Abdul Malik Mujahid

I could not believe my eyes and ears as I watched vice-president Dick Cheney saying "so?" There was a look on his face which said a lot. He was responding to an ABC News reporter who told him, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney's response came before the question even finished: "So?"

t seems America is putting forth its jewels of diversity. More Americans are voting and the concerns for our nation and the world are high. Choosing the right candidate to run the most powerful nation on the planet, three issues are of critical importance for our community.

Despite the "progress" in culture, science and technology, racism, tribalism, nationalism, colonialism and the caste system have been mainly responsible for the death of over 62 million human beings in the last 100 years.

Alhamdu lillah, all masjids in America pray for Muslims everywhere. Muslims from America, of all backgrounds, have donated millions of dollars each year for their brothers and sisters throughout the world. In a way, the pains of our brothers and sisters in the Ummah unite Muslims.

"O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do." (Quran 5:8)

The climate for Muslims today is very much as it was for Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Japanese-Americans in the Western states were rounded up and moved to internment camps so they wouldn't aid and abet the enemy. Similarly, Muslims are treated like the enemy and are living in virtual internment camps.

Of all of God's attributes, the one we call upon throughout each day is his Mercy.  Waking, eating, praying or beginning a task we invoke the phrase "Bismillah Al Rahman Al Raheem,"