I have seen so many amazing photos, videos, and quotes from Muhammad Ali in the past 12 hours that it’s impossible to curate even a fraction of them, but this quote is perhaps the one I personally feel is most relevant to the political sphere today: Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated... Read more
How is Trump any worse than the “establishment” Republicans? Consider Rubio’s interview on This Week ABC, past November: STEPHANOPOULOS: You saw Secretary Clinton there did not want to use the words “radical Islam.” Your response? RUBIO: I think that’s — I don’t understand it. That would be like saying we weren’t at war with the Nazis, because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party, but weren’t violent themselves. Rubio’s analogy here... Read more
This is a guest post by Fatema Biviji. Sorry, Mummy and Abba, I know I promised that I would support Hillary after Obama had his shot. I know that the Clinton era brought us the best of times, and I can’t forget the joy on your face, Abba, when President Bill Clinton replied to your letter. But with Bernie comes a unique opportunity for America to return to a fairer way of doing politics. He’s the statement we need to... Read more
Muslima Jedi and Brass Crescent Award winner Linda Sarsour has sage advice about the long game for voting strategy, especially as it applies to the Muslim American community: Yes, I understand that there are some who have dedicated their lives to Palestinian liberation or healthcare reform, or ending mass incarceration or cancer research or reproductive rights. These are all important issues but it is dangerous to vote single-issue or not vote because none of the candidates have a comprehensive sound... Read more
Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal illustrates the impotence of the RNC, in no small part because of the Citizens’ United ruling, which allowed the proliferation of Super PACs and enabled candidates like Cruz and Trump to dominate establishment picks like Rubio and Jeb. Of course, the GOP blames Obama/Hillary. However, at some point, this “party of personal responsibility” really needs to look at themselves and realize that it was the embrace of post-policy obstruction based on fear mongering that brought... Read more
This classic clip from The Princess Bride is surely familiar to everyone: The punch line here is the classic, “You made one of the classic blunders… never get involved in a land war in Asia” – but the entire scene has relevance to the utter gibberish of Republican foreign policy. Vizzini’s character passes himself off as an intellectual (“You’ve heard of Aristotle? Plato? Socrates? Morons.”) but ultimately has no real principles, relying instead on misdirection and deceit to win. Syria... Read more
This is a guest post by Aamer Jamali. Four years ago, I wrote a piece in support of Barack Obama for re-election. In it, I cited multiple areas in which I felt his approach was superior to Mr Romney’s. I have spent a lot of time ruminating on the feedback I received from that post, and have come to realize that most of it does not matter. I am a single issue voter and proud of it, and that issue... Read more
The spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, will conduct Ashara Mubaraka in the United States for the first time. This is a guest post by Durriya Badani, a member of the Dawoodi Bohra community. Of the many international projects which Syedna Saifuddin has undertaken, it has been the global initiative of Faiz al-Mawaid al-Burhaniyah, also known as thaali, which has touched me most deeply on a personal level. As a mother with petite Indian daughters, none... Read more
Every year the debate about moonsighting begins anew as Ramadan approaches. I’d like to highlight a point and counterpoint between myself and Irfan Rydhan that I think covered the debate very thoroughly for everyone’s reference. First, an excerpt from Irfan’s entry, which argues that all muslims should adopt moonsighting to establish Ramadan: In our modern world with digital clocks, calendars, daylight savings time, etc. we forget that these are all man-made systems to help us organize our busy day to... Read more
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a brave woman and I respect her intellectual decision to leave religion (not just Islam – she’s an atheist) even though I disagree with it. But she has allowed the tragic events of her youth to poison her view of her fellow human beings. Her criticism of Islam is to deny that the majority of Muslims are normal people and its only a fringe group of radicals who are responsible for violence – she has actually... Read more
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