By ShannonThere are two things that make me embarrassed to be an American: healthcare and the state of Florida. There are actually a few more things but were I to list them all out I’d go over my word count and get fired. Anyway, the state of Florida, a proverbial blemish on the rest of the…
By ShannonAs the sun sets on the Jon Stewart era in the land of Comedy Central, the network’s president, Michele Ganeless, is looking forward to a new sunrise. That sunrise should have come in the form of young comedian Trevor Noah who was slated to take over The Daily Show this September. Unfortunately, after many attempts…
By ShannonTwitter en Español, not to be confused with Black Twitter or Twitter General, had a twit fit when Kelly Osbourne went on daytime talk show The View and made the infuriating statement that without Latino people, Donald Trump would have no one to clean his toilets. View co-host, Rosie Perez made a minor outburst to alert Kelly to the…
By ShannonPicture this: an adult woman drives to a secluded area late at night. She parks her car, grabs her camera and waits. She waits until a young couple, under the assumption that they are alone, walks into the secluded area and engages in some intimate activity. While this private moment is happening the woman in…
By Shannon“Religion and my gender are my two primary identities, the most significant lenses through which I see the world.” – Rachel Lieberman Every book marks the beginning of a journey for a reader. Some journeys are long, some are short, and some are so profound that it’s questionable if they ever happened at all. My…
By ShannonSometimes when I’m sitting up at night I hear this strange sound. It’s the distant sound of index fingers across America snapping in half from exhaustion. Swiping left, swiping right, clicking the like button, crossing fingers for a match, trolling through photos; the work goes on and on in the effort to use the Internet to…
By ShannonPart of being Muslim, especially a Muslim woman, is to understand solidarity. It’s something we have no problem doing when someone from the outside attacks us. We were all able to get on the same page when Palestine was the center of the news cycle. But what about now? What about in this month when…
By ShannonTo “Columbus” something is the act of discovering something that most people already knew existed and claiming it as brand new. Much like Christopher Columbus, who was the first person to really make “Columbusing” a worldwide phenomenon (and people say he never did anything right). Well, it turns out white people have finally discovered a…
By ShannonPlanes are scary if you aren’t an engineer or a pilot. They have always made me nervous because I don’t understand the first thing about aerodynamics. But now United Airlines has given Muslims a whole new reason to be afraid of flying. Last week, a Muslim chaplain named Tahera Ahmad took to Facebook to let…
By ShannonHow much do you trust your computer? Your cell phone company? Your search engine? If you have any trust in these things at all, the new psychological thriller Ex Machina will completely rid your system of that comfort level with technology. Ex Machina follows the story of Nathan, an eccentric millionaire who develops an advanced artificial…
By ShannonWomen who don the veil have always been an interesting subject to the general unveiled public. The unveiled want to know why these women cover and what kind of lives they lead. But this may be the first time someone actually thought to ask the question — how do they see? Hassan Ammar, a photographer…
By ShannonEurocentric beauty standards: light skin, light colored eyes, straight long hair. Ever since the dawn of white people, humans all over the world have been trying to capture this look. We’ve got hair dyes, we’ve got colored contacts, and in many countries, we’ve got skin whitening creams. Skin whitening creams are essentially the reverse of…
By Shannon“God will bring people into your life who were once your enemy and they will call you brother.” – Jose Serra The above statement was said by a young man delivering a sermon at a Christian retreat I attended while I was still considering a conversion to Islam. It was this statement that solidified in…
By ShannonI imagine that once you read the above title, any shred of respect you had for me as a blogger went completely out the window. Alas, I’m a human and the human desire to try absurd fitness trends proved to be too strong for my weak, weak mind. For the last two and a half…
By ShannonThe television gods have opened their gates and now rain a blessing down upon us. ABC’s new show Quantico not only contains a Bollywood princess as a cast member, but an actual hijabi character as well. Yasmin Al Massri plays Nimah Anwar who is one of several new recruits at Quantico which houses the FBI Academy….
