Rashida Tlaib has become the first Muslim woman elected to the US Congress. Her win has highlighted the contested relationship between politics and religion, and especially Islam, in the US, as well as contention in the country regarding the compatibility of Islam with western values and way of life.
NYT Op ED: The arrest of 3 doctors in Michigan for performing female genital mutilation prompted Tasneem Raja, 34, a journalist, to write about being cut in New Jersey. She said she had received “an outpouring of emails from people saying thank you.” “This Michigan case made me think I want to speak out,” said Nazia…
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A woman was forced to remove her hijab after a man threatened to set her on fire with a lighter near the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor police said the incident happened in the 600 block of East William near S. State Street between 5:30 p.m. and…
(RNS) The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Lansing is getting a new church this spring — but not quite soon enough. Hearing of construction lags and its neighbor’s need for a temporary home, a mosque in East Lansing offered up its worship space — for free. “No charge whatsoever,” said the Rev. Kathryn Bert. “It’s…
A lawsuit filed last week claims that thousands of Muslim Americans, among them a 4-year old, have been unfairly put on a federal watch list designed to screen potential terrorists. The class-action complaint criticizes the Terrorist Screening Database, a list of about 1.5 million people overseen by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center. It’s one of…
