Engage Minnesota is now a content partner with the Twin Cities Daily Planet, a pioneering web portal that brings together a wide array of Minnesota’s community and neighborhood news publications. The Daily Planet invited us to contribute columns from our web site to theirs in exchange for them linking back to us. We felt it was a natural match, since the Daily Planet shares our mission of highlighting Minnesota’s diversity — that’s why we have linked to them ever since we launched this site. We are delighted for the chance to share Minnesotan Muslim voices with a broader audience, and Read More …
Author: engagemn
Myth-busting
Some myths in Middle East politics and religion need to be deconstructed. By Elias Karmi Myth: The “Ancient Feud” Unfortunately, a few academics have fallen for this one. The myth is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in an ancient feud between Ismael, the perceived ancestor of the Arabs, and Isaac, the ancestor of the Children of Israel, both of whom are the sons of Abraham from different mothers. From the point of view of Muslims, this is particularly absurd. Muslims highly revere both Ismael and Isaac – peace be upon them – as holy prophets whose brotherhood transcends sharing Read More …
Ready for real change?
By Elias Karmi According to a survey published recently by the Washington Post and ABC, 60 percent of all Americans strongly want the country to change direction. This comes naturally due to public perception of the evident challenges we are going through as being unnecessary, avoidable, or poorly executed – most notably the war in Iraq.
1,400-year-old advice still valuable for modern parents
Islam’s advice on raising minds, not just bodies By Rawan Hamade Evolution versus creation may be subject to debate in our world today, but there is no doubt that our understanding of certain institutions evolves with time. Our concept of family is just one example. I am not about to tell you that, back in the day, the family was what it ought to be and now divorce rates are increasing a hundredfold. That may be true, but only on the surface. Many sociologists tell us that marriage may have seemed holy long ago, but in fact family ties weren’t Read More …
Don’t define Muslim societies by their flaws
Fair criticism means looking beyond the faults and failings By Fedwa Wazwaz On October 22, The Minnesota Daily published my commentary “Islamo-Fascism a very racist concept.” On October 23 and 24, a couple of letters to the editor responded to my artcle. A common thread in the letters was the right to criticize Islam. Do people have a right to criticize Islam? Let me begin by quoting a couple of lines of Islamic poetry: “The eye of Love to every flaw is blind, While the eye of hatred reveals all flaws.”