Once a dead religion, Moorish Science is seeing a curious resurgenceWhen I started researching my book Praying to the West, a travelogue of Islamic communities rooted in the western world, I knew that a trip to Chicago was inevitable. It is, in the truest sense, a Black Mecca. It has spawned or galvanized the most… Jun 29 21June 29, 2021Article at Broadview
How the First Arab American Movie Star Foretold a Century of Muslim Misrepresentation Frank Lackteen was just shy of 18 when a film director discovered him in a crowd. Visiting from north Massachusetts, where he’d worked menial factory jobs since childhood, Lackteen went to see whether his eldest brother, Mike, had found a better… May 22 19May 22, 2019Article at The Ringer
Quebec mosque attack: two years on, will security trump openness?Until 29 January 2017, random motorists on the busy Chemin Sainte-Foy would sometimes pull over to the Quebec City Grand Mosque to withdraw some money.Converted from a Desjardins Bank, it still looks like one, with its rows of rectangular glass panes… Jan 29 19January 29, 2019Article at the Guardian
What is Canada like for a refugee?It was never particularly complicated. All Mohammad El Hindawi wanted for his family was a reprieve from the bedbugs afflicting his children. In the summer of 2015, while dealing with the vermin in their new home of Edmonton, he’d learned through a… May 13 18May 13, 2018Article at the Guardian
In Search of Terror the Day After an Attack The first sign something wasn’t right came around 8:45 p.m. Saturday. There were police checkpoints set up in every direction around my house. I live in McCauley, a gentrifying Edmonton neighbourhood where a drug bust isn’t out of the ordinary, but… Oct 03 17October 03, 2017Article at The Walrus
Homeland for the Holidays As a child I thought the Arabic term for Lebanon was “the Balaad.” That’s what my parents called it whenever they fondly remembered their life before Canada, before I was born. This other world, as they described it, was somehow a more difficult… Jul 29 17July 29, 2017Article at Eighteen Bridges
From political prisoner to parliamentarianOn a Friday morning in spring 2016, Amarjeet Sohi sat barefoot in the den of his craftsman style home in south Edmonton. His first few months as Canada’s federal minister of infrastructure had been frantic, sending him across the country to listen to… Jan 04 17January 04, 2017Article at Alberta Views - The Magazine for Engaged Citizens
