Being Muslim in America

Letter to Malaysia-Today by Tricia Yeoh, Centre for Public Policy Studies The Centre for Public Policy Studies views with concern the recent majority decision of the Court of Appeal in Subashini v Saravanan where the Courts effectively required a non-Muslim to submit to the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court to have the theological laws of Islam applied to her in order to remedy unconstitutional orders from the Syariah courts in respect of their non Muslim marriage. In this ruling, the majority of the Court of Appeal also seem to have upheld the notion that one parent could convert an infant child to Islam without ... Read Full Story

I live in Harlem and I have faced many Muslim corner-store and liquor-store owners - many of them from Yemen - about selling alcohol in the community. The excuses that I have heard are weak and unacceptable for a Muslim, excuses like: “The Yemeni Business Committee allows the selling of alcohol to non-Muslims…” I’m not sure how true this is, but I doubt there is any validity to these claims at all. Its frustrating because my neighborhood has a small number of Muslims (West Africans, African-Americans, Yemenis and Palestinian) and two small storefront Senegali masajid that have a very small influence on the community, ... Read Full Story

I was born in Michigan and it is true, there is a very large presence of Muslims living in Michigan, it is very beautiful to see such a clear shift from the ethnic norm emerge nearly out of nowhere. To be immersed into a cultural collage of non-domestic origins is truly beautiful, in my opinion. While looking up some things concerning my birthplace Michigan, I found an NPR article suggesting that there has been an influx of “vandalism” in the Muslim majority city of Dearborn, MI: “In Dearborn, Mich., the nation’s largest Arab-American community, Shia and Sunnis have long lived together mostly peacefully. But ... Read Full Story

Image of Islam given more weight than reality of deeds committed Islamophobia Legislation: Who'll protect us from the protected? The International Islamophobia Conference of Muslim "thinkers and scientists," meeting in Istanbul to fight misperceptions about and injustices against their benevolent "religion of peace," ended Sunday. Declaring Islamophobia a "crime, just like anti-semitism," their closing statement called for immediate national and international legislation to protect its victims. The National Institute of Mental Health defines a phobia as: "an intense irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger." Perhaps the Conference's first order of business should have been to agree upon a better ... Read Full Story

I am an American by birth, and my views though painstakingly shaped and molded to represent my understanding of the “Ideal Muslim” are in fact also influenced by my American upbringing. And so, when I say to you “On Theocracy and Liberty” keep in mind that the lens from which I speak is that of an American-born Muslim. As it were, during my college years when questioned on the position of Islamic Law ( Shari’a ), I would get upset and feel hurt and under-attack, but that was mainly because I didn’t have any kind of defense. Like many Muslims I was not knowledgeable ... Read Full Story