Christine (Amina) Benlafquih is a freelance writer whose work includes articles, opinion pieces, personal essays and occasional fiction and poetry. A former publications and public relations director, she earned a B.A. in Journalism from Duquesne University in 1987.
Originally from Rochester, NY, she has also lived in Pittsburgh, PA, the Washington, DC area, and now resides in Casablanca, Morocco. Her experiences as an American convert to Islam, both in the United States and in Morocco, serve as inspiration to much of her work. She is particularly concerned about the biased portrayal of Arabs and Muslims in the media, and about the division and labeling that occurs among Muslims themselves.
Christine is a member of the Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) and the Muslim American Journalists Association (MAJA). She is married and the mother of six children.
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05/08/2009 - 4:31 a.m. CST -- by Christine Benlafquih Al Jazeera recently released documentary footage of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan being urged to embark on an evangelical mission to "hunt" misguided Afgans and share the word of Jesus. Now, we all know that good, moral people of many faiths want to save their brothers and sisters from the hell fire, but should American troops overlap military objectives with proselytizing? A U.S. church certainly hoped so, since it generously sent a stack of Bibles to an American soldier on duty in Afghanistan. The bibles were conveniently printed in local Afghan languages. Proselytizing is against U.S. military rules, but perhaps the chaplain in the video below got confused. Or maybe it's understandable that the line gets crossed when one finds himself confronted with the axis of evil. After all, former President George W. Bush famously stated about Afghanistan, "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going... [Read More] | |||
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04/30/2009 - 4:31 a.m. CST -- by Christine Benlafquih Of course I already knew that Orthodox Jews observe a modest dress code, but it was eye-opener to learn that in some ultra-conservative areas a modesty patrol – or vaad tznius 
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