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One year ago, France implemented the "burqa ban," a restriction on Muslim women covering their faces in the burqa or niqab. Advocates for the ban argued it would free women of gender enslavement and help Muslims better integrate into French society. The ban received widespread support in France and even some Muslim organizations supported the legislation. Takeaway producer Arwa Gunja traveled to Paris as a reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists to examine the impact of the law.

Be it about wearing the veil or their general place in society, discussion in the West about Muslim women — especially those conducted by non-Muslims — tend to portray them as silent, oppressed, and submissive victims. However, a new book titled "Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women" reveals the diverse and sometimes unconventional experiences of Muslim-American women in sex and romance. 

Several Muslim and interfaith groups demonstrated at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan Friday to call for more police oversight and protest against what they say are discriminatory practices in the department.

An 80-minute movie called "The Third Jihad," produced by the Clarion Fund, asserts that a vast number of radical Islamic forces exist in the U.S. and are preparing a violent jihad against America. Last January, the NYPD revealed that this direct-to-DVD movie had been shown once during anti-terrorism officer training. But this week, following a freedom of information request, the Brennan Center for Justice revealed that the video may have been viewed by nearly 1,500 officers during training breaks as well.

While political mud-slinging is de riguer in primary races, 2012 has brought several not-so-thinly-veiled anti-Muslim soundbytes from its frontrunning candidates. Last week, Newt Gingrich said that he would not support a Muslim president unless they would "commit in public to giv[ing] up Sharia." Rick Santorum also expressed his thoughts on Islam, saying that the concept of equality "doesn’t come from Islam" or "Eastern Religions." Instead, he said, "it comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Sunday night marked the season finale of TLC's "All-American Muslim." The show followed five Muslim-American families in Dearborn, Michigan, and drew a lot of attention when retail chain Lowe’s decided to pull commercials from the program. Both the boycott and the show itself prompted a larger conversation about the portrayal of Muslims in the media, as well as many Americans' private prejudices.

For his bravery on 9/11, first-responder Mohammad Salman Hamdani was cited in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor. After the body of the 23-year-old police cadet was found in the wreckage of the north tower, the New York City Police Department declared him a hero and buried him with full honors. But visitors to the September 11th Memorial in lower Manhattan will not find his name among the list of first-responders. Instead, Hamdani's name appears in a section of the memorial for people who only had a lose connection to the tragic events of that day.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg sidestepped a growing controversy over his police department's surveillance of Muslims at an interfaith breakfast Friday, avoiding any remarks on the subject. 

Last month The Takeaway discussed "All-American Muslim," TLC's latest reality show. In the month that the show has been on air, the Florida Family Association mounted a campaign against the program. Last week, one of the show's advertisers, Lowe's, announced that they would no longer run their ads on "All-American Muslim." "Lowe's has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible," the company's statement said. "Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views."

In response to the coverage of Egypt's elections, the Takeaway has heard a lot from listeners about our use of the term "Islamist" to describe the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties in Egypt. One Takeaway listener wrote on our Web site, "Is there Christianists and Jewists? It is about time that sensitivity was built in the media discourse."

"All-American Muslim," a new reality TV show premiering on TLC this Sunday, takes a close-up view at what it is like to be Muslim in America through the lives of five ordinary Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan — a city known informally as "America's Muslim Capital." Newlyweds Nader and Nawal Aoude are one of the couples featured on the show, and discuss what it was like to let cameras into their lives.

This weekend some 2.5 million people are expected to take part in this year's Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. But this year's pilgrimage takes place against the backdrop of the Arab Spring. The Saudi government has mobilized 100,000 defense personnel to prepare for the world's largest human assembly. The Saudis say the build-up is to avoid the deadly stampedes that have broken out in previous pilgrimages. But one can't help but wonder if the democracy movements in neighboring countries is a lingering factor as well. 

Hasan Elahi is an American citizen with a Muslim name. He's a digital artist and a professor at the University of Maryland. In 2002, when he was returning from an art exhibition in Senegal, U.S. immigration agents detained him as a terrorist suspect. Elahi was turned over to the FBI, and battery of interrogations followed. Elahi struggled to prove his innocence, though nine polygraph tests proved he did not speak Arabic and had no knowledge of how to manufacture explosives. Ultimately, his incredibly detailed accounting of his whereabouts, which he compulsively tracked with his PDA, helped Elahi walk away with his freedom. To this day, his name has yet to be fully cleared.

New Yorkers throughout the city marked the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks in myriad ways — crowding into coffee shops, attending church services, sitting in the park. Here are three snapshots from the the city where many reflected on the events that forever changed the world.

Coming up, we talk to two Muslim Americans about a recent poll that says Muslim Americans are happier with this country than the rest of the population.

Historically speaking, when we think of revolutions we think of youth. And in the case of the Arab spring, this is certainly true — one half of the Islamic world is people under thirty, and they are at the forefront of sweeping change. How are their values and religious beliefs similar to (and different from) their elders? And what do they want the future to look like?

Two men are spending Ramadan in 30 different mosques in 30 different states for all 30 days of the month of fasting. They're traveling 13,000 miles, from Alaska to New York City, and are speaking with us today from South Carolina, where they're a little more than halfway through their trip. What they've found is that generations of American Muslims have lived in small pockets of the U.S. since the 1800s.

Kids will get a hands-on look at mosaics, literature, calligraphy and other pieces of the "Muslim World" thanks to a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that went to the Children's Museum of Manhattan.

As the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaches, a new Gallup poll raises the issue of how Muslim-Americans view our democracy and their place in it. The poll surveyed Muslim-Americans and other faith groups, asking whether Muslims have been discriminated against recently, if Muslim-Americans have been sympathetic to al-Qaida, and how loyal they are to the democratic system. In contrast to Americans of other faiths, 78 percent of Muslim-Americans said military attacks on civilians are never justified.

When times are tough, Americans often turn to comic books. The so-called Golden Age of Comics in the U.S. began with the Great Depression, when out-of-work Americans were desperate for superheroes and role models. Our appetite for Superman and the Green Lantern only grew as Hitler marched across Europe. And Americans aren’t the only ones who need superheroes in difficult times. Our guest for this segment is the author of "The 99," a comic book series published in Kuwait and translated into nine languages. "The 99" follows Islam-inspired superheroes as they fight evil dictators and extremists.