Category: Shorts
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The Secularization of Christmas
I have a vivid memory from a time in middle school when I begged my parents to let me partake in our school’s annual Christmas celebrations. Every year, classes were canceled on the last Friday before winter break and all the students would be ushered to the school gymnasium to listen to Christmas music, have…
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Ayasofya: The Dagger Removed
“Either I will conquer you or you will conquer me”; this sentence, uttered by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, referred to Istanbul.
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Relics of Triumphalism
A source of perennial controversy—and a widely celebrated architectural achievement of early Byzantium—Hagia Sophia has switched hands more times than perhaps anyone cares to remember.
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Hijab: Not my Body, Not my Choice
This journey to cover and conduct myself in a way I believed would be pleasing to God and honor the fact that my body is not my own, but an amanah (a trust) from God, was and is not easy: a struggle millions of Muslim women echo.
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Islamic Studies Academics Must Know Arabic
Islamic Studies academics have recently taken to social media to critique certain aspects of their field. One major criticism was that Islamic Studies academics are constantly projecting various theories onto Islam without justifying why they are doing so.