Sunroom

There’s pollen dusting the skylight windows of the sunroom. It softens the edges of the sunbeams that fall inside, casting shadows of leaves on the gauzy white curtains. Right now, the room is empty because I’ve claimed it for homework, but I can still hear my parents and three sisters sounding like a circus in …

Before everyone starts asking for another series of Muslim apologies for an incident I had nothing to do with

I would like to ask Average American Joe’s apologies for: The genocide that cut the American Indian population from 100% of what became the United States, down to 1.6% due to attacks on their homeland, theft of said land, forced migration, and the spread of white person-borne diseases. The enslavement of 4 million human beings, …

Who else if not us

People sometimes ask me, “Why do you only write about Islam and Muslims?”  They say, “Shouldn’t you branch out, cover some other topics, too?” They’re not wrong. I should branch out more, just like everyone else needs to expand their horizons in some way. I do want to cover other topics, anyway – topics that …

Tiny Story: Vigil

There were 50 victims of the Christchurch shooting, and we laid out 50 prayer rugs, collected from various members of the Muslim Students Association. We worried that only Muslims would come. We were wrong. All of us, in our grief, needed to see that crowd, drenched in sunset, faces tipped up towards the ten of …

Ras Malai

My favorite dessert is ras malai. For those of you who haven’t had it, it’s spongey little cakes of Indian dessert cheese that are served in a bowl of saffron and pistachio-flavored milk cream. They’re light on your tongue and dissolve almost instantly, more air than anything else.  The last time my family went to …

Two chicken sandwiches

You always say, “I’m sad,” and I know you are, with good reason. You were diagnosed with high-functioning autism late, after fifteen years of everyone wondering why you talked a little too slow, processed things a little too late. You still haven’t accepted your diagnosis, even though you’re twenty years old now. You don’t want …