America's Muslim Population is Gaining a Hispanic Accent

Featuring MWA Member Khadijah Rivera of Tampa, Florida

In addition to being a member of Muslimah Writers Alliance (MWA), Khadijah Rivera is also President of Piedad, a women's group at the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area Mosque that represents a growing group in the American Islamic Community: Hispanic Muslims. In a Tampa Times, February 9, 2008 article, Khadijah told reporter Sherri Day, "Islam is not a religion of Arabs," said Rivera, who happens to be Puerto Rican. "It may have started as a religion of the Arabs. But we're just regular people, and we're not all Arab." (story here)

Photo (Tampa Times): Khadijah Rivera talks with Silvia Nagi, right, at the Eid Al-Adha carnival in Tampa on Dec. 19. The Latin Muslims meet at least monthly.

Strip Searched in Saudi Arabia!!

My stomache is still churning...wallahi...I could just vomit...strip searched...imagine how mortified this poor woman was!!! la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah - No questions asked, no investigation, instantaneous physical and emotional violation - wallahi I fear for these people on the Day of Judgment.

KSA: Coffee With Colleague Lands Woman in Trouble

While waiting for an electrical issue to be resolved in the office where Yara and her business colleague had travelled for a business meeting, they passed by a coffee shop in the lobby of the office building. While sitting in the 'family' section of the coffee shop, Yara and her business associate were approached by members of the Saudi Commission for the 'Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice'. The two were swiftly detained. Yara spent several hours in the women's section of Riyadh's Malaz Prison, was strip-searched, ordered to sign a confession that she had been in a state of seclusion with an 'unrelated man' (business colleague), and prevented from contacting her husband for hours. There is no word as to the status of her detained business associate. (more)