By Sumaia MasoomInhale, exhale, allow yourself to frustration-cry a little, and then prepare to organize 10 times harder. President-elect Donald Trump’s official site quietly announced today that it has appointed Islamophobe Katharine Gorka, who once declared that one of her biggest problems with the Obama Administration was that it refused to acknowledge “Global jihadism” and that Islam…
By Sumaia MasoomIt’s no secret that Donald Trump will enter the Oval Office riding a wave of prejudice and, at times, blatant hate. One of the most egregious of these giveaways was a promise he made on the campaign trail to establish a Muslim registry, or a database of all Muslim American citizens. The idea was received as ridiculous…
By Sumaia MasoomHow did Hillary Clinton, one of the most controversial, yet most objectively qualified presidential candidates, lose to Donald Trump, one of the most brash and openly bigoted presidential candidates in American history? We can point our fingers at multiple things: the legitimization of hatred, rampant racism and misogyny, or the incompetency and complacency of the…
By Sumaia MasoomYesterday morning, we woke up to the news that Donald Trump won the general election, making him the 45th President-Elect of the United States. Muslims (as well as Hindus, Sikhs, Mexicans, African Americans, the LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, sexual assault and harassment victims, women, and pretty much any other marginalized community you can think of) have…
By Sumaia MasoomOn May 25, Pakistani transgender activist Alisha was killed after being shot multiple times following an altercation between a group of men and a group of trans women. While she was transported to the Lady Reading Hospital nearby immediately, reports said that her care was delayed as doctors debated whether to admit her to the…
By Sumaia MasoomTo the people who are circulating the post about how Syville Smith got exactly what he deserved — I’m not speaking on behalf of my Black friends because I will never understand what it’s like to be in their position, but I do know that they’re tired of having to respond to all of this…
By Sumaia MasoomThe family of Nawshan Uppal, a 12-year-old Pakistani-American student at East Islip Union Free District’s Middle School near Long Island, N.Y., has filed a lawsuit against the school district following a January incident that resulted in Uppal’s false confession that he was a Daesh terrorist. If your first reaction on reading this was, “Literally, what?”…
By Sumaia MasoomWhile the world continues to mourn and honor Deah Barakat and Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha, a year and a half after their murders, it’s almost like nothing has changed for Muslim and Arab America. On Saturday, an imam and his assistant were shot and killed in broad daylight after prayer at the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid…
By Sumaia MasoomThe worlds’s most popular bigot — and somehow 2016 Republican Presidential Candidate – Donald Trump is at it again with his completely outrageous and openly inaccurate rhetoric. In the latest chapter of this ongoing and nauseating saga is Trump’s rally in in Sunrise, Fla. — where the candidate declared that “ISIS is honoring President Obama.”…
By Sumaia MasoomMaybe we haven’t actually reached a new stage of our relationship with Iran after all. At least that’s what the latest ruling from the Supreme Court might have you thinking. On Wednesday, the highest court in the nation ruled in a favor, 6-2, of a recent bill passed by Congress allowing American victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks…
By Sumaia MasoomIt seems at least a handful of Republicans and Democrats in Congress have finally found something they can agree on: A new bipartisan bill that would allow victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and their families to sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the attacks may be a bad idea. Not for the families…
By Sumaia MasoomSecretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson made an important statement condemning Islamophobia this past week during a symposium sponsored by the International Peace and Security Institute, stating that comments made by Republican Presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, calling for increased surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods and mosque shutdowns, were “overly simplistic.” The symposium, which…
By Sumaia MasoomNewsflash: Muslims are actually not the religious group most likely to desire replacing the Constitution with their scripture. At least, that’s according to a new poll released in March 2016, by The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonpartisan think-tank (who knew those still existed?). Aptly titled “The American Muslim Poll,” the study goes…
By Sumaia MasoomTexas Senator and Presidential-hopeful Ted Cruz announced on March 17th that his team has selected a team of national security advisors, including Frank Gaffney. Meanwhile, fellow Republican contender Donald Trump also unveiled his foreign policy team last week, which includes Walid Phares. If you feel like you’ve heard the names somewhere before, you probably have –…
By Sumaia MasoomMuslim Girl’s founder and editor-in-chief, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, took the stage with former president Bill Clinton this past weekend during the opening session of the annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) event in Berkeley, Calif. The panel, in keeping with the opening plenary’s “Courage to Create” theme, also included Khan Academy founder Sal Khan, Egyptian revolutionary…
