Books on Religion

Back in March I contributed to Center for Amerian Progress’ report on “Sharia Law.” The report can be found here. But by defining Sharia itself as the problem, and then asserting the authenticity of only the most extreme interpretations of Sharia, the authors are effectively arguing that the internecine struggle within Islam should be ceded to extremists. They also cast suspicion upon all observant Muslims. It’s important to understand that adopting such a flawed analysis would direct limited resources away from actual threats to the United States and bolster an anti-Muslim narrative that Islamist extremist groups find useful in recruiting.…

I've written before about my admiration of the work of Sufi Comics. They do outstanding work engaging with Muslim spirituality in a modern context. In fact, I have an academic article about their work on Imam Ali coming out in an anthology on Muslim Superheroes.   They now have a new collection of Rumi stories out, and they are making sure that Rumi is not divorced from his Muslim roots. As in the previous volume, the story is end capped by a verse from the Qur'an and quote from either Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) or Imam Ali (AS). Unlike in the…

An American Muslim University | The Revealer. I first met Scott Korb in the summer of 2010. It was at a time in New York when the Islamophobia Industry was holding a fundraising drive by saying that building houses of worship and praying was un-American; saying they were vultures retraumatizing the city for their own personal gain and amusement would be too charitable. I was doing a lot of press at that time around Park51, and I get an email from Korb. He wants to do a piece on American Muslims. I am wary. There are all sorts of media…