By Guest BloggerIf you followed any Somalis on Twitter during the past two weeks, you may have noticed the hashtag #CadaanStudies (which literally translates to “white studies”) floating around. The conversation began on March 25 when Safia Aidid, a Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University, called attention to the fact that the new Somaliland Journal of African Studies (SJAS)…
By Guest BloggerWhat will always affect me most about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wasn’t that I was there that day. It wasn’t that I ran the marathon or worked at Mass General, or even anything about being Muslim. Looking at that kid is looking at all my other “kids.” All the ones I’ve hung out with, dated, tutored. The…
By Guest BloggerMy sisters: this is for you. This is for each of you, my sisters. This is for every woman who suffered at the hands of a universal patriarchal culture. Today is for every woman who ever had to disguise herself as a man when feeling unsafe; for every woman who ever wore an oversized hoodie…
By Guest BloggerBeing vulnerable and honest about your feelings is one of the most difficult things you can do. Telling someone you want them opens up a barrage of emotions, but imagine how it feels to hear in response, “It will never work because of cultural and racial differences.” These are things you cannot control. And then,…
By Guest BloggerTo me, the beautiful thing about writing is that everyone has the ability to do it and to do it well. Some call it talent, but I beg to differ. There’s no talent in writing — there’s talent in how you use the words you write to ignite something in those who read. There’s talent in how…
By Guest BloggerUPDATE (Jun. 1): The Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 against Abercrombie & Fitch for violating workplace discrimination laws by failing to accommodate religious needs when they rejected Samantha Elauf’s job application on the basis that her hijab did not align with the company’s dress policies. “An employer may not make an applicant’s religious practice, confirmed…
By Guest BloggerTwo weeks ago, headlines were rocked by the gruesome murders of Syrian-American Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her younger sister, Razan, 19, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They were gunned down by neighbor Craig Hicks, who is currently in custody on first degree murder charges and awaiting trial. He has referenced…
By Guest BloggerThis blog post originally appeared on . The scenario I’m about to describe has happened to me more times than I can count, in more cities than I can remember, mostly in Western cities here in the U.S. and Europe. I walk into a store. There’s a woman shopping in the store that I can…
By Guest BloggerDear Malcolm, in PS 201, a school nestled in Flushing, Queens, where 43 percent of the students are Black, the children were banned from writing about you. the teacher dragged her chalk, scratching a line through your name as a way to mute you. she told the children to pour their white outs, hit their…
By Guest BloggerLady Fidda was originally from Ethiopia. It has been narrated that she was of royal blood, but was captured and brought to Arabia. She was freed by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and afterwards served his daughter, Sayyidna Fatimah (AS), as her maid-servant. Sayyidna Fatimah divided her house work equally between herself and Lady Fidda, and they…
By Guest BloggerA luminous figure in this series who was a companion is Barakah (RAA) also known as Umm Ayman. Umm Ayman was Abyssinian and a servant of Abdullah bin Abdil Muttalib, the father of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). When Aminah, the mother of the Prophet died, Umm Ayman took over as primary care-giver of the Prophet. …
By Guest BloggerWe all saw the American media rush to justify the “mentally unstable” actions of white criminals when Elliott Rodger shot up a UC Santa Barbara sorority house. We saw it when James Holmes shot up a movie theater in Colorado. We saw it when Adam Lanza shot up the Sandy Hook elementary school. But never…
By Guest BloggerSabiha Mahmoud is a relentless activist, a photojournalist, a filmmaker, a cartoonist, and a wonderful mother living in the United Kingdom. She recently published this moving open letter about illness- from those suffering to those care-taking. Dear comrades and friends, In the past months I have been and still am witnessing another kind of suffering, the…
By Guest BloggerOn February 1, 2015, mosques across the United Kingdom held open days in an attempt to address rising anti-Muslim sentiments in the wake of a terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Amongst visitors to local mosques was Cathy Newman, a white non-Muslim journalist and blogger. After arriving at the wrong…
By Guest BloggerDuring Black History Month, I have the intention of writing brief summaries, not in depth biographies, of some of the early figures in Islamic history who were black. My usage of the word black, for the sake of what I plan on writing, will not be restricted to Nubians and Abyssinians but also for Arabs…
