This post was written by guest contributor Arwa Aburawa. About a week ago, I was sitting in a cafe talking to a new acquaintance about racism. The person in question had worked on issues of race and racism for some time and I would say is a lot more clued up about the tensions and […]

Around 4,000 academics, scholars and activists gathered from March 16-18th at Pace University’s annual Left Forum conference. As a recent Occupy activist, I was ecstatic to come across a conference that centers on issues of capitalism and imperialism, along with panels that focus on the importance of feminist discourse to envision an alternative world. The […]

This post was written by guest contributor Maheen Nusrat. On March 24th, 2012, a 32-year-old Iraqi-American woman, Shaima Alawadi, passed away.  She been found three days earlier by her 17-year-old daughter, brutally beaten in her home with a note next to her that said, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” The story made national […]

In June, a small business lawyer and politician named Farha Ahmed was in a run-off election against Harish Jajoo for a city council seat in Sugar Land, Texas. In the final hours of the election, an anonymous mailer was sent around the town proclaiming that Ahmed is connected to Al-Qaeda. The “concerned citizen” links her […]

So Richard Dawkins is an asshat. Anyone surprised? Here’s the comment he left on a thread that discussed sexism: Dear Muslima Stop whining, will you. Yes, yes, I know you had your genitals mutilated with a razor blade, and . . . yawn . . . don’t tell me yet again, I know you aren’t […]

The media response to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape charges is predictably horrific. The salacious gossip can maintain itself for weeks: the victim lives in a complex for HIV-positive residents (no wait! She doesn’t); wears hijab; and is “pious and respectable.” No, you say, she’s not unattractive—she’s actually got great breasts? A full 57% of French […]

This was written by Farangis Najibullah and originally published at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RFE/RL’s Ukraine Service correspondents Volodymyr Prytula in Crimea and Maryana Drach in Prague contributed to this report. The headlines were nothing short of chilling. “Aspiring ‘Miss Ukraine’ Killed Under Shari’a Laws In Crimea” warned Ukrainian online newspaper “Gazeta Po-Kievski.” “Radical Islamists […]

This was written by Kevin Healey and originally published on the USC blog Trans/Missions. Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s religious identity has made news since 1991, when the Jewish Tribune reported that each morning he asks himself how he can be “helpful to the state of Israel.” He should have refuted the quote, he says, since it has […]

Though one expects a whopping media event like the death of Osama Bin Laden to produce speculative stories on an industrial scale, it is to be hoped that the speculation is at least based in reality. Blogs engage in wild speculation, but serious media blogs are still behooved to be based on facts; otherwise, we […]

Dear Bill Maher, Hey there, Billy. I’m pretty sure I can call you that now, since you have taken a personal interest in saving my life. Recently, you made the statement that Muslim lands will not get democracy without a “sexual revolution.” Muslim men, in your opinion, are sexist demons, which are an extension of […]