation to parliament 

on Tuesday required by 

its international lenders to start 

talks on a multi-billion euro 

rescue package. 

U.S. ‘disturbed’ 

by Iranian 

criticism 

DUBAI (Reuters) - The 

United States said on Tuesday it 

was disturbed by anti-U.S. hostility 

voiced by Iran’s top leader 

after a nuclear deal, as both 

countries’ top diplomats sought 

to calm opposition to the accord 

from hardliners at home. 

Iraqis launch 

offensive 

against ISIL 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi 

security forces and Sunni tribal 

fighters launched an offensive 

to dislodge Islamic State militants 

near the western outpost 

of Haditha in a bid to secure a 

key supply route to an important 

military base, police and 

tribal sources said. 

Two killed in 

Burundi vote 

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - A 

policeman and an opposition 

official died in violence marring 

the start of Burundi’s presidential 

election on Tuesday, held 

amid protests over President 

Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to 

run for a third term and an opposition 

boycott. 

Prosecutor 

wants to close 

Arafat inquiry 

PARIS (Reuters) - A French 

prosecutor recommended on 

Tuesday the closing of an investigation 

into the death in France 

of former Palestinian leader 

Yasser Arafat, whose widow alleged 

he was poisoned. 

Turkey denies 

turning blind 

eye to ISIL 

SURUC, Turkey (Reuters) 

- Prime Minister Ahmet 

Davutoglu rejected accusations 

Turkey had in the past tacitly 

supported Islamic State militants 

operating from Syria and 

had unwittingly opened the 

door to a suicide bombing that 

killed at least 32 people. 

Zimbabwean 

women flock to 

border trade 

MUTARE, Zimbabwe 

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) 

- After her husband died in 

2011, Theresa Matanda looked 

for a job in Zimbabwe’s capital, 

Harare, but with no success 

despite being a qualified 

accountant. 

Nigerians flee 

Boko Haram 

attacks 

LONDON (Thomson Reuters 

Foundation) - The conflict between 

Boko Haram and the 

Nigerian government is displacing 

thousands on both 

sides of the country’s border 

with Cameroon to the northeast 

and Niger to the north, the 

U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) 

said on Tuesday. 

Tanzania 

refugee camps 

tense 

LONDON (Thomson Reuters 

Foundation) - Tanzanian refugee 

camps and relief workers, 

struggling to help tens of thousands 

of Burundian refugees, 

fear a new wave may pour 

across the border because of 

the violence that hit Burundi’s 

presidential election on 

Tuesday, aid agencies said. 

Germanwings 

crash families 

call for apology 

BERLIN (Reuters) - The 

families of 18 schoolchildren 

and teachers killed in the 

Germanwings crash have called 

for an apology from the head 

of Lufthansa, saying their children 

might still be alive if the 

airline’s doctors had paid more 

attention to the pilot’s health. 


My prayer: Iran deal 

will help millennials 

bridge divide 

By Serene Jones 

Religion News Services 

I woke up Tuesday (July 14) 

to buzz after buzz on my phone 

— texts flooding in from young 

Iranians I had met in June, celebrating 

the historic nuclear 

agreement that had just been 

announced. 

Only a few weeks have 

passed since I visited Iran with 

a select interfaith U.S. delegation, 

where we worked to break 

down the cultural and religious 

barriers that separate us and 

Iran. 

I am hopeful that this deal 

will empower many of the brilliant 

young leaders in Iran to 

steer their country to a better, 

more inclusive place. 

When many Americans 

think of Iran, they generally 

envision conservative Muslim 

religious and political leaders 

who articulate a strict and 

unyielding adherence to their 

version of the teachings of the 

Quran. 

This appearance of religious 

conservatism leaves the impression 

that the people of Iran 

fully subscribe to the religious 

and political beliefs of their nation’s 

leaders. 

However, as I came to know 

the Iranian people, particularly 

Iranian millennials, what 

I experienced was strikingly 

similar to my day-to-day interactions 

with Americans, especially 

students here at Union 

Theological Seminary in New 

York. 

From the streets of Tehran to 

the bazaars of Isfahan, we met 

young people who would smile 

and hug us as Americans, and 

who were eager for conversations. 

It was as if cousins who 

hadn’t seen one another for 

decades were finally having a 

chance to sit down and share a 

meal. 

Like my students at Union, 

young Iranians have grown 

up with the Internet; thus, the 

world they are discovering 

feels much smaller and more 

interconnected. They listen to 

a lot of the same music that 

Americans do, watch a lot of 

the same shows on Netflix, do 

yoga, text constantly and seldom 

speak on the phone. 

They followed Occupy Wall 

Street, the Arab Spring and the 

#BlackLivesMatter movement, 

all while they are deeply suspicious 

of religious and political 

authorities as demonstrated 

through the 2009 Iranian 

Green Movement. 

As with U.S. millennials, this 

suspicion leads them to test the 

boundaries of the traditions 

they have received. One of the 

most obvious manifestations 

of this trend is the loosening 

of headscarves on the heads of 

young Iranian women. Those 

scarves barely hang on the tops 

of their ponytails as the young 

women walk the streets of even 

the most traditional cities. 

Iranian young people are 

more secular in their religiosity. 

They claim their Shia heritage 

and celebrate the major holidays, 

all the while questioning 

some of the traditional values 

espoused by the ayatollahs. 

Indeed, they question the 

very motives of the ayatollahs, 

wondering whether their 

teachings are rooted in the purest 

reading of the Quranic text, 

or if their doctrines are designed 

to maintain the ayatollahs’ 

status, wealth and power. 

Iranian youth share many of 

the same problems of American 

youths. Drug and alcohol abuse 

is rampant behind closed doors, 

we were told. Cosmetic surgery 

is as common in Iran as nearly 

anywhere in the world. Eating 

disorders and abuse of diet pills 

are even more common than in 

America. 

Over 60 percent of Iran’s 

population is under 30 years 

old, so young people’s relevance 

to the political and religious 

life of their country is 

growing quickly. That is one of 

the main reasons this deal gives 

me great hope. In the next 15 

years, Iran has a chance to 

flourish as a thriving, pluralistic 

state, strongly influenced by 

energized and active Iranian 

millennials. 

With the policy of mandatory 

conscription, Iranian millennials 

are transforming the 

national army. We may see 

changes in the military more 

quickly than we see changes 

more generally. 

Very little is certain about 

the future of Iran, but I applaud 

President Obama, Secretary of 

State John Kerry, the Iranian 

government and the five other 

involved nations for this deal. 

My prayer is that it will give the 

new generation the space to 

create a world where they can 

bridge the divides that have 

plagued our world for generations. 

May God bless them and 

carry them and us toward true 

freedom and peace. 

Editor’s note: Serene Jones is 

president of Union Theological 

Seminary and the Johnston 

Family Professor for Religion 

and Democracy. Her views are 

solely her own. 

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international 

Iran pushes nuclear deal as 

U.S. lawmaker aims to stop it 

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin 

Nouri and Richard Cowan 

DUBAI/WASHINGTON 

(Reuters) - Iran’s pragmatist 

government tried on 

Wednesday to sell its nuclear 

agreement with world powers 

to hardliners at home, just 

as a U.S. Congressional leader 

promised to do “everything 

possible” to sink the deal. 

With both Tehran and 

Washington facing stiff opposition 

to the accord, U.S. Defense 

Secretary Ash Carter arrived in 

Saudi Arabia in the hope of reassuring 

leaders there who fear 

their arch-rival Iran will make 

major mischief in the region. 

Last week’s agreement 

was a big success for both 

U.S. President Barack Obama 

and Iranian President Hassan 

Rouhani. But both have to promote 

it to influential hardliners 

in countries that have been enemies 

for decades. 

In Washington, the 

Republican speaker of the 

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House of Representatives, John 

Boehner, was deeply skeptical. 

“Members of Congress will 

ask much tougher questions 

this afternoon when we meet 

with the president’s team, and 

because a bad deal threatens 

the security of the American 

people, we’re going to do everything 

possible to stop it,” 

Boehner said. 

Secretary of State John 

Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack 

Lew and Energy Secretary 

Ernest Moniz were scheduled 

to hold briefings for lawmakers 

in the U.S. Capitol. House 

and Senate debates and votes 

to approve or reject the nuclear 

agreement are expected in 

September. 

A warm glow following the 

Vienna agreement - under 

which Iran accepted curbs on 

it nuclear program in return for 

an easing of sanctions that have 

crippled its economy - is fading. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 

the highest authority in Iran, 

told supporters on Saturday 

that U.S. policies in the region 

were “180 degrees” opposed 

to Tehran’s, in a speech punctuated 

by chants of “Death to 

America” and “Death to Israel”. 

The government that negotiated 

the deal also talked tough 

on Wednesday in an apparent 

attempt to blunt attacks from 

opponents, including in the 

powerful Republican Guards. 

Abbas Araqchi, a deputy foreign 

minister, said Iran would 

do “anything” to help allies in 

the Middle East, underlining 

Tehran’s message that the deal 

will not change its anti-Western 

foreign policy. 

Araqchi, Iran’s senior nuclear 

negotiator, also told a news 

conference that any attempt 

to re-impose sanctions after 

they expired in 10 years would 

breach the deal. 

He was referring to a resolution 

endorsing the deal passed 

by the United Nations Security 

Council on Monday. This allows 

all U.N. sanctions to be 

re-imposed if Iran violates the 

agreement in the next 10 years. 

If Iran adheres to the terms 

of the agreement - signed with 

the United States, Britain, 

China, France, Germany, Russia 

and the European Union - all 

the provisions and measures of 

the U.N. resolution would end 

in 10 years. 

However, the world powers 

told U.N. Secretary-General 

Ban Ki-moon earlier this month 

that after 10 years they planned 

to seek a five-year extension of 

the mechanism allowing sanctions 

to be re-imposed. 

Tehran’s support for regional 

allies, including Syrian 

President Bashar al-Assad, 

Houthi rebels in Yemen and 

the Lebanese Shi’ite militia 

Hezbollah, has alarmed Saudi 

Arabia, the leading Sunni power 

in the Middle East. 

But Carter said before his trip 

to meet Saudi King Salman that 

he aimed to discuss American 

strategy on countering “Iranian 

aggression” in the region, as 

well as the fight against the 

Islamic State jihadist group. 

So far Riyadh’s response to 

the nuclear deal has been lukewarm 

public praise, coupled 

with private condemnation. 

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a 

former head of the kingdom’s 

intelligence services, cautioned 

last week that it would allow 

Iran to “wreak havoc in the 

region”. 

Carter is expected to present 

Obama’s argument that 

the deal will make the United 

States and its allies safer by removing 

the threat of a nuclear 

Iran. 

This is the same message he 

gave during a trip this week to 

Israel, which also opposes the 

agreement. 

Israel on Wednesday pressed 

U.S. lawmakers to block the 

deal, with Ambassador Ron 

Dermer meeting privately with 

a group of about 40 House 

conservatives.

continuation 

Hijabi anchor Noor Tagouri tells all 


What inspired you to be a 

journalist? 

I have always wanted to be 

a journalist because of my passion 

for storytelling and asking 

questions from when I was like 

8-years-old. I always, always, 

always had this fiery passion 

for telling stories and asking 

questions. When I [thought] 

how can I continue doing this, 

I realized that journalism is the 

career path. 

What do you like most 

about your profession as a 

journalist and motivational 

speaker? 

I love connecting with people 

and being able to share different 

perspectives of peoples 

lives. I think when you’re in this 

profession and you meet people 

from all different backgrounds, 

you really learn that you cannot 

judge anyone by just what 

you see. Everybody has a story 

and everybody can be inspired 

by each other’s story. 

Also, it’s a field where you go 

to work and never know what 

the day is going to be like because 

there is a different story 

every single day. No two days 

are the same, so you’re always 

on your toes, you’re always excited. 

It makes me really, really, 

really love it. 

What do you like least? 

Sometimes the hours you 

have to work and sometimes 

the negative people you have 

to come across… I’ve worked 

shifts that are from 1 AM to 9 

AM. That I’m not really a big 

fan of that but you’re doing 

journalism you have to be willing 

to work any hour all the 

time, it’s what it entails. 

How has hijab influenced 

your career? 

I would say it allows me to 

bring a perspective of whatever 

newsroom I go into. I’m a general 

assignment reporter for a 

television station so I do whatever 

regular story that is going 

on in the local community 

but I’m able to give a cultural 

perspective…I think the hijab 

allows you to be that ‘go-to’ 

person when need be when it 

comes to reporting stories with 

a different perspective. 

How was your experience 

on the Oprah Winfrey 

Network and giving a TED 

Talk? 

Those were two my just 

WOW moments. Those were 

dreams come true. The Oprah 

thing was something I was so 

excited about...I can’t even 

explain. I was watching the 

“Who Am I?” series anyway 

and I looked up some of the 

people on there and to be on 

there myself was absolutely an 

honor and TED Talks, I’ve always 

said it’s been my dream to 

give a TED Talk. So when I was 

invited for that it was something 

that was just on another 

level. It was a really crazy experience. 

I’ve never been so nervous 

about speaking in front of 

a crowd because it’s something 

people expect to be super inspired 

by. It was such an incredible 

moment and experience 

and I’m so grateful for it. 

Has life changed after 

those experiences? 

Yeah, in the sense that those 

experiences have been growth 

points. I have different growth 

points and opportunities that 

have come along where I’m 

growing as a person and opportunities 

kind of stem from 

it. Whenever you get these big 

opportunities, more opportunities 

come, or more contacts 

come, or you network more. It’s 

been really, really great. 

How would you describe 

your endeavor to become the 

first hijabi anchorwoman on 

American television? 

So, I always try to steer clear 

of just saying ‘the first hijabi 

anchorwoman on commercial 

television.’ That isn’t the pure 

motivation behind it. It’s just 

the fact that it hasn’t happened 

so I’m like, if it hasn’t happened, 

then I’m gonna make it 

happen. 

Describe in one word your 

experience in trying to make 

that dream come true? 

Driven. Since I was a young 

teenager and decided to wear 

hijab and chose this career path 

with it, I’ve been extremely 

driven and it’s been flourishing. 

Who would you say is your 

biggest supporter? 

My family, of course. 

Do you live with your family 

in D.C.? 

Yes. 

What has been the hardest 

challenge you’ve ever had to 

overcome? 

Right now the hardest challenge 

is balancing between 

traveling and speaking and 

making sure that I’m working 

…I’m always so busy. That’s 

been the biggest one. 

If there was one thing 

that you could go back and 

change, what would it be? 

I honestly wouldn’t change 

anything. I know that sounds 

To advertise here: 

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248-426-7777 

really cliché I guess but I honestly 

wouldn’t change anything. 

I know everything happened 

for a reason and I’m 

grateful for every experience. 

What’s been your craziest 

reporting experience? 

There’s two memorable ones 

I’ve had. One was a while ago 

and one was recently. 

One was when I was in 

Murfreesboro, Tennessee reporting 

the mosque controversy 

and the opponents to the 

mosque were there and they 

ended up harassing me a lot 

and I got it all on camera. That 

was one crazy experience. 

The other one was a really 

positive experience and it was 

about the recent Baltimore riots. 

I was covering the story … 

and all of the news trucks were 

out where the city hall was. No 

one was actually in the streets 

anymore. 

[After finishing] we went 

back to the car and this guy 

walked past us and he was 

smiling really big and I said 

‘What’s going on?’. He said, 

‘Just go down a couple of 

blocks and you’ll see one of the 

most beautiful things I’ve ever 

seen.’ And so we walked down 

and this was about two days 

after what had just happened. 

Everybody was out of there 

For Competitive Fares for Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, 

and Middle East 

ACCESS TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL 

35384 Northmont Dr. Farmington Hills, MI 48331 


houses dancing and wearing 

shirts that said ‘We Bleed 

Baltimore.’ 

There was a Michael 

Jackson impersonator that 

had music blasting. He was 

dancing and he was making 

everyone else dance and sing 

and one of the guys that I interviewed 

said I don’t know if 

something good must have just 

happened because we’re all 

out and we all feel good. The 

next day was when the district 

attorney pressed charges 

on the officers. On top of that 

there were no other news outlets 

out there except for Voice 

of America so it was really, 

really, really cool seeing that 

side. 

Who are your heroes in 

terms of your career? 

Two people that I always 

mention are Oprah and Lisa 

Ling. 

What do you have in store 

for the future? 

I used to be able to answer 

this question very easily but 

now I’m very hesitant to just because 

I really don’t know. I want 

to continue telling stories and 

whatever medium that ends 

up being in then that’s what it 

will be in. But I have no idea 

how my path is going to be created. 

Ideally I’d like to continue 

capturing cultures and sub-cultures 

and still be able to travel 

and find more personal stories 

and more features that I can 

use to highlight what people 

are going through, living like 

and how they are so everyone 

can learn to understand each 

other a little bit better. 

Why would you consider 

yourself a FireBender? 

[Laughs] Any of my friends 

that watches Avatar considers 

me a FireBender because 

of my personality. I’m very fiery, 

very passionate and I don’t 

want to sound like I’m using it 

in a negative connotation but I 

get heated. Not on a bad way, 

but when I get very passionate 

about something I put 100% 

in it. And, I don’t know, I really 

like fire, I have a fascination of 

it but it really just comes down 

to my personality. 

If there is one thing you 

could tell the world, what 

would it be? 

That everything you want is 

just outside your comfort zone 

and don’t be afraid to push 

yourself and do great things. 

To stay updated on Noor 

Tagouri fiery life and work, 

follow her on facebook.com/ 

ntagouri and @ntagouri on 

Twitter and Instagram. 

For Pakistan - India - Bangladesh: 

Phone no: 248 225 5731 

Fax no: 248 489 8646 

Email: accesstravel@hotmail.com


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Call Toll-Free: 800-55-MERCY (800-556-3729) 

Mercy-USA for Aid and Development® 

Like us on Facebook! 

facebook.com/MercyUSA 

@Mercy-USA 

Donate Online: mercyusa.org • Call Toll-Free: 800-55-MERCY (800-556-3729) 

Clip and Mail this Donation Form to Mercy-USA • 44450 Pinetree Dr. Ste. 201, Plymouth, Michigan 48170-3869 

In Canada: Fiesta RPO, PO Box 56102, 102 Hwy #8, Stoney Creek, ON L8G 5C9 

Enclosed is my donation: 

One Time Donation $ _____________ 

Monthly Donation $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 Other $ _____________ 

Check 

Credit Card (Fill out credit card section) 

Pledge $ _____________ 

 

I give my permission to Mercy-USA/Mercy-USA (Canada) to withdraw from my Credit Card the amount I have indicated above. I also understand that 

I may change or end a monthly donation agreement at any time with a written notice. 

Credit Card Information (Charged in US Currency) 

TMO:07/15 

Name (Please print) 

Address 

City State/Province Zip/Postal Code 

Daytime Telephone 

Evening Telephone 

Apt. 

IH 

Credit Card No. 

E-mail 

Security Code 

Expiration Date 

*Many companies match their employees’ donations; ask your employer if they have a 

“Matching Gift Program”. 

Authorized Signature 

IRS Tax ID No. 38-2846307, Canada Charity Business #89458-5553-RR0001 

Date 

**Automatic Giving Program: A gift of your choice can be automatically deducted monthly 

from your bank or major credit card account. Please call us toll-free at 800-556-3729 for 

details on how you can make an easy and sustaining gift.

TMO 7-23-15

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