Why was it that the local Imams would tell me that I could keep playing my guitar, while some of the voices in the mosque or on the internet were saying that to do so would be a sin?
 Why were there different groups proselytizing for their various organizations, each criticizing or downplaying the importance of the other?  I had found the truth crystal clear in the Qur’an, but had found a community as divided as it was beautiful.
 Upon realizing that unity was central to Islam, and that people had different conceptions of what a proper community should look like, I realized that two things were needed in my life: a spiritual comfort zone, and a philosophy of or approach to community that balanced the need for authentic practice with the reality of variation in definitions of and adherence to authentic practice.

 In the first installment of this series entitled the Suhba papers, I mentioned that what motivates me to write is recognition of the need for unity within the American Muslim community and witnessing the tragedy of community disintegration in recent years.
 In this second installment of the Suhba Papers, we will begin with a discussion of balancing the religious and social need for community unity and the importance of keeping (and being) spiritually uplifting company in light of differing perspectives and degrees of adherence.
 

 Gender Issues among Muslims have long been central to the construction of Muslim as “Other.” Muslim response to the stereotyping has tended toward denial or minimization.
There seemed to be an attitude that for Muslims to discuss obvious and flagrant cases of oppression of women in Muslim countries was somehow a betrayal of the religion into the hands of its enemies. Now a new website, Altmuslimah.com, is taking on issues of gender relations among Muslims with articles that are both thoughtful and forcefully argued. Issues covered include empowerment, religion and authority, domestic violence, interpretation, hijab, talibanization, and more. This is an important initiative for Muslims in America and beyond, and it deserves our support, even when we don’t agree with a viewpoint expressed.
 

 Not long after his inauguration, President Barak Obama signed an executive order specifying that the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year.  No sooner had Obama taken these positive steps than Republican members of congress and certain segments of the “Mainstream Media” (often abbreviated M$M) began their attempt to incite public opinion against Obama’s decision using the weapon the Right has so successfully wielded over the last eight years – fear.
 

 In the national discussion that was the 2008 Presidential Election campaign, Muslims and Islam were significant themes. As one might expect in a media-saturated society, what mattered was not Muslims and Islam themselves, but rather the ways in which “Muslims” and “Islam” could be portrayed, the extent to which these terms might be forged into simplistic tropes that could be wielded to conjure fear of the Other.
 

 While attempts have been made by many Muslims and non-Muslims to understand the  events of the terrorist attacks of September 11in their political context, others have attempted to link these events with the religion of Islam itself, and have called for a “reformation” of the religion.
  Irshad Manji published a book titled The Trouble with Islam, in 2003 and republished it 2004 with an opportunistically reworded title The Trouble with Islam Today
 Here is presented a critical review of her book and summary of how other critics view her work.
 

  Constitutional scholar, Claes G. Ryn, argues in his paper that some self-serving people in the American power elite, while claiming to want and protect us from domestic moral nihilism and cultural fragmentation and from the evils from abroad, are progressively subverting our constitution in the name of the constitution. They do this by means of a deception whereby they would have us believe that their centralized power-grabbing ideology actually “comports well with the thinking of the framers of the U.S. Constitution”.
 Mr. Ryn goes on to outline how this - neo-Jacobinism, he calls it - is an anti-constitutional ideology, eroding the old American pragmatic ideas of limited, decentralized government as well as that of the unwritten constitution which was the historical habits and beliefs of the American people.
 

 Over the last few years, we have seen a growing and welcome trend of American Muslim involvement in the civic affairs of the United States.  The internet is being used increasingly by American Muslims, and has allowed new ways of organizing and taking action, some of which are arguably superior to methods at our disposal in earlier years. As increasing numbers of Muslims become involved with this trend, it is worthwhile to consider some of the other effects of internet use: disorientation, increased anxiety, impatience, loss of focus, and difficulty being alone.
 

 Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah spoke at Dartmouth College and cited the production of a culture that is both authentically Muslim and authentically American as an important means by which Muslims in the United States can realize their potential. On reflection, it may be seen that the production of culture serves to increase the number and the richness of ties between Muslims and non-Muslims and is therefore a form of social capital. It is by increased social capital that hate-speech like the film “Obsession” becomes unacceptable as part of the larger community’s discourse concerning Muslims and Islam.
 

 As if recent headlines concerning global warming, war in the Middle East, and the instabilities of the world-wide capitalist system are not enough to occupy the fatalist in all of us, the decline of the bee population is proving profoundly unsettling; forcing scientists and religious-minded people alike to take a closer look at where we ourselves are headed as a species.
 

 Seeing modernity essentially as an acceleration of time allows Muslims to overcome alienation from the modern age.
 

 Prominent American Muslim scholar Dr. Umar Abd-Allah highlights the relevance of accepted cultural diversity throughout Islamic history for the construction of a distinctive American Muslim identity.
 

 The old Capitalist maxim, "More is Better," has failed us, writes American environmentalist Bill McKibben. With unbridled individualism increasingly eroding civil society, higher standards of living have not made us happier.
 

 Commercialism, for most Islamic schools is an issue confined to advertisements seen on television or in a magazine. It can be hidden, and implores us as educators to understand how and why commercialism exists in schools, why and how commercialism is contradictory to Islamic morals and values, and understand how we can avoid our students becoming victims in the onslaught of big business. Critique leads to change; where and if it moves us depends on our listening and our “grounding.” If we are to truly understand the society in which we live, we need to develop a critical perspective within our discussions of education.
 

 Who do you want your child to be like when he is older?  Whoever that person is, when he does something wrong, you have to correct them in a way that will guide his Being towards the person you want them to be.  Discipline is not punishment and should not be punitive in any way; you are teaching your child the proper way to “Be” in the world.  So we must always ask ourselves, “What characteristics do my words and actions engender in my child?”  We need to change our vocabulary if we want to change how we do things, so from this point forth, I will not be using the word discipline.  It connotes punishment, and in this article I hope to elaborate why that is not the Muslim way of doing things.
 

 A summary of the course of Islam's development in America, from the first explorers to slavery to proto-Islamic movements to the foundation of nation-wide orthodox Sunni organizations. This article remains a work in progress.
 

 In 1312 Mansa Abu Bakr of Mali is believed to have traveled from the Senegambian region of the African coast to the Gulf of Mexico.
 

 It is believed that Mansa Abu Bakr of Mali traveled to the Gulf of Mexico in 1312.
Ethno-linguistic analysis shows connections between certain peoples of the West African coast and the native Americans living in the Gulf of Mexico region of the Americas. The evidence is controversial and fragmentary, and not accepted by all scholars.
 

 Former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic describes submission to the will of God as "the strength of the soul to face the times."
 

 A report from a recent Nawawi Foundation conference that took on the question, "What is the Islamic Tradition?" In attendance were Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.
 

 An overview of the recent letter dismantling some of the Pope's recent misrepresentations of Islam.
 

 Imam Zaid Shakir responds to the tendency of Muslim ideologues to use Islam to justify political needs.
 

 Dr. Elizabeth Debold speaks to the stark reality of the arrogance of the ego-self, which seeks separation and individual recognition. The ability to name the evil that lurks within the individual self empowers us, she explains, to address the evils of terrorism, violence and oppression; and indeed, the fact that the pursuit of our ego and selfish desires can only end in our own individual destruction as well.