Editing Homophobia out of the “Islamic Tradition”

Slave rape, marital rape, and plural marriage might be unpleasant to consider as part of Islamic sexuality, but they are deeply embedded in our established sources. But I do not believe that Islamic tradition is frozen in stone. Every translation is an interpretation, and every interpretation is a choice. Full story

Popping the Marks

Michael Muhammad Knight vs. Hamza Yusuf

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to spend a lot of time thinking about Hamza Yusuf. In a recent academic article, Mahdi Tourage places Hamza Yusuf and myself at opposite ends on the spectrum of white male converts: Yusuf represented the shining white superstar of American Islam,… Full story

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The Problem with White Converts

You’d think that two white guys embracing Buddhism and Islam in the age of colonialism could have become champions of antiracism. But no. They treated their new religions like other white men treat entire nations: they marched in and claimed to own it. Full story

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I Tripped with Allah and Wrote a Book About It

Ayahuasca drinkers report experiencing the divine in female form. They choose to interpret this in different ways, depending on their backgrounds. As a Muslim, I decided that I would drink with the intention of having a visionary encounter with Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muh… Full story

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Remembering Master Fard Muhammad

February 26 is Saviors’ Day, the birthday of the founder of the Nation of Islam. Master Fard Muhammad will probably never get his due for his contribution, but the biggest challenge to fully appreciating him may be that he so effectively escaped history. Full story

Lifting Up My Skirt

Last week, after I wrote on “Lift Up Your Skirt,” Lord Jamar’s homophobic diss track against Kanye West, Five Percenters started bombing me on Facebook and Twitter. Over the course of being harassed by internet gods, I faced the notion that I am exiled from the community. After a… Full story

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Kanye West in a Kilt Has Lord Jamar So Hard Right Now

If heterosexuality is natural, as Lord Jamar seems to suggests, and Jamar is himself resolutely heterosexual, then seeing Kanye West in a kilt shouldn’t make him want to give blow jobs. Or does it? Full story

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Lifetime’s Assassination of Malcolm X

In the Lifetime Original Movie 'Betty & Coretta,' they present cardboard versions of what I like to call "Early Malcolm" and "Real Malcolm." But Early Malcolm and Real Malcolm are not real. They are both fabrications that serve to oversimplify a complex human being. Full story

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Islamophobes, Go to Sleep

When I agreed to write a column for VICE, I was granted this space, and I am responsible for what happens in this space. Today, I’m going to use this space to rub your racist and bigoted shit in your own faces. Full story

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What I Learned from the Five Percenters

The first lesson I learned from the Five Percent was simple: Fuck white people. I'm not talking about "white" as a biological category. I’m using the term more in the sense of what it means to have privilege in an unjust society. Full story