By M. Junaid Levesque-Alam, Nov 25, 2009 10:09 AM
Editor's note: M. Junaid Levesque-Alam, 26, writes about America and Islam at his website, Crossing the Crescent, and for WireTap Magazine, where he is also the immigration blogger. He has also been published in Colorlines, ZMagazine, and The Nation's website.
The national health care debate has taken on crystalline characteristics, refracting the light of American political tensions in a dozen different directions. Partisans of class, race, and immigration politics have been galvanized by myriad issues—real or imagined—raised by the prospect of reform. To that loaded list we can now add gender: the House passage of the Stupak Amendment, which imposes strict requirements on abortions offered through a proposed government-run and subsidized insurance, has rankled feminists and buoyed anti-abortion advocates.
Opposition to abortion is a well-known tenet of the Catholic Church, which has 46 million adult adherents in the U.S.—the country’s largest religious minority. But what about the religious stance held by one of the country’s smallest religious minorities—Muslims?
