Diversity: Religion

With a new afterword Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel's story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people-and of the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement.

In this inspiring narrative, one of this country’s most important Muslim leaders reveals the story of his life and his faith, and why Islam is good for America. As the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, Imam Hassan Qazwini serves the largest Muslim congregation in the United States. His dramatic journey to these shores began in 1971, when his father’s anti-Baathist views forced his family to flee from Saddam’s Iraq to Kuwait and then to war-torn Iran. Then, in 1992, with his father’s blessing, he left for the United States, a place where young Muslims were seeking spiritual guidance and where his children could grow up in the peace Qazwini had been denied. First in California and then in Michigan, Qazwini saw a shocking new world in which leaders were openly mocked, women’s bodies were on display in public, and Christian symbols were disparaged without consequence. He also saw a land in which the lack of a common faith necessitated a great effort to create a shared community. By counseling American Muslims–and sharing his religion with those of other beliefs–he came to feel at home in the country he already loved, and he became a trusted advisor to local and national politicians. Then, after 9/11, Osama bin Laden gave him “a new full-time job.” American Crescentvividly describes Qazwini’s efforts to show Americans how those who destroyed the World Trade Center had hijacked Islam as well, and that most Muslims were appalled by their actions. Yet he also takes the Bush administration to task for championing the prejudicial Patriot Act (after Muslims supported George W. Bush in the 2000 election) and deplores its conduct in the Iraq War. ThroughoutAmerican Crescent, Qazwini offers a revelatory look at the tenets and history of Islam, defending it as a faith of peace and diversity, and challenging stereotypes and misconceptions promulgated by the media. Iran, he points out, has a higher percentage of women in its parliament than the United States does in both houses of Congress. “If you want to learn about Islam,” he writes, “turn off the TV.” At once a fascinating personal story and a heartfelt plea to integrate Islamic teachings into the tolerant traditions of America, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of all those who live among us, at a time when it matters most.

In a riveting portrait of life inside the Nation of Islam, Sonsyrea Tate gives voice to a girl's experience within the Muslim community, most commonly identified with its controversial leaders--Elijah Muhammad, Malcom X, and Louis Farrakhan.

In the wake of September 11th. Muslim women in the West found themselves more marginalized than ever by a panicked discourse that did little to promote a true understanding of Islam or the Islamic world. Here. in this ambitious volume that includes essays. poetry, fiction, memoir, plays, and artwork, Muslim women speak for themselves, revealing a complexity of experience and thought that escapes most Western portrayals. Islam is, as editor Fawzia Afzal-Khan puts it only "one spoke in the wheel of our lives." In Shattering the Stereotypes. essays by such writers as Ayesha Jalal, the Pakistani-American historian, poems by award-winning poets including Sucheir Hammad and Nathalie Handal, and a selection of short fiction and plays that are not just ethnically but attitudinally diverse, together make a more rounded portrait of what it is to be a Muslim woman in the 21st century.

Arab-American and Muslim Writers discusses the authors from this rich heritage that have made lasting contributions to the American literary landscape. Authors such as Claire Messud, Mohja Kahf, Samuel Hazo, Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, and Kahlil Gibran are among the many profiled in this offering, which also covers the now-canonical works frequently assigned in classrooms today.

This timely collection allows us to hear firsthand the amazingly diverse voices of North American Muslim writers speaking for themselves. Stereotypes are overturned on every page. Shaped by an impressive interweaving of cultures, languages and ethnicities, these writers reflect on what it means to find home-especially when prejudices and distortions abound-and how powerful it can be to feel heard, recognized, welcomed. Through stories, essays and poems, they share their family lore, spiritual journeys, childhood dreams, and memories of homes they left. They offer prayers for our world. They show us how astonishingly vast and varied Muslim American identity and experiences really are-from Miꞌkmaq Muslims to Muslims whose ancestors came on the Mayflower; from Indian Americans to American Indians, from Tunisian-Canadians to Puerto Ricans to Palestinians to Irish-American Muslims inspired to convert by reading Malcolm X, and more. In this chorus of unique voices, there is a unity-whether Muslim-born or a convert, immigrant or North-America-born, a seasoned elder or a budding young poet, each writer invites us to fall in love with their humanity. ___ REVIEWS Muslim American Writers at Home is a compelling compilation that sheds light on the lived experiences of Muslims from diverse backgrounds, living in Canada and the U.S. Works like this are especially important in our current times as it is critical that Muslim artists take ownership of their own stories and narratives. - GAMA (Gathering All Muslim Artists) These authentic, diverse and multidimensional voices lift "layers of ignorance" about Muslims and Islam as they take us beyond and beneath the mainstream, fake narrative. Interweavers of creativity and spirituality, these Muslim authors, whether born in, brought to, or fled to North America, take us to their "real" world of being "racialized, minoritized, and thus dehumanized," via firsthand story-tellings of lived experiences, as we forge ahead toward understanding, faith, love, peace and justice, inshallah. An insightful, painful, impressive, hopeful read. - Laila Hasib, Inked Resistance Islamic Publishing At times heartbreaking and beautiful, and at times raw and unvarnished, this worthy anthology provides non-Muslim readers with the perfect antidote to the stereotypes that pervade popular media. This collection contains true gems. - Graeme Truelove, author of Un-Canadian: Islamophobia in the True North This anthology gives voice to diverse Americans and Canadians whose identities include being Muslim. These writings are moving, powerful, and a celebration of our common humanity. It is not a book to be read once and then stored on your library shelf. Rather, these stories should be shared and discussed with others so as to develop a greater understanding of the life experiences of North American Muslims. - Alia Hogben, Former Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. These powerful, poignant, personal stories about being a Muslim in North America make for a compelling and very readable collection - one that cries out for our attention. - Linda McQuaig, Canadian journalist & author

From the Introduction: "The goal with this anthology is to represent that full range of contemporary expressions of Islam, as well as a full range of genres--poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, political writing, cultural writing, and of course plenty of texts which mix and match and blur all of these modes . . . the trajectories between the pieces--like that of kismet--will be multiple, nonlinear, abstract. The Muslim community is plural and contradictory. This collection of voices ought to be symphony and cacophony at once, like the body of Muslims as they are today."--Kazim Ali

In the wake of September 11th. Muslim women in the West found themselves more marginalized than ever by a panicked discourse that did little to promote a true understanding of Islam or the Islamic world. Here. in this ambitious volume that includes essays. poetry, fiction, memoir, plays, and artwork, Muslim women speak for themselves, revealing a complexity of experience and thought that escapes most Western portrayals. Islam is, as editor Fawzia Afzal-Khan puts it only "one spoke in the wheel of our lives." In Shattering the Stereotypes. essays by such writers as Ayesha Jalal, the Pakistani-American historian, poems by award-winning poets including Sucheir Hammad and Nathalie Handal, and a selection of short fiction and plays that are not just ethnically but attitudinally diverse, together make a more rounded portrait of what it is to be a Muslim woman in the 21st century.