Crossing the Crescent

“I think I have tried really hard in the media to portray this as not…Irshad Manji, not Hirsi Ali, not any of those, not an attempt to provoke, but an attempt to understand a difficult discussion…”

Parvez Sharma is a gay Muslim filmmaker whose award-winning documentary, “A Jihad for Love,” was screened across the U.S. and is still being → Read More: Interview with Gay Muslim Filmmaker Parvez Sharma

I’d like to let readers know that a new online publication has been launched that seeks to address and engage a critically important and underserved segment—Muslim women.

The sister site to the existing AltMuslim.com, AltMuslimah.com launched last week. You may find two of my own pieces there, but more importantly, you can find American Muslim women discussing → Read More: New Muslim Site Launches

Yesterday, I exited the train and descended the stairs with dozens of other commuters, eager to head home after a grinding day of work. On the elongated sidewalk a man, perhaps homeless, sat slouched on a wooden bench and apparently asleep—a not entirely unusual sight on the streets of Queens.

However, three or four pedestrians who appeared to → Read More: Life, Death, and Indifference

(Slightly different version published in WireTap)

A month after the September 11th attacks, I stood in a public square in Boston as the breath of approaching winter chilled the air. Motorists honked their horns but the glares and grimaces suggested something other than appreciation. A handful made their sentiments more plainly obvious with choice epithets and explicit hand → Read More: Afghanistan: The Good War?