My Father, the Madrasah, and Me

In Nigeria, Where Western Education Is King, an Arabic Studies Legacy Lives On

On a phone call the other day with a new friend, Zay, we ended up on the topic of religion. “Did you attend madrasah?” I asked her, referring to the Arabic schools that offer primary and secondary education where subjects like the linguistic characteristics of Arabic and Islamic theology and jurisprudence are taught.

She responded yes, but that she no longer remembers most of the things she was taught there. “I can still write my name in Arabic, I can still write Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, and oh, yeah, I can still …

One Out of Eleven Chinese Uyghurs Is in a Concentration Camp

The Communist Party’s Need for Total Control Has Grown Worse Since Xi Jinping Came to Power in 2012

To get arrested today in Western China, you don’t have to do much more than buy a SIM card for a relative. You could easily find yourself detained for having …

How Airports Became the Battleground for Deciding Who Belongs in America

At LAX, Attorneys, Protestors, and Customs Officials Struggle with Trump’s Travel Ban on Muslims

At 3 p.m. on January 28, 2017—the day after Donald Trump signed an executive order banning travel to the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries—I frantically tried …

The Supreme Court Ruled Wrong, Then Right, on Japanese American Internment

The Only "Precedent” for the Proposed Muslim Registry Is Conflicted Legal Thinking

In 2014, a group of law students at the University of Hawaii asked Justice Antonin Scalia to comment on the Korematsu case, the infamous 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld …

Why It’s OK to Laugh About ISIS

Don’t Blame Muslims for Joking About Terrorists

I used to tell jokes about my lady moustache.

I thought it was important to let everyone know about my struggle to rip follicles from the root of my face, …

The Dome Is Where the Heart Is

A Hallmark of Middle Eastern Architecture Helps Muslims Orient Themselves Toward Mecca, and One Another

The green dome of the Omar ibn Al-Khattab mosque in Los Angeles interrupts the low skyline with a quiet gravitas. The mosque has been here since 1982, next door to …