news

Stephon Clark’s Memorial and Funeral

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Mar 29, 2018 at 6:13 pm

Stephon Clark was buried Thursday following a funeral service bristling with politics and raw emotion for the 22-year-old Sacramento man whose shooting death by police 11 days ago has sparked protests and calls for police reform while drawing national attention to the city. As many as 500 mourners…

notes

Women’s Day 2018

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Mar 09, 2018 at 10:33 pm

International Women’s Day​ is on 8th March. The day has been set aside to celebrate the social, economic and political accomplishments of women. March is a most appropriate month for such a celebration. In the northern hemisphere, March signals the arrival of spring and the blossoming flowers whose colors and…

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Let Them Fly: Ode to A Little Dreamer

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Mar 06, 2018 at 8:16 am

The butterflies can no longer go home. We have destroyed the grounds on which they nest. And if this little butterfly can’t roam Then how can we as a country be blessed? We pimp liberty like she is a whore. Racism, hatred and greed defile her…

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Yemen: A Crying Shame

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Mar 04, 2018 at 12:00 am

O Allah, Bless us in our Syria and in our Yemen! Hadith Sharif The people of Yemen will come to you. They have the most tender minds and the softest hearts. Wisdom and faith are Yemeni. Hadith Sharif The dastardly murder of Shaykh Aydrus bin Abdullah bin Sumayt, may…

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As Ghuta Bleeds…

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Feb 23, 2018 at 8:25 am

O God, bless us in our Syria! Hadith Sharif The Ghuta of Damascus is one of the four worldly paradises… Mu’jam al-Buldan As I write these words, a large swath of the Ghuta, an area which was once a beautiful belt of forests, orchards and gardens surrounding Damascus,…

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School Shootings: More Than Deranged Teenagers

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Feb 16, 2018 at 12:12 am

Our condolences to the families of those killed and wounded by Nikolas Cruz in the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” yesterday in Parkland, Florida. The fact that Parkland was recently rated the 15th safest city in America and the safest in Florida, indicates the kind of mindless violence which has befallen that…

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They Don’t Know

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Jan 28, 2018 at 5:56 pm

Unfortunately they don’t know the pain Of hungry kids and no shelter from rain. They’ll never know the feel of grime and dirt, Or just how hard some people have to work, Or what it means to have to ride the bus, Or place your…

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The Monk of Mokha

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Jan 21, 2018 at 11:43 am

“The Monk of Mokha,” Dave Eggers chronicle of the revival of Yemeni coffee through the efforts of an unlikely young man, could well have been entitled, “The Mad Adventures of Mokhtar Alkhanshali.” If fiction is art and nonfiction life, this book would definitely qualify as life imitating art. The unlikely…

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America, Stop Exporting Your S**t!

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Jan 14, 2018 at 8:50 am

America, Stop Exporting Your S**t! Trump and the millions of racist Americans he faithfully represents love to point out the problems of what Vijay Prashad refers to as, “The Darker Nations.” However, there is no acknowledgement of what we and other western nations have done to create what Trump so…

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The Greatest Thing My Mother Taught Me

BY IMAM ZAID SHAKIR

Jan 06, 2018 at 9:00 am

I was not blessed to be able to enjoy the presence of my mother throughout my adult life, as she passed away when I was eighteen-years-old. I was able to benefit from her mentorship and wisdom during my formative years, even though many of the lessons she taught me I…

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