Ani Zonneveld is an imam, and yes, also a woman. She qualifies that she is “an imam with a small “i” — though her reluctance to go with a capital “I” says more about her democratic approach to worship than any deference to Islamic tradition, one that has been and still is very male-dominated. She…
March 20, 2014 The chairman of a mosque at the centre of a BBC censorship row over the issue of being both Muslim and gay has compared homosexuality to being “a compulsive murderer, gambler, or paedophile”. Free Speech, the BBC 3 debate show, deliberately dropped the question “When will it be right to be…
February 28, 2014 If you want to kill legislation that protects the right of Christians to withhold business services from same-sex couples, here’s one way to do it: Don’t warn people about Christians. Warn them about Muslims. That strategy was on display in the campaign against Arizona Senate Bill 1062, which would have shielded businesses…
February 13, 2014 As France’s municipal elections approach, the President of the center-right UMP party Jean-Francois Copé is targeting the constituents disappointed in Francois Hollande’s regime in the hopes of turning them away from the left. Among this category of people, he is particularly attentive to what he considers the ‘Muslim vote.’ ‘Our Muslim…
January 31, 2014 Oppressive. Boorish. Misogynist: Those are the popular images of Muslim men and how they treat women. But there’s more to it than that, thought Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi, the editors of “Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women.” Many Muslims welcomed the two women’s 2012 collection of…
