Laura El Alam Like many white people in the United States, I spent much of my life surrounded by people who looked and acted a lot like me. I grew up in the suburbs and attended Catholic schools for twelve years, and the majority of my family members, [...]
On Saturday, 3/7, Zahra Billoo, Dr. Hatem Bazian and Khalil Demir will be speaking on a panel on the topic, “Islamophobia and It’s Impact on Muslim Philanthropy”. The conference aims to address a dilemma faced by American Muslims today: Their donations to Muslim charities is met with fear and mistrust [...]
Rowaida Abdelaziz We live in an era where Islamophobia impacts almost every aspect of life. We see this on a grassroots level, where children are being bullied for their faith and employees are being discriminated at work. We see it institutionally, now more than ever, where Islamophobia prevails [...]
Dr. Naved Bakali What is Islamophobia? A phobia can be described as an irrational fear of something, like spiders, confined spaces, heights, etc. So, could one assume that Islamophobia is simply an irrational fear of Islam and Muslims? The term Islamophobia can be somewhat problematic, as it assumes [...]
Historically, Islam was invisible from our educational system, training of diplomats, and in the media. The interest in Islam started with the Iranian revolution. This interest was triggered by a negative factor of trying to understand “the enemy.” Many people choose to see Islam through the lens of terrorist [...]
Habeeba Husain I had the pleasure of speaking with Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir on multiple occasions over the last few years. Hailing from the birthplace of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts born to two African American Muslim reverts, Abdul-Qaadir is the youngest of eight. The game came naturally to her, and [...]
Habeeba Husain I cannot recall the first time I heard of Heraa Hashmi, a 20-year-old Muslim woman of Indian background, currently studying Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology and Linguistics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. It may have been her charming YouTube videos, or her viral Muslims [...]
Habeeba Husain In an effort to highlight inspirational American Muslims, WhyIslam spoke with Rowaida Abdelaziz, a reporter at HuffPost based in New York City. You may have seen her numerous articles discussing social justice issues and combatting Islamophobia online. Abdelaziz makes some much needed noise in the newsroom [...]
Habeeba Husain In an effort to highlight inspirational American Muslims, WhyIslam spoke with Nagla Bedir, a high school social studies teacher in New Jersey. Bedir is the cofounder of Teaching While Muslim, an initiative that works to “fight against discrimination, implicit bias, and institutional racism, create a platform [...]
