Muslims have been part of this country since its founding. Since nearly a third of all slaves were Muslim, this country literally was built on the backs of Muslims. We have remained important contributors to American history, serving to defend our nation and contributing culturally to what it means to be American. Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Qur’an sits in the Library of Congress as a testament to how important Muslim thought was to the founding of this country.
The adhan, or call to prayer, is an important aspect of Muslim devotional life. It can be prayerful, but it is not part of a formal prayer. To suggest that Magid is praying, presumably for the success of Trump, is mistaken. When Magid calls out “I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God,” there is no benediction for anyone. There is only the praise of the divine. By framing it simply as a prayer, someone who is unfamiliar with a quarter of the world’s population may think that despite Trump’s hateful rhetoric to his fellow Americans, they are ready to submit to him unconditionally.
Professors grapple with how to address Trump presidency in classroom – Columbia Daily Spectator.
Religion professor Hussein Rashid, who teaches a class on Muslims in diaspora, explained how the effects of Trump’s presidency on Muslim communities could have ripple effects that would present challenges to the entire country. “My job as a professor is to get students to think about the implications of all of these issues,” Rashid said. “If we talk about, say, a Muslim registry, it’s not just about Muslims in America, but what it means for American society, because these things don’t happen in a vacuum.”
Inspired by Ancient Practice, Rabbi Leads Interfaith Inauguration Day Fast – News – Forward.com.
Visotzky and his friend and colleague Hussein Rashid, a professor and activist, see the fast and the marches they will participate in the next day as first steps on a long road of action.
Inspired by Ancient Practice, Rabbi Leads Interfaith Inauguration Day Fast – News – Forward.com.
Visotzky and his friend and colleague Hussein Rashid, a professor and activist, see the fast and the marches they will participate in the next day as first steps on a long road of action.
On Nov. 6, 2016, the Sunday before Election Day, I was asked to preach at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn. Below is the audio of the sermon.
Muhammad and his family are the original heroes for Muslims, and their virtuous behavior is being represented through the American art form of the comic, by artists from India. This approach seemed like a way to look at the transnational nature of Muslim identities, while still taking national particularities into account.
The Power of Names – Sacred Matters Magazine.
In many popular media reports, the default often seems to be Sunni Islam. It is unclear why this has become the baseline for what Islam is. Some academics have suggested, going back to the origins of the discipline of Religion, that Sunni Islam most closely resembled Protestant Christianity, which was constructed as the truest of religious groupings. As a result, structures that mirrored Protestant Christianity were elevated to true expressions of those traditions. Perhaps it has to do with the tyranny of the majority, so that by virtue of being the most numerous group of Muslims, Sunni Islam becomes the normative position.
In 2016, America mourned the passing of one of its heroes, boxing champion Muhammad Ali. His funeral service gave public light to the long history of Muslims in America, and the deep impact Muslims have on popular culture. This talk takes on an exploration of that history, focusing on literature, and the contemporary political environment. Community Room
Why I was scared to attend the AAR Conference this year | Bulletin for the Study of Religion.
Like many scholars of religion, I normally make my plans to attend the annual national meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). This year, I decided I would not attend. Some of my friends and colleagues thought it was perhaps because I was an adjunct, and had no funding to attend the most important professional conference of our discipline. This concern is real for so many of our members, but was not my issue this year. Instead, it was that we were hosting the meeting in an open carry state, and one that allowed students to carry their weapons into classrooms. As a person of color and as a Muslim, the location of the meeting in San Antonio did not seem prudent.
Hussein