This year, I started Ramadan at the wedding of one of my childhood best friends. I jumped the hoops of border politics to be there at what will probably be one of the last Mexican weddings I will ever attend. After a decade of living in diaspora, it is just natural that my path is […]

Sugar stares at me from the window as I light my last cigarette before Ramadan starts. I can tell she is judging me just looking at her angry furry face. All over social media people are wishing each other Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Karim. Some have made a pledge to fast from social media. Some […]

Just over one year ago, I officially accepted Islam. At the time, I was familiar with the fundamental philosophy of Islam, but I was still learning about the different aspects of Islamic practice. I knew that as a Muslim, I would be expected to pray at least five times per day, that I would be […]

If Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, the fastest growing religion in African countries may be Christianity. In Nigeria, it is so rare to see or hear news of women converting to any religion other than Christianity that when it does happen, the initial assumption is that the conversion must have been […]

Celebrity marriages always come with a lot of public anticipation, and this was the case with the wedding of Saif Ali Khan and  Kareena Kapoor, who after five years of  a very public courtship, married on Oct 2012. However, the speculation surrounding the relationship didn’t end post-marriage. Apart from being India’s heartthrob, Saif Ali Khan […]

What do you think when you hear the word Latin? Or Latina, to be more exact? Spicy? Or perhaps “loud,” “flamboyant” and “sexy”? Maybe the word just inspires images of women like Salma Hayek and J-Lo. Many of us are, sadly, very familiar with the image of what “Latinas” are supposed to look like. Just […]

My conversion experience deeply informs my Muslim experience. We (converts) have varied experiences in our journeys and paths to Islam. Some have it easy—finding the transition relatively seamless—and others have a bumpy ride peppered with moments of angst and frustration. As an Egyptian-American convert, mine is the latter, driven by the disownment of my own […]

“Delfts blauw meets hijab” is the title of a new Dutch documentary analyzing the experience of female Dutch converts to Islam and, at the same time, exploring the compatibility (or lack of) between so-called “Dutch identity” with “Muslim values.”  The documentary, created by Janina Pigaht, follows the experience of young Dutch women, Laura, Marion, Djamila, […]

British novelist Martin Amis has expressed regret that his late sister did not embrace Islam to save herself from self-destruction. Everyone is understandably confused. To begin with, Amis is not a neutral figure on Islam and women: he thinks that Muslims should be masterminded into becoming “more like human beings.” He likes the idea of […]

While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah:  inviting 500 Italian escorts to convert to Islam. The women, employed by Hostessweb agency, were under the impression they were attending a party. The agency advertised for “…500 attractive girls between 18 […]