Mehammed Mack

Lighting Up

Mehammed Mack
IT’S HARD TO FIGURE who the real winner is in the West Hollywood City Council’s resolution that directs Sheriff’s deputies to give simple marijuana-possession cases the lowest possible priority. After all, it’s not like the law was being enforced anyway. Could it be the cannabis lobbyists at the West Hollywood......

Iran Loses Game, Keeps Hair

Mehammed Mack
After a series of calls to underground sources in the local Iranian community, I finally get the info I’ve been waiting for: The best and most Persian place to watch the Iran-Portugal World Cup match is the IMAN Center in Century City, home of the local branch of the Iranian......
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The Spider and the Wasp

Mehammed Mack
In Terrorist, a novel whose title will either roll eyes or raise eyebrows, John Updike seeks to crack open one of the hardest shells available to the New England writer: the mind of the young, angry, resentful Muslim. To meet this literary challenge, Updike concocts Ahmad, a teenage Molotov cocktail......

The Activist Candidates

Mehammed Mack
IN THE RACE TO REPLACE termed-out Assemblyman Paul Koretz of the 42nd District, the front-runners are as polished as the neighborhoods they represent: Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Brentwood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and other Westside jewels. The amiable, smartly coifed Abbe Land — until recently mayor of West Hollywood —......

The Spy Trap

Mehammed Mack
When I heard that my old friend/enemy the FBI was going to hold a recruitment event at USC — in cooperation with the student group Weapon of Choice Inc. — I hatched what I thought would be an amusing plan. As an Arab-American who just might have a rosy future......
International relations. (Photos by Orly Olivier)

True Colors

Mehammed Mack
At the March 25 Gran Marcha — an ecstatic coming-out party — I felt more like a lucky observer than an active participant, being one of the seemingly few non-Latinos there. But Monday’s dual marches up Broadway and down Wilshire had a different look, with new faces, immigrant and non-immigrant,......
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2005 in Words

Mehammed Mack
“Your policies have created a hole in my heart and in our family that can never be filled.” —Cindy Sheehan, in a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “I will accept it as an obligation to society to spend the rest of my life working to reverse the cycle......

Yes, a Moderate Muslim

Mehammed Mack
Ever since he came to this country in 1971, Egyptian-born retired cardiologist Maher Hathout has played one of the most active roles in crafting the identity of American Islam. As a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern California and a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),......

Rainbow Rabbi

Mehammed Mack
Lesbian Rabbi Denise Eger has established a sanctuary for homosexuals who refuse to choose between their religion and their orientation. Called Kol-Ami, the 500-member temple at Lexington and La Brea avenues adjoins one of L.A.’s most Orthodox neighborhoods, no less. Eger had already started the nation’s first ongoing HIV-positive Jewish......

The Muslim Hipster

Mehammed Mack
I meet the majestically named Reza Aslan at the Panera Bakery in Santa Monica, a sterile hub of laptops and executive attitudes, maybe not the nicest place to talk about religion, but it’s close to his apartment. Waiting for his arrival, I conjure images of him appearing as that other......