On Thursday, February 18, 2016 I was humbled and honored to receive the 2016 Desmond Tutu Peace and Reconciliation Award from my university. At the ceremony, I made brief remarks. Several people at the event urged me share my remarks. Here it is: Good afternoon. This is unbelievable. An immigrant from India receiving the Desmond Tutu Peace Award at an Martin Luther...

Co-authored by Mark Schlakman* Dear Mr. Trump, It certainly isn’t a revelation that America and its politics are sharply divided. Vilifying the “other” major political party is seemingly more palatable than advancing transformative ideas or reaching across partisan lines to achieve meaningful compromise. Smaller factions within both major parties,...

Published on Huffington Post, November 13, 2015. Turkey and India are both democracies and significant American allies. Both India and Turkey are secular countries ruled by strong-willed leaders rooted in religion-based politics, Islam for Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hinduism for India’s Narendra Modi. Both leaders have shown an uncanny ability to...

This summer I traveled to Israel and Palestine to be part of the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) organized by a Jerusalem and New York based Jewish educational organization, the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI). MLI is a groundbreaking program that I felt was going to expand my critical understanding of the complex political, religious, and social factors, which...

A version of this article first appeared in the July/August issue of Islamic Horizons. Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy in a New York Times article recounted her 2005 encounter with Mohammed Akef, the then spiritual leader of Muslim Brotherhood. When she suggested to Akef that the verses in the Quran regarding women’s dress have several interpretations, Akef...

Huffington Post, June 22, 2015 Mourners gathering for a prayer vigil for the nine martyrs killed at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel Church sang “We Shall Overcome.” Watching the video, I felt being transported to the Morris Brown AME Church, where this vigil was being held. It was hard to hold back the tears. My heart believes that we shall indeed...

A version of this article first appeared in the May/June issue of Islamic Horizons. The Fort Hood killings, the Times Square terror plot and the Boston marathon bombing were all ostensibly carried out in the name of Islam. All terrorists are not Muslims and nor are all Muslims terrorists. Yet, a disproportionate number of perpetrators of violent attacks claim doing...

Posted on Huffington Post on Feb 25, 2015. Islamists, defined by AP as those who favor, “reordering government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam,” view their interpretation of Islam as Islamic, often to the exclusion of other point of views. In the West, an amalgam of ideologues, from the far-right conservatives to the libertarian...

For the first time since World War II, the Grand Synagogue in Paris did not host its normal Shabbat services on Friday, in the wake of terrorist attacks that started with Charlie Hebdo and ended in a bloody standoff at a Jewish kosher shop in Paris. This hostage taking at a Jewish business is one of many indicators suggesting a rise of anti-Semitism in Europe,...

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...

Excerpted from speech delivered at the graduation ceremony for Jacksonville Joe Berg Seminars on November 25, 2014 In 1992 I arrived at the University of Texas at Arlington to start my doctoral studies in finance. I was married. Our initial days on campus was challenging. New environment, new program and of course Texas! A few months after we arrived, my professor,...

“Those who are elected ought to vote on what we do,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking on The Colbert Report. He wants Congress to debate America’s latest military forays into the Middle East. Yet the halls of Congress remain silent, and the mainstream media are once again uncritically accepting...

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...

This was a Featured Blog on Huffington Post. Also appears in the Florida Times Union. Slated to run in the Tallahassee Democrat also. This post has been co-authored with Rabbi Jack Romberg, Temple Israel, Tallahassee, FL. We write this as two friends, a Jew and a Muslim, both with leadership roles in our respective communities. Together we have broken bread,...

Nancy Soderberg and Parvez Ahmed on Melissa Ross’s First Coast Connect. http://www.wjct.org/fcc-july-07-2014/