Michael Muhammad Knight
Macklemore Is Hip-Hop’s Dave Batista
Kendrick Lamar is hip-hop’s Daniel Bryan, the greatest artist of 2013 and uncrowned champion for the hardcores. Macklemore, on the other hand, is Dave Batista—the safe and corny industry choice.
The Prophet Muhammad Vs. John Cena
Early biographical literature on Muhammad includes an episode in which he takes on the strongest wrestler of his tribe, a man named Rukana. The wrestler promises that he will become Muslim if Muhammad can throw him. They wrestle, and Muhammad throws...
Ramadan for the Unsure
Now it’s Ramadan, the month during which Muslims fast from dawn to sunset for 30 days and celebrate the revelation of the Qur’an. There are times when I can get into the mystery of god, yes. But I don’t always place stock in the idea that my Qur’an...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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?
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...
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.