The first television reporter to wear a hijab on-air will be the featured speaker at the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno's semi-annual Fundraising Dinner on Saturday. Tahera Rahman, who recently joined the news staff at KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas, previously worked for television stations in the Quad Cities area on...
Can Gen Z Figure Out How to End Islamophobia?
Muslims and Christians gathered last week at Fresno Pacific University to talk about Islamophobia, its causes, and what Generation Z — the generation of Americans now of college age, who are said to be the nation's most ethnically, racially and religiously diverse generation — can do about it. Listen to...
Tragedies Deepen Jewish-Muslim Bonds to Fight Hate Crimes
NEW YORK — Muslim groups helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue recover after a gunman killed 11 people there, one year ago this week. The Jewish congregation mounted its own fundraiser for New Zealand’s Muslims after a white supremacist shooter killed 51 people at...
Muslim Youth Have a Place to Call Their Own at My Deen
Eighteen-year-old Salman Khan is outside shooting hoops with a handful of friends, some of them his buddies since elementary school. Like Khan, the other players are Muslim young men; their basketball "court" is in a parking lot behind My Deen (it's Arabic for "My Faith"), a nonprofit organization founded over a...
Critic of Israel's Treatment of Palestinians Speaks in Fresno
America's foreign policy in Israel is being guided by neoconservatives whose plan is to build up Israel while destabilizing nearby countries — and American tax dollars are helping to pay for it, author Alison Weir said Wednesday evening at Clovis Community College. Weir, a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of...
'My God, I'm in Iran': A California Woman's Eye-Opening Journey
I could feel the excitement build when the pilot announced we were beginning our descent into Tabriz, but I wasn’t nervous or scared.  It just felt different.  I glanced at the other women on the plane, looking for a signal as to when I should put on my headscarf since...
Saudi Arabia Asks Nations to Respond to Iran With ‘Firmness’
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Thursday urged Muslim nations to confront with "all means of force and firmness" recent attacks in the Persian Gulf that U.S. and some Arab officials have blamed on Iran. Ibrahim al-Assaf made the comments at a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers of...
What Ramadan Means to Muslims: 4 Essential Reads
During the month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world will not eat or drink from dawn to sunset. (GV Wire publisher Darius Assemi offers a personal perspective on the Ramadan tradition of fasting in the video above.) Muslims believe the sacred text of Quran was first revealed to Prophet Muhammad in...
Refugee Ministry, Clovis Funeral Director Receive Spirit of Abraham
The Rev. Zach Darrah stood in the meeting hall of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno and smiled the biggest smile. "I mean, we're a Christian organization," Darrah said of Fresno Interdenominational Christian Ministries, which he serves as executive director. "And they're a Muslim organization. And we don't have to...
Here are 6 Things You Should Know About Ramadan
Editor’s note: Mohammad Hassan Khalil, associate professor of religious studies and director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University, answers six questions about the significance of the Muslim month of fasting. Why is Ramadan called Ramadan? Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and lasts...