May 2 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace
Discover "The Muslim Next Door"
http://www.sumbulalikaramali.com/
Here is an introduction from the author, Sumbul Ali-Karamali:
I am often asked how long it took me to write this book. I might say, in response, that I spent half my life preparing for it. I grew up in California at a time when Muslims and even Indians were unfamiliar. Inevitably, then, I grew up answering many questions on India and – more frequently as I grew older – Islam.
When my peers finished their schooling and began working, they began to ask me to recommend books on Islam. I couldn’t. In those days, bookstores carried only dry, abstract textbooks meant for studying, not reading in stolen snatches after a long day of work. How were my friends then to find answers to their questions? They had me to ask questions of, but many Americans do not personally know any Muslims. The media sometimes raises more questions than answers, since media discussion of Islam has always, in this country, been crisis-driven, not explanatory. And there were no books.
So I decided to write a book myself. If I had written it at that time, my book on Islam would have been based on my cultural, “family” Islam, the Islam I knew and grew up practicing. But I didn’t write it then. Instead, I left my job as a corporate lawyer and earned a graduate degree in Islamic law, thereby adding an academic study of Islam to my knowledge of family cultural Islam. Now, I could write a book which not only came from inside Islam, but which also was based on an academic foundation of Islam. I could write a book that contained not only my personal views and anecdotes to make the book fun to read, but one that clearly discussed my personal views as one part of the whole spectrum of diverse beliefs that come under the heading of “Islam.”
Discover "The Muslim Next Door"
http://www.sumbulalikaramali.com/
Here is an introduction from the author, Sumbul Ali-Karamali:
I am often asked how long it took me to write this book. I might say, in response, that I spent half my life preparing for it. I grew up in California at a time when Muslims and even Indians were unfamiliar. Inevitably, then, I grew up answering many questions on India and – more frequently as I grew older – Islam.
When my peers finished their schooling and began working, they began to ask me to recommend books on Islam. I couldn’t. In those days, bookstores carried only dry, abstract textbooks meant for studying, not reading in stolen snatches after a long day of work. How were my friends then to find answers to their questions? They had me to ask questions of, but many Americans do not personally know any Muslims. The media sometimes raises more questions than answers, since media discussion of Islam has always, in this country, been crisis-driven, not explanatory. And there were no books.
So I decided to write a book myself. If I had written it at that time, my book on Islam would have been based on my cultural, “family” Islam, the Islam I knew and grew up practicing. But I didn’t write it then. Instead, I left my job as a corporate lawyer and earned a graduate degree in Islamic law, thereby adding an academic study of Islam to my knowledge of family cultural Islam. Now, I could write a book which not only came from inside Islam, but which also was based on an academic foundation of Islam. I could write a book that contained not only my personal views and anecdotes to make the book fun to read, but one that clearly discussed my personal views as one part of the whole spectrum of diverse beliefs that come under the heading of “Islam.”
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