Posted on Huffington Post, January 9, 2015. I admire Charlie Hebdo for standing up against threats to free speech, but I am saddened to see them pay such a heavy price for their beliefs. Cartoons and satire, even the most provocative ones, remain vital for a healthy civil society. Only the deranged are threatened by them. Charlie Hebdo wanted to spread a little...

Prof. David Schwam-Baird and I appeared recently on WJCT’s First Coast Connect to discuss Maher-Affleck spat. To listen to the interview, CLICK HERE. Nicholas Kristof from the New York Times provided an an excellent response to Bill Maher in his column The Diversity of Islam. “Let’s not feed Islamophobic bigotry by highlighting only the horrors while...

Delivered on the occasion of the rare convergence of Ramadan, Friday and July 4th by Parvez Ahmed Venue: Islamic Center of Northeast Florida Date: July 4, 2014 (Note – It is customary to recite verses from the Quran in Arabic. In the interest of space and formatting, this write up omits the Arabic verses and only provides their English translations) HOMILY...

Huffington Post Recently a friend commented that even if the Muslim community engaged in a thousand interfaith dialogues, the headline that a Nigerian Muslim extremist group, Boko Haram, has abducted school girls threatening to sell them as slaves is enough to overshadow efforts at building bridges of understanding. Groups like Al Qaeda and Boko Haram claim to...

An abridged version of this article ran in the Huffington Post. Also posted on OnIslam.net “No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable...

Florida Times Union, September 19, 2012 Tallahassee Democrat, September 14, 2012 by Parvez Ahmed and Mark Schlakman* Brace yourselves. You may know that protests erupted outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and that mobs subsequently attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi this past Tuesday on the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. Apparently this was at least in part...